Dispatches from Banda Aceh

A helmet, mosque, wedding, and pool ... bye, Banda Aceh!

2008-03-08T23:42:00.019+07:00

Folks, this is my final blog from Banda Aceh. Thank your for your support and words of encouragement over the past year!

The previous blog was supposed to be the last one, but that changed when my staff gave me a beautiful going-away present. They gave me a replica of the helmet reputed to be worn by Teuku Umar of Aceh, an Indonesian national hero of resistance against the Dutch. They had it specially sized so that it would fit my fat head!

Nice hat, eh? Teuku Umar's exploits in the long war against the Dutch are legendary. Check out his story by clicking here on Melayu Online.

Receiving that hat reminded me that I hadn't photographed the very unusual mosque that I pass by every day on the way to work. It's on Jalan (Street) Teuku Umar in Banda Aceh. Instead of the usual silver or otherwise standard dome, this mosque has Teuku Umar's helmet as the dome!

I forgot to record the mosque's name, but everybody just calls it Mesjid Teuku Umar. It's on the street of that name, and the dome comprises Teuku Umar's helmet! Here's a close-up of the dome. Compare that with the first photo above, the replica I received.

The gates to the mosque grounds are also crowned with a small replica of the helmet. This being close to our office, our staff come here on Fridays for their prayers.

There's a pair of stairways that lead to the upper level of the mosque.

The stairs are covered by a roof adorned with Acehnese wood carvings.

A close-up shows the flower motif that's common in Acehnese woodcarvings, paintings, and batik. (Click on photo for enlargement.)

Here's a close-up of the men's shirt from the previous blog. You can see the flower motif as well:

Similar motifs are apparent in our office on Jalan Sudirman. Our office is a large house belonging to a formed high provincial official that used a lot of Acehnese woodcarvings in his house.

This is another carving from the office. Click on photo to view details.

Back to the hat ... I had a chance last weekend to attend yet another wedding in Aceh. Here's the groom at his house getting ready to suit up. This fella's Sadaruddin, one of the engineers in my section.

He tries it on for size before embarking on the motorcade to the bride's house...

The groom's party arrives at the bride's house. Is he having second thoughts about taking this big step?

But soon the bride arrives and all doubts are dispelled!

And another perfectly good bachelor bites the dust!

My Aceh blog isn't complete without a shot of what kept me sane during the long work days... the prospect of swimming laps at the pool at the Hermes Palace Hotel in Banda Aceh! It's a boomerang-shaped pool --- we estimate about 35 m long!

We are a respectable Shariah law province. Rules for pool attire and behavior are clearly spelled out!

Another frequent swimmer is little Micah, who's training to be in the US Olympics team in, oh, about fifteen years. His mom Laura is teaching at the local university here, and his dad Jeff is an engineer working for an NGO that is building reconstruction housing.

The friendly hotel staff keep an eye on us while we are in the pool, and assist us in every way.

And it's time to go --- I leave in about three days. My landlord holds his grand-daughter, Sahira Avida Oemar, while she bids me farewell and Godspeed.

Housing and Batik ... Two Reconstruction Activities in Banda Aceh

2008-03-02T16:27:00.018+07:00

Today I have some photos I took some time ago, when Brad Philips was still with the project as our Director.

One Sunday afternoon, Brad and I went out for a walk from our Guest House to the "Rumoh Batik," where an industry is trying to recover from the devastation of the tsunami of December 26, 2004. Here's what we saw!

(For a change, the commentary will FOLLOW the picture instead of preceding it, as in previous blogs.)

On the way to the "Rumoh Batik," we see one of the many reconstruction projects, this one an urban drainage project. We stop and inspect the drain. We can't help ourselves --- we're hydraulic engineers!

A young mother shows off her baby along the way. Her features reflect the centuries of interaction that the Aceh sultanate has had with traders, missionaries, and settlers from Arab, Turkish, African, and European countries.

We pass a newly re-constructed mosque on the way. The gleaming silver dome is typical of many mosques in Aceh.

A close-up shot of the dome reveals the houses of its parish reflected on its shiny surface. Kinda neat!

We come to a fork in the road and take one that takes us to a resettlement area for people whose houses were destroyed by the tsunami. Along the way there, we pass permanent housing being constructed to house these folks.

In the meantime, many folks are still housed in temporary barracks erected in the months following the tsunami. It's three years after the tsunami, and the housing reconstruction program is behind schedule somewhat. (Our project doesn't do housing --- we do water supplies, landfills, roads, ports, and drainage.) Note the satellite dish on the roof above the lady doing her laundry.

The folks seem to be in pretty good spirits, though. Here they wave and pose for me.

But communal housing is still a hassle for the families in the barracks. They have to go to a communal water tank to draw water. The replacement housing for these folks will have running water and all basic infrastructure. Nearly 105,000 houses have been constructed by the government and NGO's, but over 2,200 households still need housing. See the BRR website for more information.

We resume our trek to our destination for the morning, and pass by a construction program administered by the Swiss Red Cross using Swiss foreign aid funds: a boarding school for tsunami orphans. We note the fine quality of reinforcing steel --- deformed bars, highly unusual for here. (Sorry, we can't help noticing!)

We finally reach the un-maintained park in which the "Rumoh Batik" --- batik house --- is located. The park celebrates traditional housing in the various districts of Aceh, but the houses on display are not labeled! We first go into the rather sparse showroom and see various batik items on display.

