The Newlyweds...

Meet David and Mik (Meek). They are newly married. David is the youngest son of Pak Naftali Baikole, a long-time worker for MAF as flight scheduler and prior to that a worker for the ZGK (Dutch mission). David had had a number of girlfriends but none of them was "the one". Earlier this year his cousin went back to their home village in the province of Halmahera and he promised to find a wife for David. While there he met Mik and got her number and gave it to David and so began a relationship by cell phone. Then, before David and Mik had even met, his parents went to Halmahera and met her and her parents and asked them if their son could marry Mik. They agreed and plans were made. Mik returned to Sentani with them and met David for the first time. They seemed to fit and so the plans went ahead. After a mult-week visit, she returned home and waited for David and his family to come. The wedding occurred on Nov 1st in Halmahera. According to custom, food was provided for the entire village and the Naftali family had to purchase approximately 400 kgs of rice to feed everyone! Yikes! The wedding went on without a hitch and the newlyweds honeymooned for three days in Manado before returning to Sentani.
Tonight there was a party for them at Pak Naftali's house so that all those who couldn't come to the wedding itself could congratulate the couple. We were told it would begin at 6:00 and in true western form, we were there on time but no one else was... The ceremony ended up beginning at 6:30. In the meantime, Brynnie entertained everyone by shinnying up one of the tent poles at the front. (we were all sitting on plastic folding chairs out in front of the house, under a rented tent roof) Our pastor was supposed to preach but his wife had to be hospitalized today due to a miscarriage and the need for surgery afterwards. So Pak Naftali called up another pastor from Halmahera to come, the man agreed but today Pak Naftali couldn't get a hold of him so wasn't sure if he was going to come or not. Then the keyboardist had to take off so things were falling apart. David's sister-in-law is a radio DJ and so she hosted the event and things moved on and we sang acapella. Mik's father then spoke about the happy couple. Then suddenly the pastor showed up and he came up and preached. He was a bumbling sort of character and we were left curious as to what his point was... There was a lot of laughing and "umm's". By then our pastor had shown up and so he was also given the opportunity to pray for the couple. Then a close friend of David also had the opportunity to pray. Then Pak Naftali came up to speak for the family and suddenly the sound system went to echo... After his little speech (thankfully, he knows how to keep things short) we were all invited to go up and get some food. The food by then was rather chilly and I didn't want to think about how long it had been sitting out.... It was the usual spread of rice, chicken soup, fish, fried chicken, veggies with curry, beef and of course, krupuk and plastic cups of bottled water. Traditional meals here tend to be heavy on the meat and carbs, and low on the veggies... The family had been cooking the entire day over little kerosene "stoves" with the help of the neighbours. Hugo and I, it appeared, were the only ones to actually present the couple with a gift. Earlier today I had purchased a book on marriage by Gary Smalley and inside we tucked an envelope containing a monetary gift. Most times there is a box prepared into which people can drop envelopes of money but today no such box was prepared.

One last trip to the beach...

Today we went to a different beach than we usually do. This beach is located outside of the inlet we usually stay in and is on the open ocean side.

This was our ride: She is fondly known as "The Whale". On our journey to the beach we must traverse bridges such as the one pictured...

Also on our way, on a road built during World War 2, we pass by such sights as the Seventh Day Adventist grass airstrip and their new hangar...

The local prison... The front is a whole lot nicer than the back...

We must keep a sharp lookout for "wild life"... In addition to cows, one often comes across pigs, dogs, and goats... We also experience a lot of hills and curves....

Once we have arrived we must check in at the police station and let them know who we are and where we are going and for how long. Then we find a boat driver and negotiate a price... Today we didn't have to do that as our friends had already arranged everything ahead of time. These boats are so much faster than the traditional boats with outriggers. Here they call these boats "Johnsons". Sort of like how we all call tissues, "Kleenex"...

As we motor along on the open sea, we see sights such as this:

It is the wavy season but thankfully today there were more swells than waves. The guys driving our boat grew up on the sea and are really good at what they do.... thankfully.... Upon arrival, you have FUN!!

Then you go home really, really tired and really, really sandy....

Tidbits...

Today Marc and Brynne played with Nelfika and her uncle Yokben (our guard/yard guy). Yokben is a lovely man who is incredibly patient. He pushed the kids around and around the yard in our wheelbarrow and then let them ride on his back. We are so blessed to have him working for us!

