August 17th

Happy Indonesian Independence Day!   The celebration here is quite big.  There are all sorts of ceremonies, concerts and competitions that start today, and go through the weekend.  We will be able to hear the concerts from our apartment, because we live across the street from the venue.  Every public building in town is decorated with red and white flags or bunting.  At 5:00am this morning someone sang the national anthem on the loudspeakers at the soccer field in celebration of the day.  We live right across the road so we could hear it very well, and as crazy as it sounds, we were already awake. 

 Not much exciting has happened in the Smith household in the past few weeks.  Just the daily routine.  We are getting all of our reservations made for our trip back to the US in October/November, and are counting down the weeks until we go.  I have the feeling that once we get to Denver and see all the stores that we will experience the mall-withdrawal syndrome and feel like we need to shop day and night until we fill up our suitcases.   The thing I’m looking forward to most is a good pizza.  Eric is craving giant burritos at Chipotle’s in Denver, and some Starbucks.  One thing is certain: we will each probably gain 20 pounds from eating our favorite foods that we can’t get here. 

 We’ve been able to add another tifa (native drum) to our collection, for the price of a jacket.  A man from the neighboring village of Banti stopped by our apartment with the drum and we made a good trade, I think.  So somewhere out there in the jungle, is a Papuan with a jacket that has “Cherine” embroidered on the front.  J  Our new friend from Banti was waiting at our apartment for us when we got home from work today, with a plant for me.  It looks similar to an aloe plant, but the best part was that we got a surprise.  We got a new pet  slug and Eric named it Johnson.  Hopefully we can get a better picture of him when he's had more beauty sleep. 

Johnson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 27, 2007

 

Cherine just got word that she has to fly to Cairns, Australia next week, for four days, to get her new work visa (she’s had a string of temporary visas until now).  Because she gets to fly on the company’s airline, there are no weight limits on baggage, so coming back she plans to stock up on a few things that seem to be scarce here.  She’ll also have to contact the Ibu Network to find out where all the best shopping is.  Not sure if she has to show up to the company’s office in Cairns and actually work or if she will get to sun tan on the beach.  We will have to let you know how that trip goes.

 

Our Papuan friend from the nearby village stopped by again this weekend.  We have nicknamed him The Art Dealer.  We didn’t have anything worthy to trade this time (as I was NOT giving up my Swiss Army backpack), so just paid cash and a RedBull drink for the new artwork.  See the picture below.

 

 

 artdealer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We haven’t named the new crocodile yet.  Suggestions anyone?

 

Sorry the picture isn’t that great – our balcony is not really a good place for pictures when the sun is shining.  Regardless, you can see the height difference between an average-sized Papuan here and Cherine. 

 

 

August 30, 2007 (by Cherine)

 

The Art Dealer stopped by last night, and brought me a couple of plants.  The real reason for his visit though was so that he could show me, very proudly, his medical clearance form which was approved for him to work at the mine, specifically Underground (and it was in English so then I could figure out the gist of where this conversation was going).  We spoke part Indonesian and part English, and we each understood about 10% of what the other was saying, but with hand gestures helping out, we could communicate.  He was so excited about it that he told me all about how they took his blood pressure and listened to his heart, and how the doctor said he was clear to work and signed the form, making it official.  He will start next week with some training to operate a loader.  Amazing how you can use hand gestures and a few English and Indonesian words to get all this, isn’t it?  By the way, the hand gesture for a loader is fairly simple, but had I not ever worked around them, I never would have understood what it was.  Luckily it completely made sense and we could carry on this interesting way of communicating.  I’m happy for him, mostly because he seems very excited to have a job (and I assume a steady income, so he will no longer have to come to my door with some artwork hoping that I will be feeling generous on that particular day).    Although it is disappointing to know that now my private art source will be gone.  But he said (I think) that he will go to a couple of nearby villages this weekend to find me the spear and shield I asked for previously.   And I told him I am going to Australia next week to get my new visa (and I actually said that in Indonesian – one of the few sentences I know) and can get the backpack and boots that we had agreed to trade.   The Art Dealer really wants boots like Eric’s black lace-up work boots, so luckily for Eric, his feet are twice as long as the Art Dealer’s.  J  He also asked me if I could get him a watch because he doesn’t have one and he will need to know what time it is so he can go to work.  It suddenly struck me as funny that I never would have thought of this, when he gestured on his wrist for “watch” and I actually understood what he said in Indonesian about being late for work.  It makes sense though, if you come from his village culture.  Why WOULD they have watches? 

 
 

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