No Money, No Gas, No Fruit, No Phone

Bank BRI and Bank Papua both have ATM’s but both were “out of Money” both inside and at the ATM in Bade

Bank Papua in Bade actually closed its doors until money could be shipped in.

We made plans to go to Bade and simply use it as a base to visit Amk and Kepi.   We made provision to bring enough gas so that we could rent a boat and go up river to Amk to drop our Global Pioneer who will be working for the next 3-5 years in planting an Adventist Church and school in Amk/Sengge.    Turns out we seriously underestimated.   We needed 15 more liters than what we brought.   So we had to beg, borrow and promise to get enough fuel to return to Bade from Amk.

To make the trip more interesting when we stopped to get fuel the boat was clearly leaking more than a little.   So we took turned bailing water.

Who needs a bilge pump when you can bail?

Upon returning to Bade after dropping our worker in Sengge we made straight to the bank knowing we’d need more money since we had to pay a premium to buy gas from passing boats on the Digal river.   We’d siphon a liter here and pour 4 liters from there each time spending our available cash.   We actually had enough gas back in Sentani but in an effort to lighten the airplane load we put part of our gas to be brought for our pick-up flight.   Our thinking back then was that we’d just buy enough in Bade to fill in the gapes.

At the bank I tried every Debit card I had but no money would cough itself out of the machine.   No matter how sweet I tried to talk to the machine it just wouldn’t do it.    It was after hours so we just went around back and woke the banker up and asked why the ATM wasn’t working.   “Oh you can only get a small amount out at a time.”   But that failed too.   Finally Pastor Rellely got 50,000 RP (approximately $5 USD) out.   Evidently that was the last $5 to be had.   The next day the machine wouldn’t do anything.   We each were spending the last of our money just to eat.

Then the cell phone signal just quit for no apparent reason.   There was no bad weather. . . no loss of electricity. . . just No signal.

I went to the market and there was plenty of “Catch of the Day” fish and even deer meat but No Fruit!!!!!!!   Only a few cooking bananas and lots of various types of roots and sweet potatoes but where was the fruit?????   No Fruit.   How’s a Vegetarian suppose to eat without Fruit.    Finally we found some green oranges which in the tropics are usually quite delicious but when we opened them up we discovered they were large unripe lemons.   No edible Fruit.  

No Money, No Cell Phone, No Fruit, No Gas.

We prayed and finally after a good nights sleep the Gas ship came in but the rations were no more than 10 liters of gas per person per every other day.   We needed 60 liters and had to leave now if we were going to make it back in time for Friday’s pick up with Pilot Bob Roberts from Adventist Aviation plus we needed money. . . On the same ship as the gas came the money.   The money was carried in a simple pull along suit case.  There was the person to pulled the money around followed by a soldier with a fully automatic machine gun and then a security officer to make sure that neither the “puller” or the “soldier” worked together to heist the money.   I noticed that each of the three were from different tribes to insure there were no inside jobs done with the money.

We waited a few minutes for them to load the ATM machines and then we went to give it a try.   But they informed us that the machine doesn’t work until the Cell Phone signal is working.   Ah!  Man!    For crying out loud!   We prayed and in another 30 minutes my phone beeped signaling I had a text message which meant the cell phone tower had been restored to its former glory.  

Off to the ATM machine and I punched in the codes and eureka I was able to pull out the daily maximum for this city which is 700,000 Rupiah ($70).   Now what?   Our Hotel was going to cost us more than that.   Don’t freak out just call my secretary and get her to send an envelope of money and we’ll pay our bills that way.   We finally managed to cobble enough money together to leave Bade with no personal debts.   But next time I think I’ll bring a Sat phone and a shipment of Mangoes and a barrel of gas together with a good size piggy Bank so we can survive.

Then again I did notice this Mango tree where every one stood to get out of the blistering heat just outside Hotel Auyu (in the background).   Maybe in just need to time my next visit with Mango season and come on the ship because with it comes Money and Gas.