There is a new law here that states that all motorbikes and cars must have their headlights on at all times. This is painful for a fair number of Indonesians as many believe that this drains the battery of their vehicle. Alternators are not truly understood here... So the police are at times out in full force at key locations where they wave down all traffic and let everyone know that their headlights must be on. Some have no trouble turning on their lights while driving, others have some trouble and must pull over and do the deed. I see many who once out of sight of the police officers, turning off their lights again....

I'm sure that many of you heard about the ferry that sunk off the coast of Sumatera last week. About 2 weeks ago a few members of our church were coming home from their native Island of Halmahera by boat as well. They said that the journey lasted 16 hours and they had only enough room to sit or stand. They could not lie down to rest. In addition, the water in the bathrooms was only working for a couple hours at a time. They said it made it hard to wash themselves. I think they were too polite to say that it made it hard to "flush"... He has now decided never to take the boat again....

Today our friend Jan W. returned from a short trip to Boma, the interior village where they lived for a number of years including one year as the only white folks... While there, Jan procured a bow and arrow set for us to take back to Canada. We wanted one that hadn't been made just for tourists but one that had actually been used. It is a beautiful set including 5 handcrafted arrows; one for pigs, one for fish, two for birds and lastly, one for humans.... hmmm....

Bits and Bites....

Hugo had this past week off. So we did some more painting in the boys room. Not quite done yet, but nearly. They are very happy about it!
Hugo also took a morning to fix the electrical issues in Ice's house. They only had a 2 amp circuit breaker and so anytime she would watch a dvd the circuit breaker would blow. Hugo fixed that problem and also replaced some of their light fixtures with more efficient ones.
On Thursday Hugo and I headed out to Jayapura for two nights at the Swiss-Bel hotel there. It's pretty much the only hotel in the entire area worth visiting. It's clean... and there's a buffet breakfast included in your room rate. There's Indonesian and Western (well, as western as you can get here) choices. The weather wasn't that great so we didn't lounge by the pool. We did walk around the town a bit but it's not as much fun as it would be in Canada. We stick out like sore thumbs here in Jayapura. They don't get a lot of tourists so people stare and others call out to you and still others try to talk with you. One day Hugo wore his Persipura shirt and that made him some friends. Persipura is Jayapura's professional soccer team and they are one of the top teams in the country so everyone here is very proud of them. We also drove up to the government hospital just to take a look. It was built way back when the Dutch ruled. So it's a little old... and man, it sure looks it! The road was terrible and the buildings look very rundown on the outside anyway. But they have a CAT scan machine!
After living here for some time, things that back home would be out of the ordinary, are here, perfectly normal. Like seeing nak*d little boys running down the street. I couldn't believe how many I saw today! I guess I'd rather that than meet up with an inebriated fellow...
Our guard, Yokben, is doing better. He came home from the hospital last Tuesday. On Monday they had done a complete blood work-up on him and said that all he had was malaria. This even though the test on Saturday was negative... So his other issues weren't even taken into account... They gave him injections of quinine while he was there and then sent him home with a bag of pills. He took none of them (quinine makes you deaf and your head feels huge) and Wednesday night he came to me saying that his stomache was still really hurting. I put him on amoeba meds right away. I can't believe how the medical folks at the hospital don't really listen to the patients. He's still got pain, but it's only been four days since he started the meds. Let's hope that he really does have amoeba and that the meds do their job!

My visit to Maksum (Maksoom)...

This morning I flew along with one of our pilots to a little village called Maksum. It was a neat experience to see up close what they do each day.

Here is Roy checking in the cargo and people. Everything is carefully weighed. See that ripply thing on the bottom end of the wing? That's a new thingamajig that allows our planes to carry 50 kgs more loading! Pretty neat eh?

Here you have pilot Kevin doing his preflight check. Then you have us waiting for our turn to take off. In the take off position in that photo is one of our caravans.

Here we are in the cockpit. It was fun to be able to listen as Kevin communicated with the flight followers, the control tower, other pilots and people in villages under us that really really wanted Mr. Pilot to come to their village as they had people that needed to go places. Never mind that their village was blanketed in clouds or the fact that they have to go through the proper channels to make a flight request... apparently this happens every single day as soon as they hear Kevin is on the radio. Then when Kevin contacted our destination village to ask about the weather and visibility, they also made a sudden flight request to have cargo brought to a different location... not possible... So in the second photo, we are going over the final ridge before approaching the airstrip. This airstrip is a fun one to go into as you need to circle around a mountain first so you make some pretty strong turns... my stomach did okay thankfully...

