Highlights from Short Term Medical Mission Adventures

The Mentawai Islands, Indonesia 

Chapter 1

My First Trip to the Island of Seberut

We start on the second Sunday of January 2000 when John Colvin came to the church Jean and I went to and had a presentation about the Mentawei Venture. He gave a short synopsis of what they do and a plea for anyone that would like to join the adventure for March 2000. I prayed and thought about it for a week and then told Jean of my decision. Jean gave the okay, wanted to go but was unable to go with me as she had just returned to her old job managing a 42-unit apartment complex in Denver after my father had passed away at age 95. Jean did not feel leaving that soon for vacation would be good. 

So I hurried and put in for my passport and got my shots brought up to date. It normally takes up to 6 weeks so had to pay a little more to get it in two weeks. Then the scurry to the different stores to purchase all those items needed when traveling in diverse circumstances. No one store carried all that I needed. Some of the items were insect repellent, backpack, life jacket, short pants, toiletries, field mattress, and some snacks. John gave me a hand written check off list, well maybe it wasn’t a check off list but it was a suggested list of things to take. I hate shopping. 

Three weeks later I go to the airport to pick up my boarding pass to board the plane, I waited for John, as he was to give me some copied pages out of a medical book (Where There Is No Doctor) we were to use. When he came, he handed me the pages and told me to go through them and familiarize myself with certain diseases (malaria, typhoid, and tapeworm) as they were most prevalent. Then he told me to pay close attention to the section on delivering babies as there was NO nurse or doctor identified to go with me. "You got to be kidding," I thought to myself knowing all well that if this was to be or not to be, God will be glorified by whatever my team did. But I did do some praying about that. I think I should say here, "I am neither, a nurse or a doctor," connected with any medical place of business, and this following story parallels how much I do know. 

The parents of Johnny took him to Sunday school, and in his class they had been studying creation. This particular Sunday the story was about the creation of woman, Adam's wife. He listened attentively to how God put Adam into a deep sleep. He took out a rib and from that rib he created Eve. (It took man a number of centuries before they came up with anesthetics. I hope it wasn’t too painful when he woke up.)  

When church was over, the family went home. Thursday came along and Johnny's mother saw a puzzled look on Johnny's face and she asked, "Johnny. Is there a problem?" Johnny responded, "Mom, I have a rib that hurts right here," as he points to it. "I think I am going to have a wife!"  

I am told by my wife and my doctor as to what pills I should take, how many and when. If someone comes to a clinic, they do not come see me, for I only know how to treat a headache but then again, which pill do you give for that? You take a pill, swallow it with a lot of water and hopefully it is the right kind for that particular pain. If they show up at a clinic, they must be sick, and I am not the one anyone would ask to identify what medicine to give. I found out later that the thought of them being sick, might not be true.

I think I went through Seattle that time and on to Tokyo and then to Singapore. Twenty-one hours after leaving Denver, twenty four hours since I woke up, and losing a day and then arrive at almost midnight. I try to sleep in the Transit Hotel in the concourse of the airport for a few hours. I could not get to sleep and finally turn the TV on for a movie to put myself to sleep. I maybe get an hour of sleep and then I have to be out of the room at 6 am. So I get up and take a shower, dress, and check out. Then off to find the restaurant that hopefully has an American breakfast.  

There is an international food area with different country type meals including an American breakfast. Wow, I get 2 eggs, 2 breakfast sausages, 2 pieces of bacon, hash browns and toast with orange juice for $S8.00 (about US$5.50. – USA = US$1.00 and is equal to Singapore is S$1.75.) 

(Footnote: when you see Chapter 9 come on line [after October 2004) ….. life has changed for me as I will explain how God, almost in the twinkling of an eye, can change the course of life ….. from almost death. And the above breakfast is now out of reach for health chosen reasons.)

