hi all,
i did make it to banda aceh this weekend, for only 15 hours or so. it is about 5 or 6 in the morning, they have already said muslim prayers so it must be past 5. i had difficulty sleeping due to the insane sunburn i inflicted upon myself. we went camping with the genassist crew and yesterday (sat) swam in a river but neglected to put sunscreen on my very white body. now it is a very red body, and it burns!! i thought i learned in cuba...
anyway, i am not going to give a blow by blow daily regime. it gets boring to read about me digging more holes or hammering more nails. that is the main thing we have been doing. we made plywood forms for the supporting pillars of the houses, then we dug holes for posts for houses to be on stilts. on friday we poured cement into them. i don't think i have every worked so physically hard in my life - in 35 degree heat with 90% humidity!! i drank almost 6 litres of water in 8 hours and didn't have to pee if that tells you how much i am sweating!!
i have been learning that cleanliness is totally relative to situations though!! we are so "clean" in north america, likely too clean... (there are tiny ants running all over me, i don't know where they are coming from...)
last week, i was washing mud off my hands in a puddle, when an aroma startingly similar to cow manure came wafting up... i just moved over to a different muddy puddle that didn't smell like poo...
when i take a shower (which is only every 2 days...) it is usually in the company of a couple of large cockroaches. i was washing my face once, and when i opened my eyes, there was a 2 inch cockroach on my arm. i just flicked it off, and continued with my "shower". (the water comes out of a hole in the ground and has a yellowish tinge)
and to top if off, yesterday we went to hang out in a river. indonesians take the opportunity to wash their hair, clothes etc. so we joined in. i washed some dirt off my clothes, swam around a bit, then when walking out, matt stepped on a goat leg and i saw half of a goat head floating by (possibly the one we ate for lunch). oh, to be clean indonesian style!! but i got back in the water later, just upstream from the goat parts and where the men were cleaning their fish:-)
some highlights this week were going to swim in some waterfalls after work (fully clothed mind you), but it felt good after digging 3 deep holes all day!! of course, once again, women were not allowed up the path to see the sights. apparently the possibility of hanky panky happening out of sight is too great a risk... so laura and i just enjoyed the lower waterfall.
on friday we went for a short hike after work and picked fresh mangees off a tree. they are a small purple fruit and when opened look like garlic but are very sweet. it was fantastic to eat them straight off the tree.
on saturday we went "camping". they set up a huge army tent on a beach and we basically hung out and ate. walked a bit on the rocks around the ocean, but since there used to be a town under where the water is now, we couldn't swim in the water. i watched a goat get killed for supper - not a pleasant sight or sound... i had a migraine by the time they served supper at 11pm, so i didn't even partake in the stew. we slept on the very hard ground (rather attempted to sleep). in the morning we headed off to a new site via almost impassable roads to the aforementioned river to hang out under the tent some more. it was a great weekend - you couldn't pay a tourist agency to set up that kind of experience!!
a low point this week were my "workplace injuries". on wed or thursday i cracked my left thumb open with a hammer. broke half the nail horizontally across and split the skin open. the pain was so excruciating i almost vomited. of course the villagers found it quite interesting so gathered round to watch me...
on friday, i banged my foot on a metal door and had an instant goose egg the size of a plum on my foot. at least it didn't hurt much. then while backing up the wheel barrow, i fell backwards into a 2 foot hole, not once but twice... the problem was that there was rebar and wire sticking out of the middle of the hole and i tore up my pants. again, only a few bruises...
but my sunburn tops it off, i am taking tylenol to control the pain!!
well, that's it for now. i will probably be back in banda aceh this friday before we head off to sabang for the weekend (an island with superb snorkelling)
have a great week! peace alida
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Saturday, July 15, 2006
week in review
hi,
it is saturday afternoon and i just returned from a acehnese wedding celebration. (aceh is the area we are in). the bride was wearing to be what looked like a 15 pound headpiece, and has to sit on a little throne and greet people all day. she was very gracious!! hundreds of people come out for the party and it goes from 1000 to probably 1-2 in the morning. they have already been married in the mosque several weeks ago, and had a party on her side. today was the party on his side of the family. we were served plates and plates of food, given a little tour of how the food is cooked, all the little ladies washing the dishes. once we ate, we left. apparently that is what you do here. it was great to be able to go to an authentic indonesian wedding.
