Indonesia Update #3: live from Cambodia

Hi :)

I'm sitting in the hotel 'business center', which consists of about 5 computers and a sometimes-slow Internet connection, with 12 minutes remaining on my $3-hour access. I wanted to try and post a few more thoughts/updates on Indonesia (even though I'm in Cambodia), because it will likely be another week before I can even check email, much less post on this blog. My computer flaked out yesterday - I plugged it into an outlet I probably should have - and I won't have internet access from Tuesday until Friday, so updates will be scarce until I return to the States.

My dad really wanted to hear the overnight flight debacle, so I figured I should tell it. On Tuesday, Oct. 14, we left to go to Wamena, a small town in the middle of Papua (Irian Jaya). We were scheduled for an overnight/red-eye flight that I thought only stopped once...unfortunately it actually stopped three times, twice on one flight and once to change planes.

I'm not the type of person who sleeps on planes, much less someone who sleeps on planes constantly taking off & landing, so I knew going into it that I wouldn't get much sleep. Unfortunately, around 5:00pm on Tuesday afternoon, a few hours before we were to leave for the airport, something I ate decided to wreak havoc on me (not gluten havoc, more like food poisoning havoc). Without going into all the gory details, let's just say that I formed close relationships with the toilets in the WR office before we left, the airport before taking off, and the airplane galley while in flight.

I expect to get sick when I travel, so I wasn't totally surprised, just a little annoyed at the timing of this nasty little bug. The group I was traveling with was great; when they heard I was sick, they laid hands on me and prayed for me, then refused to let me carry any of my overstuffed and heavy bags while we were traveling. So sweet.

We got to Wamena around 10:00am and I promptly fell into bed. I was going to try to get up for lunch and have some rice, but I was so exhausted I ended up sleeping through the afternoon, and then even slept through the night! My stomach didn't calm down until I forced it to with some tried and true immodium, but I felt 1000 times better after all the sleep - I think it helped me get over my jet lag. :)

There is SO much more to write about my time in Wamena - we visited with some local pastors and church leaders who were just finishing up training in the Choose Life (HIV/AIDS prevention) curriculum - they asked us some REALLY challenging questions that I want to share but don't have time. We also went on a BEAUTIFUL walk outside Wamena town, to see how/where the target population for this HIV/AIDS project lives...but I'll have to tell you more about it later because I'm going to get cut off.

We have meetings with reps from our US church parnters this week - pray my extroverted energy holds out and I'm able to interact with everyone! :) Love you all lots,

Lynnae