I wonder around the airport and use the internet area to chat with Jean. About 11 am I go and find the ticket counter to get my boarding pass. At 1 pm that afternoon I go to the concourse to take a one hour flight to Padang, Sumatra, Indonesia. I have been to the Philippines, Okinawa, Guam, and Guantanamo Bay Cuba while in the US Navy. The Philippine’s humidity and temperature is about the same as Padang and is around 90 - 100 degrees F and always at least 86% humidity. So we get off the plane and onto the bus that takes us to the terminal and customs in Padang. It did not surprise me that we are at or above 90 F and over 80% humidity. So when we get to the terminal we enter where the bags are and also customs. Huise, our host, comes into the custom’s area and is helping John get our bags with medical supplies through customs. 

That year we brought with us 6 bags of medical supplies and equipment that were donated. They contained some medicines that were out dated. Over the next few days, Huise, (our Padang host) kept talking to them and got 2 more released. Huise has a lot of clout being that he is a very affluent business man. One of the businesses is a raw rubber processing plant that exports rubber to a number of the major rubber tire manufacturers. Another one is to take coconuts and make oils and soap. The other 3 had to wait for us to be taken back to the states when we returned as they had too-outdated medicine. [In future adventures, we watched our dates and also had to itemize all the medicine by bottle that we did take.]  

Huise had a couple of cars and a small truck to take the 8 Americans and all our stuff to his hotel. We arrived and inside the hotel all the interpreters that would be with us was there to greet us. Being the timid one, (now be nice, I was born shy and still am ……….. at times.) I ended up the last person into the lobby. What a joy to see so many smiling faces and with an adventure ahead for all of us. We talked for a few hours and had dinner there with them. John told me not to go to sleep until 9 pm so that we would hopefully sleep for 8 hours. How I stayed awake until then still marvels me, as I was 58 yrs young at that time. I was used to 7 – 9 hours sleep per night and so far it had been around 40 hours with maybe 4 or 5 hours of sleep if that much.  

One of the interpreters was named Khairini. She had no last name like many Muslim girls and some Christian girls in Indonesia. For some reason we did talk to each other quite a bit along with Dan talking to her. Dan at that time, was from a church on North Sheridan in Broomfield, CO. She sat with Dan during the meal but I was drawn back to her after dinner for awhile. We broke up about 8 pm and all the interpreters left.  

My roommate's name was Dan, yes the same Dan. A very nice guy and at 4:30 am when the Islamic Mosque began its call to prayers, he got up and took a shower, got his Bible and went downstairs to have a quiet time. That ended my sleep also. I lay there turning over and over and not going back to sleep. Well ............that happened every morning for the next 4 days. So instead of getting 8 hours I was getting 6 or less hours of sleep.  

Wednesday evening came and we had a joint meeting with the interpreters. We had met all of them before and this night they were to be assigned to each of the team leaders. We also had a young man by the name of Vince who was there with his brother and mother. He came directly to Indonesia from a 4-month stay in Antarctica with -30 F to 90 F weather. What a change for him and he was assigned to be on my team. He also had his mother there and his brother went on other teams as leaders. He knew about as much about medicine to equal my education. I was again told that our team at this time still did not have a nurse or doctor.  

Don Whipple had a short Bible study and then he divided us into prayer groups with 5 or 6 together. Vince and Khairini along with 2 others were with me. The praying started to my right and I ended with prayer after all had a chance to pray including Khairini. That caught me off guard, as I did not even know that Muslim's prayed to one God. (I found out in May of 2004 by reading a new book about Islam, it is forbidden to pray as a Muslim in a Christian group. The book has a great title “The Complete Guide for Idiots to Understanding Islam.) My Islamic instruction memory dated back to my high school years and not much came to mind. From that day on, my ear was open for anything about Islam and Muslim life as well as what Indonesian life was all about. 

After all the groups had finished with their prayers, Don began to assign interpreters and Khairini was assigned to my team. Dan was very disappointed that Khairini was not assigned to him.  

This is the first time the three of us had ever done anything like this, Khairini, Vince and me. What an adventure this was going to be, with three green-horn city slickers and no nurse or doctor. Khairini had told me that she worked for a pharmacist for awhile and learned how to mix medicines for capsules. She was not going to be the nurse either. 

