OE in a Nutshell - Part I

Every year HIS takes the entire high school to an interior village for 12 days. This means organizing a trip for roughly 80 high school students, 8 adult group leaders, kitchen master (Aunt Joan), speaker (Uncle Dan), and a medical team including Dr. Di M.D., Dr. Miguel D.D.S., Ika (Dental Assistant), Paige R.N., and myself (R.N.).  Then add on the cooking supplies for 80+ people, food, medical equipment for running village clinics, medications for both locals and students, and everyone’s personal bags. We would call it a massive undertaking!  They simply call it Outdoor Education, OE. I’m not sure how they pull it together year after year, but HIS has done these trips for over 20 years so they know what they are doing.

This year's destination was Ibele, a remote village in the highlands of Papua. The students were split into small groups with adult leaders. On Feb. 6, half went up to Wamena on the first flight, while the other half waited for the second flight.  I was in the second group. In true Indonesian fashion we were delayed… by 2 hours!  Once we reached our first stop in Wamena, we then had to drive to the trail head and hike the rest of the way into Ibele. I knew we would be pushing it to make it in before dark but on the bright side we didn’t have to carry in our luggage.  All the supplies had been flown into Ibele via small bush planes.  It nice when almost every student’s father here is a pilot for some organization ;).  

Looking out onto the runway PC: HIS students

Once at the trail head we were waiting on our guides who were supposed to meet us.  After a good 15 minutes we decided we better just start walking and maybe meet them on the trail.  We were already 2 hours late and did not want to be hiking in the dark.  The trail itself was actually a “road”. Granted, only motorbikes or 4-wheel drive vehicles could forge the thick mud and deep pot holes.  Overall the hike was enjoyable, some down hills but mostly up as we climbed from Wamena's 5,000ft to Ibele's 6,200ft.  

First group hiking in PC: HIS students

Looking out toward Wamena valley PC: HIS students

It continued to grow darker and darker as we trudged along.  Nervous about making camp in time we pushed hard.  Just as the sky was losing all light and the stars began to peak out we saw the run way and knew we had made it!

Ibele is a gorgeous mountainous village! It sits high on one of the many ridges overlooking the Wamena valley.  It’s a dry and windy place and actually gets chilly enough for long sleeves, and pants! It was a much welcomed change from our muggy tropical weather here in Sentani. 

PC: HIS students

Blue shed was the girls bath house PC: HIS students

PC: HIS students

PC: HIS students

PC: HIS students

The Adams are a mission family that have been living and working in and around Ibele for many years.  The missionaries before them had built a lovely wood house, and the Adams have been making great improvements to the surrounding area. They invited and hosted HIS in order to minister to the local people through medical clinics (including dental care), painting buildings, running VBS type clubs, digging drainage ditches, and simply being with the people. 

The general schedule went like this:Breakfast by a different group each day (under the guidance of Aunt Joan). Then came personal devotional time, and then morning meetings (Uncle Dan was our speaker for the trip).  Then morning work assignments.  At 12 came lunch (again prepared by another small group), and afternoon work assignments. The students had several major projects they had to complete, like their anthropology and photojournalism projects, so they were given time in the evening to talk and mingle with the people. Then came supper and evening meetings. There wasn’t much time for goofing off and to be honest by the end of the day everyone was too tired to get into too much trouble.

The TINY kitchen that fed 80+ people PC: HIS students

Kitchen building behind PC: HIS students

Our meeting house PC: HIS students

Our humble clinic PC: HIS students

PC: HIS students

PC: HIS students

Bridge to the school for VBS PC: Megan Orrin

PC: HIS students

Enthusiastic painting! PC: HIS 

So there’s OE in a nutshell!  Look forward to posting the other parts later.