There is so much going on at the moment, and so much to write about.

I had a really great time in KL, and was able to laugh and marvel at my ridiculous "jet-setting" lifestyle again. It also occurred to me that it won't last forever, and that I need to appreciate my freedom right now.

This trip also provided the opportunity to think about my job and whether I want it to continue, and the benefits and challenges of the lifestyle of an 'aid worker'. I think I will save those thoughts for another post. Although, I will simply say that weekends in KL fall clearly into the benefit category.

I finally bought sheets for my bed, and I think this was one of the best purchases I could have made. The best part was that it felt extravagant and luxurious, but actually wasn't really, as two sheets and two pillowcases cost about AUD60 and I'd been fixated on how terrible my current sheets are for so long. Spending that kind of money isn't exactly going to put off buying a house for another year. But of course, I also spent money on sushi, books, and a haircut which might cumulatively put off buying a house for another year, but that's fine because I really don't want to buy a house right now.

I stayed in an excellent guesthouse called number eight, which I recommend to everyone without reservation. It's comfortable, clean, stylish and cheap. But if you are planning to stay in KL anytime soon book ahead because it's popular.

I had a long wait at the airport on the day I left KL, and was shaken out of my KL-induced zen-state by the many Australians in transit. I don't intend to complain about Australians, but when I see and hear Australians I notice their behaviour more acutely.

One incident that really shook me up (which might say more about my fragile state at 6.30am), was when a girl of about 14 had a moment in Starbucks. She was ordering a muffin and the Malaysian-Indian girl behind the counter asked her to repeat what she wanted, unclear of what flavour she'd asked for. The Australian girl misheard the Starbucks worker and started to panic. I was walking up to counter at the same time, and had heard the exchange, so piped up that the girl wanted a banana muffin, but it was too late, she burst in to tears and screamed "I don't understand!!" An overreaction sure, but I guess she was probably just tired and intimidated and wasn't very good at controlling her emotions. But what shocked me most was the reaction from her family. She ran to their table and was met by her parents' shouting with absolute disgust, "what's wrong with you?", "what's your problem?" Then a drink was spilled and the tension escalated. What that girl needed in that moment of panic and what she received from her parents were so fundamentally different. The tension escalated further until her mum told her to "get out of my sight, I can't look at you right now".

Again, I want to clarify that I'm not linking this incident to the Australian-ness of these people, just that because they were an Australian family I seemed to take the incident more personally (why? I don't know. A question for another post, but probably the more interesting component of the story).

Maybe there is a history of this girl behaving this way, and her parents are frustrated and tired, and I don't want to judge anyone's reactions. Her parents are only human too. But it was sad to see a girl panic over something fairly minor and instead of receiving support from what would be her main support network she was told she was bad and that there was something wrong with her. It seemed sad that humans aren't very good at understanding each other.

It was all just too much too much for 6.30am.

KL adventure sans laptop

I'm not so diligent that four days without posting is going to shock anyone, but I'd like to think you're checking daily for updates, so I will save you the trouble. Tomorrow I am going to KL for four days, and....

I'm not taking my laptop.

I haven't gone anywhere without it since I bought it a few months ago, but there is absolutely no reason for me to take it this time so I am forcing myself to leave it at home.

I doubt I will have anything so compelling to do that I will need to use an internet cafe, so I won't be responding to emails either. My phone has roaming so if you need to contact me just call or text my regular Aceh number.

Rock n Roll Sharia style

A few weeks ago there was a concert in Banda Aceh. Two of Indonesia's biggest bands, Nidji and Peterpan performed at the stadium to a crowd of millions!

But there was a problem. Some of the millions were boys and some of them were girls. Whatever could the authorities do to keep this event free from inappropriate mingling of the sexes?

Put up a fence of course:












Girls on one side, boys on the other please.

But there will always be bad eggs. And they do things like this:












Blatantly ignoring the spirit of the fence, this couple stood next to each other.