Khairini had told me that she had not told her father that she was going to be doing this; as she was a "free" woman, at 23, and could make her own decisions. Not to be rude, but a term "free" woman in an Islamic setting is a controversial statement within itself, for no woman in Islamic culture is "free" even if they so choose not to wear the normal Muslim clothing. Maybe that is what she meant ……… well time does not show favors to those that have strict rules to follow. Well maybe being a 90% free woman would be a better description. 

Anyway, the next day we get all of our stuff down to the front entry of the hotel and about 1 pm a bus shows up and off to the docks we go. It made at least two trips with me being on one of the first ones. As we pulled away from the hotel, John yelled to me saying, “Keep and eye on all of our stuff so it doesn’t disappear.” So when we got all of our stuff unloaded and onto the dock, there I stand, now the security guard for part of our stuff.  

This reminded me when I was in the Navy. I had to spend 6 months at sea when stationed in Okinawa after being promoted to 2^nd Class Petty Officer (E-5). I left on January 4, 1965 and began to return to Okinawa June 6, 1965. Jean had been there for a year when I left. It was kind of ironic in that when I went on active duty January 6, 1963, I left Jean barefoot and 1 month pregnant. Now it was January 1965 and I left her barefoot and 1 month pregnant. Anyway I went to get on the plane to fly from the Philippines to Okinawa via Taiwan for my return trip. In Taiwan they came and got me and said, since I had a top secret clearance, they needed me to be the security guard for the plane when we got to Okinawa so no one will run off with the precious secret stuff, whatever that was, until I would be relieved. So when I got to Okinawa, I walked back and forth, back and forth, under the plane while the speakers were telling me that Jean was there waiting for me in the lobby and to go to a white phone. But there was no white phone under the airplane. By the time I got relieved, Jean was at home so took a cab and surprised her when she opened the front door. So much for guard duty, I did get home and did surprise Jean and my almost 2 year old son Joe, Jr.

Back to Mentawai. 

The boat we were to get on is called a coudelat. It is totally covered and can seat 3 on each side with about 20 rows or so and then a 1st class section with about 10 rows, all air conditioned. Khairini joined me in one of the first rows after we got underway and we got to know each other a little better. I asked her how it went when she told her father she was going to be gone for awhile on a medical mission trip. She said, "I had all my stuff packed and ready and when it was time to leave, I walked out into the dining area where my father was reading the paper and told him and my mother that I would be gone for about a week. I did not tell them where I was going. Then I kept walking and went to the main street to catch a taxi.” Well that is one way to do it. She was now “free” for a little while. 

We stored some of our stuff in this building. The steps are carved into a trunk of a banana tree.

So we arrive at the dock of a village called Malipet, 4 hours later (about 100 miles). It took me 3 years before I could start remembering some of these village names. There was a house about 3 blocks in distance from the doc and it was almost completed. It was owned by a Christian couple and all of us slept overnight on every square inch of the floor, almost, for there were about 50 of us. We had a leader's meeting that evening and I was still told that my team was without a nurse. I prayed "God, I sure hope you have this under control.”  

I woke up at 4 am and needed to take a bath, being there were so many taking one the previous evening. Remember, I am the shy one. I could now go and no one would even notice. Actually there were two bathrooms in this house, side by side. Well it was a bathroom with their standards. It did have their toilet built to the floor used by a person squatting, and a water storage area and that was used by dipping a pan into it to get the water for flushing and for taking your bath. There are no sinks in Mentawai. 

So I got my bath taken and back to where I was sleeping, an area right in front of two opened windows with no breeze but mosquito coils burning in each one. Within a half an hour I started hearing the complaints from them, one by one, “I was causing” them to wake up.” “Why did you make so much noise?” Oh well, why should I be the only one that doesn’t get a full night of sleep? 

