50th Anniversary of the Gospel in Ninia

It was 50th Anniversary of the Gospel so hundreds of people in highlands traveled by foot to Ninia to celeberate it. Some people from the main city which is Sentani flew ona small plane. I flew from the main city to highland. This woman on top is wearing traditional wear just for this event.

These are the kids who also traveled long way here with their parents. Now, this is how they wear.

This place is about 45 degrees and the ground is wet cold, but they just bare-foot. If they atmosphere is 45 degrees, you could imagine how would it feel if you put your bear feet on that wet ground.

Holding had is very common in Papua. Holding hands symbolize that they are very close friends or they accept one another's company. There are some time you will encounter a person holding another person's arm with two hands. that can tell that these friends have not seen each others for long time and the one who is holding don't want to let go of the friend.

This girl have bag hanging on her head. This is normal. There are about four or five different types of bags and they are used in different ways.

Even men wears bags. There are some bags that are very obvious for women.

The first time I tried to take people's pictures over here, i was kind of scared because i thought they might get offended. But they actually really like to be on pictures. Does not matter what age are we talking about, they all like to be on pictures. They are very humble people.

If you know how to speak Indonesian or their tribal language, you will be able to connect well. There are some that are very easy to tell that they are friendly.

They don't care what kind of clothes they wear. As long as there is something covering them.

When they walk, women usually hold sticks. I don't know if they do that to protect them from the wild pigs or what. We usually carry stuff with our arms and shoulders, these women use their head as their tool to carry anything in the bag.

This group are chanting and marching to gather grasses and herbs for underground cooking, preparing for this celeberation of the Gospel.

The sticks on their hands are the spear that they use to hunt their meal or fight their enemies back in the days. This group of people actually martyred two missionaries who brought the gospel to this place. 50 years ago, they were chanting as warriors with anger and killed those missionaries. This day, they chant and shout with joy that they are blessed to have the Gospel. They also cry out (cry of joy) saying, that the missionaries were the enemies back in the days, but today, those missionaries are their heroes.

In the highland, they barely take shower. The reason for this is because it's cold and they don't have enough money to afford water heater. So sometimes they just wipe of the junk of dirk on their feet and legs and go to sleep. Other highland like Wamena and Dekai have access of water heater.

The guy at the back is wearing a Marmar made out of rooster's feather.

This is a men's traditional wear for this part of the highland. The name of this tribe is Yali.

A lot of times you come across children like this one on the left with runny nose and don't wipe it. I don't understand about that and i don't want to say it like this but it's pretty normal to see something like this over there. When you come to mainland, it's not like that.

Here's another woman wearing two bags haning on her head. One contain herbs and the other contains... looks like taro to me on the other side that we barely see.

Hygene is very poor if we compare it to ours. Which really trouble my heart. These people are very close to my heart.

When mother is traveling with a child, they usually carry their toddlers like this and walk for miles and miles.

The guy on the right is wearing bag and that's the way they wear them. They don't wear them like women.

Putting arms over shoulder is also very common over there and tag along to the destination.

Makes me think that touching is one of their cultural values. I did not really study more about it so i don't want to speculate.

Sweet potatoe is very common food for them and you can see this guy eating one of potatoe. He's actually eating it raw.

We usually see only guys putting their arms over other guy's shoulder and walk somewhere. But over here, you can see on this picture that even women do that. But I think this is only for young generations because i did not see elder women doing it. they only hold each others' hands.

I really enjoyed taking pictures over here in Ninia because the lighting was perfect so i did not really adjust the settings of my camera. Even these pictures, i did not really edit them. I only cropped them and put my watermark. That's it. Hope you enjoyed. Pray for these people so if it is the will of God, they will be independent from the Government of Indonesia.