TOLIKARA

People don’t just like travelling because they want to see beautiful scenery, but mostly because they expect to get a big adventure of it. For me, being in a unfamiliar place for conducting a mission, whatever it’s form, is such a big adventure and of course it’s a real travelling.

Tolikara. the place that i never forget, not because of its beauty but because the journey process that I had to face when I went there. Located in Papua, Indonesia, Tolikara is not even one of popular tourist attraction in Indonesia. Even so many Indonesian people never heard that place.

From Wamena city, in Papua, I and some friends and one of the drivers that come from Wamena, went to Tolikara. We were psychologist who brought a mission to find some potential students in Tolikara .The trip took four hours by a Jeep. Four hour trip is nothing for me who has been frequently travelling, but the trips to Tolikara seemed so exhausting and challenging for me. Our Jeep had to go through a winding and uneven road continuously for four hours. It felt like being in a small boat, sailing on the sea, and struggling in the midst of the big waves. I felt sick due to the unstable movement of the Jeep and wanted to vomit.

In the middle of trying to hold myself from vomiting, I also had to struggle with my fear when our Jeep was stopped by a group of young adult (five adults), who carried some long knives. Some of them approached our driver and spoke to him, while playing their knives in front of us. Meanwhile some of them went to the back side of the Jeep and checked it. I could see in how hard my friends tried to hold their breath, and keep their fear less visible to those people with knives. Finally, after five minutes explaining our mission, those group of young adult, allowed us to continue our journey. Thanks God! We continued the journey, with the fear which still hadn’t subsided in us. I felt I wanted to give up this journey and go back to Wamena. However, for the sake of my work mission, I encouraged myself to keep going and i did.

Since Tolikara was located near the top of the mountain, our Jeep continued going up to higher place, heading toward the mountain, still through the winding and uneven road. My stress, as a result of the journey, suddenly gone, when the Jeep stopped in one place where we could see the clouds below our feet. We called the place as a Negeri Di Atas Awan (A country Above The Cloud). I felt like God who is observing earth from heaven.

Finally after four hours, we arrived at Tolikara. I did it! I really amazed to find Tolikara in the middle of mountains and there, I stood up, surrounded by a beautiful mountain scenery, felt happy to be one step closer to my mission