Protected by a ‘little’ angel

Dear people,

Today I realized in every country I have been till now I have had very good and bad experiences, even here. And I also realized all of those experiences could have been fatal. For example the shark, cyclone ‘which I think I went through the eye’, nearly plane crash and so on. Here, in Wamena, Papua, there are a few more experiences that could follow up to being fatal. Below here I will tell about those experiences.

The moment I realized I survived my first earthquake I couldn’t believe it. But I did. The first thing after I realized it I texted my family saying ‘I survived a earthquake’. My first one was Saturday evening the 19th.. I was in my bed and I felt myself moving, after that period of time I saw a small crack in my wall. But I couldn’t explain what it was. Then I felt asleep. On Monday morning I heard from some people it was an earthquake, I didn’t realize it on the time. (It was a light one).
Than later that week, on Thursday the 24th I survived another earthquake, this one was way heavier, because everyone around me (and me) were shivering for several minutes, some people around me fell down. Later that day I came back in my room and saw some other cracks. On Saturday we heard that some people, who know other people, who know other people, who know people who didn’t survive this earthquake.

Then in between both earthquakes on Tuesday the 22th something else happened. I will explain below what exactly happened.

Today I would go and bring invitations to schools around Wamena. They get an invitation for a introduction day in getting trained by special people, so your school will get better. Anyway, I was with Dave on the same scooter (Dave drove and I was on the back) and Lely and Arni (Lely drove and Arni was on the back) were on the same scooter. Dave and I saw some drunk people about 100/200 m further, so we stopped and said to Lely, who was passing us by scooter, stop and turn around. She stopped just before these drunk people. I was thinking Oh no!
When she tried to go back with her scooter, those drunk people started following her. Suddenly she gave gas and went through these guys, only these guys spread their arms and by doing that Lely and Arni fell off the scooter. Then Dave and I came in action!
By doing this, we exposed ourselves. One of the drunk guys came up to us and was asking for money and he really looked at my red bag ‘which is my bag which I have on my belly’. Dave gave him all his money, which was just 50.000rp (about 4 euro’s –but that is a lot of money here) and we said we don’t have more money. I think this guy didn’t really believe us, because he was really staring at my red bag. (And it was very clear he wanted my bag – I was not about to give him that!)
Then the other guy came up to us asking for money and we told him we just gave all our money to your friend.
Then we all turned around. One of the drunk guys, the most aggressive one gave Arni and me a smack, my smack came on the bag on my back. Lely took off and then Dave took off. When Dave took off, the most aggressive guy spread his arms and Dave circled around him, then this guy hold on to my bag. I hit him, because otherwise we could have fallen, he let go of my bag, and he definitely said some kind of swearing in Papua tribe language. Instead of leaving us alone he got some stones from the ground and starting throwing them towards us. One of the stones hit my helmet and it left a big scar on the helmet. (I am very lucky I wore a helmet) and one of the other stones hit my shoulder. (The last part happened why we were driving away) Then we were safe!

If I am honest somehow I am very angry with Lely, who is one of the three persons I am living with. She is a very nice person, but has brought me in danger already ones before. Because the other time she brought me in danger was when the government was just throwing 100.000.000rp (about 10.000 euro’s) on the street and the police was shooting on the moment we passed by.

All the ‘bad’ experiences have a different impact on you as a person. Some ‘bad’ experiences are in the end very awesome and cool that I experienced them although they didn’t seem to be like that when I experienced them, but this last two experiences I told you guys about, is one of the most traumatic ones, especially the first one. I had to write it down a few times and I talked with my mom about it, because somehow I needed to tell somebody who is related to me, so I could let it go.

Hope to see you by my next story.

Love,

Joëlle

Ps. I thought the ‘bad’ experiences I wouldn’t write down, but then I realized those experiences are a part of my travelling and have changed me in a certain way. I won’t take water and electricity for granted anymore or the fact that I am still alive, maybe I have a small angel protecting me.