Totoberi lies on the "shoulders of the bird” in the area called the birds head bay. Near the boarder between the Waropen and Nabire district. New Guinea is often said to look like a giant bird. So you’ll often hear me referring to the birds head (west Papua Province of Indonesia) or other parts of the bird.
97 kilometers by boat across the Bird of Paradise Bay to the north-east of Nabire lies a small village called Totoberi (pronounced Toe-Toe-Berry). Totoberi is located up a series of brackish tributaries to the Wapoga River. It is a swampy region between Waropen and Nabire districts. Totoberi is the last known settlement of Burate tribe known to exist on planet earth. About 200 people live in 30 family groups in this 1 village. The government built them homes to help preserve them as they were dying because of health problems. They live primarily by the forest and fishing. They eat primarily Sago flour and fish and jungle greens. Poor health is their number 1 need and the biggest contributing cause for the dying out of their tribe.
I asked the district Pastor – Gad Windawani where he dreamed of starting new work and he told me of this village where one of our faithful Adventists lives. So on a whim I asked, “can we go there on Sunday?” I could see a worried look on his face. 200+ kilometers round trip on the ocean and up flood swollen rivers can be dangerous. But the details were planned. Now Pastor Gad’s dream has become my dream – to start a work amongst the Burate people.
Pastor Gad Windewani
They told me that our journey would take 2 hours from Nabire to their village but no one told me that we had to stop in other places beyond this tribe first. So it turned out to be about 8 hours riding on a leaky boat. We stopped at the village of Kamarsano which was probably 20 kilometers beyond Totoberi first.
The dock up the tidal creek in the Mangrove swamp at Kamarsano. These are some of the ones who came with me and Pastor Gad on this journey to Totoberi.
Kamarsano is a village that has become entirely Seventh-day Adventists. Nearly 280 residence call Kamarsano home. I’ll write another blog about them latter but for now I’ll explain the purpose of visiting Kamarsano before we went to Totoberi. Kamarsano needed to be asked to sponsor a new group into Totoberi. Since the one Adventist family in Totoberi has roots in the Kamarsano village we decided to stop and ask them to become the mother church in Totoberi. I especially enjoyed the people in Kamarsano because they have beautiful smiles and warm personalities.
At last, at around noon we left Kamarsano and back tracked to the Wapoga River and went inland for a number of Kilometers. The recent floods had cut a short cut through one of the rivers bends so we saved 10 minutes of time and saved fuel. But this new short cut was very narrow and our boat was relatively long meaning we had to duck under the low branches and hope some poisonous snake would decide to jump from the trees into our boat. Even above the deafening roar of our twin engines I could occasionally hear birds singing. I’d love to come back in a kayak and do slowly through the mangrove and sago palm swamps and see what life birds I could add to my list. Oh how I wish for one of those supper telephoto lenses on my Canon DSLR camera to shoot bird pictures with. But on a Pastor/Missionary Salary that will have to wait until heaven or cheaper technology.
Entering the short cut recently added by floods on the bend of the river. I was praying that no snake or crocodile would jump in while we were in such a narrow section of the river.
At last we arrived at Totoberi. My first impression was a fairly normal Papuan village. The government built them a new village with a concrete path down the middle of the homes. They are hoping to preserve the native culture and peoples by providing better housing. They even built them a 3 bed clinic/hospital. They added a nurses house and a district leaders office and a school. They built a generator and put electric wires for lights into every persons homes. The district office even has a solar panel for electricity for the hours when the generator is not working (6 p.m. until 9 p.m. daily.)
Totoberi at last. The old part of the village still lies close to the river and is at the mercy of floods.
Babies ride on the backs of their mothers.
The District Government office for Totoberi
Empty government clinic awaiting an Indonesian Citizen Clinical Nurse
The cemented path down the center of approximately 30 government built homes
The only Adventist Family in the village
We were soon introduced to the village chief and our district Pastor was graciously given the seat of honor inside the board room. Pastor Gadd Windewani explained that he was from their same family originally and that he had learned some wonderful things from the Bible and wanted to have the privilege of working with their village. He explained that I was from the Union office and worked specifically with the two Papua missions of the Adventist church. He then allowed me to ask them some questions.
So I asked them what their number 1 need was. They said is was for better health. They have an empty clinic but no clinical nurse to run the clinic. Immediately I saw this as a wonderful opportunity. The government is willing to pay for a clinical nurse to work here.
The government a-lots enough fuel for 3 hours of electricity per day. 6-9 p.m. each day. This is the generator.
We did not promise them anything yet but I am praying that we can one day soon have a Global Pioneer to work with them. Even better would be a husband wife team who one was a nurse and one could be a Global Pioneer (known locally as TSPM).
List of needs with estimated costs.
1) Global Pioneer worker ($80-$155 per worker per month)
2) Clinic Nurse (Government willing to pay)
3) Small boat with motor to reach Nabire or Waropen by in case of emergency ($2,000-$4000+)
4) Jungle Church ($3,000-$5,000)
5) Stipend for 1,000 missionary volunteers ($40-70 per volunteer per month)
6) Additional supplies for clinic not provided by government or fees received from patients. Estimated at $100-150 per month.
No comments:
Post a Comment