Bits and Bites...

It's been a few days since my last report...
Hugo came home safely after one night in Wamena. He successfully completed the necessary checks on the two helicopters. And I survived just fine with the kids. Sure helps that they are older now...
This past Sunday a retreat from the GKI church began in the complex across the road from us. Lots of people from Jayapura to here were gathered together and camping. All evening and until late late last night we were "treated" to very loud preaching and singing and it begun again at 4 am this morning. They sure love to crank up the volume around here. And today the festivities continued. I couldn't help but wonder at the timing of this event. There are some national holidays this week due to Idul Fitri, the M*slem event celebrating the breaking of the fast of the month of Ramadan. So this evening we were again "treated" to loud singing and preaching from the retreat, along with the loud calling of all the local m*sques. We do live a ways up from the local m*sques, but because of the importance of the event, they have all turned up the volume a few notches...
As I am writing this, Pak Nios is seated in his hut located in the back corner of our yard, typing a school paper on an ancient manual typwriter, while . He told Hugo that actually, he really needs a laptop... right.... Nice try...
Little Nelfika was still having ear issues a few days ago. In fact the infection has migrated to her other ear as well. I haven't checked on her since, but I sure hope that the Zithromax has since kicked in...

Stuff...

I'm all alone this evening. Hugo flew out to Wamena earlier today at 1:00 on what was supposed to be the 7:00am flight but due to bad weather in Wamena it was just a titch delayed. He is doing some kind of a history on the avionics (or something...) of two of the helicopters used by Helimission. If you think gas is expensive where you live, the folks in Wamena are currently paying $3.30CAD per litre! For some reason, no one wants to fly gas here anymore and anything in Wamena came in on a plane. (It is the world's largest city with no roads going to or from-there are about 10,000 folks living in Wamena right now.)

Today I went to the local supermarket. I don't usually buy meat there because their standards of hygiene leave something to be desired and you're never sure just how long the thawed stuff has been sitting there and you know that it was all previously frozen. But today they had a whole bunch of whole frozen chickens. I looked at them and picked one out to be weighed and asked where they were from. The guy standing beside me proclaimed that they were from Surabaya. "Export quality," he went on. Well, for the cost of a litre of gas in Wamena, I thought I'd give the chicken a try. When I came home I looked closer at the label:

Bebas Flu Burung - Free of bird flu, well that's a relief!!!

It has been really dry here for quite a while until last week. However, most of the rain has come at night while we are sleeping. So when it rained this morning, Marc and Brynne were eager to get out there with rain coats, boots and Brynnie's "new" umbrella.

Bits and Bites...

Today was Brynnie’s third birthday. I can’t believe our little girl is already 3!! We sure love her and are thankful for her!

So today she brought cupcakes to her playgroup/preschool and then later when the big kids came home we had some friends come over and we sang and had cake. We had one of the MAF carpenters build us a play kitchen for Brynnie. I was rather surprised at how enormous it turned out… But she’s thrilled with it!

Incidentally, we are currently in the month of Ramadan. The local mosques are definitely louder and doing their thing more often, but as we live far enough away, it is just a sound heard in the distance and not the sleep/conversation disturbing cacophony we experienced in Bandung. Aside from the fact that the local supermarket is selling tons of plastic containers of cookies (which are eaten all day every day with friends and relatives at the end of the fasting period) and there are sales everywhere on clothing (which you buy for your family), you wouldn’t really notice that there was something different this month.

Little Nelfika got her last dose of Zithromax on Sunday night. That day she still had goop coming out of her ear. So now we just need to wait for the antibiotics to do their thing which hopefully they do. It was funny because I asked the mom on Sunday if Nelfika had “demam” (fever) that day. And she said,”No, but she was hot so I gave her some of that medicine (Tylenol) and she got cool again.” I tried to explain that “hot” and “fever” were the same thing, but I don’t think she got it. This family is from the village that we went to for family conference and so their knowledge of the Indonesian language isn’t that great. This can cause for some misunderstandings… Like when we asked Nios’ brother to TRIM our trees last week, he basically destroyed them… It’ll probably be a year before they look half decent again….

