Bits and Bites...

*Yesterday Hugo went to the store to pick up a couple things and who did he run into but our "friend" Pak Tomas. Drunk as a skunk of course. He came up to Hugo and wanted to shake hands with his "friend". Hugo was not real eager and said that he couldn't be Tomas' friend as Tomas did not respect me (Erica). Tomas responded saying that he still wanted to be Hugo's friend. Hugo repeated what he had said and Tomas responded with a challenge to fight him. Hugo told him that he shouldn't talk like that right now especially as he was drunk. Tomas' "friend" intervened and pulled him aside. Another "friend" apologized for him and Hugo told him and showed him what Tomas had done. The friend was in complete agreement and explained that Tomas was drunk etc... Hugo replied that someone should tell Tomas what he does when he is drunk so he knows how yucky his behaviour is (of course this needs to be done when he is sober, a rare event indeed). It was probably good that Hugo confronted him in a public place as who knows what he would have done had his friends not been around...
*Tomorrow Papua will celebrate its birthday. On Dec 1, 2002, the Indonesian government gave more autonomy to the province of Papua allowing it to change its name from Irian Jaya to Papua. Many locals here feel that this is just a step in the direction of complete independance... right... For over a week now people have been gathering at the burial site of a leading member of the Fre* Papua M*vement who was assasin*ted before 2002. They plan to have a service tomorrow comemorating the anniversary of Papua being given more autonomy. There are those that fear this event will escalate into a dem*nstration so we are going to be avoiding that area of town tomorrow...
*There is going to be an election here in the near future. So there are different political parties putting up signs promising this and that and everything. Across the road from us at the youth centre, one of the parties has been sponsoring volleyball games. A woman is the representative in Jayapura and one of the local guys here is candidate for Pos 7, our hill. The other day a bunch of dump trucks came and took lots of people from here to her house in Jayapura. Ice wasn't sure exactly what they were going to do, get money or a pig. The plan is to have a bakar batu (bake stones) tomorrow at the youth centre. This is where they cook a pig and vegetables in the ground using hot stones and banana leaves. If I get a chance I'll take some pics and post them.
I've told Ice that I wanted to meet her new boyfriend but she said that when she told him he replied that he was too scared to come and talk with me. She reassured him that I wouldn't eat him but he's still too scared.... lol...

Hugo took this lovely photo the other day. That's our amphibious caravan which is normally based at Merauke, a city in the south. This is the plane often used by our reformed churches in the interior. It had just come here for a regular maintenance inspection. In the background is the MAF hangar and behind that is beautiful Mt. Cyclops.

Following along in vein of the last post... There is a village head here who has pilfered 23,000,000 USD from the government. These funds were meant to be used for social programs in his village. He currently has about 10 wives and they live in multiple houses and he makes regular visits to Brazil, for fun. The hospital in the village is well, inhospitable...
The other evening, Ice's niece Sarah was not feeling well and was resting on her bed in her bedroom. She thought she heard a voice at her window but then thought she was just dreaming so she went back to sleep. Suddenly there was a guy in her room, drunk of course, and he whispered in her ear asking her permission to have his way with her. She screamed and Ice's friends in the living room jumped up and began to hit the guy. He ran off up the mountain but they caught him and to teach him a lesson, beat the snot out of him. No point in calling the police...
Then the next day, Sarah's mom was beaten by her husband, Sarah's dad. These two have had a tumultuous relationship from day one. It seems he was asking her for money (what's new-she has a job, he doesn't) and she explained that she had just paid the electricity bill and so she had no money. I think she went on and taunted him a bit about the fact that he had never been a responsible father and so on (all the exact details of the event are somewhat unclear). He decided that she was out of line and so he beat her rather badly. My neighbour did take her to the hospital and she is home again on the road to recovery, constantly surrounded by all the ladies of the kampung (loosely translated = subdivision).
Moving on to more corruption... There is an expat family here who has devoted their lives to the Papuan people. They have a free clinic, an orphanage, a church and employ many people to be guards (for MAF, the school etc...), yard guys, moving guys etc... They bought land quite a few years ago and over the past year or so have been fighting in court to keep their land. Unfortunately, their opponent is the Gereja (Church) Kristen (Christian) Indonesia. This church had a land deed with the land area on the deed being 1.9 hectares. Rather mysteriously (or not) the little dot between the 1 and the 9 has disappeared and they are claiming ownership of 19 hectares of land. They, through corruption have managed to obtain this land. Interestingly enough, they said that the expat family could continue to live on the land for three more years, but that their church had to go. I'm thinking the GKI is feeling threatened by this church as it is growing in numbers and is quite popular with the locals. This event has left all of us with a less than savoury taste in our mouths. It is really unbelievable that this "church", which happens to be an extremely wealthy one, would resort to such measures. Please pray that this event will expose the church for what it is and that the locals will see and know the truth. Please also pray for this expat family as this has been a long and arduous fight for them and is crushing as they have done nothing but give, give, and give to the Papuan people.
All these events have left us feeling rather unsettled and shaken. Please pray that we will see God's plan in all things and continue to trust in His goodness and wisdom.