On our first approach to the runway we saw what you see in the first photo. A naughty cloud just hanging at the beginning of the landing strip obscuring things enough that we aborted our landing, powered up and went around in a nice big circle. While circling, we saw the runway in the second photo very clearly, except that wasn't our destination. It's not even a runway used by MAF. Clouds coming up suddenly is typical in this area of Papua. Winds also tend to come up around mid-morning and so there is a 9:00 wind curfew on this strip.

Then on our second approach things were very clear and we made a lovely landing. A bunch of men including the strip agent immediately came to the plane, helped unload the rice we brought and engaged the pilot in their traditional greeting of grasping another persons pointer-finger knuckle with your two knuckles and squeezing and pulling quickly making a "tock" sound. Kevin grew up here in Papua and so has the local customs and even bits of the local language down. He is the only pilot servicing this strip and the folks love him! There was quite a crowd waiting for us. The day the plane comes is an exciting day!

These two lovely ladies chatted with me and showed me their houses... well the outsides of them. It is totally culturally inappropriate for me to go into their houses as they don't know me at all. In the bottom photo, the one lady is holding her granddaughter. I asked if everyone wears clothes made from cloth or if anyone still wears traditional clothing made from grass. They said that everyone wears clothes. I asked if you could buy clothes anywhere in the village. Nope, they have to go to Sentani, buy the clothes and then bring them back. So I bet that most people were wearing the one and only set of clothing they own... One thing I have learned here is to see women for who they are, not by what they wear.

These kids were quite excited to have their photo taken. There is a school in the village and when I asked if there was always a teacher they said yes... not sure I believe that.

Then it was time to head back home. There's the strip agent standing by while Kevin gets the plane going. We took three passengers back with us. One was a young man going to live in Sentani so that he could go to high school. He was really nervous, especially when we went through some clouds and bounced around in white nothingness... oh, maybe that was me that was scared... just a little... And then you have good old Sentani airport.

Never a Dull Moment...

Yesterday we realized that it had been a while since we'd seen our guard/yard guy, Yokben. About a week and a half ago his wife had told me that he had malaria and was taking Quinine. Knowing that is the drug of choice when ill with malaria I didn't see the need to check up on him. But yesterday, after our dinner company had left at 9:00, Hugo inquired Yenus about the condition of his older brother. He relayed that Yokben had malaria and had gone twice to have his blood checked and purchase medicine. I thought this sounded rather odd. Normally, once a person has completed a course of Quinine there is no need to repeat. I decided to go check up on him. By then it was 10:00pm. I had Yenus escort me there for safety. Everyone in the house was still up and they were all sitting in the main room of the house on the straw on dirt floor. Immediately inside the front door to the right lay Yokben on an old plastic checkered table cloth of ours. (Once they get too holey I replace them...) He was obviously in some discomfort and appeared dehydrated and thin. I asked to see the meds he had been given to take and miraculously they were indeed correct malaria meds. However, he was complaining of abdominal pain and I decided that we should take him to the hospital. So off we went with Yokben's wife and sister accompanying. As per usual, there was only one doctor in the emergency. Thankfully, he's one that I know and like. He is Papuan, a Christian, and actually seems to care about the people in addition to being very patient with my many questions. It took a bit before he could do a thorough exam on Yokben. During the exam he asked regarding the colour of his urine, a question I didn't even think to ask not having noticed that the whites of Yokben's eyes were yellow. The colour of old tea, the women replied.... I informed them that when your urine is that particular colour, it means there's a problem.... It appears he has hepatits but as we arrived so late and on Sunday the lab is not open, we have to wait until Monday for them to do a full lab work-up. So they admitted him and put him on an IV. Poor guy was not comfortable and in some pain. Throughout the entire process I observed that his wife appeared to have no clue as to the seriousness of his condition. She did not care for him or attempt to comfort him. His older sister sort of did. This is not unusual. True love is a concept not understood by the majority of the natives here. Many of the interior languages do not even have a word for love. Please remember Yokben and the doctors who will help him in your prayers.
While we were waiting for the paperwork for Yokben, an emergency came in. The doctor grabbed the one and only cart with bandages and syringes and what not on it and dragged it to the front room where they deal with emergency cases. The doctor always carries a bag containing all his gizmos and gadgets, they are most likely the only ones in the entire ER. The 2 nurses and 2 assistants all donned latex gloves and jumped in to assist. One nurse took an IV pole from one of the other patients and hooked his bag on one already being used by another. The police had brought in an inebriated fellow who had had some sort of accident. I wandered down to take a look (no curtains people!) and saw that the skin on one of his feet had been badly gouged and pushed up and I believe it was also broken. There were a couple children in the ER with their mom and sister and they also wandered over and looked. No privacy!
This morning during the church service it was raining. The evangelist was preaching about building your house on the rock or the sand and the rains came... And the rains did come and poured through a leak in the roof in the middle of the "sanctuary"... A couple other leaks sprung as well as the rain continued to pour down. All people did was move out of the way so they wouldn't get wet. There's nothing in our little building but tables, benches and some toys at the back... oh, and a rather grand pulpit. We don't even have running water and the squatty potty bathroom is locked more than it is open.
Yesterday was Mikah's first fever-free day in a week! She still looks a bit pale, coughs like a seal and is puffy under her eyes but seems to be on the upswing! She is very, very excited to go to school again.

