It is hard to believe that it has been over a month since our last post! Where does all the time go? I know, it is spent doing the will of Him who sent me (us). We are here to support those that are on the front lines translating God’s word into the native tongues of the many Papuan dialects, flying airplanes, working on airplanes, doing medical work, teaching Papuans in Indonesian how to prevent AIDS, and a myriad of other tasks including just supporting one another as we try to live in difficult circumstances away form from family that would be more difficult without the school and hangar for repairs that are available here.
Since my accident I have had a chance to go back out to the hospital that I was taken to so that I could get some blood work done. I was amazed to find goats and dogs lounging in the grass between the wings, people camped out waiting, and even food vendors selling the days offerings of a variety of fried “stuff”. All the walls had a dirty “Handprint” streak about waist high and the room where they drew the blood was just as dirty with cheechaks (Geckos) crawling along the ceilings.
Those tests had to be re-done so I went to the only other hospital in the area. It too was in the same dirty condition but at least it didn’t have the animals or vendors hanging inside the premises. There were vendors outside selling “Beetlenut”. It is a mild analgesic not unlike alcohol or marijuana. It is the substance of choice to ease pain and check out emotionally from all of the pain that their lives have become. Here are 2 parts that are sold together. They chew them up and I guess the juice is what they are after. It does turn whatever teeth they have red, and they spit red “juice” everywhere sort of like chewing tobacco but there are no spittoons around here. The walkways and roads are dotted all over with red.
I am very busy at school with all of my classes. We are at the halfway point. Only 12 more weeks of school! I am looking forward to the break but not the part of not seeing the kids in my classes! I enjoy them a lot! J
Miles will be going to a small village called “Wamena” later this month to do a repair on an airplane by himself. Everything in Wamena was flown in. There are absolutely 0 roads in or out of Wamena. It is high in the Mts. It gets cold there. I am going to try to arrange a visit so that I can be cold and to see an outlying village as well. A family here with MAF has started a school for nationals. It is called “Harapan” or Hope. Some young students from there visited the hangar. As the students get into high school it turns into a “Tech” school teaching the nationals to work on airplanes among other jobs. I would dearly love to visit it. I will look for a day when I have off from school but they do not and do just that.
Our language studies are going well. Our tutor asks us to tell him about our day in Indonesian of course! J It is easier to tell what is happening to yourself than to study a book about people that don’t exist in a book. Miles and I are increasingly able to express our thoughts and ideas. Our tutor is pleased with our progress since we don’t use Indonesian in our work lives. We only use it for 3 hours a week in class, or short bursts while at the market. When school gets out we will increase our frequency and length of time to cap off our studies. We should be able to communicate well with most of the people we meet on the streets or have in our home.
We had a group of nationals for dinner last weekend called “Joshua Team”. It is an organization that helps to keep teens and older off the street. They form musical groups that perform @ local churches, and at their weekly meetings on Fridays. Miles works with one of them, Gasko, at the MAF hangar. We had a great time sharing experiences and cultures as they helped us with our Indonesian and we helped them with English. They all have English skills, some more than others but we managed to speak enough Englenisain to communicate and laugh through most of the evening. Gasko wanted his girlfriend (Not a member of Joshua Team) to experience “Apple Pie”, so he asked if I would show him how to make one. I made one in advance and after showing the whole group how to make it, we ate it. I baked the pie for Gasko and he took it to her. Her father liked it too. When he asked her who made it, she said, “mother in law” I guess Gasko sees us like parents. His are in a small village on a remote island. I was honored.
We had a huge rain storm that took out walls, fences, trees and flooded in many homes. This picture shows how far up to our house our own private lake came. We did have a little water in our “Gudong” (storage room off the porch and carport) but it was minor.