But it would only get worse. Next time they should build the fence out of bricks. Surely it was the sight of sexually promiscuous women that led this otherwise good man to behave so poorly:
















(to clarify, this is my friend Michael jumping the fence, but he wasn't the first to do it, and was by no means the last. There were many compromised men in attendance that day).

It seems that no matter how much you try to steer people to the path of righteousness, they are too evil or stupid to know better:
















This couple knew that holding hands was wrong, so they covered their heads in shame.

But seriously, many more awesome things happened that day. By the end of the concert there were more boys than girls on the girls' side of the fence, and there was a lot of evil dancing, girls taking off hijabs, boys taking off shirts, and lots of people getting very silly. This was youth rebellion Aceh style....and all over by evening prayer (6.30pm).

Wow! Every day counts!

Thank the almighty for Wireless internet, so I can sit in a meeting and post on my blog and look like I'm taking notes.

I think I've tried to keep specific details of who I work for out of this blog, so I think it's only slightly unprofessional if I mention that I am sitting in the most head-buttingly stupid meeting of my life. And the best part is that it's lasting for two days!

Oh my, oh my, it's lucky I haven't had a near death experience recently and am all "every day counts!" because this day is a complete write-off.

Oops, they're talking about me now. Back to work.

Bad internet and my birthday

Internet access is terrible at the moment. It cuts in and out throughout the day and is so slow that sometimes an email without an attachment will sit in my outbox for hours. But there is a greater concern that has far wider reaching ramifications...

I can't upload photos to this blog.

All week I have been trying to upload photos from a concert I went to two weeks ago.

A million more things have happened since then and I'm stuck in the past.

Conveniently, last night at my birthday party my camera battery was flat so I have no photographic evidence of the night and thus it's OK to post about my birthday without photos.

My Birthday. By Sarah L Fortuna
It was a pretty chill day, like most other work days. But when I chose not to do much work I didn't feel guilty. That's the specialness of birthdays.

In the evening a billion friends and I went to the German restaurant. It was tasty, tasty schnitzel goodness.

To top it off, my housemate who had flown in from Jakarta that afternoon brought Krispy Kreme donuts to represent a birthday cake! This was an excellent choice because western style cake here isn't so delicious. (Local cakes are truly excellent but didn't seem right for a birthday cake).

It was really lovely to hang out with all my Banda Aceh friends in one place. They are pretty much the coolest people in town, obviously, so my birthday dinner was like, the place to be.

Thanks everyone who wrote me emails, and posted on my facebook wall, and sent text messages. I had a steady flow of love all day and some extra love today. Birthdays are so excellent.

Things that make me laugh

It has been a busy week! I can't actually recall ever working as long hours as I have worked this week. It's been fun, but I can tell I need a rest because last night when I lost a day's worth of work on the report that I have been working on (the reason for the long hours) all I did was giggle.

Me: hehe, Mike I think I just lost my report....hehe
Mike (my housemate): ummm, like 'lost it' lost it?
Me: just one day's work. hee hee.
Mike: should you be laughing?
Me: heee heee

***
Now...get ready for some information that is going to have you all booking the next flight to Aceh (but don't forget about visas! Call me and we can chat).

This morning I went to a cafe and bought this:



















A coffee and a muffin!

But here's something, I emptied the coffee from that giant paper cup into my Starbucks mug (Starbucks haters can keep their rants to themselves, this was the only decent mug I could find on the WHOLE island of Sumatra), but...the contents of that giant paper cup only filled my mug three quarters full. I think I've uncovered a paper cup scam. Cafes give outrageously tall cups to those silly people who are all like, "I simply must drink a GRANDE latte in the morning before I speak to ANYONE," but as the cup gets taller it also gets skinnier and those people are really just drinking a regular sized coffee.

***
Earlier this week, when the report writing insanity began, I lost one whole hour to this website.

Because none of you probably followed that link, I will just tell you about it. The website is called "Postcards from yo Momma" and is a collection of funny emails from mums. I was shocked to see that other mum silliness in the world is actually very similar to my own mum's silliness.