A man's shirt is on display. The patterns are traditional Acehnese motifs, we are told.

A close-up (click on photo for 1024 pixel version) reveals a pattern change in the middle of the shirt. Again, these are traditional batik patterns. See this website to view some "modern" (non-traditional) batik patterns.

A further close-up reveals that the material is a relatively coarse material (could it be silk? not sure...) that is made locally. The folks in the showroom offer to take us to the workshop where the batik material is being made.

First stop is the stamping operation. Our guide tells us that the tsunami killed most of the experienced batik craftsmen. Today the surviving craftsmen are training a new generation of workers in the hope of reviving the industry.

The stamp ("cap" in Malaysia) is dipped in hot wax and applied to the cloth.

This leaves a wax mask that, taken together, forms part of a pattern. The process is repeated as needed. In this case, I believe, a border is being created.

This is a pattern created completely by stamps. See this website for more photos and text on the stamping batik practice in Malaysia. (The Wiki article, on the other hand, mostly talks about Indonesian batik.)

This woman is applying wax to fine patterns that are drawn by pencil on the fabric. The fabric itself has been dyed purple. The wax is applied by a fine applicator that lets her apply fine dots and lines. She re-fills the applicator from the bowl of molten wax on the stove next to her.

Here you can see the applicator. (The Wikipedia article calls it a canting needle. Whatever!) The hot wax is poured into the hole at the top.

Another craftsman uses the applicator to create a larger-scale pattern in wax.

You can see how the stamped borders and the hand-applied fine patterns go together in the photo above.

We were then shown the loom which is used to create the material on which the batik is created. The weavers were not in residence that day, but the showroom staff showed us the equipment.

The loom sits in a large, mostly empty room next to the wax room. There is a battery of spools that feed the loom. The hope is that the industry will rehabilitate itself to the extent that the room (and others like it) will be full of weavers and wax craftsmen.

I rather liked the rack of spools... it makes a neat photo!

Being a Sunday, there was no dye-ing activity going on in the "Rumoh Batik" either. Dyeing is done in these racks located under the traditional houses, which are typically built on stilts. Also stored here were big blocks of wax that are melted and used to create the batik patterns.

We continued outside to see the traditional houses on display. The only one with a label or sign was this building from the "Aceh Besar" district (kabupaten) of Aceh province. It's awfully big to be a house; it's probably what a district official would have lived in.

Another magnificent house...

And another. If they'd only label the houses with some explanations! The whole park was rather overgrown when we went there. Maybe in a few years, there'll be enough funds to re-do the exhibits! In the meantime, efforts are going into housing and basic infrastructure... first things first!

Ikan Bakar and Kopi Aceh --- Two Sumatran Culinary Treats!

2008-02-24T10:13:00.021+07:00

Food in Banda Aceh runs the gamut of what's typically available in this part of the world. There are lots of Indonesian food --- Acehnese favorites, Javanese delicacies, and Padang (Minangkabau) dishes that represent everything that's wonderful about SE Asian Malay-style food. There also many restaurants serving halal Chinese food. Then there are other places that serve Western food, with varying degrees of success.

I thought I'd introduce you to a couple of places in Aceh that have become treats to which we look forward. One is a plain-roasted (BBQ'd) seafood (ikan bakar) restaurant --- most Indonesian coastal cities have them in abundance. The other is an Acehnese institution with a proud history --- the coffee shop!

A few months ago, I happened to take a camera along on a Friday dinner in the Lampuuk section of Banda Aceh. Juan and Pam Gonzalez, Margaret Stoffel, Siti Agustini (Titin), Tatum, and I went out for an evening of fine dining at the Awak Away restaurant.

As we go into the seating area, we pass by a counter piled with fish caught that afternoon by the Banda Aceh fishing fleet. The fish are on the table, and the squid and giant shrimps (prawns) are in their baskets.

As we tell the staff how much of what we want (we order prawns and squid by the kilo), they weigh and set aside the goodies.

The guys wisely keep quiet and let the women choose the fish.

The main dishes being ordered, we proceed to the seating area. It's an outdoor seating area, plastic seats and tables situated under tents set up against that ever-present danger of a tropical storm drenching us while we're eating! Tatum, our logistics expert, fills in the drinks order. Most of us order coconut water.

The beverage department receives the order and obliges by hacking the tops off young coconuts. They expose the inner reservoir filled with sweet coconut water, and stick a straw into it. The reservoir is lined with soft coconut meat that can be scraped off and eaten with a spoon.

The coconuts arrive, and we enjoy our pre-dinner drinks. Conversation flourishes (except for the poor photographer). If the coconut water isn't enough, there's always bottled water!

In the meantime, the chef is busy preparing our fish for roasting over coals. He cuts slits into the side for marinating with butter (... OK, margarine, most likely):

The fish is then split into two and roasted over coals. There's a separate fire pit in the back where scrap wood, coconut husks (from the drinks you saw earlier), and charcoal are converted to red-hot coals that cook the seafood:

The pot of margarine (or whatever) sits on the grill, waiting for the cook to slather it onto the fish and prawns on the grill:

Margarine is added to the fish, and they're on the way to getting done perfectly for our table! Note the fan to the left; not the highest-tech kitchen, but it works fine!

The prawns (giant shrimp) and fish arrive first. White rice, various condiments, lime slices, and dipping sauces also appear at the table. (That's not ketchup in the foreground, by the way.)

