^{The first trip we made in 2000, we went to the Mentawai Island of Seberut and this time we go to the island of Sipora, enough miles between them you can barely see one island from the other.. The home base town for this trip, is Siobon. There is a pastor and his wife, Reverend and Mrs. Perulian that puts part of us up in their home. And a man named Jack that has a 4 bedroom house 2 of them made available for us to sleep. All the women stayed at Pastor Perulian's house and all the men at Jack's house. Jean goes with me this trip. I did not think she would like it as it is really rough camping except for sleeping in a building. She likes hot and cold running water and a toilet that flushes. Well 80% of the world population do not have hot or cold running water or toilets, and they can be a challenge to find, at least a private area.} 

^{This time I did have a nurse to go with us. Khairini was again our interpreter along with her brother Febri. Also the daughter of Pastor Perulian, Helen, came with us and was a great help interpreting to the older people who only spoke Mentawai. Planning for this one did not happen as good as the previous year. The villages were not told we would be coming. So finding a place to sleep at each village would be one of the first things that we would do. We had 6 teams this time and I was to stay until the two teams that had a lady team leader (Jodie and Lani) had left. The boats were not there like we would had hoped to be. In fact one boat showed up and then the second within a couple of minutes. Don’s team was loaded up and left on the first one. A third boat showed up and John and Huise’s team started out to sea.}

John's Team and his wife Laurel.

Bob's team (In the middle)

 Jodi's Team (Jodi in the middle) (Rico on the right. Rico went on a total of 3 trips with us.

Lani's team (in the middle)

Joe and Jean's Team

^{My boat came and I stayed for a little while longer. The tide was going out and the boatman had to keep moving the boat further away from the shore. After about 30 minutes or so, the ladies assured me that they would be all right. Both of them worked as para-medics just West of Denver in the Mountains. The tide was going out even more and we had to walk about 100 feet in ankle deep black mud. Sure glad my sandals had Velcro holding them on. I think Jean’s came off and she had to dig at least one out of the mud and took them off and walked in her bare feet in the deep black mud. It was very soft but had a lot of suction. Some people pay a lot of money to have black mud put on their body. Here it was absolutely free.} 

^{Don’s team had left about an hour before we left and was to go to the same village my team was to go as it is a very big village. We got to the village Bosua about an hour after Don's team. They had just opened there clinic up. This village had no electricity but did have a nice house set aside by the government for visitors. It had 2 bedrooms, a large room, and a kitchen area. Outside was an outhouse made of concrete block, their typical toilet/straddle stool on the floor, and a connected room for bathing. I had to duck most of the time taking a bath, as almost all of the Indonesian’s are no more than 5' 5" in height at the tallest with most of them around 5’. I am at 6'. But it was nice compared to using the beach for a toilet like at many villages.}  

^{The clinic started about 1 pm and went until about 4 pm. The two cooks made us lunch about an hour after getting there and we took shifts taking our lunch times.} 

^{The next morning the other team left and we had 3 more 2.5-hour clinics. I do not think that I wrote down how many patients we had but we did have less malaria at this village than the previous year. We must have had over 500 patients. We had an adult about 30 years old and a child about 13 years old come to us, both having been bit by a green snake.}  

^{This snake is a cousin to the cobra and is not quite as poisonous. Instead of dying in a couple of hours it would take a number of days. Their feet were swollen about twice what they should be and looking real bad. The adult refused to allow us to take him at no charge for travel, food, and medical attention when we went back to Padang, but the child did. When we did leave for Padang from Siobon the boy was there for us to take. We also had a child patient brought to us that was about 6 months old. She had no anus. This is usually caused by incest within a family.}  

^{The second morning we woke up and after breakfast, the boat was loaded and ready to go about 8 am. Jean, Khairini and I were walking down the path to the beach when we felt a few drops of rain. We ran to the boat and got in as the clouds were dark black and the wind started to blow, and it increased more as we shoved off. We got out the umbrellas thinking that would keep us dry. We headed towards the sea for a couple hundred yards or so and then headed East. The swells were about 3 to 4 feet high and the rain was beating down on us along with wind. It took only a few minutes and all of us were totally wet so the umbrellas were only used for protection from the wind whipping the rain onto us.} 