so... what has been happening this week...
monday - we (being laura, kevin, matt and i) attended a staff meeting at the Genassist office (the local NGO we are with), met all the managers and leaders. they had to have a further meeting, so laura and i went next door for coffee and quickly had several men willing to teach us indonesian and ask us if we were married (no, i am not picking up "hot indonesian men, unit 112). after the 15 minute meeting took almost 2 hours (indonesian time), we spent another hour running errands before heading out to lhong.
it was 2 hours on a pretty sketchy highway of switchbacks but with amazing views of the indian ocean. once in lhong, we had to wait another hour for the intepreter who then took us to where each of us would be staying.
i am staying with a 63 year old widow named nuriah. her husband died several years ago, and all her children live in other cities. she proudly showed me her possessions - a calender of tsunami pictures and a clock in the living room. my bedroom is the most furnished. i have a bed, a fan and even a ghetto blaster! she sleeps in the other bedroom/storage room. there is a small bathroom and kitchen. she was showing me all her identifcation for some reason and showed me her monthly paycheck/pension - equivalent to $35 a month. so she is quite poor - but rich in hospitality, laughter, and smiles. she prepares my breakfast and supper - which consists of rice, and usually soup, fish, a fried egg and sweet tea. it is actually all quite tasty. i lied and told her i was allergic to the stinky fruit! i just don't think i could bear eating it in front of her! i would make too many faces trying to swallow it!
we had one word conversations using my small indonesian phrase book. a young guy doing a census or something came by and starting asking me when i would go with him to the waterfall, go around town etc. i told him i was going with my boss. then i said i was tired and got up to go to bed. i didn't know how to end the conversation!
tuesday - there was a symbolic strike in sumatra because the people are not happy with the slowness of a peace process. up until the tsunami hit, many people in sumatra wanted to separate. there has been conflict for 30 years with alot of rebel activity. indonesia didn't want them to split because there are too many resources in this province. so it is only recently that there has been peace.
so we toured around the work site in the morning and went for a walk on the beach. it is a beautiful stretch of beach - it looks great to swim in except there are still houses and tree stumps under the water which one could easily get impaled on by a wave. they lost about 1/2 km of land in the area, and it has totally changed the currents etc so much that even the seasons seem to be mixed up.
we finally started working in the afternoon, levelling off dirt piles that will help provide a base for house foundations. i drank through about 5 litres of water and only went to the bathroom once the entire day - that is how much i am sweating!
after work we drove up to a lookout point where you can see the coast line, islands and monkeys. was refused entry to the actual lookout point because i am female...
finished off my birthday with black forest cake...
wednesday - we shovelled some more today... working on those arm muscles and farmers tan... also pulled nails out of boards for a few hours. ate some rice for lunch...
it started to downpour at 330pm so we had to head home. we were totally soaked after the 20 minute ride in the back of the pickup truck (that's how we get around - illegal at home, but no other option here). lots of dry indonesians laughed at us as we drove by. i didn't find out until 2 days later that there is some indonesian belief about absolutely needing to go home and have a shower if you get wet in the rain.
thursday - it is supposed to be dry season here, but it rained all day long . we tried to go out to the worksite to check it out but one of the bridges was covered in 2 feet of water and half the road under more. we ended up hanging out at mike's house - the rest of them played yeuker (sp?) while i read "the pilots wife". a pretty boring day...
friday - finally no rain, until we got to the worksite... it rained on and off all morning. got soaking wet again... i stood under a tarp with a bunch of guys for awhile but all they did was talk in indonsian about me and laugh. so i decided to work in the rain instead. one of the female indonesian managers said they had probably never been that close to a white woman before (and women and men generally don't mingle in this culture because it is muslim), so she thought they were probably just nervous. there were never any tourists here before the tsunami due to armed conflict, so it is still pretty new to have white people around.
nobody works on friday afternoons between 1200-1400 because they go to prayers. so we had an extra long lunch - sitting in wet clothes...
went back to the worksite and it actually did not rain all afternoon! i half dried off...
we headed back to banda aceh in the early evening.
that is about it!! it is the very basic of what i have been doing... so many details, i don't know where to start!
