My team is
the only team going into the bush
this year. John was taking a
vacation with his wife in Hawaii.
Would you call that a dirty trick as
he is enjoying nice beds, toilets
and showers and here I am no toilet
and no shower room and sweating very
well. Get out the violins, I need
something to calm me down. Not
really, I love the adventure and the
blessings that comes where I go and
the minimal things that I do to
honor and glorify him. A little
(actually a lot) bit of sweating
sure makes bathing feel real good.
Or a dip in the surf if there is a
good beach. Many places on the
different beaches are polluted to a
degree because of their use of them
to be their toilets.
We get on board the fast boat in
Padang. On the right they are taking
the cases of water and putting them
down in the hold.
In January
and February, on this island of
Sipora, a number of children and
adults died because of cholera.
Being the wells are only 10 to 15
feet deep, they only get surface
water. Pigs and chickens roam loose
in most villages and their waste
ends up in the shallow wells, so all
of the Mentawai Islands have to boil
their water for 20 to 30 minutes.
Jakarta sent 17 doctors and nurses
to quell the out break.
I would
assume that this becomes a big chore
sometimes; or they are just lazy in
doing it day after day. The
government spent US$2,000,000 trying
to drill a couple of wells, but
there was no fresh water deep in the
ground. Again I suggested to John
that we should maybe look into
setting up water purifying equipment
to begin giving some good water to
drink when I got back to the states.
John finally agreed and planned to
buy one.
Back to
Siobon we go again with my team.
This time I have 2 angels with me. I
had told my internet friends that I
had 14 angels watching over me to
keep me safe. One of the earthly
angels has the name of Angela and
the other is Ligna. Spell Ligna
backwards and you have Angil. They
were living together at this time
going to school. Ligna has a class
with Khairini learning English.
Ligna gives a note to Khairini to
get permission to be out of class
for a week. Khairini asks who she is
going to interpret for. Ligna says,
“A man from America named, Joe.”
Ligna was already late to be at the
hotel for when I got to there on
Saturday. Khairini says jokingly (I
think), “Oh, .... Joe? You do not
need to be in a hurry, I know him.”
Ligna is the
silly one and you can see her
pictures on the web site. Angel is
also a lot of fun and both of them
sure can wear an older person out
pretty easy. Angel’s parents live in
Medan in the far North West end and
on the North side of the island of
Sumatra. The real Martin Luther
after he was kicked out of the
Catholic church, went to Medan for a
visit and they have a large shrine
built for his remembrance there.
Ligna is from a large village of
Pekenbaru. Medan is a 24-hour bus
trip to Padang and Pekenbaru is
about a 7-hour bus trip.
They are
both Christians with Angel playing
the organ, singing in the choir, and
helping with children's Sunday
School. Ligna also helps with the
children. Both of them studied
international law with Ligna wanting
to go abroad to a university and
become an attorney. Angela is now
looking after an Indonesian man and
his wife that is going to buy some
land along a beach and build
vacation bungalows for any Christian
to use when they visit Padang. The
guests will only need to donate what
they want to pay for the use of the
bungalow. Angel is doing the legal
things when they arise with the
attorney representing Maugy and his
wife and the courts while the two
are back in the states.
Our base
camp is in Siobon again with the
girls sleeping at Rev. Perulian’s
house and I at Jack’s house. We get
all of our stuff placed and the two
girls want to go for a walk. We talk
it over and decide to walk to the
village of Mara. Someone had told me
that it only took a half-hour walk,
maybe for a giant. So when we
finished eating we began the walk.
When we walked a half-hour we met an
elderly looking man and asked him
how long to Mara. He said about 2
hours. Huh, well it was still early,
about 12:30 pm. So on we went. Ligna
kept asking me that if I saw a snake
I was to tell her. I saw lots of
imaginary ones that kept her jumping
from time to time. We came across a
young man with a machete and I asked
the girls to ask him if he would
climb a tree and cut down three
coconuts. I paid the young man
10,000 rupiah (US$1.20) So he did
and we had some fresh coconut juice.
Then on we went.
When we had
traveled those 2 hours we met some
teenagers from Mara. A couple of the
girls remembered me from being on
the island the last time. They told
us that it was another 30 minutes.
So we finally got there and meet the
village leader and a church layman.
They brought us lunch and we only
stayed about 1 hour. True Christian
hospitality.
We had a
nice long talk and we talked about
being there the next day for the
medical clinic and a bible study.
Then they made lunch for us. It was
a full meal so got filled up again.
Like I say, I marvel at the
hospitality of the Mentawai people.
It does not matter how unannounced
your are, they welcome you.
Then we
stated back to Siobon. I had
mentioned to the girls that when it
is just the two of them and me, they
should speak English. Every
once-in-awhile they would slip back
into Indonesian. We were over half
way back to Siobon, the were now
again talking in Indonesian. I
slowed down a little bit and allowed
them to get right behind me. All of
a sudden I jumped and turned around
at the same time and yelled,
“Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeee hahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Boy that got their, they jumped into
the air, attention and
asked them to speak in English. They
only jumped about two feet into the
air and got what as a ghost, but
they smiled and obliged my request.
We got back
to Siobon about 5 pm or so. That was
a walk, what a walk and what a sun
burn. I bet my doctor would agree
that it was very good for me to do
that walking anyway. So we relax,
have dinner, and then the girls want
to go to the beach we had walked by
not far from where we slept. It is
across the street from where another
young lady lives. She also helps out
with interpreting and her name is
Suzi. So to the beach we go and just
wade through the shallow surf for an
hour and also talk with Suzi. She
wants to go with us to Mara and also
help.