So we all get up and get dressed. As soon as I got the attention of Vince and Khairini, we went to where they were fixing breakfast, still dark, and ate breakfast. Others began arriving and eating before we left. I got Vince and Khairini again and we began hauling a box at a time of the water we were to take (21 cases), the boxes of food, pots and pans, and our backpacks across the street. Across the street is a protected lagoon where the boats are to arrive for us to load them. I was not told about a nurse going with, even at this late hour. 

God does listen and sometimes He even answers right away. After we had moved all of our stuff close to where we were to depart, Huise gave me  a hand written letter to give to a nurse located in a village, Pokai, on the way to our 1st assigned village. We were to be the first boat loaded and moving out as we had to travel the farthest. John estimated 8 hours on the water. 

So there we are, all of our stuff stacked up waiting for the boat and 7 people to board it. The boats were two sizes with ours needing to be the larger as we had to also carry a 55 gallon drum of gas for the total trip and all of our stuff. The boat is hand hewn from a tree that has about a 3.5-foot diameter and 33 feet long. We loaded up and we were underway about 7:30 am. Along with our team a Jesus film crew from the Navigator organization went with my team in their own boat, a smaller one. 

My weight at that time was 258 lbs. and it was an adventure just getting in and out of the boat. [I lost about 14 lbs. while on this adventure and another 36 lbs. over the next 7 or 8 months. In America I lost this by just cutting back on how much I ate.] Seven hours from when we left Malepet, we pull into Pokai where the nurse was to be and those on the shore told us that she was at the clinic in the village we had just gone past. So much for the 8 hr estimate for travel, as we still had 4 or more hours to go. The boatman reverses all engines and back we go to that village, Sikadaluan.  

When we got there Khairini and I got off the boat and walked in about 1/2 mile to the clinic and no one was there except for a curious child, me being the only white person there. We asked the child if the nurse was there. He said he did not know so we asked him to go get an adult. We found out that she was still in Pokai at her home. So back to the boat we went and next to the boat on shore is a restaurant type building and the cook had made lunch so we took a break before going back to Pokai. We are now 7.5 hours into our trip. The boat with the film crew was not totally prepared for the long trip and I had to pay for about 50 gallons of fuel for them to make the whole trip. We watched them bring the barrel to the shore line, dump it into the water and then move it to the boat.  

As I watched, I wondered how they would pick that heavy barrel up out of the water and into the boat. The scene changes as a woman arrives and also a young man, maybe age 18 to 25 and they, and one other one start manipulating the barrel up the side of the boat. The two men in the boat were putting in two cents worth and within a few minutes the barrel was in the boat. Sure glad I am not a betting man, wonders still amaze me. 

When we returned to the lagoon at Pokai, the boatman got us up onto the muddy beach as far as he could and Khairini and I stepped out into 110-degree water, 8 inches of water and 6 inches of mud. We got the mud washed off of our feet as well as we could when we got closer to dryer ground. The film crew boat did not come in with us and had continued on, all the way to the first village. We had the food and water. Oh, Oh. Well they had one or two cases of water. 

This time those on the beach told us to take a path that goes to the left from the road just a ways up from them. They said that there would be a church and the next house belonged to the nurse and the pastor of that church. So off we went and when we arrived, Khairini gave the letter to Porson, the nurse. She read it, gave it to her husband, they talked for at least one minute and agreed, and into the house she went, packed a few things, and off we went to the boat within five minutes. Isn’t it wonderful how God provides the needs that we create on our own? Well sometimes He doesn’t. They were very hospitable to a stranger, a white stranger. Indonesians have a dark brown to very dark brown hew to their skin. Women in the states almost kill for a built in tan that they have, and the Indonesians wish they had white skin. What a world we live in.  

We continued for a little while and then we began to go around the end of the island. About half way across the end (two hours later), the boatman said, because of the lateness of the day (about 3:30 pm,) we should put in to a village coming up. The 1st village on our list would have too high of waves to get into the river. I gave the okay and he turned the boat in towards shore.