i.e. i share my bedroom with a mouse. i don't like mice but i figured it poses less of a threat than the 8 foot crocodiles that have been sited only a few hundred metres away, or the wild boars with horns...
we have electricity from 7pm to 7am or whenever the guy controlling the generator decides we will have electricity... but the only electrical things in the house are the lightbulbs and the lone fan. light does come in handy when trying to shower though - otherwise it is by the light of my headlamp.
there are still people living in mildewy, moldy UN tents - for over a year and a half now. the red cross initially said they were going to build 20,000 houses but all i have seen is a few metal latrines on the side of the road. (the red cross expats in banda aceh live in the rich area and have reportadely have waterfalls and fountains in the foyers of their houses). i am proud to be with an NGO that has actually done something and lives no better than the locals. (well i guess we could go live in a moldy tent...)
anyway. i don't think we are coming into banda aceh next weekend. i will be hanging out with mama nuriah, learning more words, building more things, shovelling more dirt, pulling more nails...
it has been great so far! thanks for reading! and i love your comments!!
peace alida
it is saturday afternoon and i just returned from a acehnese wedding celebration. (aceh is the area we are in). the bride was wearing to be what looked like a 15 pound headpiece, and has to sit on a little throne and greet people all day. she was very gracious!! hundreds of people come out for the party and it goes from 1000 to probably 1-2 in the morning. they have already been married in the mosque several weeks ago, and had a party on her side. today was the party on his side of the family. we were served plates and plates of food, given a little tour of how the food is cooked, all the little ladies washing the dishes. once we ate, we left. apparently that is what you do here. it was great to be able to go to an authentic indonesian wedding.
so... what has been happening this week...
monday - we (being laura, kevin, matt and i) attended a staff meeting at the Genassist office (the local NGO we are with), met all the managers and leaders. they had to have a further meeting, so laura and i went next door for coffee and quickly had several men willing to teach us indonesian and ask us if we were married (no, i am not picking up "hot indonesian men, unit 112). after the 15 minute meeting took almost 2 hours (indonesian time), we spent another hour running errands before heading out to lhong.
it was 2 hours on a pretty sketchy highway of switchbacks but with amazing views of the indian ocean. once in lhong, we had to wait another hour for the intepreter who then took us to where each of us would be staying.
i am staying with a 63 year old widow named nuriah. her husband died several years ago, and all her children live in other cities. she proudly showed me her possessions - a calender of tsunami pictures and a clock in the living room. my bedroom is the most furnished. i have a bed, a fan and even a ghetto blaster! she sleeps in the other bedroom/storage room. there is a small bathroom and kitchen. she was showing me all her identifcation for some reason and showed me her monthly paycheck/pension - equivalent to $35 a month. so she is quite poor - but rich in hospitality, laughter, and smiles. she prepares my breakfast and supper - which consists of rice, and usually soup, fish, a fried egg and sweet tea. it is actually all quite tasty. i lied and told her i was allergic to the stinky fruit! i just don't think i could bear eating it in front of her! i would make too many faces trying to swallow it!
we had one word conversations using my small indonesian phrase book. a young guy doing a census or something came by and starting asking me when i would go with him to the waterfall, go around town etc. i told him i was going with my boss. then i said i was tired and got up to go to bed. i didn't know how to end the conversation!
tuesday - there was a symbolic strike in sumatra because the people are not happy with the slowness of a peace process. up until the tsunami hit, many people in sumatra wanted to separate. there has been conflict for 30 years with alot of rebel activity. indonesia didn't want them to split because there are too many resources in this province. so it is only recently that there has been peace.
so we toured around the work site in the morning and went for a walk on the beach. it is a beautiful stretch of beach - it looks great to swim in except there are still houses and tree stumps under the water which one could easily get impaled on by a wave. they lost about 1/2 km of land in the area, and it has totally changed the currents etc so much that even the seasons seem to be mixed up.
we finally started working in the afternoon, levelling off dirt piles that will help provide a base for house foundations. i drank through about 5 litres of water and only went to the bathroom once the entire day - that is how much i am sweating!
after work we drove up to a lookout point where you can see the coast line, islands and monkeys. was refused entry to the actual lookout point because i am female...
finished off my birthday with black forest cake...
