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Want to have a super weekend in Banda Aceh?! Here's how!

It was a busy weekend in Banda Aceh this weekend. And like the best weekends it lasted for three days. Sunday was Indonesian Independence Day so a public holiday was observed on Monday.

Friday was the 3rd anniversary of the cessation of conflict between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement. There were public events all day and I quickly dropped in on one in the afternoon to see one of our NGO partners perform (they have a band). All I found was the Deputy Governor giving a rather long speech...and a sign telling me where I could stand.
Pria (men) to the left and wanita (women) to the right. Sex segregation in the middle of the day? Really? When I first saw the sign I hoped it was directions to the bathroom...

Later that night at the same location there was a concert with the very popular and very awesome Acehnese performer, Rafly. The segregation plan failed and there were boys and girls sitting wherever they felt like it. Standing was strictly forbidden though. I guess it might have led to...dancing! Gasp! Rafly really knows how to rock your socks off so it was a killer to remain seated when the music was telling you to shake your bootie. Occasionally some boys lost control and jumped up to dance...but they were very quickly reminded by crowd control to sit down (crowd control=military so you actually have to listen to them).

On Sunday, Independence Day, there were all kinds of festivities around town, including panjat pinang where groups of men from the local area climb a slippery pole to grab the loot at the top (the loot consisted of electrical appliances at the one we saw). A few of us headed to a local park to watch as groups of men tried with varying levels of success to reach the top of the pole. There were two poles, each was smeared in grease and was the height of maybe 6 or 7 men.

Here are some men at the base of one of the poles.
This group have almost made it to the top.And this guy was the first to reach the top.
He proceeded to detach the boxes and throw them down to the ground. Fortunately the boxes were symbolic. The appliances had been removed before being attached to the pole. A friend of mine saw one of these competitions in which the victor threw down a blender from the top of the pole and it smashed.

On Monday a few of us decided to go for a walk to the secret secret beach. I call it the secret secret beach to distinguish it from the regular secret beach, which is not a secret at all because everyone knows where it is and it's easy to get there. The secret secret beach actually deserves its name....we walked for a few hours and couldn't find it.

Here is the wholesome hiking troupe making our way along the track. At this point we were pretty sure we were on the right track because our GPS told us so (that's right...we even had a GPS and we still didn't make it!)
We continued along the track but eventually arrived at a cliff that was very clearly a dead end. Fortunately this was the view at the dead end:
Can't be too sad about finding a view like that.

At this point we were low on drinking water and it was very hot, so like sensible little hikers we turned back. We had received some guidance (relating to both navigation and life) along the way from an old man who stayed in a hut along the track. On our way back we stopped in at the hut for a chat. He was deaf so our communication was limited, but he did give us some life lessons (because what else is an old man in the forest going to do?)

Life lessons from the old man.
1. get married
2. have babies
3. getting married and having babies is good
4. Hedgehog is tasty and good for virility

I was pretty much ready to sign up for marriage and babies by the end of the hike.

Here, Simone and Marcus are sitting in the man's hut.
Here, Cat is talking to the old man.
A little further on from the old man's house is a natural well he collects water from. It's salty so you can't drink it but it's perfect for pouring over your head, as demonstrated so beautifully by Simone.
After making it out of the forest we stopped in at the easy-to-find-secret-beach for a quick swim and then headed to Joel's for drinks and pizza. Marcus ordered our drinks while Simone and I used the showers.

We came back to the table to find (each):
1 big bottle of water
1 pocari sweat (isotonic drink)
1 coke
1 pineapple juice

We were pretty thirsty.

This weekend was probably as good as they get... I reflected on this as I had a hot shower (it was truly glorious) at Marcus, Simone and Cat's place after returning from the beach. How can you beat that?

On blogging

As you might have noticed I've been messing my blog up a bit. Playing with the layout of my blog is one of those things that starts small and eats hours away without me realising. The slow internet connection doesn't help either because I wait for a few minutes for every little change...and then decide I preferred it the old way. This got me thinking about another entry for:

THINGS I WANT TO DO WHEN I'M HOME. PLEASE HELP

No.2. Overhaul my blog.
I can't let myself start this now because I will make a mess of it and neglect some fast approaching deadlines in the process.

