Laura’s Update

Indonesia Update | November 07 – March 08

Arrival in Meulaboh- Outward Bound – Celebrity Status

The day immediately following our arrival in Meulaboh was an all day team building event for the Mercy Corps office (over one hundred staff, including cleaners, drivers and guards participated)… So despite jet lag and a cold and pouring down rain in the morning, Jeremy and I joined the party on the beach at 8am to participate in all kinds of crazy games.

My team, Kapak Merah, named after an infamous street gang in Jakarta wore red (merah) bandanas…

The month of November we lived at the Mercy Corps guesthouse and work consisted of orienting myself to the Community Development Program- the team of 30 staff and the work we are doing with communities outside Meulaboh. For Jeremy time was spent setting up his blog (see finalaeon. wordpress.com) and participating in soccer with the Mercy Corps team and Meulaboh city teams.

Jeremy became an instant star in Meulaboh after his participation in an annual soccer tournament in early December. Literally he became a celebrity overnight- everywhere we walked people would shout “BRUNO!!” at us in a friendly fashion. And, when walking on the street Jeremy would be offered rides on motorbikes by guys passing by, and he was frequently invited to coffee (a common male pastime in Aceh).

Christmas in Bali and Lombok – New Year in Jakarta

There were almost two weeks of holiday leave over Christmas and New Year so we took the liberty to vacation in the most famous of vacation spots- Bali! Ok well really we went to Bali but then immediately left for the Gilis (see map of Indonesia)… We stayed on Gili Air for 4 nights and loved the small island with good swimming and snorkeling- we saw sea turtles! And stayed in a beautiful hut. The island is so small you can walk around it in just under an hour and the sand is white and there are many excellent restaurants along the shore where you can sit at night with candle light under a thatch roof and watch the surf and feel the sea breeze. It was lovely and so relaxing. Also of note is the traditional mode of transport which is by horse drawn buggy.

From Gili Air we went to Lombok- to the south end called Kuta and treated ourselves to two nights at the Novotel (aka. pricy resort). Our room there was amazing and the landscape incredible. The most fun we had the whole vacation is when we rented a motorbike and took of in search of locally famed batik weaving and a pottery village. Lombok is a quieter place, a big island with lots of culture and little tourism- we hope to go back before we leave Indonesia. They’re putting in an international airport- so get ready to make your trip to Lombok in the next few years!

From Lombok we then

flew back to Bali and spent a few days in the hill town of Ubud- the heart of Balinese art and culture. Bali is much busier and more crowded than Lombok. Food in Ubud was unbelievably delicious after our time in Meulaboh (where we eat mainly fried rice and fried noodles)- it was like being in heaven to eat three delicious meals each day- have lattes and desserts and every good thing! We did a lot of shopping and art looking (amazing Indonesian artifacts on display in galleries and that kept us absorbed). Highlights included a visit to the Monkey Forest where we watched baby monkeys scamper about and adult monkeys clean each other, and we took a hike up a hillside through beautiful paddy fields and got scalded by the sun- it felt so good! There are lots of Hindu temples in Ubud as Bali is the rare Hindu island in a predominantly Muslim archipelago.

We ended our vacation by spending New Years in Jakarta with friends from Mercy Corps- and also doing a whirlwind shopping spree at the malls there to get various items we’d forgotten or realized we needed once we landed in Meulaboh (ie. new glasses for Jeremy to replace the ones he accidentally left on our flight from Tokyo to Singapore- NOOO!). Just two nights in the megalopolis and we had a good party to bring in 2008J

January of 2008 was a hectic time with work- Mercy Corps realized that we had little funding left to support the Community Development Program in 2008 after doing our annual budget- so I had to begin the process of downsizing the team and revising the number of villages where we will work this year. However, Jeremy and I were able to get more into the swing of life in Meulaboh- we settled into our house (shipment from the States finally arrived!) and continued to make friends with the other NGO workers in Meulaboh. Common event is evening at the beach to have barbeque, play Frisbee, fly kites, and to watch the beautiful sunset over the Indian Ocean.

