The Sphere Effect

I can’t believe I only have one day left in Banda Aceh. I am not ready to leave at all, but find that I have to as my visa is shortly going to expire.

They say it takes quite a few weeks before you really start to enjoy somewhere, and I can relate to that - it’s only in the last few days that I have really started to get a feel for this city and it’s capabilities. Now I am starting to get to know the people and I am really sad to be going. I could come back again in about a week’s time, but I feel that for now, my time here is up. There is still a possibility that I could return in January/February but that is a decision I have yet to make.

So I’m off on Wednesday. I will spend a night in Medan in Indonesia, and on Thursday I’ll make my way to Bangkok, Thailand. I don’t really have too many plans for Thailand except to take it as it comes. I have decided that I will head straight up to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand to meet up with Kath and to help out in an Orphanage where she will be working. From then on, it really is just a case of seeing what I can do. I’d rather be helping somewhere rather than just travelling around, although I’d love to do a bit of that as well.

I have been reflecting on what I have done over the last few weeks, and I don’t really feel like I have achieved very much. I have mostly been learning from an incredible group of people, and I think I have gained much more than I have given. I have been able to do some IT work for them, which I hope will be useful for them into the future, and I have been providing some training over the last couple of days which I hope will be useful.

I have also managed to corrupt some of the children by teaching them to speak with an Australian (strine) accent. I now have a four year old and a nine year old walking around saying things like, “Oi!” and “Noiiiiiice”. They are doing quite well with the “G’day Mate” and the “Ow ya garn” is also progressing quite nicely. I think their parents will want to kill me before I leave.

I emailed around a few days ago to try and raise some money to buy a moped for a young Acehness woman and her family. She has suffered greatly from the Tsunami and afterwards, and they are living well below the poverty line, as her husband is only paid around $5 a week. We have some work lined up for the husband, but unfortunately they have no way for him to get to work - there is no public transport and he has no money currently for private transport.

So I am raising money for a moped, so that he can start working for a reasonable wage. I have done pretty well so far, but I am still short by a couple of hundred dollars. If anyone else would like to contribute to this very worthy project, please let me know.

I’ll be home in just under six weeks! Starting to feel little waves of excitement vibrating through my tummy now …. it’s been a long time!

A week on finds me flat on my back in bed with a nasty bout of ’something most traveller’s catch within the first week of a tropical country’ or so I am told. Actually I spent some time on Saturday morning gloating over how healthy I was feeling and how I had gotten over the hill of the first week without getting sick.

So after the last couple of days of fever, chills, aches, pains and other symptoms which I could but won’t mention, I am slowly coming around and starting back on the slippery slope to healthiness.

Last week I managed to catch up with Michael, a friend I had met in India earlier this year. He invited me away with a group of friends to an island off the coast of Aceh - Sabang. Eager for every new chance to see something new, and to meet new people, I eagerly accepted! But unfortunately had to leave early on Saturday due to horrible sick feeling in stomach… the rest was history.

But more about last week. I am working with a small Indonesian Foundation, whose goal is to provide employment to the local Acehnese people. The foundation has managed many projects since the tsunami, and currently runs several different businesses including handbag manufacturing, quilt manufacturing, card manufacturing, jewellery making, training centres, internet services, micro-finance, plus sponsorship of orphans and many other projects as they come up.

I have been living in a luxury guest house, most recently with a couple from Newcastle in Australia (Dan and Jo) and with Louise who is from California. Louise is here for a short while as she and her husband Roy are marketing the hand bag products made by the Acehnese in the USA. I could write a lot more about this, but she has a web site which says a lot more.

http://www.laga-handbags.com/

There are a couple of stories on this website - particularly Hanna’s story, which are really interesting, particularly since I now know and work with Hanna. She is lovely!

There are also lots of really nice handbags on the site, so if anyone in Perth or Sydney is interested let me know … I can hook you up , and it will help people in need in Banda Aceh.

As for me personally, my main projects while I am here include re-writing databases so that they are a little more useful, creating new ones, training people in some computer skills, and helping set up some new projects. It’s all very interesting, but I still don’t know what I’ll be doing at the end. I’ll just wait and see.

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I’m here in Banda Aceh! I had a really good trip, slept quite well, watched a couple of movies etc etc.

I am staying in a really nice guesthouse with the people I will be working with. Much better than I expected, although the bathroom doesn’t really match the rest of the place. It’s a squat toilet and a trough of dirty water which you pour into the squat toilet to flush it. I’ve also just been told that to shower, I must pour water from the dirty trough over myself. I am assured that it’s quite clean, but I haven’t been able to steel myself to take the plunge yet. Therefore I am actually quite dirty… but have gotten used to that after being a scummy backpacker for the last four weeks. May have to give it a go this evening before bed… fingers crossed all goes well.

I did my first ‘Tsunami Tour’ last night. I had a very good tour guide, and was given a lot of very interesting information. I am quite shocked at the lack of progress that has been made over the last 20 months. The water came in about 5km from the shoreline, and although most of the debris has now been cleared, the water has not properly receded. The ground has sunk several metres and the shoreline is now around a km further inland. In addition, the water is still sitting in stagnant pools in at least another couple of kilometres.

I’ll write a bit more about this later, but I thought I’d let you know that I’m here, and that all is well…

Oh, one other thing. I am staying in a building with a satellite comms tower in the front yard. We have mega broadband, so I’m available on email, msn and skype, but not mobile phone. I’m going to go and get an Indonesia SIM in a bit, so hopefully will be contactable then.

Bless…