Mittwoch, 27. Oktober 2010

How to have a picnic in Wamena, Papua!!!

You take 16 swiss people (3 men + 3 women, one of them pregnant, + 10 children) and an american (for a change). You load them all in a Pinzgauer (swiss military offroad vehicle). It might not be enough space, but do it anyway. Take as much food and drinks as possible!!! Take one soccer ball for each of the boys in the group... Load everything in the car...



Ask one of the swiss men (who has driven this vehicle in the swiss military) to drive. Please stay on the left (wrong) side of the road. That's how you drive everywhere in Indonesia. The adults and children in the back should try to have as much fun as possible. Shout as loud as you can if you want to say something to your neighbour, otherwise they won't hear you. You also hold on somewhere, so that you will not fly out when the vehicle hits a pot hole (and there are plenty of those in Papua)... :-)



As you drive, you should to wave and smile to all the Papuans you pass on the road. Of coarse they wave and smile back at you (from ear to ear :-). After 1 hour and 30 min of driving and bumping, you have reached your destination. If your muscles are still usable, try to jump out of the Pinzgauer. Unload all the food and drinks. Take out the indonesian orange sausages, make fire and grill them as much as you can, so they will get some taste... :-)


Eat, drink, talk and enjoy fellowship. When the kids are finished eating, let them loose to play, run, use the coal (from the fire) to do some indian painting and to fight like real Papuan tribal man and women... They will not bother anybody by doing it. You have arrived anyway almost to the end of the world. Well, as a good friend says, you can see the end of the world from there...





I am quite sure you would enjoy such a picnic!!! After you have had the last piece of cake, get ready to leave. Try to collect the right kids to take home. Tip: get the ones that might still have a corner of white skin somewhere. The ones who don't, are all Papua kids... You will have less food to take home, but there will for sure be less space for everybody in the vehicle. You will keep hearing all the way home: "That last piece of cake was too much"... Everybody is happy though. And the next day you will still think about it as you will feel muscles you didn't know you had...

Mittwoch, 20. Oktober 2010

School has started!!!

Monday, October 18th Noemi and Brikena started with the homeschooling of the kids. After 3 days doing it, everybody still likes it!!! We will just continue with their program from Switzerland, so when we come back, they can jump back in. We have all their books, CDs and exercise books. A very special thanks to their wonderful teachers who prepared everything, helped US to prepare for homeschooling and are still helping us through the internet!!! Thank you Iris, Yvonne and Ms. Knellwolf!!!

We have to use the kitchen, living room and 2 bedrooms as classrooms. Break they usually take in our garden. Deborah asked the 1st morning if she can take a snack to school!!! :-)






Three days a week, the kids go the american school in Wamena for arts, music and physical education. It is all in English, but they have swiss and german friends there who help them to understand. They are learning fast though. Sarah is even trying some indonesian... To go to school, they take this schoolbus below!!! They love riding the becak (betschak), but they said they still prefer Urs, their schoolbus driver in Switzerland!!!

Sonntag, 10. Oktober 2010

We are in Wamena

After 6 flights going from Zürich to Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta to Makkassar to Sentani to Wamena, we made it to our destination to almost the end of the world. This is the house where we are staying. It has a nice garden with a variaty of species (actually inside the house too).




Our kitchen!!!



Our bathroom!!!



Our livingroom!!!



Dani's room!!!



Our garden!!!



Our washroom!!!



We were "forced" to have a romantic candle light dinner for lack of power!!! 



Sarah's, Deborah's and Noemi's room!!!

Safari Park in Jakarta

Carter (our indonesian co-worker in Jakarta and friend) took us to a safari park, about 1 and a half hour from Jakarta. It was really special for us as we had never experienced something like this. We entered and drove through the park, but we were not allowed to get out of the car. We could feed the animals carrots and bananas through the window though.



Some were quite bold and tried to get to the food in our car... :-)



A beautiful Peacock.

 


The hippos were also hungry. We're glad they don't like car tires... :-)



This girafe wanted to talk to us... :-)



This lama wanted to kiss Carter sooo bad!!!



We didn't try to feed THESE animals!!!




Sarah and Deborah had their picture taken with a baby Orang-Utan. You can see how they liked it!!!
Orang-Utan comes from the Indionesian word "orang hutan" meaning "man of the forest".



Dienstag, 5. Oktober 2010

Made it to Jakarta


After 3 flights going from Zürich to Amsterdam, to Kuala Lumpur, to Jakarta and 1 hour drive from the airport, we made it to our hotel in Jakarta. We'll spend 3 days here in this city of 15 million.