The month of February was almost entirely consumed with the restructure and downsize of my team of 30 staff to a team of 10. It was not a fun job and we had to let a lot of really great people go- there simply isn’t funding to keep up a big program and a large team of workers any longer. A lot of NGOs are packing up right now because funding from the disaster of 2004 has finally been spent out- we are lucky to have any private funds remaining to continue our development work with communities this year. So, it’s a sad but necessary change and fortunately for me the staff were wonderful and we actually had a bit of fun in the process- Jeremy and I hosted big party at our house for the CDP team a few weeks ago, and then we had a big office party at the beach on the final day for our departing staff. Leading up to that party a group of women decided to learn a traditional Acehnese dance to perform- and I was persuaded to join the group! What I didn’t realize at the time is that we would wear full traditional costume (including headscarf) for the performance- the dancing was a lot of fun but the outfit was less than flattering! Despite this fact, the performance was a smash hit! These next pictures are: 1. Jeremy and his best buddy Agus (former MC staff and fellow soccer fanatic); 2. Laura with her four Team Leaders and Community Development Advisor from the old team; 3. Group picture of traditional Acehnese dancers; 4. Let’s get a close up of that fetching outfit- they say I look Iranian? Poor Iranians- that doesn’t reflect well upon them; 5. When I ran my car into the drainage ditch while rushing to get to the big farewell party (Oops! Thankfully MC guys were at the ready to jack the car out!)

Kicking off March

So that brings us to the present…To kick off the month of March Jeremy and I arranged an excursion up the coast to explore an area called Calang (C pronounced with “Ch” in Indonesian). Its reputed to have the best beaches in Aceh and the reputation is TRUE. A group of ten MC and former MC staff joined us on a day trip up the beach to see this paradise of white sand beaches and clear blue water- it was amazing. So you understand- the beach at Meulaboh is also nice but the water is not clear and its really rough- its too dangerous to swim. And the sand is nice but not white like you want for a truly fantastic tropical beach experience… So Calang will now be a frequented destination for those of us who like to swim (unfortunately Sharia is law in Aceh so you have to swim covered, in full pants and shirts- hence making dangerous waters in Meulaboh all the more dangerous…But in Calang the tide is fine and its only annoying to wear clothes, not dangerous). We also introduced our friends to Skip-Bo and it was an instant hit (for those of you who don’t know the card game–try it and you’ll become addicted).

Up Next

In about a week we will be heading (at long last) to language training on Java for one week. It’s about time we get our Indonesian language skills solidified- we still sound like two year olds in most conversations. Then in early April Jeremy’s parents are coming out for more than two weeks! We plan to visit Lake Toba (Danau Toba) and hopefully some other famous sites on Sumatra. We are very much looking forward to time with family!! We’ll do our best to send another update after those trips. Please feel free to email us as often- we miss all of you! (Jeremy: jeremy.bruno@gmail.com. Laura: laura.bruno@gmail.com) Love you and please come for a visit to the glorious islands of Indonesia!

All the news that isnt news…

So I have been busy with stuff here but its about time I updated our situation. Since I last wrote I have found a soccer team that practices every day at the field closest to MC. After practicing with the team they have invited me to play in a regional tournament. There are 12 teams in the tournament and each team is basically from a different village. As far as I can tell I will be the only Buley there. Agus, a friend of mine from the team, came and picked me up yesterday and we rode his moped to the game. It is not uncommon to see whole families no a moped heading somewhere. I have still to see 5 people on one but 4 is very common. My favorite is the dad driving, mom with baby sitting side saddle while texting on her phone and the 5 year old standing on the floor runners with their hands on the handle bars… and no one with a helmet on…

At the game we parked our moped with the other 100 mopeds and took our parking ticket from the kid. Then Agus handed me a ticket(not sure how much they cost) and we walked to the field. There was a row of people seated most of the the way around the whole field with another 2-3 rows of people standing behind them in parts. I’m not sure how they cut the grass, maybe they grazed their goats there for a few days or maybe they cut it all with a machete but I’m sure it was not cut with a lawn mower. I watched the game and also took the time to try out my new language skills.

We started language lessons last week thursday. We worked through the alphabet, which I need to review before tonights lesson, and then worked on pronouns and possessives. I now know my numbers fairly well as well as the basic greetings. Currently I am working on questions that have who, what, where, when, how in them. Indonesian is forgiving because it does not have any tenses so I can say Saya and based on context it becomes “I am” “I was” “I will be.”

