Adventures in Papua- Day 1

Leaving the concrete jungle of Jakarta (the capital city of Indonesia) and traveling to the real jungles of West Papua (formerly Irian Jaya) was bound to involve loads of excitement and adventure. Not only are the two places physically different in regards to landforms, they are also many miles apart. This was evidenced by our 8-hours of travel (6 in the air, 2 at layovers) to get from Point A to Point B. Thankfully, we were well-fed, receiving a full meal on each 50-min to 2-hour leg of the trip!

Upon arriving in Sentani/Jayapura (provincial capital of Papua), we found our baggage and our ride (Dad and Jim-O. Dad, Ben, and Caleb had flown out the night before). It was a two-hour time difference from Jakarta, and Steph was definitely feeling the jetlag and the red-eye flight. As soon as we arrived, we saw dad and he told us Ben and Caleb were out surfing. Leah asked, "Does Ben even know how to surf?" All of a sudden, Steph looked at Molly and blurted out, "Does TIM know how to surf?!" Everyone stared at her and questioningly said, "no.... I don't think so... why?" It took approximately 2 minutes for Steph to finally understand that Tim was still in America, we were in Papua, and Ben and Caleb were surfing without him. She promptly walked away to pick up her luggage.


After all the luggage was collected (except for one of Stephen's bags, one of our fellow travelers, that still hadn't arrived from his original flight into Jakarta), we headed to the guesthouses and took some naps to recover from the rough night of travel. When everyone was awake and refreshed, we all headed over to Mickey's to celebrate Ben's birthday. (He did, by the way, know how to surf, and gladly added Indonesia to his surfing record, which also includes Hawaii, Australia, and Southern California... I'd say he's a natural.) When our family lived in Papua (back in 1992), Mickey's was one of two restaurants. Since they serve food that somewhat resembles American food, it quickly became our favorite and we spent almost every birthday there. Thus, continuing family tradition, we loaded up and headed over. It was not like any of us remembered, except for the fact that they still served "hamburgers" and "milkshakes." Ben got one of each and the rest of us shared some other Indonesian delights.


When we were all overly full, we hired two Angkots/Taxis and headed up the mountain to MacArthur Park (General MacArthur's Headquarters during WWII). Our taxi driver didn't actually know the way and wasn't able to keep up with the taxi in front of us, so we ended up getting lost multiple times. (How many MacArthur Parks... or any parks, actually... are there in Sentani?) After asking many different people for directions to the park, our driver finally just asked someone where the other taxi with white people was and that was all it took to finally find them and the "museum." It was a beautiful view and a wonderful history lesson, with an added bonus of an impromptu Indonesian sing-a-long happening in a little hut nearby.


When this sight-seeing was done, we decided to split up the group. Half of us (those who had formerly lived in Papua and Ben and Leah) piled into taxi #1 for a continued tour of the city, everyone else went back to the guesthouse. First stop on the tour was SIS, my (Steph's) elementary school in Sentani. It was a lot like we remembered, and we saw the pool where I learned to swim, my former classrooms, and the gym where Tim had his first Broadway debut and I performed my first-class gymnastics moves. In the big field at the middle of the school were some kids playing soccer. Since we had some time to kill, Ben made his way over and started playing around with them. Molly and Leah eventually joined until Mom told us the tour had to continue. As we were about to go, Leah decided she wanted a picture with the smallest boy, who was especially adorable. Due to the language barrier, it was difficult to communicate this to him. Thus, wanting to make it seem like a game, Leah raised up her hands/claws and started growling and chasing the boy. He ran away (in fear), she chased, caught him, picked him up, tickled him, he writhed around, she put him down, and then repeated the whole process. To this day, we're not sure if he knew it was a game, but it was at this instant where "The Monster" was born, and would become a constant staple for the remainder of the Papua trip.

From SIS, we headed over to HIS (the high school we would have attended had we stayed in Papua, it has since become a K-12 school), looked around, watched the sunset, climbed a watch tower and used the bathroom. Then we went to the grocery store, stocked up on snacks and necessities for the remainder of the trip (the "roughin' it days") and grabbed some dinner (Ikan Bakar - Barbequed Fish) at a street vendor. As we were sitting down to eat, Mom so graciously/comfortingly commented, "If you don't get sick eating this, you probably won't get sick in the village!" She, then, single-handedly took it upon herself to make sure there was not ONE ounce of meat left on the bones of the fish, looking like a crazy person the whole time she did so.


When we finally made our way back to the guesthouse, the others hadn't yet gotten back from dinner, so a few members of our group ended the evening/waited for them with a game of Silent Skip-Bo (two girls were sleeping in the other room, so we couldn't be our usual obnoxious selves). All-in-all, a wonderful, team-building, reminiscent day of a beautiful land.