Born to Be A Catholic?

I almost leaped with joy when one of my students in Rumah Bina submitted an essay outline with this topic: God does not equal religion. Rumah Bina Tolentino is a house for diocesan and OSA postulants. He started with an argument that most of us “inherited” our religions from our parents.

Yeah, tell me something that I don’t know, you might think. But hey for these people to whom religions become their most important identity, this is quite a thought. Their lives revolve around church activities. They address others according to their religions. You hear these remarks often: “Yes, that policeman is a Catholic” or “No, she is a Protestant”. Well yeah we might find similar situations in other parts of the world including the so-called the first world. People are even fighting in the name of religions.

But that student hadn’t gone that far with his outline when other students protested him right away. Some were so convinced that they become Catholic because they chose to. The class was soon debating the issue.

Oh really? Let’s see. I asked the class about their parents’ religions. These students come from the Christian / Catholic region of Indonesia namely Papua, Nusa Tenggara Timur, Mollucas Islands, and North Sulawesi. Out of 16 students, there were only 2 students whose parents were Protestants (not even Moslem). So, I asked them, “If you had been born in West Sumatra or West Java in Islamic families, would you have been Catholic?” Nah!

And by the way, have they really examined other alternative religions exhaustively before they decided to become Catholics? I doubt it. Not in a way that I think is sufficient to make the claim that they have done their homework before making that decision. I don’t think they had ever seriously considered Islam or Buddhism or Hinduism or even atheism. Well, I don’t blame them. They are the children of their society. There is always a few who could go beyond or transcend their social settings. But most people don’t. It’s more convenient to accept the socially-handed-over beliefs, isn’t it?

Anyway, back to the essay. That student backed off. He canceled the topic. Apparently he got intimidated by his classmates’ reaction and scared away with the consequence of his writing if it was published in the diocesan monthly bulletin as I planned. I failed to convince him. I console myself with the thought that at least the class started thinking about the issue. Is religion divinely bestowed upon them regardless their geographic, social, political settings?

Life in Ayawasi – Part III

It’s so damn quiet here! It is quiet in its truest sense of the word. You hear nothing in the morning … nothing in the afternoon … and absolutely nothing in the evening. No phone calls to make. No web to browse. And one has to put up with 4 hours electricity per day. Well yeah, it’s a kampong in Papua. What do you expect Lian, I asked myself. I can be very stupid sometimes, can’t I? ;-).

Everyday I kept on saying the same thing to Fr Buce about how quiet the place was as if it was a new discovery of the day. In addition to Fr Buce, there are 4 others who currently live in the parish pastor’s residence namely Brother Wempi, Frater Felix and Frater Adri and Theo, the postulant. They are really nice folks! They cook their own food and do all of the chores themselves. Independent men, huh!

The isolation of the place adds up to the quietness though it is actually not as isolated as other kampongs like Fef or Seya, the place that I visited last Christmas. At least one doesn’t have to hike up for hours to come to Ayawasi. But since there is no public transport available it is pretty hard and expensive to go from one place to another. What available here is the transport (cars) run by individuals who charge the unbelievable prices which I had discussed earlier.

Thanks goodness I got myself busy helping Fr Buce with his research. Otherwise, I can’t imagine how I would survive my life here. I don’t understand how Fr Buce could stand living here for almost 6 years now. He looks like he enjoys his time here. So do the others. I guess one has to be very, very creative in creating jobs for him/herself here. There aren’t many things to do except for some church activities during Easter. In a few days I had already finished visiting most of the nearest kampongs that were accessible by motorbike. And we even rode to Teminabuan (about 4.5 hours ride). It was the longest time I’ve ever sat on a motorbike. Phew!

But that’s about it. And I had to spend 12 days here. The original plan was to head back to Sorong in March 24th. But we were stranded! Since 24th, there was no flight came in to this kampong. Probably it’s because of the holiday. It was hard to get a car (that L200) either. But we finally managed to get one on 26th. Aha, do you know how to order a car without telephone? Well, tell the whole kampong that you need a car and you wait.

Anyway, Ayawasi is actually rather nice and spacious. It’s quite cool in the evening and it rains a lot during the day. It’s a good place to get fat because you will tend to get hungry and sleepy all the time. There’s only problem though. There is no market here. So, fresh food is not always available. Sometimes some people sell vegetables but sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they have chicken to sell, but other times they have nothing. If you are lucky someone may bring some pork or fish from Teminabuan or other kampongs. But you really never know when they will do that. So you cannot plan on what you are going to eat tomorrow or even today. What you would have in your table tomorrow will remain a mystery until just a few hours before lunch time. I find it amusing to guess what we would have for lunch.

Funny though that when you finally have got some food you have to cook it right away for there is no fridge (no use with limited electricity). So there are times when you have to eat pork for 4 or 5 days in a row. Therefore, Fr Buce and his households have to stock up some preserved food, be it instant noodle, canned food, or salted fish. Again, creativity would help a lot here. In spite of this situation, I actually gained weight during my stay in Ayawasi. Thanks to Frater Adri!