Last week we took a UN flight to Banda Aceh and spent the weekend there. On the weekend we went to lumba lumba via a faery. Lumba Lumba Island is the farthest west point of  Indonesia and has great coral reefs to explore. The boat ride over was rough with 10-15 foot swells. We were in the economy section up in the very front and at least 5 people puked around us… one time the bow got airborne and we dropped maybe 20 feet and then plowed through the next wave. From where I was sitting I saw the solid blue of sea water go by…. crazy times. On the way back we paid the extra dollar to get business class and we sit in the back of the boat up on the top!

We went snorkeling and got stung by some jelly fish. We did see a bunch of cool things swimming around(just use your imagination). The best part of the weekend for me was the food. I am becoming obsessed with food, or more pointedly, good food. All the food in Meulaboh is fried and not that good. This place had the best native food I have had here. We tried the peanut sauce which was nothing like in the US, but still very good. I also had the curry soup with vegetables and what turned out to be half a chicken. The chickens here are regular size since they are humped up on roids so you have to root around more to get at the meat. The next day we got the saucy noodles with fried chicken which turned out to be my favorite.  I am also a fan of the fresh lemonade. They give you the sugar on the side so I can have my tart and Laura can have her diabetes.

The rooms we stayed in were very clean once you set a few ground rules. Like the ubiquitous ant problem, and the need to burn the mosquito repellent stuff that makes your room smell like a hookah parlor. There was no AC but there was a fan above the beds that was strategically placed. Unfortunately they are building more units so we woke up to a skill saw at O’ dark hundred.

I have almost finished Kiln People by David Brin. Sci-fi world where you can make a clay copy of yourself. Thanks for the book rec NukeEm.

The Bowels: Or sometimes the bellows

 

This is what I look like when I’m hungry and about to eat. I do not always look like this, nor am I always hungry. Just earlier that day I was not feeling so well. The night before it had started with a lump in the stomach that really dampened my appetite. That morning it had manifest itself as a total lack of appetite followed by a curious bloated feeling. All morning I was tied up in meetings and then lunch came with the boss and there are no public bathrooms at restaurants here. Back at the office I was alarmed when my after lunch meeting partner found me right as I came through the door. After that meeting the main conference room that my room, the resource room, is abutted to, had a meeting in full swing so my meeting compadre called and had the office assistant come and let me out the side door. I was feeling very much like a puffer fish by then, so I sought out the office baño, only to discover it was out of order, at least I took whatever the writing was on the sign to mean just about that much. Not knowing what else to do I started walking home. I’m not sure if you know what its like to walk 4 blocks not knowing at any step whether your labor contractions will overcome your glute strength but let me tell you, it does require a whole lot of controlled breathing. After making it home I had to negotiate the stairs to the second floor and then strip before exploding. The good part about an entire room of tile is that it is quite easy to clean! Bon Appetit.

Sunset

Here is just a taste of what we get most every night. This actually does not do some of the sunsets we have seen justice. Last night when we went for our walk on the beach, a guy ran out and introduced himself as “Bobbi.” He said he was just going out for a walk and he asked if he could “shadow” us. We said yes and he proceeded to practice his English with us. At one point he whipped out a pocket translator, which leads me to believe that our nightly walks are getting a little too predictable. After a while he said he needed to see a friend and left us to continue our walk.

The waves were much larger then normal, maybe because it was high tide and/or the moon, who knows. We say down to enjoy the changing colors. There were other people doing the same up and down the beach. There was a father and son sitting of to our right and beyond them a guy trying to body surf. After a little a group of kids collecting the sand crabs came wondering by. He would try to pounce on them as the crabs tried to make it to the water. Sometimes they would even get them all the waves were receding, I am still trying to figure out how they saw those crabs swimming. One little guy with his two top front teeth missing came and sat just 5 feet from Laura and I. I noted he was on Laura’s side and he really didn’t mind staring at her, even more then I was. He didn’t say a word, he just sat and either watched the sunset or Laura. Laura and I continued our conversation and I would smile at him every so often. After a little bit he got up and ran into the water and caught another crab. He did not have a water bottle to put it in so he brought is back to where we were and dig a little hole in the sand and threw it in there. Then he ran back into the waves to wash off. I thought he was going to leave the crab there but soon he came back and slowly dug until the crab tried to make a break for the sea again. The crab really couldn’t see too well with all the sand on its eye I’m thinking but whatever the reason this kid caught him right up. Then he offered the crab as a friendship offering to Laura and she dug a hole and buried the crab. Oh, we were making friends now! She dug the crab up and when she re-caught it he just beamed. By then it was late and we stood up and started to walk home. After a little he started to talk to Laura but he knew no English and Laura could only say she knew no Bahasa. He walked with us right up till we went into our house and patiently watched as I locked up the gate. Then I waved and said “salamat siang” or good evening and he was off.

