Palu, the capital of Central Celebes was the first city we visited during our two-week business trip to have a look at our landfill projects in Indonesia. With its population of 400,000 people, Palu seemed tiny compared to Jakarta, where I am from. There are no wide 4-lane main street or a 6 story mall building. Located on the mouth of the Palu river, at the head of a long narrow bay, Palu has simple cafe’s and hang out spots facing beautiful scenery.

In between meetings, my colleagues and I had a chance to talk to locals and dig a little deeper into their interesting culture and people. The name Palu literally means “hammer”. Although we couldn’t find out why it was named that way, the Christians there seem to be able to relate the name of the city to the situation that they are in.

The majority of the population in Palu are Muslims. The city has a long history of violent clashes between the Muslims and the Christians, who are mostly not from the area. Stories of Christian and Muslim deaths, bombings, killings, executions and closing down of churches were slanted all over the media, picturing Palu as a violent, bloody and unsafe place. From our conversations with the locals, we found out that the natives of Palu, the Kaili tribe are very peaceful and friendly.

It seems that resistance against the Christian immigrants does not come from the native people of Palu or Central Celebes but rather from fellow immigrants that come from the south of the Celebes island – the tribe of the Bugis. The ancestors of the Bugis’ people were known in the Caribbeans and Madagaskar as vicious pirates from the far east, feared so much by white westerners in Europe that they named them the Boogey men, which became also the frightening character to terrify children in the west who refuse to go to bed. Nowadays the Bugis people are still skillful sailors but no longer pirates. But the violent traits inherited by their ancestors are now taken out on the Christian immigrants, so it seems.

For our Christian friends that we met there, the name Palu (”hammer”) was a perfect description of their constantly  “hammered” situation. On the other side, we also found out, that the government of Palu itself is very much open to and welcoming Christian mission organization such as the Salvation Army. A local church even admitted that they receive quite a lot of support to implement their programs for the society. So it seems that it is only one group of people “hammering” the Christians there.

Despite that all, Palu seemed to be a very peaceful and laid back city. Wherever we went, my western colleagues were greeted and waved to. Short, friendly hellos and “Hellow Mister!” or “How are you?” can be heard several times as we walk down a street.

As we walked to have dinner the first night, we found some construction jokes that we felt we had to stop, discuss them and take pictures of our funny discovery. The first one is the brigde that was built for pedestrians to use to cross the street. Have a look at the picture below and try and figure out what is wrong with it.

We found another funny thing in the mall. Look at the picture below and find something hilarious of Palu construction.

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