Our awareness of this extraordinary experience tends to get lost in the daily grind. Even our day-to-day experiences, at first thought, seem typical and, for the most part, ordinary. It’s only when we take a step back and think about them that we realize just how strange and unimaginable they really are.

When I first started writing this post, my thoughts were structured around the idea of documenting a simple middle-school field trip. Nothing too exciting. Just a day trip down to Timika. “Just a day trip,” I thought to myself…until I realized just how inconceivable the specifics of it really are. A full-day recording session in a remote island radio station, beginning with a twenty-minute chopper ride down the hill and ending with a two-and-a-half-hour armored bus ride back up the hill. In reality, there was nothing ordinary about it, even though, to Ally, it seemed like a typical day.

Ally’s gentle voice was heard all over Timika yesterday afternoon by local residents who had their radios tuned to 102FM, Radio Publik Mimika. She and six other middle-school students recorded a special show about friendship and music for young Indonesian children. This photo, courtesy of Ms. Sherri, was taken two weeks ago when the students spent the day at the radio station.

In addition to her speaking role (which was communicated in Bahasa Indonesia), Ally played a song on the bass. This photo was taken by Ally’s principal, Mr. James.