I don't even want to know...

Most of the people living around here are very poor and just barely have enough to eat and clothes to wear. People living on a 1$ a day... or less... But there are some fabulously wealthy people here too. I cringe when I think of how they attained their wealth. There are those who are from other islands and are just smart business-wise but then there are those that are native to this island who have incredible amounts of fundage (there are actually two hover craft on this island.... they have no idea how to use them, but they have them...). The other day someone described Wamena (interior city) as being one of the most corrupt places on the planet. He estimated that there are about four guys skimming around a million US each, each year!!! He also said that there are people dying each day there because of fundage meant for the "health system" mysteriously doesn't actually make it to its intended destination. Our MAF wives actually visit all people that have been brought into Wamena by our pilots for medical reasons. They give them a blanket (not provided by the hospital!?) and some food and pray with them. They also try to advocate for their care. Often folks from interior are just plain scared to be away from home, everything is strange, and they have no idea that they need to speak up for themselves (totally non-cultural for them). There are wives on other bases who are doing or beginning to do the same thing. For example, a few weeks ago a young man was in a motorcycle accident in a village and he was brought by MAF to a city in the South for treatment. A week later he still hadn't received any medical care, even though he was in the hospital, and now he is being brought out to Jayapura to have his leg amputated because it was infected due to lack of treatment. This happened in spite of one of our national worker's visiting the young man and trying to get care for him. It makes you just want to scream/cry....
Yesterday a boy at our kid's school had his birthday. He is from Wamena and to celebrate he bought lunch for all the kids in the elementary!!! From Texas Chicken - so they had rice and chicken and pop.... I don't even want to know...
On the brighter side, there is an expat doctor in Wamena now, and he has set up a clinic and he has an expat nurse and I think some locals working with him to provide better medical care to whoever needs it there. But there are of course, limits to what they can provide.

Stuff....