I did not see a river, or even where trees parted for a river. Finally we are over the reef and into the mouth of the river. The tide is low and we get hung up on a tree that had fallen over half way across the mouth of the river. The tide was out and the river was only about 8 foot wide with a sandy beach on the ocean side and the tree trunk crossing our path. After a couple of tries to get over it, we all got out and got our pants wet. Porson was on the left side of the boat and all of a sudden she dropped into a hole up to her chin in water. That brought a very big surprised look on her face and a loud “Ohhhhhh!” and the attention of the rest of us. Most of the Mentawai people are about 5 feet tall. The river running under that tree cleaned out the sand from under it and caused a deep hole. A few minutes later we were over the tree trunk and on to the village, on to Sikapona we went.  

Khairini and I walked into the village to see where we could stay. I was surprised but not really surprised as I found the village had dedicated streets and the houses were built about 20 feet from the street 15 to 20 feet apart. The houses were made of wood lumber but with no interior finished walls. I could see through the boards from the inside of the house to the outside. We had walked around the village a little bit, waiting for someone to come out and see who this strange person was. We had surprised the village in coming two days early but the lady of the house we were to stay identified herself. We told her the situation and she immediately invited us to stay. Hospitality for me, a stranger, being white, sure makes a guy humble. 

So back to the boat we went and all of the crew and I carried all of our food, water, and stuff to this house. It had a porch and a bedroom off the porch straight ahead of the steps. To the left of the steps we entered a large room. On the left was a wooden table against the wall. The room was open with a pole about halfway across the house and about 14 feet from the doorway. There you stepped down to the ground (dirt) and at the far side left (half the width of the room) was the cooking area. The fire for cooking was on the dirt floor and about four feet above that was a storage area for wood that would be used in the fire. Being that it rains so much, there was probably a chord of fire wood (2’ X 2’ X 8’). To the far right was a door to outside. 

We got all of our stuff in and under the roof out of the weather. We had brought 21 cases of water for all of us and also some was for the medical clinics. Two cases had gotten wet and had starting to fall apart. 

The clothing the Mentawai people wore in most of the villages was clothing just like you and I wear. Modesty is at a very high level when walking outside of their homes. But then there were young boys and girls under age of 8 yrs old or so that would be without clothes while their one pair of clothes dried on the line or when they were swimming. Mothers nursing children do so for up to 2 years, maybe longer. Their modesty is not has high as we are in America as they do not use anything to cover up their breast(s) while in public as seen on the web site. In fact once the breast is brought out for the child to nurse, she does not usually cover it back up even if the baby pulls away until she feels that the baby has had enough. Men and also the young men were not bothered or even interested in looking or watching. 

A little later that evening Khairini asked if I were going to take a bath. I said that would be good idea and she took me to where they take baths. There is a well about 50’ from the house and a couple of yards away from the bathing area. She showed me how to drop the bucket and retrieve a full bucket of water. Then I tried and nothing got into the bucket. After 3 or 4 tries she took the bucket away from me and she finished drawing the bath water. [Five years later I still cannot get a bucket of water.] The bathing area was about 12 feet square with a wood wall about 5-foot high with a 4-foot wide walk through doorway with no door. There was a wire across it so I could hang myself while walking into the area. I put my towel and my clothing across it to help block the view by anyone coming by who may venture to look my way. A wood floor covered about 60% of the area. It makes a person feel kind of funny, looking over the top of the side of this thing and watch a few people as they walk by while scrubbing away or rinsing. 

We stayed in that village over night; it was to be our 2nd stop and so we left 10 cases of our water there so we would have less to carry back and forth at the next village, when we left. Sure glad we did that. 

John had told us that the cock crows at 4:30 am and that would probably wake up the cook and give her enough time to fix breakfast and for us to get up, eat, and load the boat and leave by 7 am. Well the cock crowed at 2 am, 3 am, 4 am, and 4:30 am and I was awake for each one of them. Not much sleep that night. We were off to Similegi Monga about 7:30 am. We get there about 8:30 am and we had a large hill, about 40 feet high to go over with all our stuff. They had hewn in steps in the dirt so it made it a little easier to climb up it. 

