Another few months under my belt...

Well, it's been awhile since I've written. Been a busy few months.

Had an amazing vacation with my family. We went for a little beach vacation in Sabang, then I look them to Lamno for the day. Then I left them in Banda Aceh while I went to Jakarta for the day. They did a good job of keeping themselves. We then met in Medan and then headed straight to see the orangutans - one of only two places in the world where they can still be found in the wild. We then went to Bali and had a great time. Mom even got in some furniture shopping.

Other than that, I have been keeping busy. I accepted a full-time job out here. I even got a fancy title - Senior Economic Development Program Advisor - makes me sound all smart and all.

Had a really nice Thanksgiving. We don't get it off here, but at about 11am, I realized that I needed to do something. So I got a chicken and some veggies and cooked up a storm. (I made roast chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, calabaza, tsimmis, green beans and almonds, lemon pepper broccoli and cauliflower, and of course a cheesecake. Additions included: bread, cheese, steamed veggies, cranberry sauce, and a few beers.) It was a small gathering, only 7 - compared to about 50 I had in Barcelona and 25 in Chile a few years back. But it was really nice.

And to top it all off, I was awoken at 6am with a 6.1 magnitude earthquake 55 miles off of Banda Aceh this morning. It felt like a pretty big one. Happy to say that our new house handled the prolonged shaking with no problem. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2007kabq.php

I will, happily, be coming back to the US for about a month in December to clean things up "before" my official move to Indonesia.

Rugby

Yes, I am proud to admit that have played my first match of Rugby in Banda Aceh Indonesia.
I have a friend out here who has told me about these matches on several occasions and I finally got myself out to the stadium today to play. It is one of the few sports that is played co-ed here. (All expats though) It is touch rugby so as to avoid too much injury for those involved. Most of the people there really know what they are doing, but I got a few quick pointers throughout and seemed to hold my own. Like it much of my earlier sporting history, my defense is significantly stronger than my offense (not sure what that means, but anyways...). So, I generally stayed away from trying to run with or catch the ball, but made some nice touches throughout the day.
Towards the last half of the day, I had my first rugby knock out. One guy got the ball and thought he had an open run, apparently he did not see me standing in front of him (I admit I am a short woman, but he was no giant, so not sure what was happening). Anyways, he went full force ahead straight into me and knocked me down to the ground. Not completely sure what happened except that my head hurt quite a bit and things were blurry. I stayed down for a few minutes and when I sat up everything seemed a bit blotchy with yellow spots. I was told I had a big smile on my face, so people weren't too worried.
I got back up and started to play again but was advised it might be best to sit out for a few minutes. The yellow spots thing was kinda cool I must admit, albeit a bit weird. I sat out for about 5 minutes and then until the downpour past and then rejoined the match.
Despite the bruises, a good first rugby experience.
But, as I was doing sports in Aceh... I get home and yes... you guessed it, no electricity (meaning no running water. I don't even want to get into water issues -- we have now been losing water too). Luckily we have the trusty generator so Iwas able to take a nice 'warm' shower to clean the mud out of my hair.
All-in-all, not a bad day. Although my body will likely not be so happy with me for the next few days.

*Sorry no pictures of today's excitement.

Independence Day

August 17th - Indonesian Independence Day!

A Friday off. I had planned on working the day, got in a few hours and then headed out to some neighborhood festivities.

All of the houses fly their red and white flags. However, in Aceh, things here are more about the games than about the Independence. That has to do with the fact that, while there has been a peace deal, many of the people of Aceh still feel very little tie to Indonesia and are still hoping for independence. Anyways, the games were fun. When we arrived they were just wrapping up the last of the kids games - nail on a stick, swung at a water balloon by blindfolded kids. Probably not the safest game out there.

We then had a men's football (soccer) match played in sarongs. The real excitement of the game was that when the music started the men had to stop playing the game and dance instead. Fun indeed. Although, unfortunately not the best soccer players or dancer.