wednesday - we shovelled some more today... working on those arm muscles and farmers tan... also pulled nails out of boards for a few hours. ate some rice for lunch...
it started to downpour at 330pm so we had to head home. we were totally soaked after the 20 minute ride in the back of the pickup truck (that's how we get around - illegal at home, but no other option here). lots of dry indonesians laughed at us as we drove by. i didn't find out until 2 days later that there is some indonesian belief about absolutely needing to go home and have a shower if you get wet in the rain.
thursday - it is supposed to be dry season here, but it rained all day long . we tried to go out to the worksite to check it out but one of the bridges was covered in 2 feet of water and half the road under more. we ended up hanging out at mike's house - the rest of them played yeuker (sp?) while i read "the pilots wife". a pretty boring day...
friday - finally no rain, until we got to the worksite... it rained on and off all morning. got soaking wet again... i stood under a tarp with a bunch of guys for awhile but all they did was talk in indonsian about me and laugh. so i decided to work in the rain instead. one of the female indonesian managers said they had probably never been that close to a white woman before (and women and men generally don't mingle in this culture because it is muslim), so she thought they were probably just nervous. there were never any tourists here before the tsunami due to armed conflict, so it is still pretty new to have white people around.
nobody works on friday afternoons between 1200-1400 because they go to prayers. so we had an extra long lunch - sitting in wet clothes...
went back to the worksite and it actually did not rain all afternoon! i half dried off...
we headed back to banda aceh in the early evening.
that is about it!! it is the very basic of what i have been doing... so many details, i don't know where to start!
i.e. i share my bedroom with a mouse. i don't like mice but i figured it poses less of a threat than the 8 foot crocodiles that have been sited only a few hundred metres away, or the wild boars with horns...
we have electricity from 7pm to 7am or whenever the guy controlling the generator decides we will have electricity... but the only electrical things in the house are the lightbulbs and the lone fan. light does come in handy when trying to shower though - otherwise it is by the light of my headlamp.
there are still people living in mildewy, moldy UN tents - for over a year and a half now. the red cross initially said they were going to build 20,000 houses but all i have seen is a few metal latrines on the side of the road. (the red cross expats in banda aceh live in the rich area and have reportadely have waterfalls and fountains in the foyers of their houses). i am proud to be with an NGO that has actually done something and lives no better than the locals. (well i guess we could go live in a moldy tent...)
anyway. i don't think we are coming into banda aceh next weekend. i will be hanging out with mama nuriah, learning more words, building more things, shovelling more dirt, pulling more nails...
it has been great so far! thanks for reading! and i love your comments!!
peace alida
Friday, July 14, 2006
first week - quick note
hi there,
i will write more on saturday or sunday, but i thought i would write a quick note! i survived my first week in lhong (spelled it wrong before) - actually i am in a village called blang mee. i am living with a 63 year old widow who stands at 4 1/2 feet tall at the most. she is hilarious, laughs at me all the time, we have a good time together. i call her ibu (mother) nuriah. i will write more about my home later.
due to a strike and some serious rain, we have only worked 2 1/2 days this week. serious slacking! but today i got so wet working in the rain, i don't think i have ever gotten that wet even in a shower. the indonesians stood under a tarp and laughed at laura and i while we dug dirt in the rain.
thanks for all the birthday wishes. i celebrated by shovelling dirt for house foundations. we then went for a drive to a lookout - except for some bizarre (likely islamic) rule, women were not allowed to walk up to the old dutch military lookout. so laura and i had to look out from the road. but we saw lots of monkeys swinging around. they create quite the racket while we are working. a nice racket though - makes you feel like you are at a zoo (with the water buffalo walking through the construction site). i ate some black forest cake to top it all off!
thanks for keeping a lookout for those bottle rule breakers leslie. i can finally sleep through the night now! thanks for the 112 notes! it is fun to hear from you!
anyway, - will give a full update with hopefully some good stories tomorrow.
we are going to a 12 hour wedding party tomorrow - but are apparently skipping out right after we eat some free food:-)
alida
i will write more on saturday or sunday, but i thought i would write a quick note! i survived my first week in lhong (spelled it wrong before) - actually i am in a village called blang mee. i am living with a 63 year old widow who stands at 4 1/2 feet tall at the most. she is hilarious, laughs at me all the time, we have a good time together. i call her ibu (mother) nuriah. i will write more about my home later.
