Here in Papua, Indonesia, you can quickly go from one extreme to the other.
Günter flies with the helicopter to a remote bush village, where there is no electricity and people still work their sweet potato fields with handmade hoes. After the return flight, he can withdraw money from an ATM in our city, Wamena. There, Günter might meet another half-naked man wearing a traditional penis pouch, who also wants to withdraw money with his card.
There are villages where women walk around bare-chested. In Wamena, however, some are fully veiled.
While in some places in the jungle people still pay with shells and pigs, in all other places people pay with the national currency (IDR).
Every tribe in Indonesia has its own culture. When we travel from Papua via Bali to Germany, we approach the familiar "civilization" again. But in our minds we are still in the warmth of Indonesia, in the crazy traffic, between rice fields and temples.
Arriving in Germany, we speed along the highway - without potholes - and have to remember to separate the garbage.
We love this varied life between the cultures, because one thing always remains the same: our real home is in heaven, and we hope to meet as many people as possible there.
Birgit
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