Next activity was a real highlight... Men climbing a well greased coconut tree trunk. The men climbed atop of each other in hopes of reaching the top of the pole - roughly 45 feet high. As you can see in the picture, they climbed onto each others shoulders one man at a time. The challenge is that the pole is covered in some mysterious thick black grease. It must have taken about 3o minutes for the first group to get someone to reach the top - they just kept sliding down the pole.Upon reaching the top of the pole, the lucky fellow got to play with all of the goodies stored at the top. First prize - a 1 liter bottle of Sprite which he shook up and spayed all over the people below. He then pulled down the umbrellas and plastic balls. The guys kept trying to climb the second pole, but were never able to master it. So at the end of the night, they just tried to pull it down.

So, it was a fun day out.

7.5 in Jakarta

OK, So many of you have heard there was a big earthquake in Jakarta on August 8th/9th (depending on which part of the world you are located). Indonesia is a huge archipelago, made up of lots and lots (very technical term) of islands.
Banda Aceh is miles (and islands) away, so I felt nothing. Didn't even know about it until I received a message from my lovely mother saying she knew that I was nowhere near Jakarta, but she still wanted to know I was OK.
I am happy to let you know that I am just fine.
Here is a map of Indonesia for your viewing pleasure. You can see I am located all the way at the northwestern tip of the country.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/id.html

I've been busy :)

I know that is no excuse. I always have good intentions, planning to write, but never get to it.

So, I went away for the weekend a few weeks back. We went to Sabang, which is on an island north of Banda Aceh. The island is home of the western-most point of Indonesia. We said on the east coast, so did not make it there. It was a really nice weekend, went with some friends from work. It was a great break from Banda Aceh. We could wear tank tops and even bathing suits. So nice. We stayed it this great little place right on the beach. Generally eco-friendly and the food there was great.

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure...

The lovely accommodations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ View from the porch

Fishing along the shore

Typical Indonesian boats

I really liked this tree trunk, wanted to take it home :)

I spent another few days in Lamno. Again, some interesting pictures...
This is the view of the mountain road from which I posted a picture in an earlier post.

These are some of the houses that CHF is building for people who lost their's in the tsunami (Yes over 2 years ago). You can see the cows think they are quite nice :)

We had an office picnic. This is a picture of the livelihoods team. This is the outfit that I went swimming in. Yes, fully clothed. No bathing suits here. And wow, those jeans must have weighed 10 pounds in the water.

Keeping really busy here. Still working on the initial implementation of the program. But i have also been pulled in to do some additional work. I am actually heading down to Calang and Meulaboh this week to do some assessments for potential locations to build/reconstruct markets. So, I am actually getting on a plane in the morning. It is only a 15 seater UN flight, but maybe that will fulfill my travel needs for a few more weeks.

We have been having some excitement with electricity here in Aceh. They are doing some maintenance on the grid in Medan, so we lose electricity once or twice a day. Supposedly we will have rolling blackouts for the next two months. Luckily we just had a generator installed at the office and we have a small one at the house (but no A/C can run off the little one). But at least it gives us lights and water - the water runs off a pump, so no electricity = no water.

Oh, the very exciting news of late is that my mother and two sisters will be coming to visit for two weeks in August/September. I have already started planning the fun trips around Aceh, Sumatra and Bali!

Week in Review

Well, i will try to keep this post short in words, but pack filled of pictures.

Saturday we had a party at the guest house. There was a surprisingly large turnout considering the torrential downpours (it is supposed to be the dry season, but global warming has hit Indonesia). No pictures, but it was a fun time.

Sunday was another lovely day at the pool.

Early Monday morning I headed back down to Lamno for a few days of meetings with other organizations working in the area. Meetings were interesting but essentially everyone told me "Be careful" and "Good luck". Very assuring I tell you.

There is a nice guest house where we stay. Here is the picture of my home away from home, away from home. And here are the roosters that decided to have a roosting competition at 6am each morning. And this is the lovely rice fields right across from the house. They will be a lovely green later in the year. It is a nice place, but no running water (yet) and the water now is a lovely brown right out of the well. We will be getting a tank installed in a few weeks and then we will be in the lap of luxury with cable and running water and if we are lucky, the electricity will work!

OK, so now for the good stuff. We headed back Wednesday afternoon and here are some pictures along the way. Really some spectacular vistas, as promised.