We get started while we wait for the squid. We use our hands for the meal. It's so much easier to peel the prawns this way. We just tear chunks of fish from the common dishes and place them on our rice plates.

The squid arrives, and we're busy stuffing ourselves with fresh seafood! I'd better put the camera down before all the goodies disappear. (It doesn't look like we'll ever run out, but we did a pretty good job of it!)

See? Toldja! There's only some debris left, all for Margaret to take home for her grateful cats:

We usually go from the ikan bakar restaurant to our favorite coffee shop for a dose of good, flavorful, and rich Acehnese coffee. For some reason, we didn't go that night. However, we did go to the coffee shop last night. Luckily, Margaret had a small camera with her. I borrowed it for most of the pictures below. Sorry about the graininess --- I was experimenting with flash-less photography a bit... Our coffee shop is the Solong coffee shop:

As you undoubtedly know, coffee from various parts of Indonesia is renowned throughout the world. Coffee from the island of Sumatra is known for its mild yet rich flavor. Aceh is one of the provinces in Sumatra blessed with the right climate for the crop, especially in the Gayo Lues district. Last night, Paul Woods, Margaret Stoffel, and I, along with a couple of our drivers, went to Solong after dinner:

The Aceh sultanate, because of its position at the tip of Sumatra, was long center of commerce between SE Asia and the middle east. I have been told that it was the Turks that brought the institution of the Coffee Shop to Aceh. Acehnese coffee (kopi aceh) is brewed very strongly in these coffee shops (though not anywhere near what the Turks like). I'd say it would be the equivalent of Peet's Coffee shops in the US, if you know what I mean. First and foremost, it's a place to come with friends, relax, chat, and drink coffee.

The coffee shop is crowded with patrons, especially in the evenings after work every day. The clientele tends to be male, but there is also a table full of women in the upper right. It's noisy as conversations ranging from gossip to politics take place and tremendous amounts of community information are exchanged:

Most of the coffee shops in Banda Aceh are concentrated in the Ulee Kareng district. It's where working stiffs come and relax after a long day. Our drivers A-an (center) and Mumum (right) come to join us for a cup of coffee. Here they sit with a buddy of theirs that works at the coffee shop.

Back in the production area, the coffee guy (the original barista, not one of the fancy-schmancy western ones) uses a "tarik" technique to create a uniquely SE Asian beverage. (Please read the Wikipedia link for Teh/kopi tarik!) Our barista is using a coffee filter comprising a fine cloth shaped like a miniature windsock (closed on one end). He pours hot water through the filter, and aims the filtrate into the coffee cups.

When the tarik technique is used with tea or coffee mixed with milk, you get a frothy drink like you see below. ("Milk" in the SE Asian coffee/tea context is usually sweetened condensed milk.) If you order black coffee, it comes loaded with sugar unless you specify otherwise. When I brew Aceh coffee in my room, I use a Melita-style paper filter for best results. The coffee powder is usually ground very fine. I once made the mistake ordering a second cup at Solong. I ended up staying up all night! This order was going out as I was taking pictures of the barista:

Solong also sells freshly ground coffee. I've distributed Solong coffee to friends in the US and Japan, and have received very good reviews. The fine grounds of coffee, available in 1-, 0.5-, and 0.25-kg plastic bags, are piled high behind the cashier:

Here's a close-up of the half-kilo bags of coffee. On request, the Solong shop will grind the coffee a little bit coarser to accomodate press-pots. My experience thus far has been best using the fine grind with a Melita filter.

But enough of picture-taking. It's time to sit down and enjoy my coffee!

(Note: Paul, whom you saw earlier, is leaving for another project in Ethiopia in a few weeks. Over there, I suspect he'll be sitting in a coffee shop very similar to this one! Ethiopia's another one of the great coffee-growing nations of the world!)

A Wedding in Aceh

2008-02-10T10:56:00.001+07:00

Henny, Margaret's room-mate and our former production manager in our office, got married last weekend to her fiancé Rizal. I am particularly happy to share this visual record of the ceremony with you all. We're all ecstatic for Henny and her brand-new husband Rizal.

You've seen Henny in my blogs these past few months. She and her friends have very much been part of my Aceh experience. When I took the trip to Lamno all those months ago, this was Henny and and fiancé Rizal. Henny couldn't go on the trip with us because she was picking out her wedding dress.

Well, a few weeks ago, we received an unusual invitation. Rizal's an engineer, and Henny's an extremely computer-literate editorial and administrative manager. So what kind of invitation did we get? An invitation printed on a mouse pad, of course!

The wedding would be in the town of Sabang, the district town of Pulo' Weh, the beautiful island you saw in my previous blog (below). So it was back to our favorite ferry boat, "Pulo' Rondo:"

As soon as we got off at Pulo' Weh ferry terminal on the other side of the island from Sabang, a sign greeted us:

Margaret, who had gone the day before to Pulo' Weh, told us to check into a beachside chalet resort while important business was being attended to by Henny and Rizal. So we took a cab to Freddie's Santai Sumur Tiga resort. The chalets were built on the hillside between the road and the beach. The hut you see to the left turned out to be my room.

The view from the beach up the hill. The larger building to the right contains the dining room.

