Retribution...

Things have been quiet around here this week. People are still scared though. As it turns out, the older people in the community, including Ice’s dad, met to discuss retribution for the murder of the young woman. They have fined Ice’s cousin 50 million rupiah (about $5,500CAD) and the guy that pretended to be her boyfriend, 150 million rupiah. If the money is not paid within 2 weeks, someone has to die and that someone has to come from the triplex that Ice lives in. It seems her dad has gotten involved in this issue when he doesn’t actually need to be involved. Ice says that the family of the girl is quite angry that he is involved. I don’t really know all of the ins and outs of all that but the ramifications seem rather terrible... Remember, Ice’s cousin knew nothing, she was an innocent bystander and yet she has to pay too... Never mind where they are going to get that kind of money from...??? I can’t even wrap my mind around it all.
The helper of a friend told how her tribe deals with situations like this. They will put a razor in the hand of the dead person and tell them to exact revenge on the guilty. Apparently the helpers father died mysteriously and they did their traditional thing and nine people died in the following months....
All the people involved in the above call themselves Christians but it is hard for those of us who’ve had the benefit of hundreds of years of ancestors who were Christians to fathom how people can still cling to such animistic beliefs and traditions. It is one of the biggest struggles for the Papuan Christians here. We in the West are often fighting the new whereas here, they are fighting the old and the new.