The Jayapura Transition

3 weeks ago I arrived in Jayapura, Papua, Indonesia.  The drive from the airport to my host family’s house was absolutely stunning with green rolling hills, Sentani lake, and various tropical plants I can’t explain.  I was nervous to walk into the cute pink house that was to become my home.  I met my shy host siblings in the doorway and sat down for tea. 

In Salatiga (where I lived for language school) I was beginning to feel confident in my Indonesian language skills because there were always English speakers around.  However, my confidence went down the drain when I moved to Jayapura and realized my family life, volunteering life, and almost every part of my life will be in Indonesian.  There seems to be less people in Jayapura compared to Salatiga that speak English fluently.  So why is that a big deal?  Trying to communicate in a different language is like learning a foreign code and realizing that your thoughts are incomprehensible unless you use the foreign code.  Because my Indonesian is still basic, I’m not able to express abstract ideas and have to settle for simple conversations.

The 3 core areas of service and learning for SALT Indonesia  are host family, church, and volunteer placement.  I like that there’s 3 realms of responsibility because if one realm is disappointing, stressful, or monotonous than I can enjoy and build relationships in the other realms.  So far at P3W (Women’s Empowerment Organization) I’ve been doing simple tasks such as making cards, creating labels for books in the library and accompanying my coworkers to the stand where they sell crafts.  I go to church every Sunday and to a young adult service once a week. 

Most Papuans here are very shy with me so making friends happens slowly.  In Salatiga, Indonesians were excited to see me and would ask for a photo (or 5).  But here, when I meet Papuans, I am puzzled because I often (not always) see shock and apprehension in their body language.  In some ways it feels like people are scared of me. 

I’m enjoying getting to know my host family.  I have 2 younger sisters (18 and 16) and 2 younger brothers (12 and 2).  My sisters like to sing American songs with me and take selfies.  They add new Indonesian words to my vocabulary while I also teach them English.  Lately, I borrowed some picture books and my host siblings pointed at the pictures and labeled the items in Indonesian.  My 2-year-old brother is full of energy and his favourite activity with me is giving me his toy gun and running away, hoping that I will follow with pretend gunfire. 

Overall, the last 3 weeks of transition has been stressful at times, but also very exciting and awesome to take in how beautiful this part of Indonesia is.  I am posting some pictures, but there are many more beautiful places I would like to show you.

I visited a house that is built on stilts over the lake.  There are villages of these houses, a very traditional way to live.

Hamadi beach - One of the many beaches in Jayapura