Back in Wamena

I am back in Wamena! Yay! I learned a lot about myself in my week a half in Jakarta waiting for my visa – some good, some not so good:) I got to see a friend that arrived in Jakarta the day before I left, so the timing was perfect for that. My visa was finished last Wednesday and I took a flight back to Jayapura Thursday night. Thanks to Jessy for all the work on that!

While I was in Jayapura I had to get my “surat jalan” (travel permit) for Papua. The first time around, the office in Wamena was able to get it, but at the trainings the police wanted one from higher up, which meant going into Jayapura. So after an overnight flight with no sleep I had to take a taxi to the police station in Jayapura (about 45 minutes).

Heidy had set the taxi and hotel up beforehand, so the driver met me at the airport. That was great because once you leave the airports there are tons of taxi drivers trying to give you a ride and it is quite overwhelming…even when I have a ride I constantly have to say no thank you. So the driver found me and we headed off. It was a nice drive past Sentani Lake and the ocean.

When we got to the police station I gave the woman all my papers and she said “jam satu”. With no sleep, I translated this as one hour, so I went and had breakfast and then came back ready to pick it up, glad that it was so easy! But you have to be careful…”jam satu” is one o clock and “satu jam” is one hour. Not too hard to remember when you’ve had sleep, but on zero sleep…nope. So she repeated “jam satu” again and then I realize – oooo one o clock! I laughed at myself and said “maaf” (sorry). At least she was good humored about it!

…3 more hours to kill and by this time I was fading fast! I can make it through a night shift then go to the morning service at church, but by 10 or 11 I am ready to crash! It was about that time and I couldn’t crash yet. I was trying to go to the bookstore and wait, but the driver was saying, come to my shop and my house and meet my daughter she speaks English…he was very nice, but persistent and not listening or understanding me. So I ended up at his shop but his daughter wasn’t back from school yet. So we sat there, outside the front of his shop…and it was hot and I was tired and I really didn’t want to sit there for 2 more hours! So I asked again for him to take me to the bookstore and he did and said he would pick me up at noon when his daughter got out of school.

So I bookstore browsed in the AC – very nice, and had an awkward conversation with someone I could not understand at all! Then I went to sit outside and wait as it was almost noon. While I was waiting 3 girls came up and wanted to take my picture…this is pretty normal here – people sometimes want to take a picture with the white person…sometimes they are nice enough to ask, sometimes not. Sometimes it is awkward and I just say no, but sometimes if it is kids or girls I don’t mind just saying yes. I started talking to them and found out they were university students and we chatted for a few minutes, which was fun.

The driver picked me up but his daughter was not home yet, so we went to the police station where my letter was done – yay! And I went back to Sentani to the hotel and finally got to rest. He does have a daughter though, who is 14! That night she called and was very excited to practice her English with me. Despite all the craziness…I enjoyed the day, it was good to interact and have experiences in the culture!

The next morning I headed to the airport and was back to Wamena in time to get back to work:) It has been nice to be back. I had to reorient myself to what I needed to do and catch up on things I had missed, but am getting back into the swing of things.

Because the weekends are often pretty quiet here I was worried I would be lonely since I had just spent a lot of time alone, but it was pretty good. Saturday I needed to rest and recover my lost sleep, but in the afternoon I watched Rahel’s soccer team practice. And met lots of random kids…pretty sure some of them are the street kids, but I forgot to ask Rahel about that! At first they just stared at me from afar and when I tried to ask their names in bahasa Indonesia – the whole group(4-5 at the time) got up and ran away! But later on some of them came and sat a little closer and answered:)

Prayering for all the people in Japan, my heart breaks every time I see a new headline as it seems the deaths and devastation and threats are ever increasing. Also for Jayapura, apparently there was a little damage and one death there as well, but praise God nothing bigger. And prayers for my mom as she has her surgery this week!