^{As we rounded the end of the island the winds kind of died down and the swells went from 4-foot high waves (or troughs) to 3 feet. Then we started up the North West side of the island and the winds increased again and the swells went from 6 to 8-foot high. The boatman was doing good but had to slow down. A thought of Paul in the Bible when he was a prisoner on the way to Rome for trial and the storm that he went through, was going through my mind. I did not think of the storm that Jonah was in as I did not want to be concerned about hoping for a big fish to come by.}  

^{The motor strained as we climbed up one wave, crested and speeded going down the other side. That went on for over one and half hours. It should have taken about 30 minutes. Khairini had told me a year before that she did not know how to swim. I mentioned to Jean about that and Jean took off her life vest and gave it to Khairini to wear. Jean is a very good swimmer and used to be part of a choreographed swimming team. If needed, she could float forever, I think. When I am in the water I can swim for about 50 feet and then I would begin looking for seashells on the bottom of the ocean floor. As far as floating ……. I hate blowing water like a whale does and it does not take long until there is no more air to blow bubbles.} 

^{Now back to the boat trip. Every once in awhile, a wave would come over my arm that was resting on the right side of the boat, and deposit about 3 gallons or more of water each time. Febri was bailing the water as fast as he could. I think he was 21 years old at the time. He bailed and bailed the whole way and when we did get to the beach at Katiet, his arm felt like it was 6 inches longer and his shoulder hurt very bad. He had me give it a couple of jerks and said that made it feel better. Wow, I am now qualified to be a chiropractor or a sports medical technician.}  

^{The boatman was excellent as he got us onto the beach, which was very close to his house. When we got to shore a man runs up and tells the boatman, Antonio, that his close friend's boat had overturned up the coast a little ways. So as soon as we were unloaded, he went to find his friend. He did but the 7 passengers had to swim to shore with one being an Australian. He had a backpack with all of his belongings but was able to retrieve it. He came by the clinic the next day and said “HI,” and we had a nice talk. The only death was a baby pig that someone had just bought.}

Antonio and his wife, looking towards front door entrance. This is the living area. It has a palm-leave roof.

Two pictures of the kitchen and cooking area. On the right is our cook working on dinner. Notice there is no kitchen counter to prepare food on. It is done in the squatting position.

Left: from eating table: kitchen direct on the right behind wall. They are sitting in ??? area with the bathing area to the hostess's left. This is the beach we landed on. It is about 50 feet from the host's house. The toilet was by choice somewhere on this beach.

^{Later when it quit raining I went to take a bath and went to draw the water again. This home had a well out back and a large diameter piece of bamboo that went through a wall into a tub. I was pulling up my usual quart of water each time. Khairini came running out and took the bucket from me again. So I went into the area to take the bath and told her when the tub was full. The tub was about 2-foot deep and 3-foot diameter. She was very good in seeing that the needs for both Jean and me were met.} 

^{We held the medical clinic in the entry and living room of our host, Antonio. We used up some of the medicines in this village within 3 hours. We went for another 2 hours. Later that afternoon we had a bible study. After all was said and done at this bible study, the villagers wanted to take pictures of Jean and I. They would walk forward and scoot backwards getting the right distance. We stood there side by side and then I put my arm around Jean and all of them broke out laughing. I found out later they do not show any affection to a spouse or child in public.}

The church is about one block from host's house.

^{And because we ran out of a number of medicines, the next day we went back to the home base a day early.}

We had a whole day of relaxing and all the interpreters and some of the other leaders, joined Jean and I and went to a beach about a half mile away. It had a nice sandy beach and you could walk out over a 100 feet and it was only about 3 foot deep.

The interpreters took this time to have fun. The beach is shallow for a good 200 feet.