The morning after my last post a little boy came to get water and left the tap running full. And I didn't notice until one hour later. So that was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. What if I hadn't been home??? We have removed the tap at the front of our house. Last night a woman came to get water and marched in without asking and went to get some except that she couldn't and then left without saying anything. I have to admit that that is another reason that I removed the tap. Some of the people here figure that this is their land and so they can take without asking. However, MAF actually owns this property and it is a private residence. I have told them many times that I would like them to ask permission first. So for now, there is no water available to the public here, only to those who work for us and our pastors family. It pains me to do this but I feel that if I don't do anything it means that I'm okay with being walked over, which I'm not.
We live about 1.5 kilometers from the airport, as the crow flies I figure. We can actually hear the binging of the announcement bell and then the announcements of when flights are going to occur. Although I can't really hear exactly what they are saying. They have turned up the volume incredibly loud!! This is just a loud place to live and we are headed into the noisiest time of year when guys start making Christmas booths and play loud obnoxious Christmas music. I know, how can Christmas music be obnoxious?? Well, lets just say they don't play Josh Groban type music... It's more karaoke style....
This morning we had the local drunk come to the door for money. His name is Sepi or Tomas. He is the product of a Dutch father and a Papuan mother and a raging alcoholic. He has come here before at 6:30 in the morning asking for money with betel nut juice dribbling down his chin and barely coherent. He frightens me. Then again this morning he came saying that his daughter was sick and he needed money for medicine. He had receipts... which means that the medicine is already paid for.... Hugo is very patient and explains that we don't give money to people but only to our church and our helpers. I didn't hear all that was said but there was some laughing (always a good sign) and then he left. He likes Hugo because Hugo is Orang Belanda (Dutch person) and therefore pasti baik (for sure a good person). Then later as I was on my way to the market and waiting to cross two lanes of traffic at the bottom of our hill there was Pak Sepi again. He approached me and touched my arm and raised his eyebrows and made a lewd motion with his hands.... YUCK!!!! Actually I had to confirm with my helper that it was a lewd motion and not a motion saying that he wanted to end my life.... the first time he came I told him to take a hike and he was not happy about that... Then at the market I had some nice chats with the sellers. They were all curious about why I was buying so much meat. I explained that I had five kids and a husband. Then they asked if all that meat was just for one day.... not many people here have freezers so that's probably why they asked. Then they were wondering where I was from and how long I had lived here and how come I could speak Bahasa so fluently (always nice to hear...). So I was feeling rather positive and happy and then I passed the fireworks vendors and one of them calls out to me, "Hey, I want to kiss you!!" Ugghhh....

*There is evidently some sort of ceremony going on across the road from us right now. They have the sound system cranked to maximum output and I can hear the speaker/singer as though he were in the same room as I am and I am in our office with the door closed! Except there is some distortion due to the volume being so high. I assume it is someone's birthday as they've sung the song "Panjang Umurnya" about four times now and the singer is horribly off key. The singing has been going on for about 2.5 hours now.... They love it loud here...
*Big news. Ice has a new boyfriend. Her last boyfriend was not a nice guy and her Dad was not happy about him either. He pressured Ice into doing things she didn't want to do... nuf said... However, this new guy, who Ice tells me, is a village person who moved out here in 2002. They've been friends for a while already and just started "dating". She talked with her Dad about it and he is happy because the guy is a hard worker. Then she talked with her mom (her parents are divorced) and she's okay with the whole thing because he can help her in her garden up on the side of the mountain. (she has a pineapple patch up there) I love how they determine whether or not he will do... I haven't had the pleasure of meeting this fellow yet but I sure hope I do get to!
*Big news again! The plane that has been stuck out in a village for a few months now has finally returned "home". It took some work for us to get a permit to fly the plane here as it did sustain some damage in the accident. Early this week a team of guys went out to the village and fixed it up enough to fly it here. This is a real answer to prayer as now they can get the plane back up in the air quite quickly and back to serving the folks here!

The first photo is of our caravan crew replacing some parts of the hot section (whatever that is) on one of our caravans. These parts were just brought here by one of the guys from Nampa. It's cheaper to have guys hand carry parts than have them couriered! Crazy eh? That's my girl Sisi getting her hands dirty while the guys look on/hold the book... lol

Then there's Hugo in his office/cubby hole working diligently on his new program that keeps track of instrument calibration or something techie like that...

Lately we've had people come for water and then leave the tap running full out and my front garden quickly becomes lake-like. I'm not sure if it's kids who just don't know the proper way to turn the tap to stop the water flow or if it is deliberate. I've asked our guard and Ice to tell the people that they need to make sure that the water is turned off when they are done. I've said that if this continues I will be forced to lock the gates and not allow anyone to get water anymore. They don't seem to understand that clean drinking water is limited and that we have a pump that takes electricity and if the water is allowed to run freely, the pump will have to pump continuously and the well could run dry. Ice has tried to explain it to them but they just laugh and can't believe that I would actually lock the gate. Everyone else around here does that. We are the only ones that allow people to get water. It wasn't always this way. You'd think that the message would get across... But the fact is that when the water is turned on in their kampung (subdivision-sort of), they let it just run and no one turns it off! Then they wonder why the water keeps getting turned off up at the top of the mountain! Because it's gone! Until the next big rain that is... No melting glaciers here....

