I offered my help to be a messenger, if they wanted. I would try to go to Kondo and find Moris. Who knows? He might be moved to come home.
By
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
·5 minutes read
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
Mama Pine (seated front left) with residents of Ber, Papua New Guinea.
Mama Pine, a middle-aged woman from the village of Ber in Papua New Guinea (PNG), bemoaned the line that has made her suffer. Her smile was a mere shadow of sungging (a smile with the whole face) and her eyes gazed downward at the ground as she spoke about her son, who had not returned from across the border in years.
She would never forget the date, 6 March 2004. "I\'m leaving, Papa, Mama," her son said on leaving the village that day. "I will certainly come back."
But Mama Pine knew very well that this was not a brief farewell. Mama Pine thinks about him, dreams about him every night. To this day, Moris Jaea has not returned.
It seemed that the bitterness has left Mama Pine\'s memory in fragments. Emotions that were too strong made it difficult for me to uncover the chronology of events in her story.
On the other hand, her husband Saba Jaea, a muscular old man with white hair and reddened teeth, appeared to be more clear and calm about the memory of his son. Moris was black and tall like himself. Moris was fat, and there was a mark above his left eye. Moris was humorous and helpful.
In 2003, a Papuan man named Geri, about 40 years old, came from the city of Merauke. Young Moris often helped Geri cast nets in the sea, as well as build a house on stilts, which was now almost dilapidated and where I stayed in this village.
Geri loved Moris, invited him to come to Merauke to help with his business. Moris agreed. The family also viewed Geri as a fellow Melanesian wantok (“clan member”), even though he came from a different country, so they let their son go with him.
Initially, Moris sent rice and cassava from Indonesia to Ber. However, after three years, the packages came less frequently. Now, absolutely nothing had been sent.
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
The atmosphere in a resident\'s house in Ber, Papua New Guinea.
Papa Jaea and Mama Pine did not know how Moris\' relationship with Geri was now. They only heard that Moris was married and working as an immigration officer in Kondo. It is the last point on the Indonesian border, which is about 100 kilometers southeast of Merauke. They believed that Moris had become an Indonesian, that he’d changed. His family and relatives in Ber village felt he had become too proud to return to his poor hometown. He was reluctant to even just send news.
That was why, in January 2014, Mama Pine and Papa Jaea traveled to Indonesia on a boat owned by an acquaintance to look for Moris. They were not allowed to cross into Indonesia because their village was not among the areas listed in the RI-PNG Traditional Cross-Border
Agreement. But they had acquaintances in Bula, the closest border village to Indonesia in PNG, so they were able to obtain a border crossing pass for free.
Their boat sailed all the way to Merauke. The city’s size really scared them. Cars and motorbikes were everywhere. It was a completely different world, full of white and black people who spoke Malay they did not understand. With no money, they stayed at the house of a PNG relative on the outskirts of Merauke.
After days of trying, they were finally able to contact Moris\' father-in-law, who promised to persuade the boy to meet his parents. But a week later, there was still no news, and the owner of the boat they had traveled in had to return to PNG.
Mama Pine asked Papa Jaea to stay longer to wait for news from Moris. But he refused, saying that they were poor people who had no money, just riding free of charge. They packed up. Mama cried as they left to board the boat.
At that moment, Moris\' father-in-law rushed over, shouting, "Don\'t go yet, Moris is already on the bus and is coming from Kondo!"
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
Agustinus Wibowo holds a child in Ber, Papua New Guinea.
But it was too late.
The boat engine was revving, the driver was waiting and called to them to hurry. They could only go home. It was a wasted trip.
For the cost of a trip to Merauke, they needed 500 kina (Rp 2.5 million) just for fuel. They needed to catch about 200 crab to cover the cost of that trip.
Papa Jaea thought that Moris found it impossible to come home because he was comfortable in Kondo. However, he still hoped that Moris would one day return to his hometown.
I offered my help to be a messenger, if they wanted. I would try to go to Kondo and find Moris. Who knows? He might be moved to come home.
I recorded them with a video camera. Mama kept apologizing because of their limitations, that couldn’t afford to buy fuel, so they were powerless to go see their son across the border.
Meanwhile, in a letter in scribbling writing, they wrote in my notebook: "Moris, we miss you."
