More Bits and Bites....

Each year the entire high school goes to an interior village for two weeks. This is called OE (Outdoor Education). They usually go to a village where M's have been or are still working. They will break into teams and work on different projects. Then some of the teams will hike to other villages in the surrounding areas. This year they went to the village of Ibele which is located in the mountains near Wamena. While there the kids did various projects around the villages but the big focus was on health. An expat nurse saw over 600 villagers with various aches, pains, and illnesses. An expat dentist pulled many, many teeth thereby relieving many of pain. The students also did presentations regarding Aids awareness. It is an enormous problem in this province and especially in the villages as there is such a lack of knowledge regarding transmission etc... They also showed the Jesus film a number of times. The students also spent a night in a traditional honai (hut). This was a great honour to the people of the villages. This area has never had this many people come in just to help so it was a great witness to them. The students were also able to hear some of the stories from the first believers in the area about how their lives were before and then after.

Ice came to me the other day and told me that on the 13th of the month she would need some money, 200.000 rupiahs, as her cousin is getting married and needs to pay the marriage price. Actually, the cousin is just getting kawin (they move in together-it's much cheaper than getting married). Ice said that even her little brother who is 12 received an invitation meaning he also has to "donate" to the fund. He has no job! She asked her mom about this and her mom said this is the cultural tradition; that they will give money now to help their relatives and then later when Ice gets married this family will provide a pig for them....