by John Algate
‘Every language has intonation, the rise and fall of words in a sentence. Some languages are tonal, meaning that words may be spelled in the same way, but carry a different meaning if spoken at a higher or lower pitch. The Kimyal language has a unique structure that is different than English. We have six persons, but Kimyal has nine persons: English has first person singular and plural: I/we, second person singular and plural: you, and third person singular and plural: he/they, but the Kimyal have another category: I/we-two, you-two and he/they-two! Kimyal has the sentence structure with the subject first, then the object, and ending the sentence with the verb or the action word. Concrete thoughts are easy to explain, but subjects such as love, mercy and salvation need to be illustrated.
One must learn their language, and one does not need to be perfect. The Kimyal will always repeat what is being said, and if one listens carefully, they will always say it correctly. Great for language learning! By the time I put my sentence two-thirds together, the Kimyal would give me the rest of the sentence! Also great for language learning!’
The literacy program worked in a similar way to the clinic worker and village midwife programs. It was a train-the-trainer approach with likely candidates selected from the villagers, educated and trained before returning to their village to pass on their knowledge to others. Literacy training and education were intimately connected to Bible study and evangelism. For the missionaries literacy had one primary motivation above all others – to spread the Word.
This past week was a special time for the literacy teachers when they all came to receive their new sets of primers/teaching books for their villages. The bush telegraph worked overtime when the books were ready to be distributed. They all came in for a time of Bible study, receive their supplies of chalk and books and have a feast together. There are 30 teachers so the place was teeming with extra people for a few days as all their friends came along too. Each village has one or two teachers depending on the size of their population. Usually their classes are held each morning at 6 am, after the morning devotions are held in the teaching hut. There is great excitement and motivation to learn to read and write their own language at the moment. Elinor has just had the book of Acts and quite a number of Old Testament stories printed, so there is now more for them to read. Do pray that they will continue to be thrilled to read the Word of God. (June 1987)
Much effort went into Bible translation and landmark events, like the completion of new books, or entire Testaments, were a cause for celebration.
I have just come from a very moving experience when we witnessed the dedication of the Yali New Testament at Ninia. It has taken 17 years to translate and two years for it to be printed, so we are thankful it is finally in the hands of the people. The Yali people organised the whole day themselves which was exciting. They killed 140 pigs for the big feast to feed at least 2000 people, some from four days walk away. John Wilson, the translator, came from Canada especially for the occasion.
Sue, Helen (project Timothy worker) and myself arrived a day earlier to help MAF stagger the flying. Ninia is notorious for its bad weather being 6,600 feet up in the clouds. They were really ambitious as they had planned four landings with VIP guests. We took our sleeping bags and stayed in the original house built by the Dales. The people prayed far into the night for all the preparations for the next day and especially for the weather. They were up again at 3.30 am blowing whistles and banging tins to waken everyone.
The Bible school students sang two new songs they had composed especially for the day. They were followed by a drama organised by Donglu, one of the old witch doctors, depicting when Bruno and Stan walked into the area. The suspicions and the hostile reception they were given by the people – particularly by him and his family. Now he is praising the Lord for the change that came to his own heart and the lives of the people as they have trusted in the Lord and found hope in the future. The proceedings took about four hours. A misty rain started just before the last speech which didn’t dampen their spirits, as everyone headed towards the feast to demolish the food set out. (February 1993)
The next year there were similar celebrations at Soba which Jessie again reported in some detail.
Excitement at Soba started to build up two weeks prior to the dedication of the new Bible School Buildings and Hupla New Testament, as village by village they sang and danced their way up the airstrip to bring in the rocks and firewood to be used for the feast to be held after the ceremony. Stepping from the plane, I was greeted by a welcoming committee of men dancing on the airstrip. Bedecked with possum fur hats, decorated with feathers and flowers, bodies bedaubed with red and yellow clay, they were a sight to behold. I had come a week early to help Sue with the last minute preparations for the dedication. Several days before the ceremony the enthusiasm reached a crescendo when Sue and her team of translators were honoured by the people, and were each presented with a large pig. A pig in Hupla land is the ultimate gift. The life of Sue’s pig came to an abrupt end after it had escaped for the fifth time and rooted up the vegetable patch. We enjoyed the shared roast pork that night.
‘THE DAY’ began at 4 am with everyone shouting and pigs squealing as they were hauled off to be slaughtered in the early dawn. The morning dawned clear and bright, but overcast. We were glad for a great day as we had nine planes and two helicopters landing with government officials. Graham Cousins, the first white missionary to be stationed at Soba, came from the USA especially for the dedication. We were glad of the cloud coverage later on in the day, as we sat with 2000 others on the grass in front of the dais. The people organised the whole day themselves which was quite an accomplishment. They planned a drama including the first two evangelists from Ninia and Tangma who came to explain the Gospel to them. Three times they had to run for their lives with arrows flying around them, before people were ready to listen. The audience sat and listened in rapt attention to the whole program. It was a joy to see the first Hupla New Testament go into the hands of the people, a culmination of 10 years hard work. (July 1994)
Teaching literacy and translating books from the Bible was part of a seemingly never-ending cycle.