I have to keep it simple (I already spend a bit too much time writing posts so I don't want to spend too much time maintaining the layout), so if you have an inkling of inspiration for a simple blog design, or can help me make a design I choose a functioning reality (ahem...Benjamin) I would be eternally grateful for suggestions.

I don't really need a fancy looking blog because I suspect my readership of 20 will tune in anyway but it would bring such joy to this simple heart if I had a pretty blog.

All this blog talk has got me thinking about what keeping this blog for a year has meant for me. I started the blog as an alternative to sending group emails about what I'm up to, and as a way to keep thinking about what I was seeing and doing. I'm terrible at keeping a journal even though I see great value in it so this is a bit of an alternative. There are obviously things I can't/won't share on this blog for reasons of being work-sensitive/personal/boring, so it's far from a complete replacement for a journal but it does seem to working as a recorder of my experiences even if there are giant gaps.

But I think the most surprising outcome of keeping this blog is that it helps me to feel connected to my life outside of Banda Aceh. I didn't necessarily expect that because the communication is mostly one way (apart from comments received). And I write to a mixed audience so I don't particularly tailor my content to one group. But I suppose that as I write a post I think of the people who might be reading, where they're sitting when they read it, who will like a particular youtube clip, etc...and I feel connected.

By the way, ramping up the frequency of my posts has made all the difference. Seems like my "9 Things to do Before 2009" list, including the posting target I set for myself, is actually doing some good then.

Aceh in the news today

Gah, my Aceh Google Alert has so much news today! (google alerts+me=BFF)

Links to the best bits:

I'm trying to recall if I ever met this guy from New Zealand at a party in Banda Aceh. Hot new destination!! Banda Aceh! Sun, surf, relative anonymity!! Perfect for relaxation and police evasion!

A less shady New Zealander residing in Banda Aceh is a HERO! We all knew that about Cas already....But now the Red Cross and the newspaper have confirmed it! (Cas also gave me tips on how to fall asleep once for which I am eternally grateful: Cover your eyes with your hands, lie on your back with your legs against the wall. Both instructions sound ridiculous but I'll show you in person and it will make sense...and it works).

Andrew Bolt said some stupid stuff about Papuan refugees. The link to Aceh is minor, but I'm glad this ended up in my inbox. It's like a jolt of caffeine first thing in the morning! Oh Andrew Bolt...I just want to scruff your hair up and give you a Chinese burn.

Care for another reason to dislike oil companies?

Humanitarian aid workers killed in Afghanistan. More here.

Things I want to do

Now that I know when I'm getting back to Melbourne I've started making a mental list of all the things I want to do while I'm home (a very different list to the one of all the things I must do when I home, e.g., tax, moving out of Gore St).

To spread the word I've decided to post a few hints on my blog in the hope that my friends and family (i.e., readers of this blog) want to come along...with your car (no, I didn't miraculously learn how to drive while I was here. sorry).

I will call this subtle hinting:

THINGS I WANT TO DO WHEN I AM BACK IN MELBOURNE: PLEASE HELP

These posts will appear whenever I think of something else I want to do.

No. 1. Go to Sassafras.

I had some lovely pictures of a trip Lara and I took to Sassafras last year sometime but I can't find them. So I stole this image from Google images instead. I think we stopped at this cafe/grocer for drink. The photo is hyperlinked to the blog I stole it from. I also want to go to the toy store, lolly store and flea market with the records and books. If anyone reading this blog can say no to this trip I can't imagine why we get along.

Please feel free to suggest other things I should do while I'm home.

The Pen Has Been in Their Hands

I just finished reading Jane Austen's Persuasion and I will admit that it's the first Jane Austen novel I've read. I guess the BBC series' don't count, do they?

I think Jane Austen's feminist credentials have been discussed/debated at length in various places, so this might not be earth-shattering for some. But I read a passage in Persuasion that perfectly captures an idea that's come up a few times this year in my work. When Sarah writes about it she get wordy and needs to qualify it, and gets caught up with using the appropriate term of the moment etc etc. When Jane writes about it...well, from now on I will just refer to Jane.

