Washing clothes, Driving on the left, Minor surgery
On Saturday, (the 10th) Hannah, Wade, Rani, I, and some friends went to Base G (the malibu beach of West Papua) to celebrate Wade and Rani's birthday. Rani's cousin, James, taught Hannah and I how to ride our new motor bike! That's right, now we have a motor bike! The beach was amazing. It was a cloudy day, and we went early, so we had the clear blue waters to ourselves. I spent the previous evening crafting somewhere around twenty hand-made tortillas to be made into burritos for the beach party. Swimming in the ocean here is an interesting challenge. The shallow sea floor near the coastline is dominated by coral (living AND deceased). Consequently, waves pop up without warning, and sometimes dissapear just as quickly without breaking. As dangerous as it sounds, playing in the surf above coral beds is not so risky. The coral is not as sharp as one might think, and as long as you don't "go over the falls", you are not likely to get hurt.
Hannah and I picked up bike riding very quickly, even I, who had to learn how to drive a manual vehicle among other things. We purchased the bike from Daniel and Lucia, former teachers, for about $800 (less than half our combined reimbursments for our plane tickets). We spent about half the time at Base G taking turns riding the bike up and down the long rode that runs paralel to the beach, until we felt fairly confident. Yesterday I rode the bike solo for the first time on the road from our house to downtown Jayapura. Piece of cake! I stalled once, but out of trafic behind a line of taxis, and had no toruble starting again. Last night I drove Hannah and I home from school, and today I drove us to the internet cafe where we are now! More news with follow if anything else exciting happens with the bike. Having a bike will be a nice advantage for us, because it will allow us to travel to uncrowded beaches and and such outside the city. One side note: now I drive on the left!
On Sunday I washed my clothes for the first time here. Not terribly exciting. I placed all my clothes (and some of Hannah's) in a large bucket, filled it with soapy water, and stomped on it. Then I took each item out and individually scubbed them on the concrete with a bristle brush. Then I gave 'em a rinse, and but 'em in a dry bucket. Once all were washed I hung them up to dry! To wash all my clothes, and a small portion of Hannah's took about an hour and a half.
On Sunday I also had to deal with a problem that has been gently haunting me fort the past few months. On my back I had a mole that had grown rather large. Hannah had noticed it several times in the States and strongly recommended I see a doctor. But I procrastinated. So, not wanting to allow something cancerous to continue to develope, I took Hannah's pocket knife and a band aid and went into the bathroom, and cut it out. Yes, there was pain, but not a great deal. And yes there was blood, but not nearly buckets. In short, I got it out (although it took me about 30 minutes total including psyching myself up, being thorough, and cleaning up). It is already almost healed. Yay!
Concerning where we left off in the last post: Timika. In Timika there is a large mountain (the name escaped me). The mountain is host to, I'm told, the last glacier in the tropics. At the foot of the mountain is the largest mineral mine in the entire world. Heaps of gold and other prescious materials pour frome the mine, which is operated by a large Transnational Corportation from the United States. The mine is also a strip mine, making it a very very large strip mine. This has nothing less than fatal consequences for (probably hundreds) of square miles of plant and animal habitat. Many people in Papua are stronly opposed to the mining there, but, no one in this part of the world has te power to order this company to leave, and somewhat ironically, the government here is able to sustain so well almost exclusively because of exports from the mining in Timika. It may do you (and many others) well to research this a bit, and determine if goods and services you are purchasing are contributing at all to the devistation of Papuan forest (and probably) a delicate topical glacier.
On a happier note, I made brownies! Not succefull by Patrick Happel Culinary Institute terms, but deliscious enough to tide us over. I have just aqcuired by means of the internet a recipe for Brownies Cockaigne, so we'll see if I can imrpove.
