Lake missions

September 1, 2016:
On Thursday, because the government guy was at HIS we got the day to work on our house.  In the afternoon, we walked over to the Boyd’s house.  Yes, we walked in the afternoon sun.  It took us about 40 minutes but we were carrying bags of laundry and we were in no hurry so we stopped to try and talk to some school children (going home for lunch).   Needless to say, we were quite drenched when we reached their house.  But we were met with an amazing lunch, so it was worth it. 

Shortly after we arrived we noticed more smoke in the air than usual, and we began hearing the crackling of a fire.   Apparently, someone had started a trash fire on a day that had 15-20mph winds.  I’m not sure where it originated from but before we knew it the fire was right at the fence of the Boyd’s house. The Indonesian men were running around trying to beat out the flames with palm frons, and using water buckets.  But the fire was so big and out of control that they barely made a dent.  The good thing about living in such a tropical climate though is everything is so wet that the fire burns out quick and stops when it reaches shorter grass (or even the jungle’s edge).  So thankfully, nothing was damaged and no one was injured.  

That afternoon, Kathleen (our Indonesian nurse and friend) invited us to go with her and her friends to Sentani Lake for an outreach project. I was the only one available to go. So with out knowing really what the project was, I get into the chartered taxi with Kathleen.  We headed to a nursery in town and picked up several dozen tree-lings. Apparently, we were going to plant trees on one of the islands in the lake.   To make a long story shorter, we eventually made it to the lake road weaving around giant potholes and motorcycles.  The boat we were supposed to meet was to meet us at the end of this tiny neighborhood.  People in this part build their homes on stilts over the water and the only road through it was built between the water’s edge and the side of an extremely steep hill.  To make matters more precarious, this road was really only for motorcycles.  So here we are trying to squeeze a small van between the rock hill and the houses.  We make it to the end of the road and when I get out all the kids were supper excited.  They told Kathleen, that they are not used to a foreigner (me) coming to their village.  In broken Indonesian, I asked their names and tried to communicate with them (which wasn’t too successful).  

Our ride!

We soon learned that our boat was not at the end of this road but waiting for us at a different spot.  So our amazing driver had to back out the way we came! However, we walked most of the way with the kids close behind.  We finally got to our boat, and to my surprise it was smaller than the boats we took on beach trip! The motor looked like it used to belong to a weed-eater, but it got us to the island. That’s all that matters right?  

On the tiny island we began planting trees for the SDA church there.  Kathleen taught me random Indonesian words as we worked, which I forgot most since I’m not using them regularly.  But she is an amazing teacher!  They also had puppies for sell on this island.  So Kathleen pulled me aside and we played with 5 week old “anak anjing” (puppies).  I was SO close to going home with a puppy.  But the puppies weren’t ready to leave the mom.  

The SDA church on the island

I didn’t make it home until well after dark, but it was well worth it! When I did make it home, there was another small adventure.  The Boyd’s started taking care of a Cuscus, as a surprise for a neighbor.  So I was able to cuddle with a Cuscus! They are insanely soft and fluffy! Maybe we’ll get that instead of a dog… Nah, dogs are better protection :)