So, I am not certain how well you can see this, but it is the road. Yes, that is sand and we are right on the water - that is the ocean to the left. Yeah, who knows how long this new road will last - or even when it will be finished. From what I hear they have been working on it for months. But they are moving a few of the hills on the side of the road to move it inland a bit. And that is a truck backing into another truck which got stuck in the wet sand. I am happy to say that our vehichle had no problems.

I made it back to Banda Aceh in time for yoga, phew! But would you know, we lost electricity in Banda Aceh. So, when I came home, again...no water. But this time I took my bucket bath in another room which had a smaller mandi, so I didn't come as close to falling in.

Then tonight we lost electricity in the office yet again. Oh and a nice little mouse came to join me in my office. Afterwards I went with a friend to movie night. Unfortunately, they did not inform us that it was German movie night (with no subtitles). For some reason we stayed and despite three of the eight people there being German speaker, we ended up getting partial translations from an Italian woman who had just seen the movie three times so could tell selected tidbits. Very strange I tell you. Oh, and another mouse decided to join us for the movie. This time we were all sitting on the floor and it just ran right behind our pillows. This country is filled with mice, geckos, cockroaches, ants and lots of other exciting animals! And many of them like to hang out in my house.

I'm off to the beach this weekend. I'll tell you all about it when I get back...

Earthquake #1

I experienced my first Asian earthquake on Wednesday morning. I was asleep in bed when all of a sudden I felt that a cat had jumped on me. (Taco clearly made a lasting impact on me - I have the scratch on my chest to prove it). But alas it was just an earhquake, phew...

This is the notice from the local newspaper, translated into English:

Aceh was jolt by earthquake on Wednesday early morning -
Banda Aceh - Banda Aceh and some areas in Aceh Besar, again, was jolt by a 4.7 magnitude earthquake on Wed (6/6 early morning around 03.32 am. "According to the Head of Meteorology and Geophysical Agency in Banda Aceh, Syahnan, the epicentre of that earthquake was at 88Kms to the Southwest of Banda Aceh and was in 33 Kms inside the earth.

False Tsunami Alarms

I will start with today’s excitement… Today we had two false Tsunami alarms as there was an electrical failure of the tsunami warning system in a village about 10km from Banda Aceh. We did not hear any alarms in BA, but everyone was calling each other and the villagers evacuated to higher ground. There were even rumours of the water being higher than normal (and while I am no tsunami expert, I believe tsunamis are supposed to begin with an earthquake – which we did not have – and I heard the water was supposed to retreat as the tsunami needs to pull in the water in order to create the tidal wave). Anyway, most of the national staff left to go home to be with family as people get very nervous with the threat. So, today was not the most productive of days… But actually I felt quite good as I set up a bunch of appointments to meet with other organizations to discuss their livelihood programs. So, tsunami warnings #1 and #2 were happily false alarms!

So, let’s see what have I been up to since my trip to Lamno? I am still getting settled into my position. I am starting with an initial livelihoods assessment of the villages in which we will be working, so I have been spending time thinking about the methodology and goals of the survey. I have actually been surprised by how little information is readily available on how to conduct these surveys, but still I try. As I mentioned, I am also trying to meet up with other organizations that have been doing livelihoods and economic development work in the area. I know exciting stuff.

Wednesday I went to my first yoga class in Indonesia. It was a wonderful hour and a half. I almost fell asleep at the end of the session, it was that good. But when I got home there was very little water. (I found out later that the cleaning lady had turned off the pump from the well.) So, on the one day I really wanted a shower bad, it was a bucket bath out of the mandi (it is essentially a really big sink that is kept full of water and most people use it for bathing. Out house has a real shower so I don’t usually use the mandi. And one in my bathroom seems never to be filled with water for some reason. For some reason it is also extremely deep, which for me is a challenge when it is not very full because I can hardly reach the bottom so I am hurled over the edge trying to fish out a small bucket of water. OK, enough of the painful imagery. I have included a picture of a mandi for your viewing pleasure. But please do not climb in, even though it looks like a small bathtub, it is only for entry by the buckets.) Anyways, when I am in Banda Aceh, I will try to get to yoga when I can. Not the cheapest exercise, but it is really hard for us women to do exercise here. I had asked if I could join the guys playing soccer and told that was nope. Oh well, too bad. And while I do not run, I am told that women don’t do much of that here either. I am not even sure if there is a gym when women can go. So, it is mostly walking as the only option for us and here is not the easiest place to walk. So, maybe I will actually come back plumper than when I left.