Remember the film crew, they were waiting for us. They did get a place to sleep and some food to eat. They had shown the Jesus film the night before so they had a lazy day and relaxed. But they did not leave without us the next time as they decided that food and water was a good thing to have. 

About 3 am we went to our first medical clinic. They had a building raised about 4 feet off the ground with walls on 3 sides and a roof and that is where we had the clinic. It was about 16 foot square. We had about 115 people at that clinic. The duration of the clinic was about 3 hours, a very new experience for me.

We went to the church about 7 pm. All the churches have bells and they ring them to call the people to the church. They ring them 3 or 4 different times to call them in. I sure love to hear them sing. They sing with no instruments in almost all the villages. This village did have electricity but no lighting in the church except for Coleman lanterns. This was the 1st time that Khairini had ever been in a Christian church. John had given the option of conducting a Bible study or not. I could not get up enough intestinal fortitude to do it in this village. I had not given a bible study in front of adults in my life. Even though I was ready, at least I thought I was ready, I could not do it. I was introduced by their pastor anyway and he made the announcement like, “I would like to introduce the tall white man with the long nose from America.” What a laugh that got. Khairini also laughed and told me what he had said and we stood up for all to see this funny looking white person. I was tall to them and I was white, but I do not think my nose was any longer than theirs. Oh well, it got some smiles. 

The next morning we left Similegi Monga about 7:30 and got to the reef again at Sikapona about 8:30. This time we got hung up on the reef. Instead of seeing if the boatmen could get us into the river, we all bailed out and Khairini and I got at the back of the boat. We were all pushing as hard as we could and all of a sudden a surge of water lifted the boat up into the air and immediately pushed Khairini off the boat. I almost lost my grip also.  

But I squeezed my right hand as much as possible on the boat. I saw Khairini being pushed backwards farther from the corner of my eye. My left arm and hand, as I turned my body, stretched out as far as it would go and grabbed Khairini's arm at the elbow automatically, as though someone had told me in advance that this was going to happen. This first touch felt her soft skin and I was not prepared for that. The water was still pushing her away and my hand slid down her arm to her wrist. But I squeezed even tighter as I thought I should, as I did not want to break it.  

I suppose breaking it would have been better than allowing her to drown if I had lost the battle. I slowly pulled her forward with all the strength I could muster. It seemed like forever to get her to the boat again. It probably only took a minute or so or maybe three. While we were working our way back to the back of the boat, the others were holding the boat so that it would not go backwards. Once we were reunited with the boat, everyone began pushing again and Khairini and I held on tighter as we helped. The boat moved a little each time a surge of water picked the boat up. Khairini and I kept a tight hold on the boat now, not wanting a repeat performance. (I saw the news on March 25th, 2004 and saw that 4 very good swimmers died in rip tides along the East Coast.) We were very fortunate. It did not dawn on me that I saved Khairini's life until much later. (To this day (Oct 2004) I do not think she accepts that I did.)

The clinic in Sikapona had about 125 patients. Not anything real exciting happened after that almost fatal rip tide adventure. We did go to their church and after the pastor gave his sermon, I did do the bible study. I do remember when I said some things about the men doing something better and not to do others, the young and older women would laugh, or smiled and look at specific men around them. I guess I said some of the right things because when I finished, Porson the nurse, asked if she could speak. She had them rolling in the isles, ….. almost. At least the women were laughing. She used a lot of arm gestures and I believe that she reinforced the words I had spoken, women, always giggling.  

We finished the bible study about 9 pm. It was about a 2 hour time of being in the presence of God.  

The next morning we leave Sikapona and go to Politcoman and no exciting moments getting to the embankment where we landed. After carrying something from the boat, I was back at the boat with the last of our stuff, waiting for help and keeping an eye on it when a man comes towards me down the path with a machete knife. No shirt and small short pants was his attire. He made some hand gestures and I caught on that he would climb a coconut tree and get one down for me. Khairini arrived about the time he got to the top so he cut down three of them.  