 

FAQ 1

(FYI you can mouse over photos for my comments on them.)

In this post I will try to answer some specific questions as well and go into some general travel concerns and information that might be helpful or humorous.

Q: What type of activities are you doing there?

A: Laura’s day consists of getting up a 7, heading into the office by 8, working, eating, and heading home at 5pm. My day is a little different. I have been heading into the office with Laura but I am free to do whatever I want. Currently I go to the resource room, which has the best AC in the building, and browse the net, write email and blog. Sometimes I don’t go in with Laura and instead I go for a morning run on the beach. It’s fun catching the locals bathing in the ocean. I assume they are bathing because they are going in with just their shirts on. The crabs run into the water and the locals run out and grab their clothes…

If you can imagine, I tend to have more energy then Laura. Now that she is under a heavy workload, coupled with her first management experience, and quadrupled with language and culture difficulties, she just wants to melt when she gets home. I, on the other hand, have been waiting all day for the fun to begin. You know: an evening jog on the beach, or a game of risk or two! What we have settled on is eating first, then either a walk on the beach, and/or watching some Grey’s Anatomy(we are now into season 2). The copies we have are borrowed from a friend here and the production quality sometimes is humorous. For example the subtitles are always on and they usually come 1 to 2 seconds after the actors speak, like they are typing the words as they hear them. Once they switched to Spanish for a few lines, but luckily we do too. For some reason the voice and video tracks aren’t lined up either, and sometimes the screen looks like they are squishing a wide screen version onto the normal TV size. We also had to go online to get the episode list because they mixed them up. For example on season 1 they put some 5 episodes of season 2 into the package.

Q: How is Laura’s work going?

A: I’ll see if I can get Laura to write a bit on that.

Q: What are the adjustments you guys having to make? (other than being thousands of miles away of course…)

A: I have not as of this point felt very angry or depressed about my situation. Both of those I would just assign to culture shock. I do get frustrated with my slow learning of the language and how I sometimes find myself relearning things I forgot, but I just keep telling myself that repetition is the best practice. I think being with Laura and having her support is very good for my spirits, she has been encouraging on many levels. I have also tried to be proactive in my new environment and I am trying to get out and do/see as much as I can during the day. Just yesterday the power went out right after dusk and so I went up on the balcony and say and watched the neighborhood. Most people seemed not to notice and continued sitting and chatting with their friends or walking to where they were going. I saw a guy using his cell phone to light his path but most did not seem to need any light to navigate. It was a good reminder for me to plan a good emergency strategy if there was an earthquake and the lights went out. I brought a mini maglight which I dug out of my bag. As a reminder to myself I need to change the batteries so its brighter…

Q: Are you running, working out and stuff like that?

A: Working out is hard here, no one works out here because no one is fat or afraid of getting fat. They work their butts off all day and eat very healthy. I have some swelling in my left hand from moving that still has not gone away so that is preventing me from my push ups and pull-ups. Laura has been doing some Yoga but I can’t join her in that due to my hand as well and the calcified hematoma in my groin that prevents certain stretches(TMI?). I run on the beach because it’s the least likely place to get run over by a vehicle or get stared at. Although since we go out all the time walking everywhere they neighbors are starting to get used to us and both greet us and not stair too much.