Senenob has just been to get some scripture portions to take with him as he does his rounds of all the 38 literacy schools. It takes him over two weeks to do the rounds and check up on everybody. He takes scriptures to sell and chalk for the teachers. He is very faithful which takes a lot of responsibility off me. (January 1995)
We had a translation consultant from the Indonesian Bible Society in here checking the books of John and Romans, which Rosa had translated. He was very happy with the translation and we can now go ahead and print these books. The Bible Society will print the finished New Testament at a much lower cost if one of their consultants has done the checking. The people are excited to be getting some new scriptures to read. We have the privilege of being able to read the whole Bible at any time we like but these people can’t do that yet. They appreciate so much more each portion as it is translated. Rosa hopes to come back for two months each year to check what the local translators have done in her absence. (October 1999)
In 2000 the Yali Bible became the first whole Bible to be translated in West Papua. This was Jessie’s final year of service in the province. She couldn’t disguise her enthusiasm for the project, eagerly reporting on both the preparations and the event itself.
Only eight weeks to go in the countdown to the Yali Bible. Pressure and excitement are mounting as planning meetings and committees have been working overtime to make sure nothing is overlooked for this very special occasion at Ninia. (March 2000)
I wish I could have transported all of you to Ninia for the long awaited dedication of the complete Yali Bible. The day dawned bright and clear. The first plane landed on the airstrip soon after 6 am with important guests, reporters, T.V. cameramen etc. The governor, vice-governor and heads of most government departments including the chief of police and intelligence made an impressive array on the platform which was
banked by flowers and ferns.
It was exciting and heart-warming to see the culmination of many years labour. There were many tears shed as the pastors from the different church areas received their copies of the Bible and clasped them tightly in their hands. The Word of the Living God was there in its entirety for them to read at will, the first tribe in Irian Jaya to be able to do so. Praise the Lord for the perseverance of Otto and Luliap during the past nine years as they have worked tirelessly on the Old Testament. The 3000 plus people who attended sat on the hard ground and listened attentively. Some of the older men, dressed in their traditional dress of possum skin hats, feathers, pig tusks and gourds, danced on the airstrip - a good reminder of how far these people have come in 35 years.
The ceremony closed at approximately 2 pm when the Heli Mission helicopter took the governor and his body guards to another airstrip to connect with a larger MAF plane because of the wind curfew at Ninia. We were amazed and delighted that the governor would come to such an occasion in a predominantly Muslim country.
Pray for the Yali people that they will now read their new Bible and not just keep it as a status symbol. The day before the celebration the church had planned a big pig feast and a church dedication at Ballinggama which is approximately one hours walk from Ninia. It was very appropriate that Bruno de Leeuw was able to be there for the occasion as he had been with Stan Dale all those years ago. Ballinggama was the first village where Bruno preached and the first village where any interest was shown in the Gospel of the Good News that they had brought. Such a change in those hard cannibal hearts to become loving and caring people is something only God could do. (June 2000)
After her retirement Jessie kept tabs on progress in translation, updating her network as news came to hand.
The Dani Old Testament has finally been put into the hands of the Bible Society printers in Java. It has been a long haul for Wesley Dale and the translation team to accomplish this task. Now they are looking to revise the New Testament before it is made into a complete book. (December 2002)
24. Drought, death and desperation
We have had a bad potato shortage for the last six months. The government has promised rice but it hasn’t happened. I have a lot of hungry, skinny children at my back door.
Like all subsistence farmers and communities, the Kimyal relied on the elements. Some seasons were good, others not so good and when the rains didn’t come or crops failed as they did in 1993, the people suffered.
When the mothers become malnourished they lose their milk to feed their babies. I have bought rice for those who are ill but with 7000 people not much I can do. The last lot of rice that came from Jakarta had rats in the bags, unwelcome visitors who chewed their way out and were chewing at the peoples’ leathery feet in the night! They are eagerly awaiting the nut season.
But there were even worse years. In late 1997 Jessie returned to Korupun for her last stint in the high mountains before retirement. She had just completed a long furlough in Australia that included recuperation from a gall bladder operation. The return seemed a bitter parody of the frustrations and difficulties that accompanied everyday life in West Papua. Nothing, it seems, is ever simple, patience is truly a virtue, and in the highlands, death a regular companion. In November Jessie updated her supporters on the catastrophic situation she had returned to.
I am back in Korupun! As I look back over the past few weeks of shifting scenes, cultures and priorities, my mind boggles. We seem to go from one drama to another….I spent a few days in Sentani getting all my paperwork organised. It was hot and the smog (from bushfires) was bad there too. I was able to get a seat on a MAF plane which was able to sneak through the drifting layers of smoke into Wamena. I stayed with Sue for four days until the smog lifted enough to get me home. Each day I would go to the MAF hangar and sit and wait for several hours and then go back to Sue’s for another night. The sun was a bright red blob behind the heavy smoke layer. Then one morning it rained a little and cleared the air enough to take off.