A note on the people here. Generally Indonesians are quite rude by habbit. It genuinly feels like an "every man for himself" sort of atmosphere. Not much casual conversation like in the states (unless you find yourself somewhere at a distance from the city). Average life span here is about 60. The country is not wealthy enough to be very conscious of diet, and the city and it's suburbs are rather dirty, so it's not surprising that we rarely see any old people. Rudeness aside, I get feeling here rather similar to that in Mexico. Rapid and haphazard industrialization seems to supress or eliminate local cultures, making places half way around the globe from each other feel eerily similar.
Selamat tingal!
-Nick
Hannah and I picked up bike riding very quickly, even I, who had to learn how to drive a manual vehicle among other things. We purchased the bike from Daniel and Lucia, former teachers, for about $800 (less than half our combined reimbursments for our plane tickets). We spent about half the time at Base G taking turns riding the bike up and down the long rode that runs paralel to the beach, until we felt fairly confident. Yesterday I rode the bike solo for the first time on the road from our house to downtown Jayapura. Piece of cake! I stalled once, but out of trafic behind a line of taxis, and had no toruble starting again. Last night I drove Hannah and I home from school, and today I drove us to the internet cafe where we are now! More news with follow if anything else exciting happens with the bike. Having a bike will be a nice advantage for us, because it will allow us to travel to uncrowded beaches and and such outside the city. One side note: now I drive on the left!
On Sunday I washed my clothes for the first time here. Not terribly exciting. I placed all my clothes (and some of Hannah's) in a large bucket, filled it with soapy water, and stomped on it. Then I took each item out and individually scubbed them on the concrete with a bristle brush. Then I gave 'em a rinse, and but 'em in a dry bucket. Once all were washed I hung them up to dry! To wash all my clothes, and a small portion of Hannah's took about an hour and a half.
On Sunday I also had to deal with a problem that has been gently haunting me fort the past few months. On my back I had a mole that had grown rather large. Hannah had noticed it several times in the States and strongly recommended I see a doctor. But I procrastinated. So, not wanting to allow something cancerous to continue to develope, I took Hannah's pocket knife and a band aid and went into the bathroom, and cut it out. Yes, there was pain, but not a great deal. And yes there was blood, but not nearly buckets. In short, I got it out (although it took me about 30 minutes total including psyching myself up, being thorough, and cleaning up). It is already almost healed. Yay!
Concerning where we left off in the last post: Timika. In Timika there is a large mountain (the name escaped me). The mountain is host to, I'm told, the last glacier in the tropics. At the foot of the mountain is the largest mineral mine in the entire world. Heaps of gold and other prescious materials pour frome the mine, which is operated by a large Transnational Corportation from the United States. The mine is also a strip mine, making it a very very large strip mine. This has nothing less than fatal consequences for (probably hundreds) of square miles of plant and animal habitat. Many people in Papua are stronly opposed to the mining there, but, no one in this part of the world has te power to order this company to leave, and somewhat ironically, the government here is able to sustain so well almost exclusively because of exports from the mining in Timika. It may do you (and many others) well to research this a bit, and determine if goods and services you are purchasing are contributing at all to the devistation of Papuan forest (and probably) a delicate topical glacier.
On a happier note, I made brownies! Not succefull by Patrick Happel Culinary Institute terms, but deliscious enough to tide us over. I have just aqcuired by means of the internet a recipe for Brownies Cockaigne, so we'll see if I can imrpove.
A note on the people here. Generally Indonesians are quite rude by habbit. It genuinly feels like an "every man for himself" sort of atmosphere. Not much casual conversation like in the states (unless you find yourself somewhere at a distance from the city). Average life span here is about 60. The country is not wealthy enough to be very conscious of diet, and the city and it's suburbs are rather dirty, so it's not surprising that we rarely see any old people. Rudeness aside, I get feeling here rather similar to that in Mexico. Rapid and haphazard industrialization seems to supress or eliminate local cultures, making places half way around the globe from each other feel eerily similar.
Selamat tingal!
-Nick
posted by Nick at 6:57 PM
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