I did get to play some soccer this last weekend. The first weekend here it had rained real hard and the field was under water, this lately the weather has cooperated. MC has a soccer team and I have used that to start many conversations. For example I took my English Indonesian dictionary out back under the tin roof where all the MC drivers and other male workers sit and smoke while waiting, and I proceeded to look up how to say “pass,” “shoot,” “goal,” and futbol terms like off-sides, corner kick, and header. They get very into trying to help you when you show interest in learning there language which is very helpful. As you can imagine there was a bit of dancing around and playing air futbol to get my points across which they seemed to enjoy. BTW, soccer in the rest of the word is futbol and here it is called mienbola (mine – bola) or bola for short. Of course most of the terms I tried to learn were just Indonesian translations of USA soccer colloquialisms. In the game everyone kept yelling “dua dua” which I found out meant that they wanted a “wall pass” or a “give and go”. If neither of those makes any sense to you, it means you pass your teammate the ball and run around your defender. Then you receive the ball back once you are in the clear. Overall I think I made a good impression at the game and they might invite me back next week. I am going to have to change my game a little since I am used to being very physical out of self preservation with larger players. What was a rib shot before now is a nose breaker. Luckily I only elbowed the guy in the back of the head…

Q: Have met any cool friends?

A: We have been getting together with the other buleys (foreigners = xpats = white people = gringos (somewhat derogatory)) which has been very pleasant. Last Friday night we had a buley dinner orchestrated by Albert who has 20+ years as a head chef. Maybe it is just that I have not had any food I’m used to here but that dinner was the best I have had in a long time. We made potato salad, some cooked greens, a tomato and cucumber salad and the best grilled chicken ever! Before dinner we were treated to some pineapple juice with rum which was a real treat since sharia law prohibits alcohol here. Albert and his wife Paula brought it down with them from Banda Aceh. With dinner we had some lemon grass tea which he made from scratch. Let me tell you! That was some good stuff.

We have also been trying to get out more with the locals but there is a cultural rift there due to the conservative muslim culture here. For example, the locals insist on having two guest houses, one for buleys and one for nationals. From what we can tell it is for the protection of the muslims and the strict rules they have to abide by. Under sharia law a woman and a man can not be in a closed room together unless they are married. They can not hold hands of kiss in public unless they are married. The woman has to have loose bag clothes that cover at least past her elbows and knees and a covering over her hair. As you can imagine it makes our house keeper very uncomfortable when I am home alone when she comes to clean, and so I usually try to be out of the house in the mornings.

So to answer the question: we have gone out with some of the national staff, although they are not from Meulaboh. They are from Java and other parts more liberated. Although I suspect we must be boring because there is still a large language barrier.

Q: What is it like being in the culture with blond hair and blue eyes?

A: Don’t forget my reddish beard and unusually large shoulders either! The beard I shaved off for the first time yesterday and the shoulders definitely were very large in my dream last night… I think that the people are more staring at Laura then they ever do at me. For some reason when I am out by myself I get very sincere head nods and greetings. People don’t seem to stare any more then they did in Central America so I can deal with it. When I am with Laura we tend to get more calls and stairs, like the men want Laura to look their way or something. Two days ago I finally walked on the beach with my shirt off with Laura for two reasons. One it might draw more attention to me and away from her, and two because I really don’t want the worst farmer tan ever after a year of sun with none hitting my chest!

The Guest House

Some people have asked for pictures of our house so I went out and took some yesterday. Our house is crazy large and the red gate with gold accents does help either! The house we are currently staying in is the Mercy Corps guest house and has 5 bedrooms, a greeting room, main entryway, TV room, dining room, kitchen as well as 2 larger living spaces upstairs between the 3 bedrooms. The layout is not like anything I have been in prior and definitely feels like a palace to me. The floors are all tile, and the walls are white coat on concrete. For some reason all the light switches are set around my shoulder height which would make them inaccessible to many kids. All the doors have locks and the keys are usually left in the locks at night. This is so one can easily unlock them in case of an earthquake. For the last year I worked for Kwickset so I have some professional curiosity in the locks they have here. They front door lock has a key that you insert horizontally vs. the common front door key I am used to which is inserted vertically. On top of that teeth of the key are ground into a center line and not along an edge. I can only assume this key must cost a great deal more then the standard key I am used to.

 

It is customary to take ones shoes off when entering a house. This is not a big deal for most since almost everyone wears sandals during the rainy season. (It rained for 3 days straight when we arrived and the river rose ~5 feet and flooded many houses.) I think that the furniture in the house went through the tsunami because it reeks of mold. We put down a sheet to cover the couch when we watch TV.