I tried really really hard to get a good family photo for our Christmas newsletter and this was the best I could do....

Bits and Bites....

Just a clarification. I mentioned in my last post that Ritha's brother beat up his sister because he wanted some of the 10 million given to their mother. Well, in actual fact, he came to talk with their mother and tell her to just let the two lovebirds get married already and stop causing problems. He and Ritha grew up together but their younger sister and brother grew up in a different house and so they don't really know eachother. The sister immediately assumed that he wanted money and started nattering on about how the 10 million was already "eaten up" and the mother nattered on about how Ritha had used it up (so NOT true as Ritha didn't get a single rupiah of that money). So the brother, who had good intentions, got upset as he felt he wasn't being respected and proceeded to beat up both his mother and his sister. He later spoke with the boyfriend and explained what had happened and that he thought they should just be able to get married already. If only the sister had kept her mouth shut like Ritha told her to...
So, moving on, the biological mother of Awi came and the family met together and it was decided that she would take Awi back to Timika with her. She and her husband both have jobs with the Freep*rt Mine there and feel rather important because they do. They suggested that later they would come and take Rode as well... You can imagine Ritha's reaction to that suggestion.... So the mother of Awi went to her school to get her released and the principal of the school said that Awi could not be released until the end of the semester. So the mom offered the principal money. Amazingly, the principal would not accept a bribe! So the bottom line is that the mom couldn't take Awi on Saturday but returned home alone saying she would come back at the end of the semester next month to get her. We'll see if that actually happens. Plane tickets aren't exactly cheap! But this at least gives Ritha some time to say good-bye and prepare herself mentally. Awi already told her she doesn't want to go and she will never call that woman mom, just tante (aunt). For now, this was an answer to prayer!
The other night at 10:00, Ice calls me and says that her hubby's uncle had been to the hospital because he wasn't feeling well and they told him that he had malaria tersiana and gave him some medicine. She proceeded to name 3 different kinds of medicine to me and asked me if those were the correct ones. I only recognized one, and it was a stomache medicine. I told her to give him tylenol and that in the morning I would find out for sure. She brought the meds over and then I brought them up to the clinic where the expat doctor just happened to be in. She took a look and pronounced that there wasn't a malaria med in either of the 4 bags he'd been given! Can you imagine?? So I went by the pharmacy and got him what he needed for about 30 cents. This is a real problem here. People are clueless when it comes to medicine and the people who sell it know this and therefore make them buy loads of unnecessary pills. The expat doctor here is training some people to be medical advocates especially for people from interior who come here for medical help. Not only are those people treated like dogs (I'm not kidding) they are used and abused financially as well. There is a doctor here who is very expensive and the folks from interior think that that means that he and the medicine he prescribes are better. But the truth is that he sells them the same medicines that they could get for free in the interior! We know of at least one case where a man's entire pension fund was sucked dry by this doctor.

Bits and Bites....

I realized that I neglected to mention in my last post that Hugo had made it safely home on Friday afternoon. He had a productive week in cool Wamena. It is located up in the moutains so the air is dry and much cooler than here on the coast. Hugo had to wear a sweater in the mornings!

