cleanliness is relative

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