On Thursday night a woman from American Red Cross had a BBQ. They had shrimp with Old Bay Seasoning. Ah, the memories of the Chesapeake Bay. So nice. I also was able to meet more people in the community, which I just love. I am really looking forward to getting more integrated into the community to make it my own.

Friday was a holiday here – Buddha’s birthday, I believe, which is slightly ironic in a Shari’a Muslim area. But, I went into work anyways. I also started cat/house sitting for a friend who went to Bali for the long weekend. She live in an absolutely incredible house – see the koi pond off the kitchen. She has two cats, but the kitten Taco is the real pride and joy. He had gone missing before, so not sure what I was getting myself into. He is called Taco because of the Mexican mustache. That night we went back to the fancy Italian restaurant where we had my birthday. When we got there, we were informed that there would be no alcohol as the Shari’a police had raided the place, confiscating over $2,000 in alcohol. They had just received a shipment and had not had time to lock it away. Yikes! Normally if there is a raid, they get a warning, but the religious police are no part of that.

So, when I left to go to the office on Saturday, Taco went out as well and she did not come home until Monday morning. Rough few days I must admit. I got up on Monday and started to walk through the neighborhood. Then the neighbors drove by and asked if I was looking for Taco. They informed me that Taco had just had breakfast with their kittens. So I went over and scooped him up and brought him home. I am not letting him out of my sight again. (They come home from Bali on Tuesday evening.) He seems to really like my computer – stepping on the keys and licking the screen. I now have him confined to my lap. Oh no, he just jumped on the table. For some reason, he thinks my fingers are toys and she keeps trying to bat them around – even taking little nibbles. I know I have small hands, but I didn’t think they looked like cat toys. This is Taco jumping up on me this morning (the blue is my shirt)… Had to get some pictures, so happy he was home!

Saturday night I went for a cream bath with some lady friends. Essentially this entails an hour long session which includes several hair washing, a head massage with avocado cream, along with a shoulder massage – all for the reasonable price of about $5. Unless of course you have long hair for which they add 25%. Too bad they don’t tell you that in advance. While it was nice, that whole long hair thing bothers me. I think I will go for full body massages in the future. I think those run a whopping $10.50 and no extra charge for my long hair.

Sunday, I actually worked a bit in the morning and then headed over to a friend’s for a swim in the pool. I look my first Becak, which is essentially a cart attached to the side of a motorbike – sort of like a side car, but with a cover. It was such a nice day, a few beers sitting in the pool, a little sun and hanging out with friends. Although, I did get attacked by the suction tube – twice – which left lovely circular bruises on my leg. A nice mark to remember the day at the pool.

Wow…is this entry long enough?

One more thing, several people were concerned about the security situation here in Aceh (me included). I am happy to report that things here are actually really under control. The only real incidents that occur are in the villages and those are confined to blockades of roads when villagers feel that they have been wronged. Most notably, an NGO will come in and promise something and then not deliver it. So, for all of you that have been worried, please don’t be. Thing here are just fine. Probably much better than the other lovely places I have traveled over the last three years.

Visit to Lamno

After a late night/early morning talking to my family on my birthday, I got up for a 2 1/2 hour trip to Lamno in Aceh Jaya. (South of Banda Aceh.) Lamno is the area where I will be implementing the project for which I was hired. So, this was my first recognisance trip down to the south. Wow, it was an amazing trip. Firstly, the roads are dismal. Apparently, they have been working on the road for awhile, but there are entire stretches that they have been working on for months/years and still are not complete. We sometimes forget the luxury of cement, but the gravel roads along the road make me appreciate paved roads, even if they aren't in the best shape. Secondly, the views and scenery are just incredible. As there were others in the car, I did not make them stop for pictures. But, I figure I will be travelling this road quite a bit in the upcoming months, so I have a few more chances to share them with you. The road weaves along the beach and up into the coastal hills/cliffs. The water is an amazing, the colors incredible and the the scenery spectacular. Really, I need to get some pictures for you.