The people were very pleased to see me back. They are planning a welcome back feast this week when all the clinic workers will be in for the event. When I stepped off the plane there was the sound of wailing. Someone had just died. In the past five months a mysterious illness has been raging amongst the Yali and Kimyal people. People often die within 12 to 24 hours of getting sick. There have been over 100 deaths in the past three months among the Kimyal people. Lots more in the Yali area.
Without any laboratory facilities it was a big jigsaw puzzle to try to fit together, mostly guess work and trial and error. At first it was thought to be Japanese encephalitis, then after a team of doctors came in it was thought to be bacterial meningitis, then after further tests it was proven to be cerebral malaria. We have never had the mosquito here so the people have really reacted badly to it. After months of very little food because of the drought their resistance is very low to this new malady. Usually these mosquitos won’t survive at this altitude in the cold and wet weather. But this year, because of the long dry season and the lack of rain causing many streams to dry up and become stagnant pools, it is just right for them to breed. They are multiplying fast.
The wind and the sun continue to dry out the soil and it has made the people’s gardens so hard they cannot dig them and the potatoes cannot grow. The future looks grim. I have been making big pots of soup to give out to those who cannot eat. This encourages them to drink.
I have been thankful for all the clinic workers who have taken on a lot of the workload and have delegated one village to each of the workers. They go each morning and evening to check on everyone, give injections as needed, and their medication. They also encourage them to drink. So many die simply because they stop drinking when they get sick. Then later on the ‘soup lady’ (me) goes around with a pot of soup and ladles it out at each house where there are sick people. In between all this we are busy at the clinic with the sick ones who can walk.
Attending funerals is not my favourite occupation but these past weeks have served as a reminder that death could strike at any time and we need to be ready to meet the Lord. It has been hard not being able to cure the sick because we are unsure of the cause. We are so thankful to have the bug identified and although we are very busy we are seeing positive results from our treatment.
We are thankful that the government and the Freeport Mining Company have been distributing some food by helicopter. Not nearly enough as there are thousands needing food. It has been very hard for them. Even the possums and the birds in the forests are dying of thirst. We are thankful that so far people still have clean drinking water. Many springs have dried up and others are just a trickle but still flowing. Of the 38 waterfalls around the valley only two continue to flow. I have been buying food for the people from some gifts that have been given for relief work. They are very grateful for anything that we can do for them. WE WOULD BE GLAD OF HELP FOR THIS PROJECT.
Even the little things in life were harder in the drought, the worst on record in the highlands of New Guinea.
Our hydro is not working, so I am back to using my old pressure lamp in the evenings. I am thankful for a good light. (November 1997)
Her sister Vera added some notes of her own to the letter:
‘Jess does not mention such things as no power for electric jug, toaster, iron, fridge, deep freeze. All water, except what she is conserving for cooking and drinking has to be carted from the river. No hot showers now.’
Vera also included some information from a private letter to family.
Because we don’t have any electricity I cannot use my word processor and have had to drag out my old typewriter that is over 30 years old….I should have gone out today to conference but the smoke was so bad in Wamena the plane couldn’t take off. So I am working here tonight. I have a candle perched up on a box so I can see. Carol and Art Clark have been in the middle of all this sickness. They have had more people die than we have, about 74 altogether at Lolat. There a
re all sorts of medical teams coming in now. Sela has also been very bad.
Jessie’s January 1998 prayer letter had a markedly different, exuberant tone:
The sound of steady pounding rain on the roof filled our hearts with thanksgiving for answered prayer. It has ended the drought, but not the famine. It will take six to nine months before the potatoes are ready to dig. One of the pilots said that he hadn’t realised how badly the drought had affected him until it started to rain. The sound made him want to sing, dance and shout ‘hallelujah’ and run around in the rain. What a release to know the disaster is over.
We are thankful the cerebral malaria is under control and the Lord has sent rain to this thirsty land. The streams are flowing again and the waterfalls roaring. Wonderfully answered prayer from so many people worldwide. It has been exciting to see the change of attitude in the people who now see that they have HOPE for the future. Every able-bodied person is out making new gardens.
We praise the Lord for each one of you who has so generously given gifts to help buy extra food for the people. It has been a tremendous help and encouragement for us all. We have had offers of help from other aid organisations but they have been hampered by red tape and have not been able to get things moving as fast as they had hoped. With your gifts we have been able to quickly help where the need is most urgent. Thank you.
We started a feeding program for children under five years which has been greatly appreciated by the parents. We make a bean and rice porridge for them plus a cup of milk each morning. It is very popular. The children don’t own such luxuries as cups, bowls and spoons. These had to be sent in from Wamena before the children’s feeding program could commence. In between flights (which can be from four to seven days) the people have been living mainly on potato leaves and anything else they can find in the forest. They have been glad of the oil that has come in with the rice to make it more nourishing and palatable. A few weeks ago the children discovered mushrooms in the burnt out forest area. What a lovely surprise to add to their diet.