The view from the room is fantastic. Crystal clear waters with coral (the dark lumps you see in the water). Freddie's resort lends customers snorkels and fins as part of the room rate, so we could go out into the shallow waters and look at pretty fishies and corals to our heart's content:

While we were on the ferry on the way to the island, preparations for the next day's wedding reception were underway. At Henny's house, the stage and reception area, both outdoors, were being built:

While I was in a cab from the ferry terminal to Freddie's, Henny and her fiance were at the civil and religious ceremony that would officially bind them as man and wife. This took place in a local government office in Sabang. Margaret went along to take pictures, and I've borrowed a few of her photos for the blog. The civil ceremony was apparently a family-only affair. Henny and Rizal pose for photos before going into the office. She is wearing a white kebaya:

The happy couple sits on a mat in front of the desk awaiting local officials, including a religious affairs officer, who will formalize their union.

Bye and bye the officials come in, prayers are said, and the paperwork begins. They both sign the marriage contract.

Gifts and vows are exchanged between bride and groom.

Then the rings are exchanged.

And the bride kisses her husband's hands. [Editor's Note: We can all learn a lot from Indonesian culture!!! ;-) ]

The two now acknowledge their parents and in-laws. Here Henny greets her mother and father.

Rizal does the same with his parents after greeting his in-laws.

The newly-minted married couple venture out with their families to pose for photos at scenic places around Sabang.

And they eventually make their way to Freddie's for beach-side pictures, and this is what I saw descending the staircase when they arrived. I was stunned at Henny's appearance; a true princess of Aceh!

They took a lot of pictures at the beach with their friend the pro photographer who would also be at the wedding tomorrow. But for today, the couple's ceremonies are over, and we were left at Freddie's to relax and enjoy the beach. Tomorrow would be a gruelling day for everybody!

Of course, for the poor bride, the day is not over. She has to be re-decorated for the reception and bersanding the next day. Henny goes back home to have a fresh application of henna applied to her feet and hands. Henny has to let the henna dry overnight. (Two photos below by Margaret S.)

And so a new day dawns over the beach at Santai Sumur Tiga --- the wedding reception/bersanding day!

Mumun (back to camera) picks us up from the resort and drives us to the house that's being used as the base for the groom's party. Margaret is in the bride's party. Eileen Simpson and I are assigned as members of the groom's party for the wedding. Rizal's parents live in Jakarta. His mother is a Sundanese from the island of Java. His father is from Padang, in the province of West Sumatra in the island of Sumatra (on which Aceh also sits), and is a Minangkabau, ethnically.

Henny's mother is also from Padang, and her father is Malay/Javanese. We are in for a visual treat because of the multitude of ethnic groups that come together in this union! But Henny was born in and grew up in Aceh (in Sabang)!

We lounge around with Rizal's relatives ...

Relatives, uncles, friends gather at the house to form the "groom's party," which will accompany Rizal to the bersanding ceremony/reception.

While the men sit around and talk outside, the ladies sit around and chat inside the house. That's Rizal's mother on the extreme right. Eileen joins them.

Meanwhile, since early morning, Henny goes through a grueling makeup routine at her parents' house. Note the henna patterns on her hands.

She uses a bun hairpiece, which is covered with gold netting.

The Acehnese head dress is placed on the bride's hairpiece and netting. She is going to start the ceremony wearing a traditional Acehnese bridal costume.

And the finishing touches go on...

As in most cultures around the world, the guys have it a lot easier. Rizal's costume is ready much, much earlier.

Margaret, in the meantime, is decked out in her own kebaya, in the blue color of the bride's party. Blue is the color of the day. The men of the bride's party and that of the groom's have their respective matching Indonesian batik shirts.

Rizal shows up at the groom's party base dressed in Acehnese groom costume. The headgear is unique to Aceh. I believe it is a replica of the helmets that were worn by Acehnese warriors in the days of the Aceh sultanate.

The gifts are ready to be brought to the wedding party. Rizal poses with his brother, brother's girlfriend, and mother's cousin.

Then Henny calls... "Where are you guys? Haven't you started out YET?" (Welcome to married life, Rizal!)

So we're off! Mumun is driving us in the third car in the motorcade, behind the groom's vehicle (blue ribbon on roof).

The motorcade stretches out behind us as we proceed through Sabang town to the beach where Henny's parents live.

The stage is set at Henny's, the wedding cakes are in position, and the thrones for the couple are ready.

When the bridal party arrives at the reception site, in front of the bandstand (to one side of the stage) a group of ladies sings praises to God and ask for His blessings on the young couple.

Folk dancers that will perform for us later line the street to form a colorful welcome for the groom's party.

Rizal and his mother lead the groom's party and proceed to the reception area.

Rizal and his party greet the bride's party, and asks for the bride.

His party follows, the gift-bearers going up to the stage with the boxes.

The gifts are laid at the foot of the stage, before the thrones.

Members of the groom's party are led to a special, more secluded dining area on one side of the stage.

Everybody is seated, waiting for the bride and groom to take their places at the head table.

Henny and Rizal take their seats. Interestingly, while the guests are seated in the cool comfort of a tent over the dining tables, the bride and groom's table is located outside the tent. Highly visible to the guests, yes, but they're starting to bake in the hot sun. It'll be a long afternoon for Henny and Rizal!

Meanwhile, on the sound stage, the hymn-singing ladies have been replaced by pop singers who belt out lively love songs and duets to honor the newly-weds. Invited guests, friends and neighbors are starting to arrive and sit in tents arrayed in front of the stage.

