Volontaire en Papouasie

As I mentioned in my past posting, Renaud and Fanny are the volunteers from France who help the Sorong-Manokwari Diocese. They both teach English in Seminary Petrus Van Diepen. Renaud is an engineer who works (taking a leave now) for an automobile company in Paris whereas Fanny is a therapist for children with speaking problems.

This is their story (both in French and English):

Merci Lian pour ce blog qui permet de partager la vie d’une volontaire en Papouasie. Et merci de nous donner la parole!

Nous aussi, originaires de France, nous sommes volontaires en Papouasie en tant que volontaires MEP (missions etrangeres de Paris, www.mepasie.org).

Le depaysement est total pour les europeens que nous sommes. Un francais en Indonesie est deja bien depayse mais en Papouasie il l’est encore advantage, la Papouasie est a la fois differente comme chaque ile indonesienne possede sa specificite (nous sommes passes par Java et Bali), mais avec le plan de transmigrations du gouvernement les villes retrouvent une certaine identite indonesienne.

Ce qui frappe au premier abord, c’est la quantite incroyable d’edifices religieux : mosquees cotoient eglises catholiques et protestantes. La population eclectique indonesienne se repartit dans les differentes eglises. La Papouasie est constituee d’une population heterogene, originaire des quatre coins de l’indonesie dans les villes mais des que l’on peut s’en eloigner et qu’on a la chance de survoler cette ile immense, ce ne sont que Papous et foret. Une immense foret vallonnee que parcourent courageusement quelques pistes mais il faut souvent terminer le chemin a pied lorsque l’on veut atteindre un village.

Notre activite ici est de faire pratiquer et faire progresser des enfants en anglais, au sein d’un college catholique (petit seminaire) a proximite de Sorong, a la pointe nord ouest de la Papouasie.

Pour nous, la vie ici est comme un retour aux temps anterieurs parfois (cuisine au feu de bois, douche manuelle a l’eau de pluie, etc.). Les hommes trouvent dans la nature des aliments que nous ne saurions reconnaitre (feuilles, racines, etc.). La cuisine est aussi particulierement depaysante, systematiquement tres chargee en condiments (beaucoup d’ail et beaucoup de saveurs differentes melees), un temps d’adaptation fut necessaire a nos estomacs…

Une de nos difficultes est egalement un probleme de comprehension malgre notre apprentissage de la langue. Nous sommes habitués a une communication plus directe que celle utilisee en Indonesie… Notre bonne vieille France nous manque parfois mais nos familles y remedient en nous envoyant des boites pleines de cochonailles, chocolats et autres livres, ce qui ne fait pas notre joie seule car la communaute dans laquelle nous vivons aime aussi le cochon!

Ceci dit, en comparaison aux mythes qui circulent dans nos pays de l’ouest et dans l’ouest de l’Indonesie, la Papouasie evolue, les villes sont semblables a d’autres villes indonesiennes et les habitants de la foret sont organises en village qui ont parfois l’electricite et ont troque la fameuse gourde a penis contre des vetements (on ne sort l’attirail plus que pour les rares touristes).

Pensees de deux jeunes francais en Papouasie…

Renaud et Fanny de Colombe


Thanks a lot Lian to let us write in that blog which can make us share our life of volunteers in Indonesia, even more in Papua.

We are a young French couple (just married) and volunteers like you, for the association MEP (Missions Etrangeres de Paris, which means Foreign Missions of Paris).

Everything here is completely different from France. In Indonesia already, but even more in Papua where we have the chance to live for one year. What is surprising at first, is the high number of religious buildings of every kind: Mosque, Catholic and Protestant Churches every two hundred meters. As the result of its history, Papua is composed of lots of different people coming from all the Indonesia and believing in different religions. This melting pot can be seen more easily in the big towns than at the countryside where the population is almost a hundred per cent Papuans from the origin. We had the chance to travel in the countryside and to see this culture due to the landscape: Forest, Forest, forest, hill, hill and hill in a huge surface as big as France!!

There are several roads but I don’t know if we can really call them roads because they are very damaged. It must be so difficult to build them that the people who live won’t be invaded for a long time again! There are also some villages that you can reach only by walking for hours or days. We won’t describe this excursion because Lian already did it, but it is true that you have to be quite sportive to do it.

This excursion has been possible during our Christmas holidays. The rest of the time, we work as English Teachers in a Seminary (Catholic school which corresponds to the Junior High School) in Aimas, about 30 kilometers from Sorong. The purpose is to make the children speak English which is completely unusual and not so easy!! More over, we are not at all English teachers in France. But we enjoy it and our every day life.

This life is quite different from our French life much more comfortable. We had to get used to the food: lot of different spices and foods in the same plate with some ingredients, fruits or vegetables which don’t have any translation in French or in English because we don’t use them. We had to get used to the “Indonesian bath” with only a little cup and the water from the rain. We had to get used to the differences of cultures with the problems of comprehension and different ways of communication. The European culture is much more direct than the Indonesian culture. Sometimes, we miss France but we received some boxes from France by our families with the traditional French Saucisson, books and Chocolate….

But all those differences are not as big as we could imagine when we were still in France. In France, when you talk about Papua it is considered as the end of the world with naked people and cannibals. Fortunately for us, it doesn’t have any meaning any more so that we are still alive, dressed and more over we have got the light in our bedroom.

We recommend you to visit this region. Nice to see you there!

Renaud and Fanny de Colombe