Work as PBI-er

Elections in Wamena

Currently Wamena is full of election activities. No time and opportunity for jalan jalan. Election day was 8th of October, but not everybody was able to go and vote….The counting of the votes is already days in process and it is exciting in Wamena and the surrounding villages.

Small sweet baby Rabbits

Two weeks ago 4 little rabbits were born, very cute! Unfortunately these rabbits are born to be eaten. The rabbits are from our guard Otis and he told me I can become friends with mother rabbit, because she will not be eaten…!

Our own Honai in our garden.

Last week our own Honai was build in our garden. A honai is a traditional hut where the local traditions are held and where only men can sleep. The building proces was very special and unique. First all the materials were brought.

Floor

Wall

Roof.

The builders.

Jalan jalan in the small villages arround Wamena

After all the busy activities around International Peace Day we were able to enjoy some relaxed weekends. We went to Jiwika with the bus were people honor an old Mummy.

Last weekend we visited Hepoba where we were invited for a very nice Bakar Batu with Buah Merah. Very special to see how people live in the Kampung and very tasty to eat together in the Honai.

International Peace Day 2008 Wamena 21 September

The PBI team in Wamena was very busy with the preparation of the Peace Day 2008 activities in the past weeks. These activities took place form the 15th of September till 21st of September 2008. On the 21st of September International Peace Day is celebrated all over the world. The International Day of Peace was established in 1981 by the United Nations as an annual observance of global non-violence and ceasefire. Harold and I arrived in Wamena at the 11th of September and we were immediately drown into the Peace Day activities. Indirect this was a golden opportunity to meet and get to know all the PBI contacts in Wamena. The first one and a half week our house was full of visitors. Everybody walked in and out from early in the morning till late in the evening. It was great to meet everybody in this informal way and already be of help with questions.

The first activity of Peace Day 2008 was the Seminar about Peace in a broad way, which was visited by around 100 people. Day two followed with a children’s competition on the second day. For small children there was a colouring competition, for elder children there was a draft competition about Peace and for the youth there was a Pikon (local mouth harp)competition for the boys and a Noken competition for the girls. The third event was an interactif radio dialogue with the regent of the District Jayawijaya, the local head of the military and a representative of the police and two chairman of our Peace Day committee.

De last activity was the main activity, a great Parade consisting of 700 people through the streets of Wamena with at the end a big Bakar Batu. A Bakar Batu is a local traditional way of cooking and eating together and on this Peace day event we had our first Bakar Batu experience. There is a big fire where stones are heated. As soon as these stones are really hot they are thrown into a big hole in the ground together with vegetables and sweet potatoes (Ubi) and pig meat and/or chicken and then you have to wait a few hours until it is ready for eating.

House and office

Here some pics of our house and office in Wamena.

Selamat datang di Wamena

Wamena is a small town in the Baliem Valley in Papua.The town lays around 1600 meters above sealevel and is surrounded by mountains. The highest mountain is 4700 meters. Our arrival was lovely, finaly a village feeling again, no traffic lights, almost no traffic, sunny, beautiful surroundings. Every day one new experience after the other, rally becaks, buying very tastefull bananas on our door, shopping at the market, cold and rainy in the evening and night, a lot of work and a lot of things to learn, baby rabbits, mountainbiking, friendly people, our own Honai.

Papua, finaly but first a review of the last month in Yogya

This is a shame. Since July 7th this blog is not up-dated. We do put pictures on facebook though and we hope that makes up for it. We worked hard to finish our languageschool in August, but everything went well.

At the end of Harold's workshop.
Before ending our languageschool we had a good holiday in Java with the family of Harold. Together with Jolanda, Fons and father Passage we visited the Prambanan, Borobudur, the Bromo vulcano and plantations in East Java. We spent a very nice day on the beach en enjoyed being together.

Saying goodbye when leaving Yogya was hard, but it was also excited to move towards our goal in Indonesia and start our work for PBI in Papua.

Arya and sister Nuki from our second family in Yogya.