In fact, the water tank and pipe system in that area was installed by an expat family living here!

Today was a drizzly dreary day not unlike a winter day in the Lower Mainland of BC. I did manage to get out though in between the showers...
*I asked Ritha the other day if her girls had anything they needed as I wanted to get them a gift, after all, it is almost that time of year again... She thought for a moment and then told me that both girls have bikes but they are in need of some TLC. So I told her to bring the bikes in today for us to look at and see what we could do. Poor Rode has this bicycle that was given to her older sister by an expat couple that went back home about six years ago. It was a locally purchased bike and suitable for a three-four year old. It was missing the seat among other "issues". I decided then and there to look for a larger second-hand bike for Rode, knowing that they are not cheap. There are no garage sales here where you can pick up a decent bike for $10-20. I was successful in finding her a cute Winnie the Pooh bike that she can ride for a few years. We had them deliver it (you can get almost anything delivered here because most people don't have cars so it is perfectly okay to ask-sometimes they charge a little, but most often it is already worked into the price). I think Rode was in shock when I gave it to her. It's a bit early, but who cares??
* I also went to visit the parents of Willem. I had never met his mother so I thought it was high time I paid them a visit. They live in a little house on the end of a row of rented houses with another row making a "T" beside them. Like a little townhouse complex. And when I say little, I mean little. I showed them a diagram of the inner ear and explained to them the different types of hearing loss. They had never before been shown anything like this. Very little shocks me anymore.... I explained that as we are unsure as to the nature of Willems hearing loss, we need to find out so that we know what kind of hearing amplification device we need to get. I really wish that it was a simple process like back home. Yes, I know, you are all thinking, but our medical system is so ponderous... Really, but everything is available! There isn't even an audiologist here in Papua! I'm hoping that maybe Willem can be seen by an expat ENT in a big city on the other side of the island so that we can know more about the nature of his condition. I really, really wish that it were a simple thing to help this boy, but it is actually quite a process. But maybe if I can navigate the process for him, we can streamline things and possibly help other kids here too! One can always hope! If you feel like you'd like to help us out with this project, please let me know.

It seems like not much exciting has been happening lately, but maybe that's just because life here has gotten so "normal" for us. I've just gotten used to nearly being hit by someone each time I drive into town. The power going off and then on and then off again on random days.
Today the kids had a science fair at school for the morning. There were some neat displays including a live bat, a spud gun and a hover craft etc... I went with Brynnie and the nine year old son of a friend who homeschools. (They normally live in an isolated village interior so whenever these kinds of events are happening, they try to go) Marc played at a friends house.
Unfortunately our laptop has continued it's slow death and the screen no longer works. So we have been forced to purchase a new computer. (the dvd rom and modem have been broken for well over a year already... I know, nobody in Canada uses modems anymore.... well, here we do still use them! We have good internet service through MAF (MAF is not only into aviation, but also communication) but when the power is out or the server in the office is down....) Thankfully, our program manager is in the states right now and is willing to cart one back for us. You can purchase them here, but the prices are quite a bit higher, which I know, is really odd as we are in Asia, where most of the computers are made. I guess it's an issue of volume.
Someone from Holland just brought us droppies!! Not really news worthy info, but exciting for us!!!

Bits and Bites...