The coconuts are about twice as big as those you find in American stores with a heavy husk going around the inner coconut shell. It has a somewhat three sided husk. He chopped off the husk and then he cut off one end of it. Khairini showed me how to drink the milk from it and also showed me that you can take your finger or a fork (they do not use spoons very often for anything), and get it out as it is a very soft coconut meat. In America the soft is not soft but hard and chewy. I was not too keen on the taste but the milk was good. It is a very rich taste. 

As we walked back into the village Khairini took time to kneel down and show me a unique plant. She called it the shy princess. The leaf is like a fern plant and is beautiful green and would be great as ground cover. Each limb may be 3 to 4 inches in length. When you touch it, the leave would close itself for a few minutes and then reopen.  

Oh yeah, I remember now. My brain is like a computer, it has a 200 gigabit memory but it only has a 64k Ram processor for information. Oh well, such is life and the clock keeps turning. When we first pulled up to where we got out of the boat, Khairini ventured to be more than just an interpreter. She picked up my backpack and put it on while she was squatting, if I remember right. She stood up and the backpack almost pulled her over back wards, (45 lbs. backpack, and she weighs about 105). She would not let me take it. She is a stubborn young woman and always has to prove herself that she can do it on her own. Not much different than other women that I have known. Just joking, don’t kill the writer. 

The camera crew was with us and they had run out of gas for their generator. When we got to the house where we were to stay, Khairini asked if I wanted to take a nap. I guess I looked kind of tired and said yes. There was a bedroom next to the living room and Vince, Khairini and I went in to take a nap. I think this is a very friendly home as all the kids and young people came to this area to play their games. I must have slept for about a half an hour and woke up to their noise.  

Vince and Khairini were gone. I rolled on to my side and went back to sleep. I woke up later from the children playing and Khairini was coming back in to lye back down again. She did not see me watching her come in. I rolled over onto my other side and went back to sleep. I woke up a little later and got up. At some point in time Khairini told me that I made some off the wall notes snoring while I was asleep and all in the house were have a good chuckle.  It must have been the bamboo mats that kept pricking me that caused me to snore. I guess the host and hostess also got a kick out of that snoring.  

During or after the medical clinic the mayor of the village (we stayed at his house) asked if we were going to show the movie. I was planning on leaving at 3:30 pm to go back to Pokai to stay the night. He was told we were out of gas and he told us that they would get gas. So we stayed. While we were waiting for the church meeting to start, someone brought to us some just caught, fresh oysters. They are so hospitable to visitors. 

We had a church meeting at 4 pm and I got up enough courage to give another Bible study again. I was doing the same bible study I was about 90% finished when something happened. I think I was saying something about a man being the head of the house and the wife is the neck. That the men should listen to their wife in making decisions as they do not want to have a sore neck. Khairini was interpreting as she was always doing and I read my notes and formulated what I was going to say while she was doing her part. When she stopped I opened my mouth to say what was in my mind but the words that came out were different. It shocked me at first, as I stand listening to those words and wondering why they were different.  

The sentence was completed and Khairini began her words. I looked at the next notes and again formulated in my mind what I was going to say. But again different words came forth and tears started to whelm up in my eyes now knowing that the Holy Spirit was doing His presentation. My throat was also wanting to constrict but the words kept coming out. I almost sat down but only had a few more sentences to go. I finished up with those sentences and turned it over to the pastor.  

I sat down and thought of what I had said but I could not remember what it was. I think the Holy Spirit used words that touched a number of lives as after the meeting, each one came up and shook my hand with big smiles and saying “Terri mikasi.” (Thank you.) I was dumbfounded and could not say much and had to fight the tears away and just wanting to go somewhere private and cry. I thought of the Old Testament story about Joseph when his brothers got to Egypt the second time. He had to take his leave and went and sobbed with joy for having his brothers back into his life. I just felt ….. well, I cannot explain how I felt.  