We went to the offices (picture) down there and even checked out the guest house. I will likely be spending a good chunk of my time over the next few months down there, so this is important stuff. Generally quite nice, but not the fanciest accommodations. From what I understand there is no electricity during the days and right now the water is a lovely mud-colored brown. But I believe that we will be addressing that issue by getting water delivered to a tank rather than just using the well water. And while the guest house has a fancy western toilet, the office does not - so I will be need to improve my squatting skills. I know, very exciting stuff.

We then went on a quick visit to four of the seven villages in the area where CHF has built houses. This trip was just to see what the villages are like, we did not even get out of the car and had no meetings set up. But I just wanted to see what the areas looked like and what types of economic activities were occurring. Mostly is was nothing. On our way into one of the villages we saw these jumping monkeys. From what I am told, these are not so typical. So it was essentially a welcome just for me.

Birthday in Banda Aceh

Well, today is/was my birthday. (It is eleven hours earlier here, so my birthday is officially over.) And while I have been out here less than a week I still managed to have a little fun. Today was a full day at work. Not only am I trying to get my new project up and running, but I have been providing some thoughts on a new proposal that we are developing to conduct some more economic development work here in the region.

The day started out normal, although I did beat my alarm clock up. Then my housemates all started wishing me a happy birthday. Then off to the office for a busy morning of developing the workplan for my project. One of my colleagues invited me over for lunch which was quite nice. People here leave the office at lunch, which is refreshing. Even if it is just to go down the street or back to the house, there seems to be consistency in getting out of the office. So after a short ride on the back of a motorbike, we had a lovely relaxed lunch. Then a full afternoon of work and meetings.

People from work organized a dinner for me at the fancy Italian restaurant in town and it turned into a fairly nice sized gathering. It was actually very nice and this is "the" good restaurant in Banda Aceh. There are other restaurants, but this is the one for special occasions. That being said, this is already my second time there so I have to start being careful not to overdo it or I will get tired of the place very quickly. But it is a place where we can get "illegal" alcohol, as all alcohol is officially illegal in Aceh.

After dinner the waiters came around singing and banging on water cooler bottles and pots and pans, along with a Chocolate Oreo mousse, which was quite yummy. Although I could only eat a few bites. The rest was generously consumed by my fellow guests. Now I am back home again and need to get some sleep before my big day tomorrow.

In addition to being another year (day) older, I will be going on my first trip outside of Banda Aceh and into the field. I will be heading down to Lamno, where my project will be based, to go on a little information collection, or rather "what is it really like here?" mission. It is just a one day trip, but i will likely be spending good chunks of time in Lamno in the coming months.

Tsunami Tour

Sunday = day off. Yeah! Oh today was wonderfully relaxing. After a crazy week of travel and diving right into work, I had my first day off. It started of unexciting with laundry and a movie, but this afternoon I went on the “Tsunami Tour”.

The Tsunami Tour entails three main stops:

1. The barge in the middle of the road. Yes, this is a barge that made its way well inland and landed in the middle of this neighborhood. The first picture is the view as you drive from the main road. The second is the back of the barge from the street and the last one is the view from the second deck of the barge – you can see how close the barge is to the houses. As you can imagine, several houses were crushed by the barge. From what I understand, there is really no way to move the barge, so they have just rerouted the road around it.

2. The boat on the house. Again, another boat made it well inland to land on these houses. Amazingly, the house is intact, mostly.

3. The water tower in the middle of town on its side. This site is a construction zone, from what I hear, they expect to have this cleaned up within a few weeks.



I also took this picture as the sun was setting of people fishing on the banks of an estuary.

Incredibly interesting trip, but it also made me realize that I need to improve my Bahasa Indonesia – actually start to learn it. I went out with one of the drivers and while we were able to communicate a little (thanks to a borrowed phrasebook), it is apparent that I will need to start some studying.

Getting settled...

I am starting to realize that I am really going to be settled in one place for a good chunk of time. I am so used to packing up every few weeks to get on a plane to go someplace new, but not anymore. We shall see how anxious I get in a few weeks.