To introduce the following passage, Anne is arguing with Captain Harville about whether men or women harbour heart ache longer. Captain Harville insists that men don't get over heartbreak easily ("and that as our bodies are strongest, so are our feelings"). Anne argues that women are more fragile and thus suffer more. Keep an eye on Anne's response to Harville.

Harville says:

'as I was saying, we shall never agree, I suppose, upon this point. No man and woman would, probably. But let me observe that all histories are against you--all stories, prose and verse. If I had such a memory as Benwick, I could bring you fifty quotations in a moment on my side the argument, and I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon women's inconstancy. Songs and proverbs all talk of woman's fickleness. But, perhaps, you will say these were all written by men.'

Anne:

'Perhaps I shall. Yes, yes, if you please, no reference to examples in books. Men have every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything.'

It reminds us why it's so important for women to tell their own stories (and to report on the world too, as journalists, historians, academics etc). In Aceh there is a huge gap. I'm working on a book at the moment that is the first collection of essays written by Acehnese women to be published. My organisation was motivated to publish this book because there is so much written about Aceh but very little of it is written by the women of Aceh, who will give unique perspectives and reflect a whole different set of issues to the men of Aceh, or people coming from outside (men or women). We often think about 'what issues are being written about', but sometimes overlook the important question of 'who is writing about the issues'.

Sunday is also a great day for the beach

I spent another lovely day at the beach this weekend. I know I should be posting about the millions of things that happen in between beach trips but it takes more time than I have today to prepare those posts.

I was supposed to go on a boat trip on Sunday. Some of you may recall me writing about these trips here, and they are without fail a really great day. But I woke up on Sunday feeling tired and unwell so I stayed home and Sas cooked me a breakfast burrito.

Fortunately, there were a few other boat trip rejects (illness, work and other things got in the way of their participation), so around midday Simone, Cat, Azeemah and I went to beach, wandered and collected shells.
Later in the afternoon we met Marcus and ate crab with noodles for lunch. So delicious. I forgot to take a photo of the crab but you can see in this photo of Simone the remainders of our feast. We stayed at the beach for a looooong time. It was so great to be out there for the whole day, although I am now quite burnt (but only on the very few bits of skin that see daylight. I was wearing a high-neck, long sleeve shirt and a long skirt).

As you can imagine by looking at the photo below, we were a group of very happy and chill people by the end of the day.
Oh! I almost forgot the greatest moment that happened after this last photo. We went for a swim as the sun went down and the undercurrent was so strong that my legs were pulled from under me and I was dragged out to sea...only to be thrown back to shore a couple of seconds later...and then dragged out again...thrown back to shore. I had no control over this process at all. I don't really know how I broke the cycle but it wasn't without effort and getting tangled in my own skirt while doing it. Ahhhh, funny.

Monkey/Journey to the West makes Olympics slightly less lame

Moving this way and that

Saturday afternoon saw the end of a crazy stretch of work so now I will pick up where I left off as a diligent blogger.

The busy period gave me a lot to report so I plan to post a few photos from the last few weeks over the next week and get up to date. Now I move into a new phase of busyness as my time in Aceh draws to a close (I'll be back in Australia next month). I have a lot of writing to do so I will be glued to my computer and therefore probably blogging as a form of procrastination.

Dates aren't fixed yet but I'll be home for a few weeks in September/October and then I'll be relocating to Bangkok to take up a six month contract (the picture to the left is just one I shamelessly stole from the web). This is great news and I should be falling off my chair with excitement but I'm a bit too tired, and I suspect my soul is too weary, to be excited yet. But I expect that I will go home and have a rest, attend to the other parts of my life for a little bit and then jump back in feeling refreshed. And if there is anywhere to go for a weary soul it's Thailand right?