Towards the end of the line an elderly woman took both her hands and put them around my extend hand and said "Terri mikasi! Terri mikasi!" and the tears were rolling off her cheeks. I just about collapsed and had to fight the tears off even more. Then I saw that Bible studies are the most important thing during a medical mission trip. You never know who will hear, what God wants to say. When all had gone past after shaking my hand, Khairini turned towards me and I remember my thoughts “I hope she cannot see the tears in my eyes for I do not want her to see my weakness.” It was not a weakness, it was a joy but I did not want anyone to think that I was weak in character. Don’t we all do that?  

Some people listen to music, or they want to read a good book, or watch TV to find something to make them feel more alive. All we need is to listen with our hearts what God wants us to do and He will make us feel more alive than anything else can. If we seek His truth (which does not waiver), He will give us those happenings in our lives that will fulfill us and give Himself honor and we glorify Him.  

In the three medical clinics we had, our team gave medicine to a total of 100 malaria cases and 100 tapeworm cases, 3 typhoid, and I think one-cholera. That saved lives of children and adults so that they could wake up for another day. The words I said, what ever they were, someone now will live through eternity or honor God more in their living. About 15% of children die before they are 5 years old along with a number of their mothers. Another 15% die before they are 15 years old because of diseases.  

Eighty percent of those living on the Mentawai Islands are Christian oriented with the other 20% Muslim. We do not openly proselytize, for we do not want to risk the possibility of going to jail. 

Christianity in the Mentawai islands is less than 90 years old. The first missionary from Germany went to the islands in 1909 for a couple of years. One day he was invited by a village leader to be the main course for dinner and no one else went until about 1916. Some of the other first missionaries were also invited to be the main course for dinner for a few more years. I do not know how many. But probably in the 30s or 40s the Indonesian government made it a capital offence for cannibalism, and it stopped. Then Christianity flourished to what it is today. There are Catholic and protestant churches. Some of the protestant churches are Lutheran and some having Calvinist beliefs. (I found out that the original Martin Luther after he was kicked out of the Catholic Church visited Medan, a city in very North West Sumatra and they have built a shrine for his remembrance. 

The next morning we headed back to base camp dropping off the nurse Porson in Pokai, and continued on. About 5 hours later we went passed the coudelat to Seberut City. I wanted to purchase one of the round hats that come to a point that so many small boat operators use. We did find one and it cost all of 20,000 rupiah, US$2.40. My leather carrying case that I carry my personal things in, including my Bible, the rubber knobs on the bottom came off and the screws were scratching us every time we had to carry it to and from a village. It was only 10 or 15 years old. I saw a canvas green bag and asked how much it was. The sales lady said 50,000 rupiah. I said 40,000 rupiah and she agreed. While I was getting the rupiah out, Khairini continued bargaining and got it down to 35,000 rupiah, about US$3.70. Back to the boat we went, pulled along side the coudelat, loaded all of the remaining stuff and then back to Padang we went, as we were the last group to get back to the fast boat.  

After getting back to the USA, I had made the decision to go back and called John to let him know. I also suggested to John that we maybe should raise the funds to build a water-purifying system. It would probably cut down on the cholera deaths without us being there. Then I entered into writing a “Bush Manual” for anyone that would come with us having some information about what to expect while in Padang and in the Mentawai Islands. It started with the first draft to be 4 pages. The pages kept adding and adding and to date is 10 pages.  

I also thought that I should produce a laminated-two-sided presentation that would show the Mentawai people how to build an outhouse type structure. I wrote out the instructions and sent them to Khairini after asking if she would translate them for me. She did not use the exact numbers for the paragraphs that I did so I had to make good assumptions as to what pictures the paragraphs went with. It worked out and then laminated them to hand out to village or church leaders when we would go back each year. So I was very busy writing and rewriting for quite some time. As the years went on it is now up to about 20 pages with 5 different Bible studies as part of it, for those that would want to use one of them. 

Khairini had given me her email address and about a month after getting back I emailed her and we began an 8-month email and chatting period of time. During this time I also had the chat room address for my nephew Kent and he showed up one night and I introduce them to each other. I asked Kent to join us the next March and could work with Khairini as a team leader. He turned me down. I think he had a crush on her. He is about 33 and she is 24.