On Saturday we noticed that our tap water was tasting kind of funny. We have been using a well that was drilled in our yard for about two months now. The water is pumped up into two big orange containers on top of a very tall metal tower. From there it goes into our house and our neighbours house. So Hugo climbed up the tower and looked in the orange containers. YUCK! They were filthy! So today a couple MAF guys came to clean them. Unfortunately we weren’t told ahead of time that this (the dirtiness) would happen…. So the two MAF guys started prepping things and then I had to go bring Brynnie to her playgroup so I left. When I came back, they were using a Vileda type mop (not available here but brought from Bandung) to clean the inside of the tanks along with the brush that my helper normally uses to clean the bathroom…. You can imagine my reaction…. As I arrived, one of the guys was leaving to go and get some new equipment that they could use instead of using mine…. Now they are in the process of painting the outside of the tanks to help keep the sun from heating them up. I hope it helps! I should mention that we have an alternate source of clean drinking water from another organization that we can “borrow” if needed… Thankfully…

Ice has worked for me for nearly one year now. Her plan when she began working for me was to work for one year and save up money and then go back to school. She still needs to complete her final year of high school. A while ago she got all ready to go and apply to finish high school and she couldn't find her prior years certificates and reports. They'd all been stolen. (Authentic certificates can garner big money on the black market here) Without proper paperwork, she can't finish school. I suggested that she go to the school's she'd attended and ask if they still have records and could maybe make her new paperwork. She said that it is quite difficult to do that and the process makes her head spin. (kind of a literal translation) Needless to say, the poor girl was rather upset about this. But her dad tells her to just take it slow and try to work things out maybe with whomever stole the papers. I know in Java you could do an assessment test and based on the results enter into an appropriate grade. I'm not sure they are set up for that here. We are the end of the line here in Papua. We get the leftovers...
Then I asked Ice if she had saved any money, as that was after all her purpose... No, she hasn't saved anything yet. Every time she gets paid she gives money to her mom and then to her dad (she lives with him so she should give him some money) and then there's just a little bit left for her to buy the things she needs. I told her that I would give her a raise and that she could save that extra money in our house. I will put the money in a bottle and hide it somewhere "safe". This way, if any of her relatives come to her for money (they all know she works for me...) then she can honestly say that she has no money in her house. If she has money, she is obligated to give it. That's just the way it works here.
This morning she came to me and said that a relative of hers, a guy who lives with her and her dad (or so I understood) was wondering if he could borrow 500,000 rupiahs from me and pay me back at the end of the day. I'm not sure why he actually thought I would go for this... He is a taxi driver and had been hit by someone while driving and that person took off. So Ice's relatives boss was angry and told him to fix the car today. I asked Ice how he would get that kind of money by the end of the day. She said that he is paid by the hour. There is no way that he would get that kind of money in one day. I prefer not to lend money to people. Especially not in large amounts like that. I will give money to people who need medicine, but no loans... unless they already work for us.
Then this evening as I was walking home from the pool, I met Pak Nios' wife. (he is still in Wamena and hopes to come home tomorrow) She was carrying their little 7 month old girl. The girl had a fever and green puss coming out of her ear. I was like... hmmm... I think you need to give her antibiotics... but let me find out for sure and what kind. I'm going to guess that right now they have no money in their house as Pak Nios is gone. So going to the doctor was probably not even an option. (They could probably get subsidized health care but it is a long process and they would have no idea of how to go about it) These folks are from the interior and have only lived here for a few years. They have very little education and are just simple, good folk. I really didn't want to get amoxicillan and leave it with them to give to Nelfika three times a day for ten days... So I went to the apotik and asked if they had Zithromax, and amazingly they did! It cost me $14 instead of the $3 amoxicillan would have cost, but now I can go there once a day for five days and give it to her myself. I already went and gave her the first dose. There were about 10 people in that tiny house. And they all live there. Personal space... what's that??? As we sat on their straw floor, I explained that I was going to come and give this medicine to Nelfika for five days. Then I explained when and how much panadol (tylenol) to give to her. They have never before given a syrup medicine to a baby... But there were about 10 of them who heard me explain that this medicine does not make you better, it just makes you feel more comfortable. They also told me that a couple hours earlier, they had all been sleeping the two "bedrooms" when a thief came in a stole a pair of shoes and a knife and some original Nokens (bags that they weave from grass and use to carry things-they put the handle across the forehead and the bag hangs down the back). They said there are lots of drunk people around at night. I feel so bad for them. I'm glad that we can at least give them some employment. I can almost hardly wait for Christmas so that I have a good reason to just give them some stuff...

