Bits and Bites....

* There is both margarine and sandwich meat available again! It feels a little sureal really... Wonder how long they'll be available for... Maybe I should stock up... Some friends just got me some bacon in Bali and it was half the price of what we pay here...

* Our guard as it turns out, is learning to play the piano. And wouldn't you know it, we happen to have a piano! I told him he could come and practice any time he likes. He'd never seen a real piano before, he had no idea that a piano that didn't require electricity existed. When I showed him the piano for the first time he was quite and excited and asked how long he could play for. I told him that he could play until he was bored or his back hurt... 2.5 hours later... his back hurt... Yokben is a great guy. He's been married for one year about. When we inquired of his age he really had to think hard and then said that he was born in 1987 then had to correct himself, no he was born in 1985. He paid 8 pigs for his wife. That's quite a princely sum, especially since her parents said that he could pay whatever he wanted... What a guy! He's been going out into the jungle and finding interesting plants and putting them in pots at the back of our house! He brought me calla lillies the other day! I think one of them is about to produce a flower!

*So I bought a fish the other day. Paid way too much. The price sounded fine to me as it was much cheaper than ground beef... Oh well, next time I'll bargain... But he did deliver it, cut it up for me, and take out the bones.

* It turns out that Ice has had a baby before. This news shocked the pants off me... When she was much younger she had a boyfriend. They were dating for a while when he started making certain requests of her that she was not interested in fulfilling. So he forced her to fulfill his request but he did so when the power was out and there was a rain storm so she didn't know who had done it. She of course told her family and they called the neighbours together to talk about it. At that point the guy confessed. So his family had to pay for his sins. Ice became pregnant and gave birth somewhat prematurely to a baby boy. (I believe she was about 16 yrs old at the time) If I understand her correctly, the baby was blind. At five months of age there were problems in Ice's family (her parents eventually divorced) and she entrusted the baby to the care of another family. Apparently they had to bring the child to the doctor often and at seven months of age, he developed breathing problems. They brought him to the government hospital in Jayapura but they weren't able to help him and he died. Ice told me that it wasn't that she didn't want to tell me about this happening in her life, but that it all feels like a dream. Like maybe it didn't really happen. One can't even imagine what the women here go through in their lives. I think we westerners would all be seeing therapists and psychologists but these women just keeping on going.

* In other news, Ritha's mom came and took her brother away, but the next night he was back... hmm.... I asked the sisters why he came back and they said they hadn't asked him. See, that just shocks me. I'd be asking him tons of questions, but they just accept that he's back and that it might be for just a while or it might be more permanent... Just see what happens... In the meantime, the sister is registering him for school and paying the entrance fee. (which she had to borrow from us and others...)

*We've had some health issues since returning from our family conference. I needed to go on Cipro and now Hugo is on it... Aidan has been sick for about a week now. He's not super sick, but you can tell he's not himself. He started out with a fever and sore throat and now he's complaining about his stomach and some intestinal issues and he's not eating much (a sure sign that Aidan is not himself)... I'm thinking he might have amoeba. You see, Hugo, Aidan, Mikah and I all had some chicken in Wamena while we were waiting for our flight home.... So far only Mikah hasn't had any negative reaction, but then she seems to have a stomach made of stainless steel...

And life goes on...

It's been a while since I've posted a wordy post...
Last week we were in Pyramid for our annual MAF family conference. Pyramid is a village in the Baliem valley situated at an altitude of about 5,000 ft up. So it gets fairly chilly there at night... well, chilly for us coastal folks... A long time ago one of the other missions built this centre and we have used it for many years. It's a great place to go and enjoy spending time with your fellow workers. The cabins are very rustic, privacy is minimal, all food is cooked on two large wood stoves, all all drinking water is boiled first leaving it with a distinct smoky flavour, and when it rains, there's mud, mud and more mud. But, there are hot showers (water is heated up in drums by a fire underneath), we don't have to cook or do dishes, there's American candy to buy, there's VBS for the kids, teaching for the grownups, lots of singing, and lots of fun!
On Monday the weather started out not so great so the flights coming to and from Wamena (10 minutes flying, 1.15 hours driving away) were delayed. Plus all the rain we had made the airstrip in Pyramid muddy forcing us to reduce the loading on our caravans which meant extra flights. Then we got to Wamena and found out that the local carrier we were going to take to Sentani had mechanical problems on one of their aircraft and the airconditioning was broken on the other (or something like that). That combined with the bad weather earlier in the day just made things really delayed. So we waited and waited in Wamena and the guys in charge of our flights kept going to the airport and talking with the airline people there. I went and got some food for us (a mistake as I am now on Cipro because of that food...). Finally, they got us on a flight. Because we weigh more than locals do, they couldn't take as much cargo and as the back half of the plane is people the tail was getting heavy so they moved a couple very large local men to the front row and bumped Christiaan and I a row back. Marc had to be on my lap and Brynne on Hugo's in order for us all to fit on. There were 40 of us. Then we took off and quickly realized that we had the plane with the broken a/c... It was a sweaty 38 minute flight...