I even found this post from April 8 that sounded awfully familar:

itches

What are you doing getting bitten by mosquitoes?!! You will get MALARIA - and i will have to start worrying about that instead of typhoid. Maybe you have got dengue fever even! Are the drugs working? Are you still alive?


OK, so that is actually an email from MJ, but it is posted on the website.

When I found the site I thought I would look back through the many millions of MJ's emails and find one that made me laugh. Uhhh, it took me approx. 10 seconds. You are a very silly woman who writes lots of funny emails MJ. Keep up the good work!

It's Monday night and it's raining hard.

It's Monday night and it's raining hard. I'm writing a big report with a very tight deadline so I've set myself up at my desk and am mentally prepared for a late night. It's raining so hard the signal for the TV was disturbed. Even though I was despondent when this happened it is for the best because Monday nights mean two episodes of House. It would have been too easy to lose two valuable report writing hours. Even with my laptop on the top of my lap and the intention of working while watching I can't help focusing all my attention on dissecting the psyche of that complex and troubled Greg House.

The great thing about this rain is that I can turn my music up loud and know that my housemates can't possibly hear it over the loud rain. Bonus no.2 is that the rain drowns out my noisy and clattering air conditioner for once. I usually have to choose between oppressive heat and a clack clack clack errrrrrrr noise. Downside is that instead of taking advantage of the clatter-free air conditioning and having a gloriously uninterrupted and cool sleep I have to stay up and work. I know, I should be more appreciative of the clatter-free time to work, but can't you just imagine how good that sleep would be...

The house is flooding, but fortunately the numerous holes in the roof and drains and the leaking doors all have the decency to be attached only to the laundry/entryway to my bathroom and toilet. It makes for slipperiness on the way to the toilet, but the lack of effective seals/the expectation of water from the shower and laundry means the water will dissipate through drains and holes as soon as the rain stops.

Please enjoy these photos of my flooded house.

The laundry

The front yard

The backyard

The side of the house alley thing

Tonight after a formal auditing process I have identified the following animals living in my house:

1. Cats

2. Mongoose (mongeese?)

3. Geckos

4. Mice (fortunately not rats)

5. Toads (unfortunately not frogs which are much more attractive)

6. Many millions of mosquitoes

7. Possibly that big spider I took a photo of, but I haven't seen him since we met by the paper towel about one month ago (by the way Yvonne, I didn't throw dirty socks at the spider. I just left him there and he was gone in the morning)

8. Stinky water in bathroom/laundry area. This is technically not an animal but it sure is a BEAST (har har).

Stinky water is common but usually reasonably inoffensive at my house. But tonight's rain either sloshed everything around the drains or (unfortunately most likely) flushed my village's sewage into my drains. Hopefully the well, and thus the water from the tap is safe from contamination.

Update: this morning the water was stinky coming out of the tap so I haven't showered and I brushed my teeth with mouthwash.

Traditional dance and more animals

I need to catch up on a few things that have been happening over the last month so today will be a mash up of all kinds of stuff.

Did I tell you that in Bangkok we performed a traditional Acehnese dance? Well WE DID!














We were SO awesome, and we only had a few days to practice. It was an insanely hard dance to perfect because it was all about clapping in perfect time with each other. There was also a song but it was in a mix of Arabic, Acehnese and Indonesian so I couldn't learn it in time.














Here are some of god's great creatures I have spied lately.
1. this giant spider in my kitchen


















2. This kitten at the place I eat lunch most days. I did a deal with the guys who work there. The cat would live there and I would bring it food (I couldn't take it home or to the office). But then I went to Bali and when I got back it was gone. Now the guys there just say "hey, what happened to the cat?" and smile conspiratorially.













This is the hornbill that lives at the pizza restaurant, Joel's, at the beach. He's so huge and extremely creepy. The other day he attacked my friend. Well, she was sticking her camera in his face and he snapped at her. In the whole time I was in Sarawak (where hornbills are on every tourist brochure and in every hotel name) I didn't see a single one. Turn up at the pizza shop and this guy is hanging around all the time.















I was going to show you more photos of elephants today, but I will save telling you about our elephant adventure for another post. It deserves a whole post of its own.