The bride and the bridegroom, in full Acehnese regalia, are installed on their thrones.

Local officials and the imam from their parish mosque take to the stage and say prayers and some speeches welcoming the guests and congratulating the couple.

Behind the scenes, the sound crew is busy doing whatever they do so that the speechifiers, musicians, singers, and MC's can do their thing.

The two sets of parents take their stations beside the thrones and brace themselves for the onslaught of well-wishers.

They start the process themselves. If you've read the Widipedia link earlier on Malay weddings, you'll know that Henny's dad is sprinkling scented water on the couple ...

and that Rizal's dad is feeding his son some yellow rice in the photo below.

The two mothers repeat the process for their children.

The MC is carefully orchestrating the well-wishers' procession as friends and relatives and invited guests start to come on the stage and congratulate the couple.

A family wedding picture, Acehnese version. One of many, many pictures with many, many people (and costumes) for today:

It's also going to be a very long and exhausting afternoon for these caterers serving the hundreds of guests that are about to show up in short order:

As friends and relatives troop up to the stage to bless the couple, a local folk troupe entertains the guests with what I think is a fisherman-related dance.

Invited guests watch the performance from their tents, eating their meal and waiting for their turn on the stage to honor the couple.

The food line is every busy, serving curries and other wonderful dishes of beef, chicken, fish, and veggies to be eaten with rice. Water is served in little plastic containers.

Gunawan Wibisana, our project's senior planner, shows up and has a meal before starting to snap pictures. Gunawan spent the rest of the weekend snorkeling around the beautiful coral reefs around Pulo' Rubiah, off Pulo' Weh (see previous blog).

Some of our office staff pose with Henny and Rizal. The guys around me are my computer programmers. Henny and Rizal stoically and good-naturedly put up with the parade of well-wishers. It's a really hot afternoon!

Then there's a lull as the bride and bridegroom withdraw into Henny's house for a quick refreshing and a costume change. The guests who haven't had a chance to see the couple on the stage wait around in the guest tent. It's pretty hot for them too. The entertainers are going full bore on the stage.

Ta-da! Henny and Rizal resume their places on the stage, this time dressed in a Sundanese wedding outfit. As noted earlier, Rizal's mom is a Sundanese from the Indonesian island of Java. (Now would be a good time to read the Wikipedia link.)

The guests resume their trek onto the stage to wish the couple well and take pictures with them on their big day.

I'm getting a bit exhausted at this point... Gunawan, our ace photographer and senior planner, took this picture of me taking a picture. He used a Nikon D200 (he actually knows how to use it!), while I'm using an entry-level D40 (definitely more my speed). Notice the lighting effects. He waited for just the right moment, he says, until the light struck me just so...

The MC joins in the festivities as he starts belting out some songs, relieving the couple that's been singing all this time. Also, he encourages folks from the audience to join and and start a karaoke-syle songfest to honor Henny and Rizal.

It's mid-afternoon on a Saturday, and the guests keep coming. Henny's family knows many, many people on Pulo' Weh. They sign in at the entrance, and receive a little gift. (A pair of ornamental chopsticks adorned with a seashell.)

The view below shows the reception area. Henny's house, (and the stage and tents erected adjacent to it), is built on a hillslope (and hence the angle of the tents and road). Just behind the camera location is the beach. Henny says the 2004 tsunami damaged most of the roof tiles on her house. This means that the tsunami level must have been as shown in the photo (white line). Henny says her father saw the beach waterline receding, and yelled at her family and neighbors to start running uphill. Their house survived, but with considerable damage, while the house that used to stand where the guest tents (the pointed one) are shown, was completely destroyed.

The guests keep arriving through the afternoon on foot, by motorcycle, or cars.

Then there's another lull as the couple again disappears into Henny's parents' house for another costume change. I take refuge, along with Titin, Margaret, and Eileen, under the cool comfort of a shade tree. They are all colleagues of mine at the project.

Then Henny and Rizal appear back on stage in the final, and most elaborate, costume of the afternoon. They are decked out in a Minangkabau wedding outfit. Beautiful gold threads on red silk mark the distinctive red Minang bridal costume. Check out the Wiki article... Minangkabaus are a matriarchal society!

Henny and Rizal resume their places on their throne...

and receive well wishers who have arrived late in that afternoon.

But the throng of well-wishes soon abates, and it's time for the concluding ceremonies of the afternoon. The couple cut into the wedding cake, feed each other a bite of the cake, and proceed to feed their parents.

Their walking back to the throne with the cakes (to give mouthfuls to their parents) gave me a chance to photograph the elaborate gold patterns on the backs of the Minangkabau wedding costumes.

Henny good-naturedly tolerated my photographing her henna'd feet and hands:

The cakes are cut up for distribution to the remaining guests and family members, while Henny and Rizal pose with the singers and sound crew for a last photo ... The singers and the audio crew have been at it the whole afternoon!

After 700 (!) guests, it's finally over! The guests are wandering away, and the sound equipment and singing stage are being dismantled. A happy and relieved "Father of The Bride" breaks out his cigarette, laughing along with Margaret, the couple, and Mumun.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the photos as much as I've enjoyed taking them! Best wishes from all of us to Henny and Rizal!

Babies, Pulo' Weh, and Ramadan ...

