I like going on walks, but when I arrived in Indonesia I found things limiting me from exploring by foot.  First of all it is a bad idea to exercise from the hours of 9 am to 3 pm because it's unbearably hot and humid.  Secondly as a foreigner in an area with few foreigners, I get a lot of unwanted attention.  People call out to me "Mister, mister" or just stare without trying to hide it. Thirdly, at first it seemed that my host family and friends never go on walks.  Even to places that are a 5 minute walk away (such as church) we take motorbikes.  Therefore, in my first few months I was clueless as to how I would continue my habit of walking. Finally after a month or so I got antsy and I convinced my host siblings to go on a walk with me. They reluctantly agreed and pulled themselves away from the TV.  Soon after that I found out that a few of the neighbour kids like to walk.  In the recent months, the highlight of my day is coming home at 4 pm and inviting my neighbours to go on a walk.  I also like to go on an afternoon walk with my host cousins or my 3 English students from P3W.

This picture is of last month when I went on a walk with my English students.  We started by going up this hill close to my house.

Then at the top of the hill, they suggested that if we walk down a rough trail then we can loop back to the main road.  I had never been to this part of the city so I was happy to explore.

Another day I went on a walk up a hill with friends from P3W.  It had a great view of the city.

I'm amazed by how Jayapura looks like a different city from each hill I've been on. On this hill the dirt is brown, but on the hill close to my house, the dirt is orange/redish.  From some hills you can see the ocean, but other hills overlook houses and forests.  Walking up hills and taking in the view is a spiritual practice for me.  Sometimes I obsess about my problems and lose perspective of my identity in God.  But when I'm on top of a hill I realize the silly things I've been obsessing about; I see the bustling city, the calm ocean and other hills.  I often feel like I'm not doing enough as a volunteer.  I'm not learning or contributing to women's empowerment in the way I imagined.  I constantly run into limits that restrain me from engaging with people and tasks that weren't barriers in Canada. But through these frustrations, I climb to the top of a hill and in that moment I accept that I am flawed and limited, but there is still purpose, joy and beauty in weakness.  I climb down the hill and return to the four pink walls of my room and the negative thoughts come back and my gracious attitude is gone.  So I have to climb up another hill to be reminded again.