Mentawai Round II (part 2: Children)

The next part of our trip was a little more business. Twelve elementary children had been told that they would not pass the school year in the village of Mongan Poula on the grounds that they had not attended their religion classes. The Baha'i children, we were told, usually joined the Catholic classes at the school, but this year had been told that they had to be the same religion as the teacher and therefore could not attend that class or the Muslim or Christian classes being offered (Catholicism and Christianity are separate religions in Indonesia). The village head saw this as being a village problem, since the village children were not passing and called a meeting. We attended to see if we could help out, and Soesi was able to convey that since the Baha'i Faith includes all religions, that it should not be a problem for Baha'i children to be a part of any other religious class. The school head, various teachers, parents, and representatives from all the religious communities came to the meeting, where it was eventually decided that the children could take a Baha'i test for a passing grade. What's really bizarre about the whole event is that it turns out that the school only has any of the religious classes on paper - none of the teachers ever shows up, and none of the students have every attended any of the classes. The whole event was pretty strange, but it seems like the real issue is the status of the Baha'i Faith. Many people in Mentawai were Baha'is and were forced to change their religion when the corrupt and uninformed police force learned that the Baha'i administration was banned up until 7 years ago. Thus, many people are waiting until they feel like it's safe to re-enter the Baha'i Faith (the school head included). Mentawai has the highest percentage of Baha'is of any island in Indonesia, and the Baha'i Faith is not one of the five options for classes taught at government schools. Several Mentawaiians that we talked to were of the opinion that if the Baha'i Faith could be taught in the public schools, they would know it was safe. The school head told us that what was needed in the village was a chance for people of different religious groups to get together and talk.

We also met with the Baha'i children and parents. Soesi gave each child a little prayer book on behalf of the National Spiritual Assembly, which they totally loved. The children immediately began reading and memorizing prayers without being told - I was surprised. Given the way the children generally acted, I figured the prayer books would be in the mud within minutes. Greg also did a unity activity with both the parents and children.

Later on, representatives from the three communities we visited came to one location to consult upon another educational issue - they bought land to build a home where Jr. High students could come to live, making it possible for them to attend school above the Elementary level. Currently students have to walk or take a boat for 2 or 3 hours to get from their villages to the Jr. High school.

It's amazing to me that the people are facing these issues head-on even though they were persecuted as a religious group in the past. It was nice to be able to visit and be encouraging of their activities, particularly since they've been left to feel so alone and devoid of communication with the rest of the Baha'i world. There are so many Baha'is there - we met them everywhere we went. This picture was taken when, as we were walking along a path, we heard someone call "Allah'u'abha!" which is the Baha'i greeting. It means "God is most Glorious." We couldn't figure out who was calling to us, until we looked up and found a man high above us in a coconut tree.