The surf is not very high as the beach is so deep. Jean and Jodi trying to stay in the shade.

We got our normal sun burned arms and shoulders. We were there about 2 hours, part of the time in the shade. A young man came along with a machete, went up a tree, cut some coconuts loose and we had some fresh coconut juice.

When the boat showed up to take us back to Padang, off we went along with 5 people needing hospital attention. It cost about $5,000 again for their hospital care. The day after the boy with the snake bite was in the hospital, he was walking around and smiling once again. This cost The Mentawei Venture about US$200. We also took the baby with no anus. This was the 3rd one that had this problem in a three-year period. The operation was done and she is now normal. That cost was US$500. With all the others that we took to Padang to help the total cost came to about US$5,000. (We did not have all that money so when we got back we made appeals to a couple of churches to help us cover the cost and also some quilt sale events.

On Thursday morning all the leaders took their interpreters to Bukki Tinngi for some R & R. We stayed at the 3 star Nova Tel hotel. We got there about 1 pm. We got all our stuff into our respective rooms and then decided to go to a tourist attraction. Above ground there are sculptured trees, tables and benches, and overlooks a very deep canyon on two sides. There are shops to buy souvenirs and then there is a tunnel affair under the whole area.

Here we have a wild monkey waiting for food to the left. On the right there are a number of us looking down in to the valley.

^{We went down the steps, about 100 of them, and there were 4 young men requiring us to pay them to have them be our guide. They do that all the time in various places because they all look for making some money off of tourists, especially the “rich” Americans. So we went back up to the top. We went to a couple of scenic areas and a little later someone said the four young guys had left so down the steps we went. There had to be a couple hundred of them.}

^{The tunnels were made with forced Indonesian labor by the Japanese during WW II. The middle of the tunnels were right at 6 foot 1 inch in the center. The outer height was at 6 foot. Each tunnel is about 300 feet long, maybe longer. There are two main ones going East/West and 3 tunnels going North/South. There are a number of other tunnels going between the main two or main three tunnels. There is one entrance from a road that goes along the South side which goes to the bottom of the canyon and it has an iron gate across it. In the far South West corner is a barred area is used for a jail. The opening there drops about 150 feet to the bottom of the canyon.}  

^{When we got into the tunnel, someone asked where Bob was. Someone else said that maybe he did not go back up the steps and is in the tunnel. So we went looking for him. We ended up at the jail house and no Bob. So we started back with everyone going towards the North side, except me. I said I would go to the next tunnel and parallel them. So I hurried down and across and saw them going past the adjoining tunnels. I hurried ahead until I came to one that was not lighted. My mind was thinking something devious.} 

^{I hurried through the darkened tunnel and waited at the corner. Khairini and Lani were first. When they were about 6 feet from me I jumped out and yelled "ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH." The two of them screamed very loud and jumped off the floor. Naughty, naughty, me. They finally got settled down and we started back to the entry. Boy was my name mud at that time.} 

^{As we were one tunnel from the entrance tunnel I remembered another one that was pitch black with no light in it or at the ends. So I told them that I would go down this one and they would continue to the entrance. I would catch up to them just before the entrance. I hurried and got to the dark one. Man was it dark. Just a few feet in and I waved my hand in front of my eyes and could not see them move or even a shadow or outline from them. I walked cautiously as I could not see if there was anything on the floor. There could have been a mound of dirt or any kind of an object. I kept going until I was about 6 to 8 feet from the other crossing tunnel, the main tunnel going to the entrance.} 

^{I heard Khairini say to Lani, "Let us go up ahead and scare Joe." My wife, Jean, was with them and she said to herself, "Yeah, Right, I do not think so.” All the other tunnels they were going buy either had a light in the tunnel or one at the far end. So with them they could see that I was not there. They came to the tunnel I was in and I was so close I thought they would see me. I thought they could here me breathing. They did not and Khairini faced sideways, bending a little at the waist and putting her hands over her eyes to block out the light on either side of her.}  