The Blahs...

I think I’ve hit the 2 year blahs… I love living here but there are some things which are beginning to get on my nerves. I think I would feel the same about the loooong rainy winters back home…
Every day we have probably 30+ people coming to our door to ask for water. On top of that there’s all the folks that are trying to sell things or borrow our bicycle pump. I do like it when people sell me vegetables, fruit, tortillas etc… at my door as it means I don’t have to go to the store or make them myself. But sometimes there are so many! Then there’s the kids who will ask to play with our bikes in the hopes that maybe this time I’ll say yes… and then proceed to steal some rocks from our front path… or write on the MAF car in our driveway with a rock…
Then there’s the fact that we aren’t just another family on the block. We stick out like a sore thumb. There are definitely times where I miss anonymity…
Then there’s the fact that we can’t close off our house to noise (except our bedroom which has glass windows and a/c). Our street can be very noisy with motorbikes and the guy who likes to practice doing pop-a-wheelies on his motorbike-right in front of our house… When we are reading the Bible at supper, all the kids crowd around me so they can actually hear what I’m reading all the time instead of just in-between motorbikes. When we watch a video, we need to use sub-titles or we just miss too much of what the characters are saying…
And man, I am totally craving a President’s Choice thick and juicy home bbq’ed hamburger topped with cheese and sautéed mushrooms and onions and slathered in Grill Slingers bbq sauce…. That sound you just heard, that was my stomach grumbling from down under….
The kids for the most part don’t miss much from Canada because they don’t remember much. Only Mikah really remembers some things.
Okay, now I’ve got all that off my chest….

*Last week one of the MAF employees here was in a motorcycle accident. He was riding his motorbike home from work when he was struck by another motorbike coming off a side road. Rumor has it that the other driver was drunk. The MAF employee was thankfully wearing a helmet and it stayed on, but he was knocked unconscious after the accident and it appears that he was beaten as well. He is at the moment recovering in hospital.
Drunk driving is a real problem here along with a lack of defensive driving. Many on motorbikes do not have mirrors so they really have no idea of whom or what is around them.

Sorry, this one's a bit long...

