For 87-year-old Thresiamma, nothing works without the blessing of Jesus. As Maria Yuliana Farida carried the freshly harvested cocoa fruit in a basket into the backyard of her home, she murmured: “If one of these is damaged, we will have less to eat next week.”
The cocoa fruit harvested in the June-July season in Indonesia’s Catholic-majority Flores Island is part of her family’s weekly income. “I believe that God, who we call in our language, Mori Kraeng, will always provide what we need. But of course, we also need to work hard,” 44-year-old Farida says with a smile.
She and her husband, Fransiskus Din, 47, work hard five days a week from morning till evening to feed their three children and bring them up in the faith.
While Saturdays is market day, the Catholic family spends Sundays as a day of rest and prayer dividing it between the parish church and home, Farida said.
Every Saturday morning, Farida and Din, walk one kilometer along the only pathway that connects their Wae Sano village to the outside world.
Carrying the farm produce on their heads, the couple walks the narrow, potholed path to arrive at a road that leads to the traditional market in Werang, a sub-district town, 10 kilometres to the east from their village.
Farida’s non-descript and isolated village, surrounded by hills and forests, is part of Indonesia’s Christian-dominated East Nusa Tenggara province. Sundays “are like a small feast day,” as they take a break from the dawn-to-dusk farm work and start the day with Sunday Mass in the village, Farida said. On Sunday mornings, Farida and her family walk to St Michael Parish Church, barely 100 meters from their house, dressed in their Sunday best. “Going to meet God means that I wear a nice dress,” Farida said.