 

 

The ceilings are all covered with wood in very elaborate designs. In our house the termites have found the wood and so their droppings cover the floor in spots and it feels like sand. Lucky for us we have a house cleaner that cleans it everyday. All the wood forms in houses here are solid slab wood which is very beautiful. Our stairs up to the second floor are nice wood, you just have to be careful because the stairs are not all the same size and they start our very steep.

 

 

The kitchen layout is spacious but sparse. There is a double sink but no disposal. There is cupboard space below the sink and counter but it would not serve to hold anything you would ever want to put within 20 feet of your food. The dishes, plates, and silverware are all stored in a glass cabinet on the far wall. This serves to keep them off the floor away from the ants, as well as shielding them from the lizard poop which can drop from anywhere. Just this morning I saw a swarm of ants in the main hallway and discovered they were finishing of a baby lizard. They had already eaten his arms and legs and eyes and were finishing up the torso. But I digress. While we stay in the guest house we have a cleaner come and do our laundry, clean the house and we have a cook that prepares our dinner.

 

Dinner food here tends to be fried in grease. Guess that is best since they wash it in poop water to clean off the dirt, lizard poop and fly larva. Just today at lunch I watched maggots flailing in the ketchup bottle sitting on our table. That said it is never advisable to eat the salad at a place you don’t know. There is always nasi or rice with every meal but in the last week we have had fried chicken, eggplant, some sort of fried potato pancake, fried tofu, a chicken curry, and fried & breaded shrimp kabobs. The drinking water comes from a 5 gallon plastic drum that is inverted into the water dispenser. The cool part is the dispenser provides both chilled and boiling lava hot water so you can make your instant coffee quite fast in the mornings.

 

 

Now back to the house tour. Upstairs we have the master bedroom where we are currently located. They do not have any rooms set aside for closet space so they have bureaus which also have locks on them. We have AC in our room which makes it quite pleasant to sleep at night. It is local tradition to sleep without AC and no blankets either. It took us 3 days to get a top sheet since all they had were bottom sheets in the house. Then it took us another 2 days to get a thin blanket. I guess it just does not make any sense to chill the room just to put on a blanket to stay warm! But the reason for the madness is that mosquitoes do not like the cold and tend to sit on the walls when its cold and since our mosquito net has not yet arrived we are taking this strategy to minimize exposure. We have both been bit already and in fact we are killing multiple mosquitoes that have made it into our room every day, despite heavy precautions such as keeping the door to the hall closed at all times, and spraying a mosquito neurotoxin (probably not good for us either) on the walls and whenever we leave the room.

 

 

 

 

Did I mention that they do not use top sheets here? Well it was the second day of us using our 2 sheets and blanket system(oh yeah!), and when we went to our bedroom the top sheet was neatly laid out on the bed, the blanket was folded across the foot of the bed and the bottom sheet was folded into a square and resting on top of the blanket. We fixed the order and the next day the bed was made correctly. This is not a big issue, but for some reason they wash our sheets everyday so it is nice not to have to remake your bed everyday.

 

Our New Bathroom

Our old bathroom we thought was small and cramped and we dreamed of putting in a Japanese soaking tub. Now we have a new perspective. What looks like a Meulaboh soaking tub is actually call the mandi and serves as a water reservoir as well as a mosquito motel. Every 2 weeks the mandi water has to be replaced before the mosquito larvae hatch. Our bedroom has its own attached bathroom which is nice. The door to the bathroom is a solid wood door and they nailed a sheet of metal to the bathroom side to help protect it from splashing water. They floor and walls are tiled and there is a 4 inch ledge where the door opens to keep the water in. They toilet is the common Indonesian style that we call a “squatty potty.” The toilet has 2 wavy foot beds on either side, and you learn quick how to balance. Flushing is also a new experience. That is where the mandi comes in. Every bathroom has a plastic handled scooper which you fill and pour into the toilet for your manual flush. One becomes quite familiar with what foods make what colors on the other side.

Let me take this opportunity to elaborate on a large cultural faux pas. In native Indonesia culture one should NEVER waive, shake hands, handle or pass money or food with ones left hand. I’m sure some of you have already guessed, but that is what the Xpats call going native. In the traditional culture the left hand is reserved for cleaning yourself after passing your stool. Therefore is it considered categorically unclean and not used for anything else, except clapping.