I've received a great welcome here. Everyone is so pleased to have me here - the response I continually get is - finally! I think they wanted me out here a good two months ago, so my arrival was well received. And I have been working hard to get up to speed as quickly as possible. The last two days have mostly been meeting with staff and getting acquainted with the program I will be directing over the next few months, as well as learning about the other activities in which they want me to get involved. And there are lots of them. Pretty much I have been told that while I was brought out here on this one project, they really see me as the "Livelihoods Manager" for the entire CHF Banda Aceh portfolio - wow! I am looking forward to this exciting new challenge.

OK, so enough about the work stuff. The people here have been wonderful and really welcoming. Upon my arrival in Banda Aceh I came right to the CHF guesthouse that I will be calling home for the next few months. I was met by our neighbor, who is also my supervisor. She took me on a lovely trip to the "expat" supermarket for a few goodies. And geez, while that should not be a difficult trip after all of my travels, I still was not sure where to start. Anyways, after a loaf of whole wheat bread, some butter, cheese and a yogurt - it was back home for a pizza ordered in and chatting with the new boss. I then moved on to unpacking my excess luggage - I still don't know what I brought that is so heavy. Maybe I went a bit overboard on the shoes, but I like the shoes, even if I don't wear all of them - yeah I know I am a weirdo. I still haven't finished unpacking. I think it scares me to see what I actually lugged around the world. Later, some of my housemates who had gone out came home and stopped in for a late evening chat. First day at the office went well, busy with lots of names that I am still struggling to remember. And while I was ready for bed at 7:00pm (OK, so maybe that is not so out of the ordinary), one of my colleagues invited us over for dinner. And that was yummy. Especially with a few nicely mixed gin and tonics. Oh, yes and I was worried that there would be a problem finding alcohol. I am happy to say that my worries were unfounded. Despite the Muslim (Shari'a) law the basics are fortunately available for us folk. Tonight was the real trip to the supermarket. Truly an exciting visit with purchases of olive oil and pasta, followed by a visit to the fruit and veggie market.

So, dinner tonight at home clarified that my best packing included the excellent knives and peeler courtesy of my darling sister Maliya. Thank you dear! (And the housemates thank you too.) Yes, with all of my travels, I have come to realize that a good knife and vegetable peeler are hard to come by. So, clearly a true necessity when packing up.

Oh and this was a great sign that I saw along the road when I arrived so I went back today and had my picture taken. Not only does it say Spies Hecker, if you look at the first bullet is says "Cat oven" - I didn't even notice that the first time I went by it. I guess the Heckers in Banda Aceh are all spies and ... are in charge of the "cat ovens." (I checked and I believe that it really means car painting.) Funny nonetheless.

OK, the jet lag is starting to catch up with me, I need some sleep.

Arrival in Banda Aceh

Hello to my dear friends and family,

I deceided to set up this blog where I can share my adventures from the other side of the world with you.

As many of you know, I recently left the comforts of Washington, DC to take a 3 to 5 month consulting assignment in Banda Aceh, Indonesia with CHF International.

I actually just arrived in Banda Aceh last night. Before I get into the details of what I will be doing here, let me start with the journey to get here...

Saturday - mid-day: leave Washington, DC
Sunday - afternoon: arrive Narita/Tokyo
Sunday/Monday - midnight: arrive Singapore
Monday - day: apply for Indonesian visa & a bit of computer equipment shopping
Monday - night: arrive Jakarta
Tuesday - morning: meeting with CHF country director/meet Jakarta staff
Tuesday - afternoon: depart Jakarta for Banda Aceh (via Medan)
Tuesday - evening: arrive CHF guest house in Banda Aceh
Tuesday - night: getting settled
Wednesday - 5am: awoken by morning call to prayer and a very noisy rooster

I have been hired as a livelihoods (basic economic development) consultant for a new project working in Lamno, about three hours south of Banda Aceh. I will be managing the project, so they have been waiting to get me out here to begin working. In such, I will need to get things moving ahead pretty quickly. Should be an exciting, challenging, and adventureous few months.

It is now about 7am and I should start getting ready for my first day of work. I will write more soon.