This morning I got up bright an early so that I could accompany a young hard of hearing boy and his dad to school. Willem is eleven years old and until this school year had never before attended school. Willem’s dad, Ori (Oree) works for MAF as an assistant mechanic. Ori is a true blue Papuan from Sentani. When Willem was a little boy his parents took him to the doctor because they noticed that he couldn’t hear very well and one of his ears is somewhat deformed. The doctor looked at Willem and pronounced that they would have to go to Jakarta if they wanted to do anything for their son. Ori and his wife are simple people who live a very simple life in their tiny rented home and could never dream of having enough money to make the trip to Jakarta. So they just kept Willem at home with them. I neglected to ask exactly what prompted them to finally enroll him in the Sekola (school) Luar Biasa (out of the ordinary) for the deaf and hard of hearing. The school is located in Abepura, about a half hours drive by car away from Sentani. However, Ori and his wife don’t own a car and would never dream of owning one either. So each week day Willem and his mom take a taxi to his school. It can take them up to 2 hours before they are there! That is because the taxi’s here are more like a city bus, they have a route and they pick up whoever is by the side of the road and wants to ride along and they will stop at any point along their route to let people off.
Today is Saturday so Ori gives his wife a break and he goes along with his son. I drove them so they saved the cost of the transportation there for today; probably about 10,000 rupiahs ($1.10 CAD), which to them is a lot of money.
The school is actually 23 years old! I spoke with one teacher, who happens to live on the “campus”, and she has been there for 22 of those years. She said that there has been a lot of progress since the beginning. However, the only universities you can go to to study to be a teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing are in places like Java. There is no education here in Papua for that sort of thing.
Since I’ve been here a while already, I thought that the school buildings were actually quite nice. They are rectangular buildings around a square inner courtyard. The school is also located right next to the main road with only a small parking lot in-between. There is no special lighting (just fluorescent tube lights here and there) or special wall panels to keep down noise or echo or tennis balls on the bottoms of the chairs to minimize the sound of scraping chairs... The outside walls are all concrete but many of the interior walls are made of plywood. There is one section for lower elementary where there are separate classrooms. For the higher classes, there is a long building with a high ceiling and plywood walls inside that do not nearly reach the ceiling. These walls divide the “class rooms” from eachother. So one class could in theory here the teacher of another class “yelling” at her students. (some of the teachers spoke quite loudly to their students) I don’t think it really matters though as none of the children in this school wear hearing aids. There is no audiologist and there are no hearing aids available on the island of Papua. The school has some type of FM systems that they use when teaching children with residual hearing how to properly enunciate words. I suggested that the children should always use these systems but there simply aren’t enough of them to go around in spite of the fact that there are only a few students per class. There is in the courtyard a badminton court and in one of the buildings there is a pingpong table. Behind the high school building is a tiny playground with a slide and teeter totter.
I observed Willem’s kindergarten class for a while. There are four students. I think that three of them are either deaf or extremely hard of hearing. The teacher was new and so she didn’t really know the capabilities of her students yet. She was hitting a large Chinese gong and if they heard the sound they had to bounce their balls. She kept score on the blackboard as to who “heard” and who didn’t. I often saw them watching each other so I wondered at the effectiveness of that exercise. She had them say the words bola (ball) and gong and then the numbers 1-4. Only Willem moved his mouth exactly the right way only he was too shy to actually use his voice box. The other children required help such as feeling the teachers voice box and putting their hands in front of their mouths to get the letter “s” right. I found the teacher talked quite a bit and the kids wouldn’t have picked up any of it. However, by the end she did have most of them saying “bola” and “ada”(there is) fairly well.
Then I went on to the next class and visited with a bunch of teenagers who didn’t seem to have a teacher. They were mostly hanging around and making beaded eggs. They are on the photo with me. Afterward a few of them asked me for my cell phone number. I gave it. Three of them have already smsed me… What I discovered fairly quickly is that they do some signing at this school, although the focus is on speaking and reading lips. The sign language that they use seemed fairly similar to ASL (American Sign Language). I asked them what the sign for “father” was. You use your pointer finger and draw a mustache on your upper lip. This is a cultural difference between ASL and the Indonesian version. Quite cute I thought.
I visited a few other classes, some with only one student. Some of them were learning to read, others were learning about the different kinds of sentences, and one guy was doing a science workbook. As we are in the month of Ramadan, the school only operates for 2 hours on Saturdays and some of the students didn’t attend because they are fasting. I met a Papuan girl who told me that she can hear a tiny bit with one ear and she spoke with a very high pitched tone. In the photo she is sewing something. There is either sewing or computers for kids her age, depending on how smart they are. I guess the school decided that she wasn’t smart enough for computers so she is learning to sew. Recently this girl competed in an athletics competition for disabled athletes from all over Indonesia. This event is held once every four years. She placed third in the 100 meters, second in the 200 meters and fourth in the 400 meters. According to the teacher she is a “luar biasa” runner. I asked the teacher if this girl could go on being an athlete and she said that after high school she will probably go to a special organization for girls with disabilities and learn a trade. There is no such organization here for boys, only one for girls. So I guess no athletics in her future…
Then I met Charles. Charles is a university educated Chinese-Indonesian deaf man who really, really wants a cochlear implant. He was asking me all kinds of questions about them and if adults can get them and if he could hear the piano if he had one. Then he asked me how much it costs… Mostly he typed out his questions in Notepad with great speed. He is the computer teacher at the school only right now there are no students ready to learn the computer. We communicated for a fair bit in his dimly lit corner of the school. I really feel for people like Charles because as long as they are here, they will not have the opportunity to hear.
I am thankful that there is at least a school here that kids like Willem can attend where they can learn to communicate. And the teachers seem to really care about the kids and helping them. The school uses the MMR (Metode Marternal Reflektif) way of teaching. They observe the childs body language and expressions and then ask the child why they are saying or doing whatever it is they are saying or doing. I’ve never heard of this before so I’m curious if anyone in a Western country has heard about this. If you have, please comment!
I would love to help Willem out and get him some kind of amplifying device. As one of his ears is somewhat deformed, I’m not sure if he needs a bone conductor or a hearing aid. I’m afraid we’d need to go to Jakarta to find that out for sure….

