back on canadian soil

Hi all or Salamat Siang!
I have returned to Canadian soil in one piece, but barely. With only 6 hours of sleep in 44 hours of travel, I could hardly walk when I arrived...
I already miss my Ibu/Mama Nuriah, pictured here at the right. I lived with her for 3 weeks. She fed me, took care of me when I was sick (with dehydration & heat exhaustion), laughed with me, teased me, and taught me Indonesian. She looks pretty serious in this photo, but she was actually just a barrel of laughs! Only about 5 feet tall but full of spunk and resiliency.
She lost her home and belongings to the tsunami, as well as 3 children and 7 grandchildren (from what i understood with my limited indonesian). She was in Banda Aceh at the time of the tsunami, aways inland, so did not have to physically run from the waves.
I heard many terrifying stories, many told by Mona (Genassist program manager) and Mike. One fisherman in Banda Aceh felt the earthquake and about 20 minutes later watched as the ocean suddenly retreated several hundred metres. A 30 foot wave then came like a cobra, and he grabbed his wife and ran for the hills. They just barely managed to climb vertically up rock when the first wave hit. They ended up spending 3 days perched in a tree, and his wife gave birth to their son in the tree!! They named him Muhammed Tsunami.
One of the Genassist staff lost his entire family except a mother-in-law and brother-in-law. The sorrow is still in his eyes, but I witnessed moments of true happiness on occasion.

The month in Indonesia completely fulfilled all of my goals. I learned a great deal about Indonesian culture and language, and especially the people as we lived and worked exclusively with Indonesians. I learned that my muslim neighbours have the same goals and hopes in life that I do - to live happily, to have hope, to experience peace.
I learned a bit about construction, and that I don't know much about it! I told everyone at the going away dinner that I learned that I make a better nurse than a builder! But I truly did enjoy digging holes, hammering, building forms, hauling lumber. I think it served as a great example that we were willing to work alongside the people we were helping. Many asked why we would work so physically hard - shouldn't we be supervising or something? I simply told them I was there to help in whatever way I could!

I made some excellent lifelong friends - from people at Genassist, to my Ibu Nuriah, to the village of Pudeng who collectively and affectionately nicknamed me "noodle hair" (in reference to ramen/Mr. noodles), the children I blew up balloons for in the villages, my neighbours in BlangMe, the families we built houses for.

It was a fantastic month, well worth the time, energy, and money. You can't buy a holiday like this!!
Thanks for reading my posts... I am going to try to figure out how to post some photos on the internet.
I will also likely use this blog when I go to Nigeria in November...
peace alida