The Eipomek people in Irian Jaya, Indonesia, are probably different from anyone you’ve ever met.

The people used to wear gourds and grass skirts all the time. Grass skirts are, of course, skirts made of grass. Gourds are found on trees and worn by men. Now that missionaries have come to Eipomek, the natives also wear clothes.

All the people in Eipomek (girls and women, too) have short, curly, black hair.

In the village where they live, there are no streets. People, pigs and dogs all walk on paths. When you first walk into the village, the first things you notice are round huts. The huts with thatch roofs only have a small door and no windows.

If you walk into one of the huts and the fire is burning, you can see everything. But sometimes the fire is out and you can only see a tiny bit.

And guess what? There’s no electricity in the whole village!

My family and I are missionaries in Eipomek. My daddy works with local pastors and helps start churches. As many as 200 people attend the church in our village every Sunday. But we do other things besides teaching people about Jesus.

Before we came, their water was dirty, but Daddy fixed it so their water would be clean. Mommy helps the people stay healthy by doing medical work.

The people have a school now, too. It is just a long, black building with about three big classrooms. There are no desks or books, but only benches to sit on.

The people in Eipomek speak a different language. We learned it so we could talk to them. Mek means water, and telepe (te-lu-va) means hello, goodbye and thank you. Kam (kom) means dog, and kwaning means sweet potato.

Working

You might not work very hard. I know I don’t. But everyone in Eipomek does. They work very, very hard! Only the babies don’t work.

The women and girls probably work the hardest. Every morning they wake up early. Ladies who are married get up between 3 and 4 a.m. to get sweet potatoes ready for their husbands. Then they walk five to 45 minutes to their gardens. They pick sweet potatoes, carrots, cabbage, celery and other vegetables.

After about eight hours in the garden, they herd their pigs home, gather firewood and put sweet potatoes on the fire for supper. They carry their babies and dogs in net bags wherever they go.

Men and boys don’t work every day, like the women. But they also work hard. They fix thatched roofs, build huts and cut grass on the airstrip and along trails.

The Store

When a plane brings supplies to Eipomek, the people have a store day. Store day is fun to watch.

When the people count the cost of an item, they start with their fingers and count up their arms, over their shoulders and head, down their other arms, then on to their fingers again. They can only count up to 25. Daddy taught them to count over 25 so they could handle the store by themselves.

Every store day people come from all around to buy things. Some people go inside the store to sell things while the people crowd around outside, getting out their money and bargaining for what they want.

The people like to buy salt, rice, shovels, kettles, soap and clothes.

Our Cat and Dog

One morning a man came to our door asking for some milk for his kittens. He said they were just born and had money to pay for the milk.

"Yes, you can have some milk," Daddy told him. "But I don’t want money. May I have a kitten?"

The man said yes. A couple of weeks later, the man came back holding a dirty kitten. She was white and had brown and black blotches on her. Daddy thanked him.

My younger sister and I were pleased as punch!

Patches grew into our family. But when the dog came, she was one unhappy camper.

We named the puppy Snickers, because she was brown like a Snickers bar. Her nose and her tail were black. She came to Eipomek with Daddy on the plane one day. When we arrived home, she growled at us. She liked Daddy, but not us.

Later Snickers learned to love us. She wanted to make friends with Patches, but Patches would not let her. Snickers didn’t give up, but all she got were some scratches and scrapes.

Ashley, 11
Indonesia

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