Lost in Translation - Inca Village, Flores Island, Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Wed 1 Sep 2010 00:48
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08:16.714S 120:24.198E
Bright and early, or maybe not so bright since the
sun wasn't up yet, on August 25th, we motored 67 miles southwest with Australian
boat Sassoon and English boat Sa'Vahn to Inca (Incha) Village on the
north coast of large Flores Island in the Nusa Tenggara
Province. There was no wind, not even the slightest whisper. We
sat and sweated while the motor droned and Harmonie's cabin reached a record
high 91.5 degrees. Not so different from July in central and western
NY, so we hear.
We dropped anchor in the late afternoon with four
other rally boats just outside the reef protecting Inca Village from unwanted
swell. Not that there was any swell - wind would be needed for that.
We stayed only overnight leaving the next morning for a lovely spot we had read
about 25 miles to the southwest. We didn't go ashore at Inca Village, but
the usual array of boys in canoes paddled out to sit and stare at the tall,
pale people in the five big boats just before sundown. We
practiced the twenty or so Indonesian words we know, but soon ran out
of things to say. The problem with only knowing twenty words is
that locals initially think we actually know how to speak Indonesian, and
will sometimes launch into a one-sided conversation in
Indonesian, causing us to stare dumbly back, smile and
shrug. It's really only fair since the exact same thing happens to
our canoe-paddling visitors. They politely introduce themselves in
English and proceed to ask where we are from. After three questions
they usually run out of English words so we pick up the slack and
pepper them with questions in English. They stare dumbly back, smile
and shrug.
Picture 1 - The Christian village as seen from our
vantage point. There are two villages on this bay, the Muslim village sits
just to the left of the Christian village pictured here. From what we
understand, the two villages co-exist very peacefully. Many of the people
on Flores Island are Catholic, something they first learned from the
early Portuguese explorers and spice traders. As you can see, the
cathedral dominates the landscape. Those that went into the village for a
visit said the money might have been better spent on a system for running
water. We boaters are like that, always wondering why the building of an
elaborate church or mosque seems to take precedence over the welfare
of the people it serves. Sorry for the sour note, but we've
seen this so often in the many poor places we've been that we can only
wonder why.
More on our travels around Flores Island
later.
Anne
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