Traditionally there is no central water heater. In fact, the locals do not use a water heater for bathing. Most houses have a large water tank that is perched on the roof and gets plenty of sun during the day and so evening showers can be quite refreshing. The water heater in our bathroom is an inline heater and can only heat a little amount of water at a time. This means that you have to turn it on 15 minutes before you want to shower so it can heat up. Then you get wet, turn it off, wash and turn it back on to rinse. This really isn’t a problem since you don’t need the water for warmth when the room is 80-90 degrees.

Travel Itinerary

 

Sunday Nov 4^th – Tuesday Nov 6th

I didn’t sleep to great that night but when 7 am came around I was eager to head out. Once all the troops had cleaned and prepped their masks we were off to eat breakfast at the Cadillac café. Looking back now at what was served to us my breakfast had as many calories as what someone would eat for a whole day here in Meulaboh. I had eggs Mazatlan which is 2 eggs dazzled in a sauce over a folded up quesadilla with a sided of fried potatoes with that same coating on Arby’s curly fries, and a large dollop of guacamole and sour crème. Of course I did stop there, I also ate off Beth’s plate and had some French toast and chicken sausage. I did cut out some calories by only having water… that is how I feel good about myself. After that it was just a matter of timing so that the pangs of morning food rush hit me right when I was checking in to our flight.

What with all the hustle and bustle to get out of dodge I had not spent any time investigating how we were going to travel to Indonesia. I knew it was half way around the globe but not till I had to sit for most of 2 days did I come to really appreciate modern travel. By the way, if anyone finds a pair of Versace eyeglasses on a United Airlines flight, those are mine. They are in a black leather hard case and have a brushed copper finish. OK, back to the itinerary… So in all we flew 14166 km or 8803 miles. Lucky for us Laura had just accumulated enough air miles from her previous trips to allow us to get free upgrades to economy plus. Doesn’t sound that big, but 4 inches means the WORLD after 12 hours of sitting! Here is a Google Earth view of our travels… (OH! and if you find a pair of Versace eyeglasses on a United Airlines flight, they are mine! They are in a black leather hard case and have a brushed copper finish.)

Final Preparations

October 28 – November 3

The week ending Saturday November 3^rd was a crazy hectic week for both Laura and I. After having made the decision to go to Indonesia over a month prior it was finally settling in that we really were going and that there were many things still to be wrapped up, mostly we had not gotten a property management company to handle our house, nor were we packed for the shippers or storage yet. I kept telling myself that no matter what, we were going to be leaving on the 4rth, and somehow that was comforting. We tied up a property management company by Thursday, sold the Subaru (“Da White Boat De Love”) to a friend (here’s a shout out to Natron-7) and sold the Toyota (Eddie the POS) to a mechanic (good luck buddy!). We had tried to make piles of our stuff for shipping or storage but when the shippers came on Friday and Laura was out running errands, I screwed up and told the shippers to ship ALL our coffee mugs, of which Laura wanted only 2, and all our cooking hardware, that part I’m still confused about.

All the while the movers were there we were loading the truck for storage. When we first saw the storage rooms we thought 5 by 15 was a very large room but once you start putting tables and bureaus and wardrobes and beds in there you start to realize how much stuff you actually own. By the end we filled the room up 10 feet tall and still we had to get rid of some things like a recliner and some tables. Ill see if I can rustle up a photo of that madness… I owe thanks to Kate for coming over to help one evening and to Mark and Shelley for helping all Friday and Saturday. We couldn’t have done it without you! Once the upstairs moving was done I went through the house and vacuumed the floors and then the corners and walls for cobwebs. Finally we took some digital photos to record the condition of the house and we left our keeps and garage door openers on the counter and we were off to stay at the Hanson’s for our last night.

Greatings from Meulaboh

Hello everyone and greetings from Meulaboh( Meh – la – boh ). I have been composing some reports on our cross cultural shocks as well as some boring monologues on the mundane and tedious work of picking up ones whole life to move half way around the globe. I have been composing some of them at home on the laptop and I forgot to bring them in to the office. My office currently consists of the resource room at Mercy Corps Meulaboh.  I think its the best room in the office because its small and has great AC. And I have total privacy which is nice since I am a spectacle for everyone whenever I’m outside.