With ten pieces of luggage weighing 70kg, I felt lucky that my friend Lily Sanjaya let me have Alpen, a Moni boy, to accompany me to Bilogai. He watched and carried some of the luggage during the travel. Missing luggage is common at the airports in Papua; I had lost some before. Airplane delay is…
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Being a woman in rural areas of developing countries is very tough; being a Papuan woman is the toughest. And being a Papuan woman with a severe handicap is an unbearable life for a human being. However, I learned from a young woman in the interior how to handle such an unbearable life. Ruty Boani…
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I wrote Nat and Lynn about the illustrating picture of “Parent Donors” post: ‘a common view in rural areas of developing countries.’ And, yesterday I saw that view in the interior of Papua. Check this video clip “Big sister syndrome in developing countries” I wrote that the view always stirred my feeling: touching but sad…
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When I was forced by my conscience to adopt her in 1991, I was not sure what would happen to Upik. But I was optimistic that she would have a bright future when I let her adopted by the principal of a junior high school in Wamena, the capital of the Central Highland Regency. The…
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A papuan man stopped me a few meters from my hotel in Jayapura. “Do you want to buy cuscus?” He showed the cuscus, the flurry brown strips over white fur. It was so cute and beautiful. “Where did you get it?” “Sarmi,” he anwerred. I know where it is. A village in the northwest coast…
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