* In the meantime Ritha's mom is causing problems again and is now saying that Ritha is not a good older sister to her younger siblings (a sister of 20 and brother of 15) and that they should live with her. Ritha apparently has too many rules in her house. Rules like, you need to be home by 9:00pm and, if a boy takes you out, he needs to pick you up from the house so I can see him too; don't drink or smoke; you need to do your chores... Doesn't she sound terrible?? Ritha is one of the most responsible locals you will meet.
Today they had a meeting with her mother about this issue and her mother brought some very loud mouthed friends with. They didn't want to hear about how she didn't take care of Ritha and her siblings at all when they were young. Then during the meeting, the mom burns Ritha's sister on the cheek with her cigarette!! Can you believe it? The conclusion of it all was that the kids should live with their mom and that the sisters boyfriend has to pay money to the mom so that he can date her!!! Ritha and her sister aren't sure how that happened and what the point is... I suspect her mother has a mental illness, well, actually, we're pretty sure she does, and what she is really after is money. (Remember, a few months back she tried to stab Ritha's sister but the knife was dull...) They had waited at their house for a while to see if the mom would come to collect the kids but she didn't so they came up to our house for a bit. Today happens to be Ritha's daughters 10th birthday. This girl is actually the daughter of Ritha's husband's (for those of you who don't know, Ritha's husband died mysteriously 1.5 years ago) younger sister, but has no idea that she was adopted... What a birthday for her. At least she got cake, I made her a chocolate cake yesterday and gave her some clothes today. My heart just goes out to this little family just trying their best to live their lives to God's glory but having to deal with a lot of painful stuff along the way. Please remember them in your prayers!

Some random shots of our time in Pyramud... I mean Pyramid

Bits and Bites....

Today we went to the beach with some Dutch folks. The weather was fabulous and the kids had fun jumping into the ocean off a rope swing hanging from a palm tree over the water. We were the only folks there the whole day which I have to admit was rather nice. On the boat ride home our boat ran out of gas; within sight of the pier no less. We floated aimlessly for a few minutes and then a guy came by in a traditional boat with a little 15 horse-power motor. He had no extra gas so we attached a rope to his boat and he dragged us to the pier. Then, since the tide had dropped so much, we had to climb onto one of the bigger old-style boats and then from there up onto the pier (nope, no ladder). Thankfully all of us and our stuff made it safely to the top. Then on the way home, over 4 rather rickety bridges, one of them with large gaping holes, our friend drove over a little pig. In his defense, the pig literally ran under his tires... We didn't stop, you don't want to stop... A full-grown pig is worth about 10 million rupiah so you don't want to start discussing retribution for an animal that should really be penned up but isn't... Just another day at the beach in P*pua...
Tomorrow morning we are scheduled to fly to Wamena on a local airline. From there we are to be shuttled to a village called Pyramid where we will stay until next Monday. Yup, it's time for our annual family conference again. The kids are pumped! There's a team from New Heights Church in Vancouver, Washington here to do VBS for all the kids. They also bring lots of American candy with them... And of course, Pastor Matt Hannon will be speaking to us grown-ups each day.
So we'll be incommunicado for the next week. I believe there is one spot on the entire compound where you can sometimes get a bar or two on your cell phone.... if you stand on one leg and hold up a tower of aluminum foil... :-)

Fun times...

Today I took our kids, the two neighbour kids, and Ritha's girls to the Happy Kiddy play place at the mall. 9 kids, I know, but it went great! This place kills me. They have constant annoying kiddy-type music playing and blinking lights and as it is on the top floor of the mall and heat rises... it's an oven up there... The kids love it though. The ball pit is really quite large. And you gotta love the ride-on reindeer (or whatever they are...). Those cost extra as do the battery-powered cars. After their play time was up, we went to the Dunkin' Donuts and they each got to pick out a donut to take home. Fun times!

That last photo is how you read your kids a book when the power is out... I know it looks dorky, but it works great. Don't you love Aidan's dinosaur headlamp? We've been having quite a lot of power outages lately and many of them last for about 8 hours... Fun times...

Ambulance...