I will be looking for accommodation with room for visitors as I've already had a few people signal their wish to visit, and in any given six month period a handful of friends and family visit Thailand anyway, so maybe people will like to stop in Bangkok and say hi. Again, no dates fixed yet, but I think I can flag the last half of January and a week or so in late March/April as times that I will be back in Aceh, so whether you're coming to visit Sarah or want a vacant apartment in Bangkok for a couple of weeks I hope these times suit.

Now, after a lovely hour of blogging and interneting on Monday morning, I will start work for the week. Just after I find something for breakfast.

1, 2, 3, 4 monsters walking cross the floor

Have you seen this yet?

Wenesday is the perfect day for the beach

After a week of inefficiency and time wasting I am trying to turn the productivity dial up to maximum force, so I will just post some pictures from a walk along the beach on Wednesday (a very rare and welcome UN-observed public holiday).

We found a fish. Marcus wanted to kiss it.














Then we found this thing....Any ideas on what this is? Anyone?










Then we rested and reflected on the spectacles we'd seen.

Portmanteau

My new favourite word is portmanteau. I think the word itself is pretty great but the meaning/s are also great.

A portmanteau is a suitcase with two compartments, and a portmanteau word is something like a contraction when two words are blended. The word was first used in this way by Lewis Carrol in Through the Looking Glass. I will let Wikipedia explain:

The usage of the word 'portmanteau' in this sense first appeared in Lewis Carroll's book Through the Looking-Glass (1871),^[1] in which Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the coinage of the unusual words in Jabberwocky:^[9]

• "‘slithy’ means ‘lithe and slimy’... You see it's like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word"
• "‘Mimsy’ is ‘flimsy and miserable’ (there's another portmanteau ... for you)".

Indonesians love portmanteau words. They make there way into formal language all the time. I think these examples might be contractions rather than portmanteau words, but I'd rather not be a stickler if being a stickler means excluding myself from using my new favourite word.

For example: partai politik (political party) becomes Parpol. And that's just the beginning. If a phrase cannot be made into an acronym (also a favourite in Indonesia) it will become a portmaneau word.

An example of something that is half way between an acronym and a portmanteau (can a linguist help me out here?):

Badan Perencanaan dan Pembangunan Nasional becomes Bappenas. Efficient isn't it!

I think I will create a list of Indonesian portmanteau words. But first I will do some work...

chocolate and dengue

I don't mean to turn this into a chocolate blog (there are enough in the world already), but I, a gal who is neither here nor there about most chocolate, could not go another day without drawing the attention of my fellow Australians to the little gift from god called:
















Club Classic Mixed Berry.

I brought some chocolate back to Indonesia from Australia last month and gave most of it away as presents. I kept this block because I knew a day would come when chocolate would be needed. It was Friday last week when it happened. We were flat, bored and in need of a little adventure, so I gave the block to my colleagues Ani and Inda to try. It had been melted a billion times so it was a little bit weird, but it truly made my colleagues jealous that I could just waltz on into a regular supermarket and buy something this delicious!

When I went looking for a photo for this post I found a blog reviewing Club Classic Mixed Berry which said all kinds of delicious-sounding things about it. But I have nooooo desire at all to describe the texture of the chocolate and the chewy consistency of the berries. Just eat it and have your socks knocked off.

***
On a less tasty note, I've mentioned my house helper Kak Ani on this blog quite a few times because she is basically my Aceh mum (but this one doesn't get angry when I leave my clothes on the floor, she just picks them up for me and washes them...and irons them and puts them back in my cupboard). This morning she wasn't feeling well so we went to the doctor and found out she has dengue fever. Hopefully it won't get too serious (so far it's not that bad), in which case it's not a big deal, but she is really scared and sad because as she put it "I'm never sick!" (wow, she does sound like my mum)

The doctor's orders for dengue fever:

1. bed rest
2. drink lots of water
3. take panadol for fever

Everyone else's orders:

1. drink lots of guava juice
2. don't believe the blood tests because they always tell you that you've got something you don't
3. take panadol for fever
   

Fortunately none of these conflict so we can adhere to both Western medicine and village medicine without a problem. Phew.