^{She would take one step at a time sideways crossing one leg over the other. She was slowly working all the way across the opening, squinting, and looking hard.  She worked herself to the far side of the opening and was right in front of me saying "I do not think he is in this one. I do not see anything." I thought for sure she could see the whites of my eyes or my grinning teeth.  When she finished her sentence, I took a step and a jump and landed about 2 feet in front of her with another "Arhhhhhhhhhhhh." And her arms went every direction and feet off the floor also going every which direction. Launi also was jumping and screaming. Khairini was kind of upset with me, actually very mad at me. I do not know why, well maybe I do more than a let on. Well again we had to wait for them to calm down before we went back up those 100 or more stairs.} 

^{When we got back to the hotel, everyone took their bathes and then went to the pool. It was a very nice pool and Jean took some time and taught Khairini how to float. At first she did not want to get into the water but finally did.} 

^{We did a little shopping the next morning and had our final lunch and headed back to Padang.}

This is not the Titanic before it went down, just Wiwi having a little fun and I was making sure that she did not bounce over the bow of the boat.

The next day was Saturday, we were on our way back to the states along with Khairini. We were flying standby as at that time I was working for an airline company. Khairini took Singapore airlines from Singapore to Las Angeles. We were on United and got to Hong Kong and got bumped. So to get back to Las Angeles to catch up to Khairini we had to buy tickets. So we shopped for an airline that we could make it there on time. United wanted $2,000 per ticket, one way, and so we ended up flying on Cathay Pacific at $1,350 each. A round trip ticket from Denver to Singapore and back only cost $850 to $1,000.  We get to Las Angeles and through customs by 8:30 pm and it took about an hour and a half to find Khairini.

We searched out the ticket counter and they told us that we had to come back at 3 am. So we slept on the floor for awhile and went to the counter at 3 am. Then they told us to come back at 4 am. So we waited and and then back again. This time we waited at the counter for odd sized bags for another 45 minutes for them to process us. For some reason we had to go from there and have our hold baggage scanned and that took another 15 minutes. Now it was 5 am and the plane left at 5:30 am. So we hurried to the gate. We got there and now Jean and I are flying standby again and Khairini had paid tickets. So we told them that she did not want on this flight if all of us could not get on at the same time. We all did get on and off to Denver we went.

The weather from the middle of March to the middle of April in the Denver area is running from the middle 50s to the low 70s during the day. Khairini is now wearing at least 4 layers of clothing in the house to keep warm. When in Indonesia it gets down to 70 F and all of them put on semi heavy coats and sweaters. At 80 degrees, they need to have some kind of covering over them to sleep. When we decided to go somewhere in the evening, it was probably in the 50s and Jean handed Khairini one of her heavy coats. Khairini said, “I don’t want to where that ugly thing!” Well that ugly thing did fit her and she did ware it and kept warm. She even put gloves on after a lesser protest.

I think it was the 2^nd Sunday, my son Tim, his wife Cathy, their daughter Janalee, Jean and I went for a ride and stopped at the Red Rocks natural theater. We parked in one of the lower parking lots and so had to walk up about 1,000 steps. It seemed that many anyway. I do not know who said it but someone got the idea to run up the steps. So Tim and Khairini began running slowly up the steps, not me. As Khairini started I told her she should be aware that the oxygen is not as dense at this altitude (6,500 feet) as we were more than a mile above sea level and she will get winded fast. “Nah, I can do it,” she said and kept going.

She is a very head strung young woman that felt she could show everyone that she can do almost anything. Well about 60 steps or maybe more she stopped and was breathing very hard. Tim had made it maybe 10 steps farther and breathing heavy. I was just breathing heavy just walking up that many steps. We all enjoyed a few minutes of catching our breath. It is a beautiful place to visit.

The bench seat come down a natural hill with two towering red rock formations on each side which are at least 80 feet high along each side. The stage area also has huge rock formations around it. It is very picturesque.

On the following Monday we took Khairini up on the mountain just West of Golden, CO called Lookout Mt. They have very strong binoculars for looking down into downtown Denver 20 miles away. They also have a gift store and when you walk in there is a wooden Indian.