*Christiaan is recovered from his bout with malaria. It is obvious to me that the quicker you catch and treat it, the sooner you recover.
*Ice had a weird ailment this past week. It felt like she had a marble in her neck just under her jawbone. Her neck was sore and it hurt to swallow food. I decided that going to the doctor would be the best thing although I have to admit that it pains me to hand her over to the inadequacies of the medical system here. But having no idea myself, and having consulted with a friend who is a nurse, I had no other choice. So I gave Ice 100,000 (Just over $10 CAD) rupiahs and sent her on her way. She said the doctor told her she had something like bangkak babi which literally translated means swollen pig. The doctor gave her four different medications to take including neurodial and ampicilan. The other two were just little white pills in a bags. The amount of meds people are given here is really astounding.... By Friday she said things were feeling a lot better. I guess maybe at least one of those medications might have done the trick... And she had 40,000 rupiahs leftover after all that!
* The other day I boiled up a 3kg chicken. It was enormous! There is an expat family living here who do a tremendous amount for needy Papuans. They have an "orphanage" for children who aren't wanted by their parents or who've run away because they were abused etc... At their place, they have pigs and chickens and gardens from which they feed all the folks they are caring for and all these people help out. I bought this enormous chicken from them. It still had the organs inside... So I cut off most of the meat and bagged it into 2 cup portions. I decided to take the bones, organs and the broth to Pak Nios' wife. I'm never sure about doing this kind of thing because I don't want them to feel bad or something. She wasn't there when I came, but Pak Nios was so I gave it to him and he expressed his appreciation. Today his wife came by and gave me a bunch of bananas. So I assume this means that it's okay for me to do this.
* This past week Mikah and Christiaan's class was priviledged to listen to a animal conservationist (I think that is his official title) from New Zealand, who has been to Antarctica five times. He showed photos from his most recent visit when he and his team studied penguins. It was a very interesting and humorous presentation. You just never know who you'll meet out here!
* We are still waiting for permission from the aircraft regulatory body out here, so that we can bring the broken Caravan that is still stuck out in a village, back here for repairs. There seem to be an inordinate amount of problems getting this permit. An awful lot more than there should be if you get my drift. Please pray that permission will be given soon as any time one of these aircraft is down it really affects our ability to serve and our program overall.

Friday Night...

*This is a mish-mash of fotos of our Friday afternoon/evening. Each year the kids from the elementary school put on a fun night. All the children of the national workers are also invited along with any other expat kids in the community who don't go to the school. Each class takes care of one or two booths. Tickets are super cheap and there's lots of candy to go around. The most fun booth is the one where you pay 2 tickets to have someone soaked with water... Always the most popular just behind the dunking booth...

*On the one photo, Mikah is trying to stay on the red line while looking through a pair of binoculars the wrong way. Harder than it sounds...

*Then for supper we went to the new pizza place, Papa Ron's, that just opened in the mall. It's a little sureal actually. I can't believe we have a pizza place in Sentani. The decor is Western and nice. The pizza isn't so western. It definitely has an Indonesian flair to it. You can order pizza with eggplant or broccoli on it... and of course, none of the meat has any pork in it... But there's melted cheese so who's complaining?? We went with our friends P and A to celebrate P's first solo flight here in Papua with MAF. A very exciting event as it is what they have been working 8 years for! So it was really fun to celebrate with them at the new pizza place!

* Today I got a call from the school that Christiaan wasn't feeling well. He had a fever and a headache and I'm sure you can guess what I'm about to write next... he is indeed the next malaria victim in our family. As I thought about why we are suddenly now all falling victim when for the last year we haven't had any cases, I remembered something that occurred a few weeks ago. I had gone to Abe with a friend and while I was gone some MAF workers came to replace some of our door knobs as the locks had already rusted (after only one year!!). They decided between the two of them, that our screen doors made far too much racket when they closed. So they adjusted the door closers so that the doors closed very slowly and softly.... Nice and slowly so that all kinds of mosquitoes can get in!!!!! I did explain this to them... In the Indonesian culture it is very rude to let a door slam... Hugo did adjust the front door so it closed a bit faster but still slower than before. So this evening he went around and made the doors all slam again. I hope this solves our malaria plague....