That night the school had its annual fun night. Each grade mans a booth or two and kids get tickets to play the games or sign up their friends or family members to get soaked or forced to sing into a mic. (Brynnie paid herself to sing "Twinkle twinkle little star") There are lots of candies to be won. The children of all the national workers at the school are also invited so it's a bit of a crazy time. But the kids love it! This year Mikah's class manned the dunking booth and she's been waiting and waiting for her turn to do it so this was a big year for her! Marc decided to become a target at the sponge throw and helped out throwing the sponges back. What a guy!

In other news, Ice's hubby came back and said sorry, while crying and she said sorry back and so things are on the mend. Whew...

With Ritha and family however, things are not so great. This Thursday they are going to decide what is to happen with Ritha's adopted daughter Awi. If she gets to stay with Ritha or if she has to go with her biological mother, who happens to be pregnant, to Timika. This is very hard for Ritha as she knows that this woman is not a believer as she is.

Then last night Ritha's older brother beat up their younger sister because their mom didn't give him some of the 10 million that she received from the sister's boyfriends family! So she gave him her wages for the month of October! She's looking pretty bad today, poor girl. Please remember these God-fearing women in your prayers. They are going through a really tough time right now.

There is also another plane missing. You can read about it here.

Bits and Bites....

It's been a bit of a sad week. Let me qualify that. I feel sad due to some events that occurred in the past week.
Last Sunday a pastor from an interior church from our federation, came to our house to ask if we could help him because he had a tumor that needed to be operated on. Let me back up a bit and explain that the reason he is here in Sentani is because his wife had a baby. They didn't want to give birth in their village and so they decided to come here. First of all, it is much closer and cheaper for them to go to Merauke, a city in the south, but it is more exciting to come here to Sentani. There are funds they can apply for to help pay for the cost of the flight and funds for the medical care needed. His wife delivered a healthy baby a couple weeks ago. Before coming to our house, he had gone to our neighbours saying that his wife had a tumour and needed to go to the government hospital in Jayapura. He had also gone to our friends J and D saying that they needed money for medical care. During his pleas for money, he dropped the name Rev. Versteeg many times in the hopes that that would make us feel like we should help him. He is trying his best to fraudulently obtain large amounts of money. Have you forgotten that he is a pastor??? (never mind that this position was obtained in a dubious manner) This is not the first time he has done this. When the leaders of the church are behaving in such a manner, it leaves one feeling rather disheartened. There are good people in our church but they are being overshadowed by those behaving in a criminal manner. Please pray for the people interior who's lives are a struggle every day.
The second event that made me sad is that the biological mother of Ritha's oldest daughter showed up unexpectedly. She called her older sister and told her to tell Ritha's daughter when she passed by on her way home from school, that she was coming to get her. Ritha has raised this girl since she was little and all the official paperwork says that Ritha is her mother but because Ritha's husband is dead, and he being the blood relative (the girls biological mother is his younger sister), she has no legal claim to the girl. Please pray that this situation will be resolved in a manner that is to His glory.
The third event is one involving Ice. About a year and a half ago she had a boyfriend. That guy was not a good guy and mistreated her in the worst manner. Last week he came and paid the fine that was levied for his actions. He gave 2.6 million rupiah and a pig (usually worth 10 million) to Ice's family. In situations such as this one, the family of the mother of the girl who was wronged, receives the payment. So Ice's dad gave them the money and said that he would keep the pig. He called the local relatives together to discuss what to do with the pig. Cook it, sell it, save it... In the meantime, the family of Ice's mom came and stole the pig because they feel they should have the pig. Does any of this seem crazy to you too???? Anyways, this whole thing bothered Ice's husband quite a bit and that combined with some other issues has made him on edge. So when Ice was not being too terribly respectful of him, he flew off the handle and threw a shoe at her. She believes that he didn't mean for it to hit her, but it hit her in the middle of her back. He became very frightened and ran off and as of Saturday night had not yet returned. This is the first time he has done anything like this. I think he's actually a pretty good guy. So I've been trying to counsel Ice a little and help her to repair the damage. Please pray that he will return and they will be able to work things out. In a side note, Ice's dad was rather frightened and wanted to take her to the hospital after it happened. He came looking for me but I was gone so he chartered a car and off they went. At the hospital Ice received 4 different kinds of pills to take. In my uneducated opinion, a bag of ice would have been sufficient really....