due to a strike and some serious rain, we have only worked 2 1/2 days this week. serious slacking! but today i got so wet working in the rain, i don't think i have ever gotten that wet even in a shower. the indonesians stood under a tarp and laughed at laura and i while we dug dirt in the rain.
thanks for all the birthday wishes. i celebrated by shovelling dirt for house foundations. we then went for a drive to a lookout - except for some bizarre (likely islamic) rule, women were not allowed to walk up to the old dutch military lookout. so laura and i had to look out from the road. but we saw lots of monkeys swinging around. they create quite the racket while we are working. a nice racket though - makes you feel like you are at a zoo (with the water buffalo walking through the construction site). i ate some black forest cake to top it all off!
thanks for keeping a lookout for those bottle rule breakers leslie. i can finally sleep through the night now! thanks for the 112 notes! it is fun to hear from you!
anyway, - will give a full update with hopefully some good stories tomorrow.
we are going to a 12 hour wedding party tomorrow - but are apparently skipping out right after we eat some free food:-)
alida
Saturday, July 08, 2006
first impressions
Now that i have gotten some sleep, perhaps i can string together some sentences about my first impressions of indonesia!
when we landed in medan, we were quickly ushered around by a man who promptly took our - baggage tags and wanted our plane tickets. i asked him for some ID or to identify himself - i didn't need to lose my luggage and ticket in the first hour. turns out he was legitimate but wanted to be heavily compenstated. he acted insulted with my two dollar tip - however his wage is five dollars a day - so i just shrugged and boarded the next plane.
in medan i was disappointed to see a dunkin donuts the minute we stepped out of the terminal. unfortunately, some of the worst western things are imported here. i have seen "california fried chicken" KFC and burger king. but i am a bit of a hypocrite because i like fanta pop, and they have strawberry and lime flavours here!
after we slept for awhile, mike (a canadian consulting with the crwrc or locally known as genassist) took us for a tour to see some of the town, and where the most destruction occured. if you think your house needs some reno's you should see some houses here. one place has a 70 foot steel boat resting on the roof. it looks like the locals plan to leave it there for awhile as a type of memorial. or they don't have the resources to move it. probably the latter. there is also a large steel barge that was brought 3 kilometres inland by the tsunami and it now rests in the middle of several houses. we also went closer to the beach where they are trying to rebuild. many still live in wooden temporary shelters, but mike said they are making good progress, all things considered. there is still alot of debris to clean up.
tomorrow we head to lloong, a smaller town where we will be based for the month. it sounds like we will be helping with some house foundations. it will be nice to get settled and into a routine.
the weather is hot and sticky. at night when i turn over in bed, i can literally feel the burning imprint of where my body was. and we have a fan in the room! in lloong there is no electricity, so that luxury will be gone. i am hoping i will acclimatize soon!
i am also getting used to squat toilets. it isn't too bad, but lets hope i don't get sick with some bug - i don't think that will be pleasant. there is no shower, we bathe using buckets, which when it is so hot, feels pretty good to dump a bucket of cold water on your head! so enjoy your shower heads there, because my arm doubles as the shower faucet:-)
i like most indonesian food so far. we went out for some real food - nasi goreng!! lekker! (yummy). the fruit is tasty too. the "hairy" fruit looks like garlic when you peel it, but it is sweet. i tried the "stinky" fruit. it lives up to its name. it stinks like something resembling poop and has a strange consistency that i will not attempt to describe. the taste is "unique" - enough so that i will tell my indonesian friends i have a weak stomach the next time it is offered. i had to chew some gum to get the taste out of my mouth. i am usually pretty flexible and open to trying new foods, but stinky fruit is worth trying only once.
i will only have access to internet here in banda aceh, i think we will be coming here on the weekends. so i will likely have a weekly posting on the blog site.
have a great week! shalom alida
when we landed in medan, we were quickly ushered around by a man who promptly took our - baggage tags and wanted our plane tickets. i asked him for some ID or to identify himself - i didn't need to lose my luggage and ticket in the first hour. turns out he was legitimate but wanted to be heavily compenstated. he acted insulted with my two dollar tip - however his wage is five dollars a day - so i just shrugged and boarded the next plane.