Snow came around the 1st of April and I finally got Khairini out and she helped me make a snowman.  This is the most snow we had gotten all year, 6 inches.

I believe it was a week later on a Sunday Jean and Khairini were invited up to a children's camp called Camp IdRaHaJe by one of the team leaders that had gone to Mentawai with us, Jodi. I was working. She enjoyed riding a horse immensely. Two evenings later, she showed Jean and I the instep of her left foot. It had a silver dollar size purple spot and lots of small spots around it. We said we would check on it in the morning.

The next morning the big spot was slightly bigger and a few spots went up her leg a little ways. Jean said that she would look at it when she got back home around 2 pm and if necessary, take her to the doctor. Then Jean went to work about 8 am. About a half hour later Khairini went to use the bathroom. I heard a loud noise sounding like the weighing scale was being moved roughly. I did not think I should go in so didn't. Then I heard it again a few minutes later. Then she came out. Before I went to work she told me that she had fainted. I left for work about noon. When I turned onto the hi-way going from I-70 to the airport I thought I should check on Khairini so called her on the cell phone. We talked a minute or so and then she stopped responding. I then called my mother and had her go down stairs and check her out. She did and could not get a response from her. I then called Jean and told her what had happened, and Jean went home immediately.

Jean and I live in the basement of my parents house. We are the care givers for my father as my mother was no longer able to take care of him properly. Jean called the doctor that my mom and dad were seeing as we had not needed a doctor to this date. First she had to contend with the front receptionists telling her that she could not be brought there, as she had not been a patient there before this date. Jean kept on and asked to speak to the doctor. The doctor finally came on the phone and listened to Jean’s story about Khairini. Finally the doctor said she could come in the next day at 10 am, or we could take her to University Hospital.

After completing her call to the doctor she called me back and wanted me to make the decision, as we could not afford a large medical bill. I thought over what she was telling me and I made the decision to take her to University Hospital. So I checked out of work and drove home. Remember Kent, my nephew that I had introduced to her on the internet, he had come to Denver to visit and meet her while she was at our house. He was there so all of us went to the hospital. We were there for about 6 hours, as par for the course for an emergency room visit.

After checking in she had to wear the hospital gown that everyone flocks to hospitals to wear. She almost froze to death (figure of speech) on the hospital bed even with a blanket over her so I used my coat and put it over her and Kent did likewise. The doctor on call just happened to be the head doctor on infectious diseases. They took a number of vials of blood and analyzed them and could not totally determine what kind of specific poison it was or what bit her. They did identify the type of poison and gave her some samples of antibiotics for it.

Then it was time for me to go get the car as it was parked a couple blocks away. On the way out the doctor told me that it was fortunate that I made the right decision to bring her to the emergency room as if we had waited until 10 am the next morning, one of two things would have happened. One is that she would have possibly been at some level of a vegetable with non-reversible brain damage or secondly would have died. WOW, I just saved her life again. What a privilege that God gave me in saving her life again.

So I went and got the car as I parked it, they were just coming out the emergency entrance. It was now about 9 pm and she was shivering with just a sweater on (if I remember right). So I took my coat off and put it around her shoulders.

Within two days the spots were almost gone and by the time she went home they were all gone. They believe a small spider got into her socks and bit her but could not prove what kind of spider. This ordeal had a small cost of about $3,000.

(During the summer of 2002 I got some very unpleasant news. Remember Vince, the young man from Colorado that was in the Antarctica, he was in very severe motorcycle accident. Another young man and him were being un-grown-up young men and riding their motor cycles at high excessive speeds. It was about 2 or 3 am in the morning. The other man yelled back to Vince to slow down and watch out for a road sign, but it was too late. Vince hit the sign and broke his neck and lots of other bones and is now a quadriplegic for the rest of his life. He was in a coma for over two weeks. As of February 2004 he is still having a very hard time adjusting to his condition. He could use your prayers.)