Monday, August 20, 2007 - Kris Tindige

I just got the desperately sad news that, following his long battle against cancer, Samkris (known as Kris) Tindige has died this morning. Juszti, Robi, Stu and I were very privileged to have spent some time with him in his beloved West Papua last year, on what would be one of his last tours and experienced at first hand what a very special person he was. With an infectious smile and a great sense of humour, despite being in great pain, which was later diagnosed as the return of his cancer, he was a delight to be with and we enjoyed a lot of laughs during our short time together. My favourite story is when he visited the UK for the first time, without his trusty machete, and he said to himself  "Right Kris, you are in the city now, you must try to survive!" Completely at home in the rainforests of West Papua it was funny to hear that he felt the same as us city-dwellers with the situation reversed!

There are some photos of Kris on my West Papua entries from last year and I also found a few more today:

Samkris Tindige, Batanta Island, September 2006

Samkris Tindige, Salawati Island, September 2006 (photos by Stuart Warren)

Mike Watson, Clitheroe, Lancashire