Papua Travel Report - Timika, Jayapura and Merauke

It felt very strange going to Denpasar airport at 2.30 on a Friday morning. That’s right, 2.30am. I was leaving Bali for a 4 hour flight east to the land of the beautiful and very unusual Bird of Paradise. I had been there before way back in 2006 and was very happy to be going again. First stop was Timika on the south coast of Papua. Timika is an unusual sort of place. Landing at Mozes Kilangin airport is sort of unreal as the plane approaches the airport over wide areas of dense, jungle mangrove swamps. Down and down we went until suddenly there was a runway and a new airport building. Back in 2006 I remember the main airport building being quite small and not at al flashy or modern. However now the terminal building has ATMs, a café and is even air-conditioned. Very nice indeed and brand new.

When we arrived at SMK YAPIS there were around 100 keen an very active SMP, SMA and SMK students waiting for the man from Kang Guru. They were a terrific group of English language learners. I was particularly amazed by their questions especially from the younger SMP students. The student meeting lasted for two hours and in that time we certainly talked about many things including scholarships, life in Australia and NIDJI. The students left but many of them thanked KGI for visiting them and they seemed quite keen to start writing to kGI and to begin listening to Kang Guru radio on Radio Pustika FM. The program is broadcast every Thursday at 4pm – that’s a great time cos most of these students are home by then and they can relax and listen. During the workshop we were all treated to a performance by agroup of young learners from Limau Asri English Club. They sang English language songs and are led by Ibu Yuliawati Madu, and alumni of Australia who traveled several times 25 km from her home to join with KGI events in Timika- thanks Yuliawati and to her performers too.

Achmad Syahril - a very young driver in Timika
Limau Asri group of performers at the teacher workshop - fantastic!

Later in the day I visited Radio Pustika FM in Timika with Ibu Emma from the MGMP. With the help of one of the stations’ DJs, we delivered a few easy quiz questions on the radio for KGI even though it was Friday and not Thursday. Callers telephoned the station to answer the questions and win the prizes – well done to all those who won. Thanks also to Pak Hajri (DJ) and Radio Pustika FM for broadcasting KGI to the English language students and the communities in Timika.

After the visit ot he radio station we walked to Ramla Yondo Sikom’s house. Ramala was one of the organizers of the workshop and is also a teacher. Her mother, Nafisa Hud, is a great cook so I was invited to go for dinner and try the local food delicacy – bepeda. It is a thick, sticky glue-like substance that is eaten with vegetable, maybe a chicken curry or fish AND I suppose it is the local equivalent of rice. Instead of nasi campur people in Timika eat bapeda plus assorted other things such as in a nasi campur. I have to say that I did not like it at all.

One thing I really noticed in Timika was the heat. The weather was VERY hot every day and locals told me that it was around 40 degrees Celsius at this time of the year. I believed them. It also rained a bit and with the rain came fabulous cloud formations, lightning and heavy downpours. I can’t be sure but I thin that the daily day-time temperature in Bali for example always stay around 30 – 32 degrees. The roads were quiet during the day with just a few cars and motorbikes BUT at night, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. The young men are out riding around on their noisy motorbikes and the shops are full with people and the warungs are busy. I guess this makes it the same as so many other towns across the country, right?

On Saturday it was time for the Timika KGI Teacher Workshop. KGI was in Timika in 2006 when I also presented a teacher workshop. Many of the same teachers are still in Timika and it was good to see them again at this workshop – the theme was How To Make the Classroom more Stimulating and Productive. The workshop started with a song and I used an old favorite – G’day G'day.The teachers really enjoyed it and it was the beginning of an active and rewarding workshop for both teachers and for me. Although the expected 100 teachers didn’t arrive, there were around 40 teachers who did. They all seemed quite happy with the activities we did together. They were busy and active the whole time writing, listening, reading, speaking, predicting, etc. Their classroom should be the same – full of active students all working together and helping each other, and enjoying themselves.

Sunday was another work day for me. As the sun shone and the rain fell I fired up the laptop and wrote six new radio programs for Kang Guru. The programs, 7107 7112, were recorded as soon as I returned to Bali. I also worked on the KGI website especially with pages for the November 2010 KGI Bulletin. Ayu helped with this before I cam to Papua and now it was my time to get the content up on the internet. The bulletin page on the website was first on my list then the podcast page for the bulletin AND finally the smaller additions to other pages including the JOEYS, Different Pond Different Fish and KGI’s Aus AID pages.

My IALF colleague Sri from Bali arrived from Bali at 7.30am on Monday. After a short break Sri and I were picked up by Ibu Yeni. Ibu Yeni is the coordinator for the testing activities, including English language, for the ………………… PPT program from the Government of Papua. The candidates in Timika and in Merauke on Wednesday are all keen to go to Australia for further training and then return to their respective areas to assist with the development of their province. In Timika there were 27 candidates and both Sri and I were kept quite busy testing, including English and Bahasa Indonesia interviews, with all candidates. It was a busy day. The evening was most enjoyable as I went to Warung Surabaya with the Organizing Committee from the MGMP and the workshop, while Sri went out for dinner with Ibu Yeni ALSO to Warung Surabaya – tumben ya!

On Tuesday Sri and I were taken on a quick look-see at Kuala Kencana, the township built by Freeport in the middle of the Papuan jungle about 20 km from Timika. The township has shops, a swimming pool, suburban streets and housing, a town square, schools, banks, supermarkets, restaurants, and their own facilities such as water and electricity. The set-up is quite amazing and something to see. From there we drove to the airport to fly to Jayapura. On the way we saw to amazing sights – the Kangguru Hotel and a cemetery where all the graves had roofs over them . After 20 years in Indonesia it was the first time ever to see these two things. How about you? The flight to Jayapura was a little bumpy but we made it to Jayapura and the hotel by 6pm. Yes, that’s right, Merpati was delayed by almost two hours.

A local cemetery with graves covered by a roof - unusual, right?

Before I went to Jayapura I had emailed some of the Australian scholarship alumni who I knew lived in Jayapura. Two of the, Adel (below right) and Natalis (below left) were already waiting for me when I reached the hotel. After a quick chek-in and depositing my bags in my room, I met the two alumni in the lounge for a chat and interviews. I had expected these interviews would take about 15 minutes each however two hours later we finally finished. Natalis and Adel had very interesting stories to tell and it was my first time doing a video interviews rather than just sound. It was fun for all of us. A special thanks to both Adel and Natalis for their assistance, patience and terrific interviews.

Sri and I met at 5am on Wednesday at breakfast in the hotel – yes, an early start to our second testing day and this time in Merauke. Our Merpati flight was a little late so we didn’t actually arrive in Merauke until 10.00 – and that was testing time. Needless to say we went quickly to the venue and began the testing of 37 candidates for the …PP program. It was SO hot at the venue with only a cool breeze giving some relief some of the time. Sri and I finished the last interview of 10 at 17.20pm. Earlier in the day the driver has offered to take us to see the Papua New Guinea border - a 90 minute drive from Merauke. But it was too late so we had to satisfied seeing the Maro Bridge, the longest in West Papua, and an evening drive around the city of Merauke – what a clean and neat city too. It was very nice.

On Thursday we both returned to Jayapura and due to a Garuda cancellation I had to stay in Jayapura another night instead of going straight back to Bali. That was okay cos I had work to do on the website, FaceBook and this Travel Report too. I finally flew to Bali on Friday morning at 9.30 via Timika and then onto Bali arriving in Bali by 15.00. Trip completed successfully.

Thanks Sri for your assistance. We had quite a few laughs, didn’t we?