To all of our family, friends, and neighbors, thank-you for the very thoughtful gifts, meals, sweet treats, well-wishes, and hugs that we received this week! We are incredibly lucky to have so many special people in our lives. Until we meet again.
We are exactly one week away from leaving on our adventure, and we all feel like we’re living in a Dr. Seuss book. We have piles all over the house. Big piles. Little piles. Big piles and little piles. Sea and air piles. Piles everywhere! Stacking up. Go, pile. Go!
I stumbled across this website a few weeks ago while searching for information on Indonesia. The website belongs to Jimmy Nelson, a modern-day photographer. He spent three years (2009 until 2012) searching for and visually documenting the world’s last indigenous people. Once thriving populations, these people are now endangered tribes living in some of the most remote corners of the world. Mr. Nelson’s photographs capture the intimate details of the natural world they live in and the rich history that continues to nurture and sustain them.
His ambitious quest eventually led him to the Jayawijaya mountain range of Papua, Indonesia. There, he observed and photographed some of the last tribesmen of the Dani, Yawni, and Korowai tribes.
When looking at the pictures of these tribesmen, you would never imagine some of them working in a mining operation. Living a life of unparalleled extremes, these men leave their traditional villages to work in one of the largest, most technically advanced underground mines in the world. Trading in their kotekas (penis gourds), tribal paint, and bows & arrows for hard hats, safety vests, and steel-toed boots, they help produce billions of pounds of copper and millions of ounces of gold.
A photograph of three members of the Dani Tribe (Jimmy Nelson Photography)
http://beforethey.com is an amazing website, and well worth taking the time to explore. To see the Indonesian tribes, click on “The Journeys” and then click on “Indonesia + Papua New Guinea.” You can see more pictures of each tribe by clicking on “View tribe.”
On Thursday morning we received an email from Freeport’s travel department confirming and detailing our upcoming move. It’s going to be a whirlwind of flights and extended layovers to get to Tembagapura, Indonesia, from Phoenix, Arizona. Departing November 1st, and arriving November 4th, this is our crazy itinerary:
US AIRWAYS – Flight Number 0695
Departure: PHOENIX, AZ (PHX)
5:00pm
Arrival: LOS ANGELES, CA (LAX)
6:26pm
Duration: 1hour and 26 minutes
Distance (in miles): 370
CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS – Flight Number 0883
Departure: LOS ANGELES, CA (LAX)
11:20pm
Arrival: HONG KONG, HONG KONG S A R (HKG)
6:00am (next day arrival)
Duration: 15hours and 40minutes
Distance (in miles): 7249
CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS – Flight Number 0785
Departure: HONG KONG, HONG KONG S A R (HKG)
10:10am
Arrival: DENPASAR BALI, INDONESIA (DPS)
2:55pm
Duration: 4hours and 45minutes
Distance (in miles): 2148
LAYOVER (in a hotel for showers, dinner and a little nap)
PATRA JASA in KUTA, BALI
2:55pm to 12:00am
GARUDA INDONESIA – Flight Number 0652
Departure: DENPASAR BALI, INDONESIA (DPS)
1:50am
ARRIVAL: TIMIKA, INDONESIA (TIM)
6:30am
Duration: 3hours and 40minutes
Distance (in miles): 1493
AIRFAST HELICOPTER
Departure: TIMIKA, INDONESIA (TIM)
(no set time)
ARRIVAL: Tembagapura, INDONESIA
(no set time)
Duration: 20 minutes
I’ve had several people call, email and/or text me with questions about our Indonesian address, which was described in the previous post. Looking back at it, it is a confusing post. The address, HV-1021A, is not a mailing address, it is just the physical address of our house. There are no house numbers or street names in Hidden Valley; just a sequence of letters and numbers to identify a residence. Unusual, but the way it is.
We don’t have an Indonesian mailing address. Instead, all of our mail is sent to the corporate office where it is received, sorted, and then shipped to jobsite in DHL bundles. The address is listed below under Contact Information.
The sequence of letters and numbers in HV-1021A looks like it could be a specification for a power line, a part listing for a vacuum cleaner, or a catalog number for a book. It even looks like it could be a number for a prison cell. It isn’t any of these. In fact, it’s our new address. Nothing more, nothing less, just HV-1021A.
Chris just returned from a routine, work-related trip to Indonesia. While over there, he was given the opportunity to see and tour our new home. It’s a spacious 3 bedroom, 2 bath duplex located between a civilized neighborhood and a virgin rainforest. As an added bonus, a river runs directly behind the back fence and a surging waterfall can be seen and heard from the front yard. Chris describes it as “living at the edge of the world.”
HV-1021A
The river that runs behind the house.
Also, we found out that our deployment date has been moved up by a week. We’re now leaving November 1st, arriving November 4th. Our move date, has been, and continues to be subject to change, so we won’t be surprised if it changes again. In the meantime, we will continue to move forward and make preparations for our upcoming move.
On a side note, that was an unexpected and curious connection that I made between a prison cell and our new address. Funny how the brain works!
Chris’s work visa (albeit, temporary) was approved last week. We’ve been waiting all summer long for his visa approval and to schedule a deployment date. The visa was approved on Monday morning and our deployment date was determined Thursday evening (Friday morning Indonesian time). Surprisingly, the emotional climate in our home remains peaceful and optimistic during this challenging time.
Currently, the plan is to leave Phoenix, Arizona, on the evening of November 7th and arrive in Tembagapura, Indonesia, on the morning of November 10th.
This summer our family made a once in a lifetime decision to move 7,693 miles away from home. We will be moving to Tembagapura, Indonesia. Tembagapura is an isolated jungle town nestled in the Papua Jayawijaya Mountains above Timika. It is a self-sufficient community structured to support Freeport McMoRan’s Grasberg Mine and its national and expat communities. Tembagapura is just like any typical small town; it is made up of neighborhoods and has a hospital, banks, schools, churches, mosques, coffee shops, post offices, a beauty salon and a library. It also has restaurants, grocery stores, a drug store, and recreation centers with a swimming pool, gymnasiums, tennis courts, and a football field.
In addition to learning how to live, work, and go to school in an Indonesian society, we will also have opportunities to travel around the world. Some of the places that we hope to visit include Bali, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Beijing, Cairns, Sydney and New Zealand.
The purpose of this blog is to document our adventures and to keep our family and friends informed of our activities and experiences. We are looking forward to this adventure and sharing it with you.
7693 Miles from Home 