2007-10-13T15:15:00.000+07:00

Some blog, eh, folks? It's been three long months, more or less, since my last entry! My apologies! All I can say is that it's been pretty busy at work, and a lot of changes have taken place in our project. We've also gone through the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan (<-- click on link) here in Banda Aceh, and it's finally over!

I've been taking pictures to share in the meantime, so sit back and enjoy! This chronicle starts out with a happy occasion. One of our drivers, Mumun (remember the young fella that drove us out to that trip along the coast?), and his wife welcomed a new member of the family.

Margaret and her roomie Henny organized a visit to Mumun's house in Banda Aceh. I tagged along with them (and Bagus, his wife Mutiara, and their wonderful son Ageh) to see the baby.

Speaking of babies, remember at our Guest House we had the "7th Month Ceremony" where the landlord's daughter was celebrating her seventh month of pregnancy? Well that baby also showed up last month. Here she is:

We had a long weekend off in mid-August for Indonesia's Independence Day, celebrating a declaration that led to a long war of independence with the Dutch colonizers in the late 1940's after World War II. Henny organized a trip to Pulo' (Pulau) Weh, where she's from. Pulo' Weh lies offshore from Banda Aceh, and has some beautiful coral reefs around it.

Juan Gonzalez, his wife Pam, and I met Margaret and Henny at the ferry terminal. I was poking around the ferry terminal and stumbled onto a sad reminder of why I have this job. The photos below are of one of the mass graves in the area for the victims of the tsunami of December 26, 2004.

This area is right next to the ferry terminal, and the plaque inside says that over 14,000 souls are interred here. The site was formerly occupied by a hospital that was completely destroyed by the wave that came in. The two buildings you see behind the grassed area (the grave) are all that's left of the hospital complex.

The saddest sight of all is the children's area (below) of the mass grave. I could not get from the plaque the number of children that might be buried in this area (the plaque is written in the Acehnese dialect). I heard from a colleague that on the morning of the tsunami, a large number of schoolchildren were in one of the parks participating in a ceremony of some kind with the mayor and his staff. The mayor and most of the children did not survive.

With those somber thoughts, we walked over to the ferry terminal where our hi-speed ferry was ready for boarding:

In a short while, lots of folks seeking to get away for the long weekend started showing up at the pier. Lots of foreigners, most of whom, like us, are reconstruction-related workers making the most of their time off.

Henny and Margaret got themselves a seat near the entryway. Standing with them is Dedy, one of our computer operators in my staff. Dedy is from Pulo' Weh (like Henny), and is going back home for the weekend.

Juan, Pam, and I find a seat in the lower deck. The weather was cloudy outside, and this particular ferry had no deck where the passengers could sit outside.

After a relatively short trip (an hour, maybe?), we pull into the ferry pier at Pulo' Weh. On our way to the pier, we pass by an old ferry that's somewhat past its prime:

Henny has arranged for a car to meet us at the ferry terminal. We take the car to the middle of Pulo' Weh to pick up Bagus, his wife Mutiara, and their son Ageh. Bagus is one of our IT guys, and he and his family also share Margaret's house. The car then takes us to the village of Iboih (below), which is on the north side of the island facing our destination --- the island of Rubiah.

Across the water is Pulau (island) Rubiah, where we'll be spending the next couple of nights.

At the far end of the beach are some small boats, one of which will take us to Rubiah to the chalets where we will be sleeping.

But first things first: it's lunchtime! Ageh (his name is probably a lot longer and more complicated, but that's what we call him) digs into his meal:

One of the yummy local goodies that Henny's mother made for us for lunch is this crunchy concoction. What looks like shoestring potatoes is actually tiny, tiny fish deep-fried till crunchy. There are also peanuts and deep-fried tempeh (an Indonesian soybean product) in the mixture. The mixture is very spicy --- some of the reddish color is from the red chilis in the mix. We ate it (along with a curry that Henny's mom also made for us) with rice.

Soon lunch is over and we board the motorboat. Some of us stopped at a dive shop and rented snorkels and masks for a nominal fee to take to the island.

After a quick head count and check of equipment, we head out!

Henny seems apprehensive as we approach Pulau Rubiah...

Our boat glides past the chalet that I will share with Juan and Pam.

The rocks that make up much of the island are basaltic (volcanic origin --- lava!), and they're weathered and eroded to interesting shapes:

After unloading us passengers at the beach on Pulau Rubiah, the motorboat pushes off with a promise to come by first thing in the morning two days hence to pick us up:

The beaches on the island are covered with coral pieces and fragments. You need to wear sandals to avoid hurting your feet in the surf:

The water around the island is crystal clear, and full of corals and fish of various colors and hues! Too bad I didn't have an underwater camera! There are many beautiful coves:

... and mysterious ruins:

Bagus, Mutiara, and Henny smile from their chalet as I snap photos of the campfire they built in front of their building. The previous evening and that morning, Henny's family (who came to Rubiah after we arrived) fished around the rocks, caught gobs of fish, and cooked them. We had a great meal of fresh ikan bakar (roast fish), thanks to Henny's folks!

And young Mr. Ageh also peeks out from his hammock to see what I'm up to...