Life in Ayawasi - Part II

Ayawasi is a kampong that is located in the “eyes” of the bird’s head of Papua Island. The people who inhabit the area is known as Aifat which is the sub ethnic of Maibrat. The Maibrat ethnic itself consists of Aifat, Aitinyo and Ayamaru.

Ayawasi plays an important part in the history of the Catholic missionary in the bird’s head of Papua. The Parish of Ayawasi is one of the oldest parishes in the Manokwari-Sorong Diocese. It covers the area such as Mare, Karon and Ayawasi and its surrounding. Ayawasi is an all-Catholic and nearly-all-Papuan kampong. The common family names here are Turot, Taa, Saa, Jumte, Tenau, Kosho, Fanataf, etc. This is considered a tough parish to manage. Besides the remoteness of the place, the people are not easy to deal with, says Fr Buce Takerubun, OSA, the parish pastor. They are very critical and are not hesitant to use violence to sort things out. And when this happens no one is spared from their rage. Not even the pastors. In Fr Buce’s words, this is what they said: “Even Jesus was killed by the Jews. So why can’t we kill a pastor?!” Wow!

Jonathan Fatem, Pr, a previous priest here, was almost stabbed with a spear when protecting a murder in the parish residence. Fr Buce himself experienced the similar thing. During his first 3 month being here, some people came to him with knife blades to protest against the building of a bridge. They wanted it to be built somewhere else. They threatened to burn the church and the pastor’s residence. Instead of being intimidated, Fr Buce challenged them to do exactly that and put the gasoline and matches before them. It worked. They took off.

I remember Fr Tromp once told me that this was a typical “game” of the locals. It is the way they communicate with each others. They shout. They scream. They threaten. But that’s basically a bluff. In response, you have to shout, scream or roar even louder, stronger, or fiercer or else they would take you lightly. Fr Buce knows how to play this game.

In addition, probably like other places in the Papua Island, the people here don’t take orders easily, not even from their own parish priest. They wouldn’t do what they are asked to do unless they see that their pastor is also doing or participating in what he is asking them to do. So it’s quite common to see the pastor carrying cements or stones in the cart or fixing the lights in the church, etc. Even the Bishop himself drove a truck to deliver some stuffs to the construction site in the Seminary. I can’t help comparing this situation with the situation in Java or Flores where pastors, monks, nuns are treated with so high of a respect that they seem to come from a different class of society.

One ex fraters from Flores who had been here before told me how he almost cried when visiting one kampong. That night, he had to sleep in a hole of a sago tree after a very long walk. He said it would have never had happened in Flores. He would have been greeted and treated with a great respect. If it had been in Flores, he might have slept soundly in a clean bed.

Life in Ayawasi - Part I

We arrived in Ayawasi at 11.11 pm after 10 hours driving from Sorong. This long, tiresome ride was mostly due to the bad condition of the road. Some parts of the road do not even deserve to be called road. It was so bad that it took us 10 hours to get to Ayamaru which is only 164 km away from Sorong. That included the time we had to spend to wait for or help other cars that got stuck in the muddy road. A truly off-road experience! Luckily we’ve got a first-rate driver who seems to know the road like his own palm. Oh I so trust Oom John, the driver!

In the past, Ayawasi can only be accessed by small aircrafts flown by the Catholic missionaries (Association of Missionary Aviation). The runaway in front of the church complex was built by the missionaries. But Ayawasi can now be accessed by cars in spite of the ridiculous fare. From Sorong to Ayawasi one has to pay Rp300.000 one way per person (with no baggage) to sit in a 4x4 wheel-drive small truck (Mitsubishi L200). Should you bring lots of stuffs with you (your basic necessities or groceries that you couldn’t find in Ayawasi) you could rent that car from Sorong for Rp2.500.000. That’s one way fare! Phew … that’s a lot of money, isn’t it?

I find the transportation fare here outrageous. The local government must work harder to bring it down. To go to Teminabuan i.e. the capital of the Sorong Selatan Regency which is only 117km away from Ayawasi you have to pay Rp 150,000. That’s for 3 hours drive and the road condition is not as bad as that of Sorong – Ayawasi. In contrast, the air conditioned bus fare from Banyumas – Yogjakarta (4 hours drive) is only Rp 35,000 (March 2007). I know it’s not a fair comparison. But, neither should we take this situation for granted. The administration of Sorong Selatan should take this problem very seriously.

The absence of affordable public transport has made the prices of basic necessities in Ayawasi and nearby kampongs unbelievably high. It has made life here harder than it should be. Everything is so damn expensive here. They have to pay Rp15,000-20,000 for 1 liter of gasoline which is normally sold at Rp4,500 everywhere else. 1 bag of cement is traded at Rp135,000. Feel like eating chicken? Well, you have to be willing to spend Rp100,000 for the whole piece of chicken (ayam kampong). Meanwhile 1 egg costs Rp3,000. Phew … It’s so unfair.