*Disclaimer* All Yetfa words are probably misspelled. Sorry Chase:)
The Reynolds Family on our way to Bias
Fufukanay is the greeting in the Yetfa language in Papua, Indonesia. I just got back from spending a week with the Yetfa people helping a Wycliffe Bible Translator friend put in a foundation for his new house. The Reynolds arrived in Indonesia about the same time that Amber and I did in 2008. They have already started the work of learning the Yetfa language so that they can translate the Bible. The Reynolds and I flew into Bias on a Tuesday and got to work on putting in the foundation for their house. Next week there is a work crew coming from the United States that is going to start framing their house. We had one week to get the foundation ready for them.
Before we started setting the foundation posts.
My dad is a general contractor that builds small homes, so I have been a part of foundation work in the past. I am used to backhoes, cement trucks and a steady stream of supplies from the local lumber company and hardware store. The jungle had our wood, the river had our rock and gravel and we brought the cement. We got to work right after we landed the first afternoon and cleared a burned out ironwood tree that was laying across the footprint of their future house. We took some machetes to a few stubborn bushes, laid out the locations of our posts and were all set up for the real work to begin the next day.
Awa Wamea
Pak Sion
Pak Yos, Chase, Pak Sion, Awa Wamea
Chase and I had some help from the local people the first day. Pak Yos (the pastor at Bias), Pak Sion (Chase's main language helper), Pak Yeri (cool dude), Awa Wame (the chief). We started digging holes big enough for our posts. I quickly realized that about 5 inches below the topsoil was the purest clay that I have ever seen in the ground. I also found out that the hard clay quickly turned into the consistency of a Wendy's Frosty once a wandering thunderstorm found Bias and hosed us down. The sun is intense here on the equator so we all welcomed the tropical deluges. The only other relief to the heat was a dunk in the river that runs past the village. I don't know how the water stayed so cold, but it was so good that it brought about spiritual analogies that wouldn't make sense unless you had been elbows deep in the mud all day under the intense sun.
Out Bird Hunting with Pak Sion
After three days of digging and setting posts, we ran out of material. The wood cutter didn't cut enough posts, there wasn't enough rock and the sand was still on the bottom of the river. Fortunately, we ran out of supplies about an hour before sundown which gave us enough time to go down to the river. Saturday is a declared day off in the Reynolds' household and my back and shoulders couldn't agree more. We walked around the village and Pak Sion took us up to his garden house. Chase and Sion took their pellet guns and we tried to do a little bird hunting. We never did get a bird but we got to walk around the jungle for a couple hours.
We went to church on Sunday and Chase let the people know that we needed some help getting rock and sand to finish the foundation. That afternoon we dug some more holes and got everything set up for the big push on Monday.
Monday's work crew
Monday morning we woke up to pouring down rain and Chase went out to dig some more holes. There were 64 posts in all, so we still had some digging to do. I went out and joined Chase once the rain let up around 7:30 and the rest of the village started showing up. Women went down to the river and started bringing up rocks and sand. The men went to the other side of the river and started bringing out the wood the wood cutter had prepared. The river was flooded but there was still about a 15ft clay wall on both sides. Those iron wood foundation posts weighed from 100 to 150lbs and the men were able to scale that 15ft wall of slippery clay with ease. As they neared the top of the hill they would all hoot together in unison. I tried doing it a couple times, only to get a couple odd looks. Apparently the hooting has to be done in context. Chase and I hopped in there and tried to carry up the heavy ones to the top. We made it, but it wasn't pretty. We ended up getting the 64th post in the ground before sundown on Monday.
All 64 foundation posts in the ground.
We spent Tuesday morning using the rest of our cement and sand up to add extra cement to the posts. I learned another Yetfa word while I was there. "Aneso" means perfect. They used it whenever we dropped a post in the ground and it was centered with the other posts and at the right height. If it wasn't, we had to haul that 100lb post out of the hole and add or take away rock. Needless to say they were quick to say "Aneso".
Embarrasing cultural experience.
The first day we were digging holes, I saw an older man leaning on a shovel. I politely pointed him towards a hole that wasn't dug quite deep enough and told him that he could dig until the handle of the shovel was even with the string we were using to get the correct height of the posts. With a smile, he started digging away. I looked back towards him five minutes later and he was past the handle and I directed him towards another hole. Once he was done with that hole, he went back to the first hole and dug some more. I looked back at him again and just started to laugh. That night Chase told me he was the chief. He was a cool old guy that I never asked to dig a whole again.
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