Photography and Documentation Workshop

About two weeks ago we held training on photography and documentation for a group of women involved in one of our projects. The project has gone well so we're keen to document it as much as possible in the hope that other oganisations will replicate it. I'll be writing a paper on the whole process but we thought it would be far more fun to give the women involved cameras so they can take photos to reflect on their experiences with the project. We also asked them to write a few pages each on their experiences.

To support the women to do this we decided to have a one-day workshop. We brought in Dea, a wonderful and talented girl from Yogya to teach them the basics of photography and how to use their cameras (cheap film cameras, no bells and whistles). I gave them some ideas for writing about their experiences.

Here I am doing my presentation. My Bahasa Indonesia isn't good enough to be able to ad lib on the points I was making, so it was a pretty dull presentation. But I think my cute bubbles in a funnel helped matters.


















I also spent part of the day drawing the inner-exhibitionist out of this little girl. She started off rather shy...


















We're picking up the developed photos today. We will choose about 25 photos to display at the opening ceremony of the Balai Inong in two weeks time. I'm excited and nervous to see what the results are. Dea, who I mentioned earlier, did a similar project with kids from Yogya after the earthquake in 2006 and made a great book using the kids' photos. I hope we can do something similar here.

Because I always feel like I need to continue the discussion

A few points relating to things mentioned on this blog in recent days:

1. Benjamin, did you think I was joking about eating and looking at bookstores...? Seems like Batu Caves are a cool place to go if my schedule wasn't already packed. I've said that about Batu Caves the last 5 times I've been to KL.
   
2. Speaking of book shops in KL, Kinokuniya runs rings around Borders and Times. That place is amazing:
   
• Great selection of books (I've never seen a bookstore as well stocked with as much variety),
• A section for everything including, philosophy (a whole wall devoted to it), sociology and a dedicated gender section. Greg reported that the history section was pleasingly ordered by subject rather than author,
  
• "Bestsellers" walls that were actually just books they wanted to sell, but the selected books were great. Perfect if you're looking for something new to read without a specific author in mind,
  
• Great music playing over the loudspeaker (not too loud, not too soft, not too hideous...this is a warning to Borders that was playing covers of bad 80s songs by bad late-90s bands),
• Books were where they were supposed to be,
  
• Plenty of people to serve, but no one creepily following you around asking if you need help,
• "self-help kiosks", a name that received Greg's scorn, but a good concept none the less. Can search for something on the computer yourself, no need to ask the sales staff.
  
3. Cherry Ripe anyone? I ate the one Elisa sent me. OH MY GOD, have they always been this delicious?
   

Unrelated note

I am looking to buy a new carry-on suitcase but was uninspired by the selection I saw in KL. I did find one I loved but it was so expensive. Fortunately as I negotiated on price Greg thought we were talking 500 ringgit ($165). If he'd known we were talking about USD500 (after 50% discount) he might have dragged me out of the shop. For the record, I can't afford a USD500 suitcase...but it was sooooo cute...and pink! Can anyone recommend a brand they like? I want it to last until I'm 80 so I'm willing to spend a bit of money (maybe not USD500 though).

Favourite thing on the web this week

Power returns

The power is back on! It came on last night just as I was about to venture out to find a friend with a generator so I could have a shower.

My bak mandi (the tiled bath/trough that holds water) was mysteriously empty when I got home from work so I had no water at all. I started concocting conspiracy theories (e.g. the cleaner used my water to wash the floors...) and realised first hand the tension and complexity of water politics.

I expected the power to go off again but it seems to be here for keeps this time. And that's not the only good news.

Yesterday I received two pieces of mail. TWO! One piece of mail was a very cute photo of the twins (who have changed enough that I can't tell which is which) and the other was this:

A package from the delightful Elisa!













Look at all those lollies and chocolate (the snakes were already half consumed when I took this photo...about 2 minutes after I opened the package).

The blue thing in the corner turns into this!:


















The photo isn't great but I was too excited to worry about photo quality. What a great bag! It's from Douglas & Hope, one of my favourite shops in Melbourne. I'm so pleased to have something so nice here. I will take it to the shops tonight and dazzle all.