I poke around the one and only coffee shop on the island early the next morning, and catch the kitchen crew doing prep work for the vegetable curry they're going to cook for lunch:

We mustn't forget the obligatory tropical sunrise/sunset photo. In this case, it's a sunrise photo:

Finally it's time to go back to Banda Aceh (and work!)... the ferry that takes us back has an upper deck, and the weather's nice, so we decide to sit upstairs:

Juan and Pam settle themselves down as the ferry prepares to push off:

We slip past the newly-rebuilt piers of Sabang port:

And we have one last look at Pulo' Weh as we head toward Banda Aceh:

And so August became September. We were really busy in September, but we had our fun moments. Our clients challenged the consulting firms working on our reconstruction project to a soccer game. Our firm (yellow jerseys) rose to the challenge:

... and got creamed!

Later in the month I had a chance to go on a R&R visit to Malaysia. I visited with Ana and her daughters Ayenaa and Ayesyah, and son Ayezat in Kuala Lumpur (KL). Ana's husband is our old friend prof. Mohammed Anis Nor from the University of Malaya in KL. Anis had just left for a sabbatical at Smith College in the US --- I missed him by a week. I went out for a Saturday lunch and movie with his family:

In KL, I also had a chance to go and see another couple, old friends Patrick and Phil Augustin and their kids. No pictures, unfortunately... I had a couple of great dinners with them. One "business" reason for this trip was to check up on the progress of a condo complex Pat and I have bought into. Our unit is in the building that's under construction at the right. When completed in early 2009, it will look like the tower on the left:

And then it was mid-September: Ramadan! The fasting month is strictly observed in Aceh. During the day, all the eating shops (with very few exceptions) are boarded up, and Muslims do not eat or drink between morning prayers (around 5 am) and the evening prayers (between 6:30 and 7:00 pm, depending on the day). It's a low-energy time of the year, and a lot of work winds down to accommodate the people's fasting.

So what do those of us who are not fasting do for lunch? One of the establishments that is legally open is the canteen at the United Nations (UN) Food Programme office (where else?), fortunately located close to our office:

You see non-Muslim Indonesians, Europeans, Asians, Africans, Americans, and Australasians all queuing up around lunchtime to share food and drinks. The other "officially" open restaurant is the canteen at the Asian Development Bank office. The UN canteen has a bunch of pictures drawn by local schoolchildren depicting the tsunami that they remember (on the wall above the kitchen counter):

Because of the shared ordeal of fasting, many "buka puasa bersama" (breaking fast together) dinners take place during Ramadan. At the designated time, folks break their fast with drinks and sweets before evening prayers, then have dinner together with friends. Our consulting firm has two projects in town, so one evening we had a "buka puasa" dinner with staff from both projects participating:

Our landlord and landlady also held a couple of large "buka puasa bersama" events at our Guest House. After breaking the fast, the guests do their evening prayers and then enjoy the dinner spread:

The guests sit and relax and talk, the tension of the daytime fasting dispelled by the fast-breaking and prayers:

The ladies form their own circle and enjoy the evening:

During the fasting month, the trip home from the office slows down somewhat as an army of food vendors and their carts take the to streets and position themselves to sell snacks, food, and drinks that busy commuters can pick up on their way home to break the fast. Folks in cars and motorcycles stop along the sidewalk to pick up the goodies for sale, and end up causing traffic jams. It's a very lively time of the day. After the fast-breaking time, the town livens up to an extent that is not seen during the "normal," non-fasting months:

The Lebaran holidays (the holidays celebrating the end of the fasting month) is traditionally the major holiday of the year, as folks journey back to their home villages and cities for family reunions. In the US, it would be akin to Xmas or Thanksgiving in terms of travel and family get-togethers. Folks start disappearing from work during the middle of the week preceding the last day of the Ramadan, and often take one week off after Hari Raya (the day marking the beginning of the month after Ramadan). This is what our office looked like on the last day of Ramadan:

The evening of the last day of the fasting month (or, by the Muslim calendar reckoning, the evening that starts the first day after the fasting month) was something else in town. Folks were out in force, cruising the streets, kids shooting off firecrackers and fireworks, floats with of groups singing spirituals going around town... very lively, very noisy! Like a carnival!

And today is Hari Raya !!! (<-- Click on link!) (Indonesians are more apt to call it "Lebaran." See this Wikipedia article that talks about how Hari Raya is celebrated in Malaysia, Indonesia, and elsewhere. The fasting month is over, and family reunions are in full swing.

Also, every household has an "open house," and everybody visits everybody else after the morning prayers. TV stations are full of "Lebaran" specials today. In the Malay/Indonesian tradition, people here greet each other with, among other things, "Mohon Maaf Zahir dan Batin," or "I ask for your forgiveness for having wronged you physically and spiritually" (something like that, anyway).

In our Guest House, there have been a steady stream of visitors to our landlord all day today:

Friends and relatives come and visit, and also to admire the new baby:

And, of course, to eat and talk and be merry! (I will not go hungry in the guest house for the next few days!)

While the adults talk, our guest house staff (manager Saiful) takes care of the kids:

Decked out in new outfits, house staff "kids" (anak rumah) Basri and Nazrul pose for a Hari Raya portait:

I close this Hari Raya blog entry with sincere greetings to my Muslim friends everywhere:

An Aceh Walk and a "Seventh-month Celebration"

2007-07-18T06:59:00.000+07:00

Again, folks, apologies for the month-long silence. Work has been claiming a growing share of what used to be free time and on-line course time on weekends. Anyway, take some time enjoy some photos of sights along the town, and share in an interesting ceremony that took place in my guest house.