So the next
morning we load up and go to Mara.
Here we are on our way.
We get there
at 10 am and with a one-hour break
twice, we end up at 5:30 seeing
about 688 patients. Six hundred and
eighty eight patients, how did we do
it? We had a slip of paper with the
name of each one and their diagnosis
and the medicine we gave to them. We
had two nurses and at least 4 people
working the pharmacy all the time.
Those working the pharmacy were
Suzi, Angel, Ligna, and a boatman
and others would help from the
church. The other boatman wrote the
names of those that came in for the
clinic so all were helping so well
this time. This was the first time
that the boatmen helped in the
clinics.
On the left, the nurse diagnosis and
identifies the medi
cine
to be used. On the right we have Suzy handing a
prescription to a mother.
So I just
had to pull out new bottles or boxes
of medicine when they ran out in the
pharmacy. Oh yes, I took lots of
pictures. I even had a couple of the
real young ones stay in my arms for
more than 30 seconds. The crowd
laughed and smiled whenever I was
able to do that.
On the left we have Ligna and Angel
cutting up large plastic bags into
small plastic bags and using staples
to close the sides and bottom. On
the right are some waiting for their
prescriptions and all the onlookers
for this spectacle.
We expended
most of the medicine again. I sure
wish we had more funds for more
medicine. We are spending $800 per
team and it should be increased to
about $1,000 per team. We came up
with 3 people that needed hospital
help with their physical problems.
So we told them to come to Siobon on
the day we were to take the boat
back to Padang. Only two of them
showed up.
My memory
goes from me but somewhere in there
we have a Bible study and I sang a
song. My memory is so short that I
think I am becoming younger, but
maybe someday when my memory becomes
long range thinking, it may come
back as my short term memory is just
that. When we go to leave after the
clinic, one of the church laymen
asked me if I could help with a
donation to go towards their
building program. They had built the
two sides and the front walls to
where they would place the roof
rafters. They needed money to finish
the rest. My heart goes out to them
as they make so little money.
The average
person in Mentawai earns US$.40 per
hour and most do not work very much.
Well that is what they make on the
island of Sumatra also. Their
offering is usually less than a
dollar per giver and some only give
coins of 25 and 50 rupiah or a 100
rupiah bill. You can see how poor
they are as 100 rupiah is 1/8 of a
cent. So I gave him 200,000 rupiah
(about US$22.00) and he was so
grateful. That was equal to over one
week of pay to them.
Since then,
I take over more money so that when
this comes up again I can help them
out even more. My heart goes out to
them every time I go to the islands.
There need is so great and no one
but John and I are consistent in
going to meet the needs that they
have medically and it is such a
small drop in the bucket.
After that
we go to the boat and it is already
loaded and so we all climb in. I
looked back up the bank of the river
and it seemed that the whole village
came to see us off. Talk about
getting choked up. This had never
happened this much ever before. I
suppose that it was because of
something I had said or done, but I
feel I give so little for what their
needs are.
Boy oh boy,
the emotions that come while writing
this is overwhelming at times and I
have to stop for a little bit.
Anyway, we get back to Siobon and
have dinner, relax and retire for
the evening. Being that we have 3
days before we can get on a boat
back to Padang, we have a quite a
bit of time to kill.
I make
arrangements to do a Bible study at
two of the churches. I think there
is 5 or 6 churches in Siobon and one
mosque. The next day the girls want
to go to the beach. So we head off
for the beach along with the cook
Waty, and Rev. Perulian’s
12-year-old daughter and her friend.
It is about 2 or 3 pm in the
afternoon. We spend about 2 hours in
the surf messing around and then
when we get out we go to Suzi’s
house and rinse the salt water off.
We all had a good time even if I was
so much older than they were. Angel
and Ligna are 22 and this time and
the two girls were around 12 years
old. Suzi has a couple children and
also one child that the mother and
father had died from a disease as
there is no orphanage on any of
these islands.
On Thursday
evening we all go to Rev. Perulian’s
church. I believe his church is
Lutheran. They sing a couple of
songs and sound so good I sing them
a song also. The name of the song
was Majesty. They also know the song
in the Mentawai language. All
children and most adults under 40
know Bahasa Indonesian language. So
after I finish, they join in and we
sing it again. Then I have the Bible
study.
On Friday
night we go to Jack’s church. His
church is not as subdued. They sing
a number of beautiful songs. Then
they turn it over to me. Suzi is my
interpreter. I begin with the song,
Majesty again.
Joe Sings and Suzy is just listening
to the song.
In this
church we have a man that plays the
guitar and Suzi asks him if he would
play along with me. I was asked to
start and he was to follow me. Well
my voice is not necessarily in the
right key, at least not in the key
he was going to play. The crowd got
a laugh out of that. So I stopped
and he did likewise. I had Suzi
inform him and everyone else that I
would sing by myself through the
first round and then he could play
and I would sing with his music key
along with the congregation. So I
proceeded to sing and someone in the
audience joined in with me in
English. That came to me as a
surprise.
So when I
finished they clapped and now is
time to have them join in. But
before we started, Suzi informed
that it would not be as fast as I
sang it. I got a chuckle out of that
as I thought I sang it slow. So they
all joined in and had a marvelous
time singing this praise to God.
Then I began
the Bible study and we were even
able to get a couple of laughs from
my odd told stories during the
study. And once again I got a few
laughs from them meaning that they
were listening to the interpreter.
On Saturday
we are back on the boat and Sunday
morning back in Padang. That was a
very refreshing journey into a
village and base camp village. God
is great and I did not get sick and
no eye infection.