in medan i was disappointed to see a dunkin donuts the minute we stepped out of the terminal. unfortunately, some of the worst western things are imported here. i have seen "california fried chicken" KFC and burger king. but i am a bit of a hypocrite because i like fanta pop, and they have strawberry and lime flavours here!
after we slept for awhile, mike (a canadian consulting with the crwrc or locally known as genassist) took us for a tour to see some of the town, and where the most destruction occured. if you think your house needs some reno's you should see some houses here. one place has a 70 foot steel boat resting on the roof. it looks like the locals plan to leave it there for awhile as a type of memorial. or they don't have the resources to move it. probably the latter. there is also a large steel barge that was brought 3 kilometres inland by the tsunami and it now rests in the middle of several houses. we also went closer to the beach where they are trying to rebuild. many still live in wooden temporary shelters, but mike said they are making good progress, all things considered. there is still alot of debris to clean up.
tomorrow we head to lloong, a smaller town where we will be based for the month. it sounds like we will be helping with some house foundations. it will be nice to get settled and into a routine.
the weather is hot and sticky. at night when i turn over in bed, i can literally feel the burning imprint of where my body was. and we have a fan in the room! in lloong there is no electricity, so that luxury will be gone. i am hoping i will acclimatize soon!
i am also getting used to squat toilets. it isn't too bad, but lets hope i don't get sick with some bug - i don't think that will be pleasant. there is no shower, we bathe using buckets, which when it is so hot, feels pretty good to dump a bucket of cold water on your head! so enjoy your shower heads there, because my arm doubles as the shower faucet:-)
i like most indonesian food so far. we went out for some real food - nasi goreng!! lekker! (yummy). the fruit is tasty too. the "hairy" fruit looks like garlic when you peel it, but it is sweet. i tried the "stinky" fruit. it lives up to its name. it stinks like something resembling poop and has a strange consistency that i will not attempt to describe. the taste is "unique" - enough so that i will tell my indonesian friends i have a weak stomach the next time it is offered. i had to chew some gum to get the taste out of my mouth. i am usually pretty flexible and open to trying new foods, but stinky fruit is worth trying only once.
i will only have access to internet here in banda aceh, i think we will be coming here on the weekends. so i will likely have a weekly posting on the blog site.
have a great week! shalom alida
Friday, July 07, 2006
i have arrived!
hi all,
i have arrived in banda aceh after 28 hours on airplanes, plus layovers! i would be happy not to eat airplane food for awhile! everything went smoothly with no delays.
it is pretty darn hot here - especially for a canadian girl who works in an air conditioned hospital. but i am sure i will adapt quickly.
i have already practiced some indonesian - when a guard at the airport wanted me to buy him a pop - my "no" or "bidak" was well understood!
i had been thinking of all kinds of things to write, but now i cannot remember anything - could be the fatique setting in.
we are going to hang out in banda aceh for the weekend - then head to lloong- 2 hours down the coast to where we will be for 4 weeks. i think we will be working on laying foundations for some houses.
i hope all is well with each of you whereever you are!
shalom alida
(p.s. don't worry it is safe here - the humanitarian vehicles have big stickers of guns with red marks through them to indicate to rebels - don't shoot us! (apparently this was left over from fairly recent civil unrest)
i have arrived in banda aceh after 28 hours on airplanes, plus layovers! i would be happy not to eat airplane food for awhile! everything went smoothly with no delays.
it is pretty darn hot here - especially for a canadian girl who works in an air conditioned hospital. but i am sure i will adapt quickly.
i have already practiced some indonesian - when a guard at the airport wanted me to buy him a pop - my "no" or "bidak" was well understood!
i had been thinking of all kinds of things to write, but now i cannot remember anything - could be the fatique setting in.
we are going to hang out in banda aceh for the weekend - then head to lloong- 2 hours down the coast to where we will be for 4 weeks. i think we will be working on laying foundations for some houses.
i hope all is well with each of you whereever you are!
shalom alida
(p.s. don't worry it is safe here - the humanitarian vehicles have big stickers of guns with red marks through them to indicate to rebels - don't shoot us! (apparently this was left over from fairly recent civil unrest)
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