Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Episode 4.... Finally....

Christmas dinner... I roasted two little market chickens and they turned out rather lovely. I had also found nice broccoli a few weeks before, paid a small fortune for it, and then prayed it wouldn't taste fishy... it didn't! Whew...

We went on a hike one morning.
You can see the runway at the base of the mountain.

It is hard to see, but on this photo there are two runways. The one in Bokindini and on the far right in the middle is the runway from another village.
This is Elu a recent graduate of the Netaikan program. One of his responsibilities is to keep the hydro electric system running. Not an easy task as it was installed by MAF about 50 years ago! This system provides electricity to the entire village and frequently needs repair.




Check out the link above to learn more about this neat program. It was so encouraging for us to visit with some of the folks that run this program and meet some of the students, people from villages in the interior of Papua, and speak English with them! The education system here is really lacking. In the interior it is terrible. Kids are lucky if they get one month of teaching a semester. The netaiken program is an incredibly valuable tool in giving Papuans, considered the lowest level in the caste system of Indonesia, self-esteem, Biblical teaching (Biblical teaching here is also severly lacking and limited to a few commands such as - don't chew betel nut or get drunk) and practical skills they can use to get a job or start a business.

Then on Saturday morning Clarence Togeretz came in a Cessna Caravan to bring us home. This was our view for the first part of the flight....
And then, suddenly we were out of the clouds.
And there is good 'ole Lake Sentani. Home again!

6 comments:

Tamara Jansen said...

Are you home schooling your kids? Your book shelves look as full as the Wieske's in Brazil :)

Erica Feunekes said...

That photo is in the guest house in Bokindini. There are an incredible amount of books and old magazines there dating back to the 70's! Our kids go to an international Christian school here.... thankfully... :-)

Pearl said...

Beautiful view. Were the kids nervous to fly. To me the bigger the airplane, the safer I'd feel, but I'd never tried it. Hope you're adjusting well.

Persipura Jayapura NEWS said...

wow....... beautyfull lake.

Visiting:: Persipura FC BLOG
http://persipurajayapura.blogspot.com/

Erica Feunekes said...

The kids weren't nervous at all about flying in a little plane. Most of them were really rather excited about it. I have to say that I'm getting used to it too and don't feel nearly as frightened as I used to. :-)

EDOWAY YUNUS BLOK NEWS OF WEST PAPUA said...

IS MY HOME TOWN PICTURES