Thanks Jess and Elisa for the great deliveries.

Blackout

I got back from KL yesterday around lunchtime (48 hour round trip. I love it!) and walked into a monster blackout. Yesterday was day two of a blackout that is predicted to last three or four days. The electricity was out since morning and came on for an hour around midnight and is back off again, presumably for the whole day.

Blackouts have their good points but they also have their bad points.

Good

• No lights and no TV means a quiet house and relaxed occupants. Last night I had wound down so much that I was asleep by 10.30pm.
• You have no choice but to go out and find food at one of the restaurants with a generator.
  
• Your laptop will run out of battery power so you're forced not to do work (one organisation sent everyone home at 5.30pm last night so they could turn off the generator and our generator is going off at 6pm tonight).
  

Bad

• Without electricity the pump doesn't work so we have no water. That means no showers and after a while the bak mandi empties too, which means no washing at all and no flushing the toilet. Fortunately an hour of electricity at night allowed me to run around the house turning on all the taps (but not all at once, it seems that two taps at the same time is the pump's limit).
  
• No AC or fans. Usually the discomfort of sleeping in the heat can be overcome by taking a cold shower. Please see the first point. (My friend Jess told me last night that she took water from the drinking water dispenser to wash! This is true ingenuity.)

I'm not bothered yet because I arrived freshly washed from KL yesterday, but I'm guessing the novelty will wear off soon. I'll keep you posted.

My KL agenda

I'm in KL on yet another Visa Run, but this one is different because this time I have a GREG to keep me company. We're pretty determined to cross everything off our 'to do' list. Fortunately the list looks like this:

1. Eat tasty food
2. Look at bookshops

Done and done. and we've only been here 18 hours. So for the rest of the stay (I leave tomorrow and Greg a couple of days later), we will re-do the list. Eat more good food and look at different bookshops.

I went to the embassy this morning and had a remarkably efficient time there. The system they have coordinates a series of counters and number taking and it means that 50+ people submitting visa applications can move smoothly in a very small space and any minor obstacles (e.g. forgotten photocopies, incorrect forms filled out) can be dealt with easily. All this and you get your visa later the same day. Quite a different experience to my visit to the Consulate in Melbourne last month. In a room with a three other people waiting quietly I went to the desk with all my forms in order and was told my visa would be ready seven days later. Grrr.

I'm writing this in a creepy, dark and smelly gaming internet cafe that makes you think it's the middle of the night even though it's 12pm and sunny outside. So I shall leave now and go outside, but only for as long as it takes to walk to the next mega-super-giant bookstore inside a mega-super-giant shopping mall. I love KL.

Dropped the ball

I've haven't updated for a week even though there has been plenty of adventure. I'll give a quick round-up and catch up on details over the next few days.

1. Greg is visiting this week. We met in Medan, stayed in the fanciest hotel I've ever stayed in (for around $60 per room per night), and eventually made it to Bukit Lawang to see orang utans. It was hard to drag ourselves away from the fancy hotel breakfast and the fancy chairs in the lobby and the fancy blankets they had (in the deluxe suite we were upgraded to because we wanted twin beds)....
2. but the orang utans made it worth the effort. We only stayed one night and set out early in the morning of our second day for a 4-5 hour hike. We saw a peacock that defied gravity and lots of orang utans...then bolted back to Medan to catch a plane to Banda Aceh...
   
3. ...That was booked for the wrong night. When we checked in for flight they kindly let us know that our tickets were for the previous night and that there were no more seats on the last flight for the evening. So we went back to the fancy hotel who booked the tickets for us and let them know of our dilemma. After a bit of fussing about we had seats on a flight the following day and a free room for the night.
   
4. My wisdom tooth is infected! I have taken a steady stream of panadol for about a week. Is that dangerous?
   
5. Standing in the rain waiting for a taxi in Medan, I was helping a nice man move a hardwood bench that had tipped over but he dropped it on my finger and my fingernail is now gross. But it seems like it won't fall off, so worst nightmare no.1 averted.
6. Going to KL again this weekend, for yet another visa run...