The first time I’ve seen houses built over water was when I first arrived to Jayapura, Papua.  I was immediately fascinated by life on a small island.  It was a dream of mine to live in a house that had ocean as a front yard.  On June 12, I travelled to Biak, the island North-West of my city Jayapura.  My host mom is from Biak and she has many relatives that live there, some of which I already met.  Just my host mom, host brother and I made the trip. 

An enchanting house in Sentani, Jayapura

Biak is a beautiful island; I would say more beautiful than Bali.  We took a car and drove around most of it in the week I was there.  I stayed in the city two nights and then we went to stay with other relatives in the village.  After a three hour car drive to Southern Biak, we took a speed boat and it started getting dark. We made it to a channel between two islands and then the boat got stuck multiple times and they had to use a long stick to move us along slowly.  I was getting nervous, but everyone else seemed calm.  Finally we made it through the channel and I saw lights in the distance.  It was a whole community on an island far from the mainland! 

My host uncle and I overlooking his village Soek, Biak

I loved living in a house above the ocean.  Everyone told me Biak is hotter than Jayapura, but there was a constant breeze so it felt cooler than my oven of a home in Jayapura.  My host uncle was very excited to show me around.  We went to Rani island and I drank young coconut and watched a baby pig run away from its mother squealing with a coconut in its mouth.  Everywhere we went I was introduced to more uncles and aunts I didn’t know about.  I am always confused about how people are related because there’s no way one person can have this many blood relatives.

 Landing on Rani Island

In this village (Soek) my aunt and uncle receive visitors every hour of the day without invitation.  They receive boxes of fish/seafood without ordering it.  This is the kind of community I was expecting in Papua, but I didn’t see it much in the city. In Jayapura, my host family doesn’t often receive visitors and we rarely visit neighbours.  Building relationships with my community wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be.

                                They walk these narrow planks so quickly and I shake with fear (Soek, Biak)

During the trip to Biak I had so many questions about culture, but when I sat with the youth and asked, they were very shy to answer.  The same thing happened to me when I was visiting the highlands.  People are quick to agree with me and say yes to every question I have, and I’m left to wonder if they’re even listening to me.  I realized once again that most locals aren’t going to openly disclose information to a foreigner.  Trusting relationships need to be built before open dialogue can happen.  I have some of these relationships in Jayapura, but they are still new friendships.  This year a lot of my questions have gone unanswered and maybe I don’t deserve to know the answer because I’m just a foreigner.  I thought I’d have coherent knowledge about Papuan culture by the end of my year, but the longer I stay here the more questions I have.  I can’t go back to Canada and proudly display all that I learned and my brilliant insight on it.  Instead, I’m coming home with pieces of stories and subjective experience.  I’m thankful for the exciting, mundane, beautiful, uncomfortable time in Indonesia.

Another island close to Soek

Important Update: I already said my goodbyes in Papua and I'm in Java with the other MCCers.  On July 10th I'll travel back to Akron, Pennsylvania for a re-entry MCC retreat.  On July 16th I'll be back in Canada!