Fun Times at the River and Chicken on a Stick...

Today the kids had a half day of school so myself and two other moms decided to go somewhere fun with the kids. One mom wanted to go to Lake Sentani and swim but after her son told her that the last time they went there was human excrement floating in the water, that idea was nixed. Instead we went up to a hill known as Ifar. Back in the forties it was known as General McAurthur’s lookout. At the top there is a memorial to him. To get to this place we needed to enter into an army base. As women are not allowed to wear shorts there, I stayed in our vehicle while another mom, who was more appropriately dressed, left her identification at the guard booth. I was asked to roll down our windows so they could see who was in the car although the guards did not approach the car at all. Then off we went. You feel at first that you are in a different place/country as the road is nice (at least at the entrance) and the grass is green and nicely cut and there are palms planted alongside the road. We passed by army buildings, some still from WW2, houses of soldiers, and a training ground complete with a water pit and other obstacles. Finally we reached the mouth of the trail and we parked our vehicles and walked about fifteen to twenty minutes. On the way we passed cocoa trees with their odd-shaped fruit hanging down in different stages of ripeness. I never knew they made cocoa powder from the seeds of the fruit of this tree. Then we reached the river where there is a fairly large pool to swim in. It was quite deep in one spot so the kids could jump off the rocks into the pool. A fun but tiring afternoon.
Not feeling very energetic after that, I decided to fire up the rice cooker and order some stir-fried green beans from one place and some chicken satay from another. They make a delicious peanut sauce at this little place, it’s got a zip to it. I watched them barbeque the chicken and was horrified when the girl (she took over from the older woman in the photo) put the already cooked chicken back into the container holding the marinating sauce along with some raw chicken! I politely asked her if she could please cook that chicken again… I hope that it was cooked enough again… I guess we’ll find out tonight… Don’t you love the burnt out fan they use? They barbeque with coconut husks and the bbq is not deep so they often need to “fan” the flames. It sure is tasty and at 12,000 rupiahs per portion (10 sticks-although not a ton of meat per stick…), not too dear!
As I’m writing this, the power has gone off three times and is still off….

Beach Day!!

