Six Day Count Down (by Aubrey Boyd)

              When I think. “school break,”  I associate  it with a time of relaxation, and importantly, No school work.  This time though it seemed that I wasn’t going to get the first of the two.  I started the break knowing that I would be going to the remote village of Ndugu-ndugu  otherwise known as Senapa, but the circumstances where not what I expected to go under.  First of all the Sunday before I had sprained my ankle thus impairing my movement, second I had been sick on Christmas Eve and Christmas, so I wasn’t feeling in peak physical condition. I was given the choice to go or stay……I hate those decisions……..in the end I decided to go.

           So  fifteen minutes before we boarded the plane I came “limping” down to the hangar with a feeling of utter………well I don’t really know what I felt.   So after some preliminary details were taken care of we took off for a trip that I doubt I will ever forget.  Once we were in the air I inserted the ear buds of my headphones and zoned out for about  an hour an a half or more of 12000 ft. elevation breathtaking views(wish I had taken more pictures but I was videoing so that redeems itself.)

Upon landing we unloaded and were greeted by our source of food for the six days: Pendeta (pastor) Richeel Sumlang.  Being that I had previous experience of plane landings in villages it didn’t surprise me that there were at least 50 people gathered around to greet the plane just as much as us. We quickly unloaded and then headed to the police station to “check-in” to the area. After that was accomplished we headed for the trail that proved to be on of the most grueling hikes of my life aside from Batad in the Philippines (that one left me sick for three days). Needless to say it was hard, although Andrew took it in stride.

 

Three and a half hours later, we finally enter the last stage of our journey, the welcome.  It wasn’t as colorful as some of the reports I had heard of but it was still interesting. The chiefs assistant came out and started the welcome, later to be joined by the Kapala Suku or the head chief.  We slowly made our way down to the church yard to finish the greeting off before we were herded into the pastors house to be fed and to rest some. That is where we experienced  our first taste of some of the worst tasting water ever! So began our trip in the mountains.

                                                                                                           <-------- Kapala Suku

After the first day things progressed quite smoothly for me at least. I spent most of  my time videoing and talking figures about the airstrip with my dad. The next day (Friday day 1) we got down to business. Our main purpose for going to Senapa was to Organize the church that was there which was an interesting event because, most of the people don’t know how to write and they where supposed to sign their signature by their name. So the coordinator  of the village would have them point their finger at the pen and she would sign for them. The rest of the day the delegates chose the church officials while we chilled up in our room.

 

  <----------- view from the back left corner of the church

On Sabbath (day 2)  we again headed down to the church for the last part of the church organization, communion, which again proved to be humorous. It wasn’t so much the service that was humorous as it was the new deacons, elders, and deaconess that helped with the service.  They had absolutely no idea of what they were supposed to do, the pastors wife had to teach them on spot how to fold the cloth that covers the communion items. After the service we Andrew and I headed back up to our room to rest.

Sunday (day 3) didn’t lessen the flow of things to do. We started to repair the tools that my Dad had left there before and found that most of the wheelbarrows where not in any working condition, then we discovered that the pastor hadn’t brought any of the repair items we brought, so back on the trails for a two hour hike to the airstrip we first landed at to pick up the patching material, tires, tubes, and bolts.  When we got back we started doing some repairs.

We had planned to start helping with the runway the next day (Monday Day 4) but that got turned upside down due to tool repairs that were still in progress. When we had finished the repairs we headed out to the airstrip and started calculating what we needed to cut off from the top and where we needed to fill.  I started to get somewhat bored in the after noon so we I picked up one of the three books I had brought, but not yet read.

  <--- panorama view from the middle of the runway the right  it the level top and the left drops off at around a 30 degree angle.

(Day 5)  Tuesday was the real thing! We finally started working on the airstrip. It proved to be quite easy at first because it was only a foot and a half that we had to shave off. Of course as we dug into the hill it started rising in front of us. It was exhausting work because at the base of it all there was almost solid clay, and I mean solid! About noon I stopped because it looked like rain which usually meant rain (it rains almost every afternoon).  I had to pack because we would be leaving early the next morning for Pogapa the airstrip we came into.

<--- Dining room (day 1 hence the real flowers around my neck)

(Day 6) The final morning we woke up and packed the very last of our stuff before lacing up our already muddy and damp shoes.  We were delayed slightly because the pastor hadn’t eaten breakfast yet. He quickly joined us though and we were off for another two hour hike, to the same airstrip. Upon arrival there we rested some and then we headed to the police station to pick up our papers then we waited. The pastor can be somewhat single minded about things,  I say this because he was asking my dad repeatedly about getting a kindle for him. Of course we would love to get kindles for these pastors here, but some don’t understand that to use a kindle you must have a U.S. credit card thus making it impossible.

   <—muddy shoes! (they don’t look to bad in the picture<------ Pastor Sumlang and his wife

Soon we could see the plane up the valley and within ten minutes the plane had come to a halt in front of us and we were preparing to board. The pastor who was being transferred to a new position was supposed to get a ride with the MAF (mission aviation fellowship) plane that was circling near the strip to Timika on the south coast of Papua but unfortunately he didn’t ask the pilot so he was grounded there for a while longer.  We arrived back home safely and that is about all of our story. I personally enjoyed most of my time there and learned that you must listen to people’s complaints and then speak a quiet word in reply.

Until next time…….Aubrey.