It had been raining heavily in Daru, Papua New Guinea (PNG), since the night before. This Saturday morning, lightning still flashed through the sky.
By
Agustinus Wibowo
·5 minutes read
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
Port of Dari, Papua New Guinea.
It had been raining heavily in Daru, Papua New Guinea (PNG), since the night before. This Saturday morning, lightning still flashed through the sky. Given this bad weather, I thought our plan to take a motorboat to the Indonesian border with Sisi Wainetti would be canceled.
Suddenly, I received a text message (SMS) from Sisi, asking me to hurry to the port because the boat was about to leave. I just paid the price we had agreed earlier, at the market area in Daru, near the canoes and boats docking from the coast of the big island of New Guinea. She pointed to the boat we were going to ride in. It was equipped with a 40 horsepower (PK) engine purchased in Merauke, Papua.
The engine operator, a man in his 30s named Issaiah, with his father, Keikei, and a burly young man named Mark were already on the boat. There was also Sisi\'s friend, named Marcella. We will head west, approaching the RI-PNG border.
I was scared. I did not know these people very well, and now I was alone in their boat, leaving my fate completely to them. I heard that Sisi\'s area is very dangerous. Reportedly, illegal traders from Indonesia were killed there by the local people and the case was still unsolved. Of course, these people can do anything to me if they wanted to and I did not have the power to stop them.
Sisi took out a piece of folio paper with a handwritten letter. The letter was written by the president of the Morehead district (regent level), who Sisi said was her boyfriend, in Daru. The letter explained that I was a teacher from Daru High School who was going on a trip to the Morehead area.
"With this letter, you are safe," Sisi said.
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
Issaiah (left), the operator of the boat engine that brought Agustinus Wibowo to the Papua New Guinea region which borders Indonesia.
Sisi also said, if I were asked by local people, I must say, I am a Filipino employee of a Chinese supermarket in Daru.
###
It\'s already 10 a.m. The sky was still dark, covered in thick clouds.
“Is this going to be a tough journey?” I asked Issaiah.
"Don\'t worry, trust me," he replied.
Sisi and I were wearing life jackets. There were only two buoys on this boat. Departing with us was another motorboat, with the same destination and also containing six passengers.
In PNG, in the absence of public transport, people are used to traveling together, with each paying a share of the fuel needed for the trip.
The money I paid was enough to buy 30 liters of gasoline.
I, Sisi, Marcella sat side by side, opposite Issaiah who controlled the machine and Mark who helped him. Our belongings were in the front of the boat, wrapped in tarpaulin.
Leaving Daru harbor, our boat was immediately greeted by a loud wave.
"I\'ve never seen waves this big," Sisi said.
"It\'s tough, but I\'ve experienced more than this," said Marcella.
“This is nothing,” Issaiah, who is from the same village as Sisi, shouted at us as his voice was swallowed up by the roar of the engine.
He seemed to enjoy navigating the boat so much that our boat kept zigzagging through the waves. How great their ancestors were.
I\'m quite ashamed. This was really my first experience on a boat. I\'ve never been in contact with the sea this close, for so long and this intensely.
How disconnected I am from the ocean, which should be the life spirit of my homeland, Indonesia, the largest archipelagic country in the world.
Kompas
Agustinus Wibowo (center) with Sisi (wearing a life jacket) and Marcella (far left) as they prepare to head to Papua New Guinea, which borders Indonesia.
My first sea-cruising experience actually happened in PNG.
###
Marcella and I crouched, holding our knees tightly.
"Jesus! Jesus!" Sisi screamed as loudly as she could, as if the scream would bring some divine power from the sky to save us.
The motorboat we were riding was tossed around by the waves. The boat looks like it\'s about to capsize.
Marcela and I chimed in with Sisi with an equally loud shout. The motorboat jerked, all the passengers jumped from their seats. My buttocks hit the wooden board of my seat, my back felt like it had been punched hard and the pain radiated to the back of my neck.
A tidal wave that was taller than an adult human came crashing down on our boat.
Sisi shouted, “Issaiah, hurry up and do something! We\'re going to drown!"
Too late.
The waves hit us, slapping all of us in the face, the passengers on this small and cramped boat. The water was ankle-deep at the bottom of the boat. We were drenched all over. We hurriedly took plastic cups, rubber buckets and sponges to throw water out of the boat. I hugged the camera tightly, wrapped in plastic under my jacket.
ISTIMEWA
The waves made the boat that Agustinus Wibowo was carrying swayed.
Another big wave hit our boat.
"Oh, Jesus!" Sisi shouted again.
(This article was translated byKurniawan Siswoko.)