Today we took Ritha and her two girls, Violetta (Ritha's sister), Yosef (their younger brother), and Simion (our neighbours guard/yard guy-also happens to be friends with Violetta... just friends...) to the beach along with our neighbours and another new Canadian teacher couple who just arrived a couple weeks ago. Even though Ritha's husband (who died mysteriously last Jan) is from Depapre (town where the beach is located) they had never been to the beach we always go to. Maybe it's known to be a tourist beach, who knows? None of them had ever tried snorkeling before so they were thrilled to finally have the opportunity and took full advantage of it. (I can only handle about 15-20 minutes of it and then I get seasick...) Yosef even managed to catch a clown fish with his bare hands. He was the most excited about going because until Ritha's husband passed away, he lived in Wamena which is a city located in the mountains. There are no beaches there... Plus it was his 14th birthday yesterday. It was a really fun day. Although our Papuan friends tended to stick together as opposed to mingling with us. No matter how hard we try this is just what always happens. But then again, maybe I'd be the same way if the roles were reversed. Nevertheless they had a great time.

Bits and Bites...

The other evening Pak Nios came to us and told us that his orang tua (old people/person or parent(s)) had died in Wamena. So I told him that I “ikut berduka cita” (I share in his sadness). I asked him if it was both his parents who died and he said yes. Actually, I asked him this twice and both times he said yes. We talked a little further and then he said that it was his second dad who died. Oh. So I asked about his mom and he said, “She lives here, she sells pineapples to you.” Really. I still have no idea who he is talking about. Pak Nios then asked us for permission to go to Wamena for a week. Of course we gave it.
It is interesting how the meaning of the term “relatives” is broadened immensely here. They will call someone who grew up in the same “kampung” (kind of like subdivision) as them, a relative. Regardless of whether or not they actually share similar genes. They will also call cousins “older/younger sibling” as opposed to “cousin”.

Apparently it is becoming more and more difficult for stores to get certain food items in. Right now there is a shortage of UHT milk in town. (Fresh milk is only a fond memory...) There is still powder milk available, but uht milk is really the best of the two. But it is still a far cry from lovely, refreshing Canadian milk… mmmm… I really do miss that. (probably the first thing I’ll drink when we go home for furlough…) Uht milk has a nasty aftertaste. Occasionally we can get some that’s imported from New Zealand and it’s better; but again, rarely available.

Ritha has been accepted into a program at a school to become a teacher of the Protestant religion. (The Indonesian government recognizes six official religions – Islam, Protestant, Catholic, Buddhist, Hindu, the last one is a Chinese religion and I can’t remember the name – Confusios or something like that) It is a government school but they teach the Protestant faith. Interesting… It’s a three year program and she will be able to work right after she is done. Ritha is an extremely bright woman who has the heart of a teacher. She is really great with kids. She is hoping to still work for me a bit as she will still need to pay the bills but it won’t be the same. But that’s okay. One of our goals here is to help people succeed in whatever way we can.

The power around here has been terribly intermittent. Yesterday it was off for most of the day. Aargghhh… After a while all you hear is the roar of everyone’s generators… In fact, the power is off right now as I'm typing this at 10:00pm...

Yesterday I took some photos of Ritha (wearing glasses), her sister Violetta, and Ritha's two girls Awi and Rode. They were very cooperative subjects but had some trouble relaxing. Here people tend to pose rather formally for photos....

The guy in the toque cutting the grass is our neighbours guard/yard guy. That photo is for you Martina. It was over 30C and very humid and he was wearing a toque. I asked him about it and he told me that he soaked it in water first... still...

Marc and Brynne have been playing very nicely together having discovered each other as playmates now that the big kids are off to school. So the other day Brynnie insisted that she eat lunch without a shirt just like her big brother....

With the rising cost of fuels like kerosene and gas, many locals cook over wood fires. The mountain behind our house is actually a conservation area but they don't really have a choice so they go up there and get wood to burn. We often see women carrying piles of wood on their heads or guys lugging enormous logs down the hill.

The kids are thoroughly enjoying our "new" tire swing.

And finally, Christiaan, our sporty one, loves to ride his bike on the road.