This trip was a working trip for Duane and two colleagues, Kuriake Kharismawan of UKDW and Damai Teguh, our first language teacher, who served as interpreter for this training and facilitation trip. We worked with 400 pastors of Sinode Gereja Kristen Injili di Irian Jaya on the conflict among them arising from aspirations for Papuan independence. The work was at three sites: Jayapura, which is starting to revert to its older name Port Numbay, the island of Biak, and the town of Sorong on the beak of the Bird's Head. The work part of the trip you can find under the link to Duane's professional activities site at Fresno Pacific, or on the UKDW web site.

I found out just before we left that this trip would mark the first airplane ride for both my colleagues. They did fine, and are now quite experienced, with 11 rides. I got to sit by the window on the last one.

We began in Jayapura, the provincial capital, which is on the north side at the border with Papua New Guinea. The harbor has many interesting fishing boats. The platforms on the side hold nets.

Jayapura is very hilly. The town is divided by ridges. Houses are built on the hillsides.

Outside town is Lake Sentani, which is huge. Being from the most densely populated place on earth, Kuriake and Damai had never seen so much open space with so few people.

The island of Biak used to have an international airport and quite a tourist trade. Neither is true now. The island is surrounded by a coral reef and has large, empty hotels.

Kuriake is holding our driver's son, who came with us touring. The little boat is typical in the area.

Sorong's airport was built by the Dutch during WWII on a small island off the coast. I was able to see out the winshield of the plane as we landed and it was like landing on an aircraft carrier. Our Fokker was refueled by pumping fuel from these drums.

Stepping out of the Sorong air terminal you see not a line of taxis, but this jetty lined with boats. It is a 30 minute ride to Sorong. Making a deal with the hotel people, porters and boat people is quite a process.

In Sorong we did a lot of driving, almost always in this taxi which was hired for the conference. We got to know Anton the driver.

Our final Sunday was taken up with touring and a beach picnic. Here Damai behaves like a proper tourist at the market.

The harbor at Sorong.

In the taxi on the way to the beach with Kuriake, Jos Imbiri, a synod officer, and two of the pastors we were working with.

On the way to the beach you stop and buy fruit. These folks are selling Salak, snakeskin fruit.

Pantai Kasoweri is quite popular on a Sunday afternoon.

Jos Imbiri took Kuriake and Damai for a canoe ride.

Like all beach picnics, this one ended with the fully-clothed dry people getting thrown in. The joke here was that Kuriake became the first Javanese thrown back into the sea by native Papuans, or rather "Kuriake menjadi orang Java pertama dibuang di laut oleh orang Papua asli." The word buang is used for throwing something away.