This morning as I was trying to get the cobwebs out of my head while lounging in bed at 7:30 am (I really do like the looser schedule of the summer...) when there was a timid knock on my bedroom door. Since none of my kids ever knocks, they just barrel in, I knew it was Ice. I told her to come on in. She was a little embarrassed but I assured her it was no big deal. She proceeded to ask me if I could take her dad to the hospital as he was having trouble breathing. I said sure, but I need to have a quick shower first. In retrospect I probably should have gotten a little more information from her regarding his condition... Anyways, I showered as quickly as I could and called a friend to come and have breakfast with the kids and made my way to Ice's house. Unfortunately I couldn't drive very close to their house. They live in a kind of a valley and you have to walk down a path which goes over a creek to get to their house. I looked in the front door and saw what appeared to be a body covered with a blanket. I watched it closely to see if there was any movement and when I saw none I had a moment of panic that I was too late and that I shouldn't have been so vain regarding my personal grooming... But then I saw Ice and she laughed at me and said that her brother in law was just cold so he wrapped himself up like that... Whew... As it turned out, Ice's sister Elina and Ice's husband came along with me. Ice's husband is afraid of me. Ice says he grew up in a village and isn't used to white people. He refused to sit in the front with me. "He's scared," Elina informed me. So she sat in the front and off we went sent off by a small crowd. Evidently Ice's dad, Mitre, is an important man in this area. I feel so bad for these folks. The government built a new hospital intended for the Papuans, particularly those coming from interior for medical care. Previously everyone went to the government hospital in Jayapura or sometimes the hospital in Abe. There is a better hospital in Waena, closer by, but it is a private Catholic hospital and therefore more expensive and they don't accept the government insurance cards. Anyways, back to this new hospital; it's way out of town so anyone who wants to go there has to take transportation quite far. And the taxis stop all the time to let people off and take new people on so a 15 minute trip can turn into a 45 minute trip and when you are sick.... So they asked me for help. It took us only 15 minutes to get there and I told them to call me when they were done. Four hours later they were done. Pak Mitre had been checked and told to spit into two different sample bottles and then bring them back the next day to be checked by the lab. (It sounds to my untrained ear that he has something like emphysema.)
Here's the other thing, there isn't ambulance service here like back in Canada. People don't just call up an ambulance to take them to the hospital. I think it is very expensive. From what I've seen, ambulances are used to bring people from one hospital to another if they cannot receive adequate treatment in the first hospital. They are also used to carry dead bodies. According to Ice the ambulance drivers are often drunk... hmmm.... Never, ever take our Canadian medical system for granted people!!!

Bits and Bites....

* I asked Ice how the payment went on Saturday. She said that her tribe had amassed 25 pigs, a large envelope of money and many nokens (hand-weaved bag carried at the back with the strap over the forehead). Nokens are the traditional item to give in times of marriage or payment for a wrong especially against an young unmarried girl etc... The pigs were apparently all large and worth 10 million each which means that the pigs alone were more than enough to cover the agreed amount. However, the family of the girl who had died were not happy with just the pigs. They began to raise their voices. So Ice's dad, who was brokering this peace agreement, made the decision to just give everything to them so as to achieve peace. But he then asked if they could have 2 pigs in return to have a pig feast with all the people who had come from far to help pay the fine. This was granted. Following the payment Ice's dad spoke to the tribe of the girl who died and thanked them and so one. All very cultural. However, the immediate family members of Hrlina could not look Ice's dad in the eye while he spoke his humble words. This is because just days earlier, a witness had come forward and told who had committed the murder and it was not a member of Ice's tribe. But Ice's dad felt they should just pay the fine and then try to deal with those responsible. I think he probably made the right decision because otherwise the family of the girl would most likey still be complaining about things. Now they have nothing to say.
However, the peace that previously reigned in the area has been broken. There are about 5 different tribes represented. On Monday the tribe of the girl who died also had a pig feast and forbade Ice's tribe from participating.
In the old days each tribe had their territory and you could stay away from other tribes quite easily. Now they are mixed together in "subdivisions" and that creates a new can of worms to deal with.
* There's been another plane crash here. Like the last one, it happened near Wamena. In fact it is the same airline as the last one and it was also a cargo plane. Occasionally they do carry a few passengers and were scheduled to carry at least one passenger. However, this fellow ended up taking a more direct flight with one of our mission aviation groups here. A good choice. The plane had three people on board and it looks like they hit the side of a mountain. There are so many mountain passes here it is easy to go into the wrong one and get lost and if there are clouds....
* Hugo is looking into the possibility of going interior this fall with a Dutch friend and do some courses on basic radio maintenance. HF radios are the lifeline of the interior and each time something goes wrong they have to send it to us to get fixed. Having grown up in a non-electronic environment, many of the folks interior have no clue of how to properly maintain their radios.
* I've planted a small corn garden just for fun. I brought the seeds along from Canada and they are sprouting and growing quite quickly. We are very optimistic right now that we will be eating sweet Canadian corn on the cob in a couple months....
* On Canada Day we had a barbeque with the other Canucks living here in Sentani. There are five Canadian families living here although one was unable to attend our gathering. One of the families is new and they just unpacked their crates and they had shipped a rather lovely gas barbeque. Man, those were tasty burgers! Although they're not as juicy as a true Canadian burger cause the meat here has no fat in it at all....