A few weeks ago, I decided the only way to learn the roads here in Aceh is to walk them (since I don't drive here). So early one Saturday morning, carrying my big laptop and cameras in my backpack (along with a towel and a change of shirt), I started the trek to my office. The street sweepers were out and the breakfast stall folks were busy, but otherwise the street and river were deserted. This is Kreung Aceh (Aceh River) that runs through town:

I stop at a roadside coffee shop to enjoy a packet of rice (nasi guri --- or, nasi lemak in Malaysia) and sundry veggies and a piece of chicken that food vendors sell outside the coffee shop. I rouse the curiosity of the coffee shop owner when I order black coffee without sugar. We get to talking, and pretty soon he decides to sit down with me and have his breakfast (with his shy little son):

I continue the walk after a nice conversation (eventually his wife and daughter joined us --- they hovered out of camera range). I pass this sign showing a couple in traditional Acehnese dress. I am in front of the provincial Culture Department:

Curious, I go into the grounds and see an auditorium:

Interesting... I was told later that during August, when the Indonesian independence day is celebrated, many cultural performances are held around town. I expect to be back at this auditorium and at other venues around town with my camera! I also came across this market building, whose sign says, "Art and Handicraft Market - City of Banda Aceh." I resolve to go there one day:

(A couple of weekends ago, I went there with friend Juan Gonzalez and his wife Pam. Turned out that the market was empty... another victim of the tsunami, perhaps? Many craftspeople perished in the disaster --- more on the crafts in a subsequent blog!)

I walk past many buildings that house offices of foreign aid organizations and their projects. This is the office of the German aid organization (German Development Organization). They are active in Aceh helping to rebuild and train local governments:

Other NGO's (Non-government Organizations) and international agencies (like the one below, a part of the United Nations) have their main offices in Aceh, with their field people scattered all over the province:

I see vehicles in town and out of town from the Canadian, Belgian, French, Turkish, and various other Red Cross organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross. And here's the well-hidden office of the American Red Cross, near our office:

I walk past many grocery stalls. This one sells veggies (in the background) and fruits like watermelons, pineapples, and bananas in the foreground:

I come across a sight I haven't seen in a while: a street vendor and his family are cooking pulut, or lumps of sweet glutinous rice (it's a snack/dessert item) wrapped in banana leaf and broiled over a flame. There's a different Indonesian word for the sweet, but the Acehnese use the same word as the Malaysians do ("pulut"). The man is cutting the cooked envelopes of rice to size and piling them up for sale along the road on the sidewalk:

This is what his wife and daughter are cooking behind him. Over a 45-gallon drum, the lady is roasting the lumps of rice in the banana leaf envlopes secured on both ends by little bamboo toothpicks. I buy a few pieces to eat at the office when I finally get there. I'm getting sweaty and tired by now!

As I approach the office, a nice house (brick exterior, unfinished) catches my eye. I particularly like the fact that the house has a couple of coconut trees in the back yard (those tall trees) and a big papaya tree in the front (the left front). I snap a photo ...:

... and am immediately hailed by the landlord, who's enjoying a cup of coffee and snacks that Saturday morning at a coffee stall that just happens to be right next to his house! He invites me join him, and I'm tempted. But I've been walking for over 90 minutes now, and am fairly close the office. Ten more minutes and I'll be there! The Aceh coffee looks really good, but I regretfully decline. His wife smiles from the kitchen door, but declines to have her photo taken ... she's not wearing her muslim headgear, and is too modest to be photographed by a stranger without it.

And thus ended my walk. A total of two hours, if I include the time spent at the coffee shop having breakfast with the proprietor. Now I know why I'm picked up by one of our project cars every morning! (I staggered into the office, ran to the bath room, poured on lots of buckets of cold water, dried off, changed my clothes, and was as good as new --- well, not really.)

On a Saturday morning, poking around the guest house grounds, I spot the landlady's elderly mother ("Shi Niah," a local title that describes her dowager status) drying something:

She tells me that it's called "blimbing." When sun-dried for three full days, and salted, the dried fruit takes on a sour taste and is used to cook fish in curries and non-curry dishes. "Blimbing" also means "starfruit" in Indonesian, which is a completely different fruit altogether. She gets a big kick out of my being interested in something so pedestrian!

Speaking of food, here's what I typically get when I tell the guest house that I'll be having dinner at home (Rp 25,000, or about US$3). It has very small portions of several types of Acehnese curries and kormas (mutton, fish, chicken), a big dish of vegetables (I always insist on it, and they always get me one --- sometimes the veggies are grown in the guest house garden), maybe dessert but not always (papaya slice here), and all the rice I want to eat. OK, remember what this looks like. Use this to compare with what is about to follow:

One Sunday, the landlady tells me to hang around for a mid-day meal. The house has been bustling since Friday with friends and relatives that start to arrive from the villages of the landlord and landlady. The folks tell me that it's an Acara tujuh bulanan, or the "seventh month ceremony," celebrating the seventh month of pregnancy of Ida, the landlady's daughter. Here's the landlord's dad who just came in from the home village:

Apparently, there was a similar big event at the fourth month of Ida's pregnancy. One of my office co-workers told me that muslims believe that the baby's body receives its soul sometime in the fourth month. Brad, who was also in the guest house that week, was also here during the fourth month ceremony. (I hadn't arrived yet.) When the landlady tells him about this one, he tells me, "I'm getting outta here!" The preparations start very early on Sunday morning. The kids working at the guest house take time to pose for my camera. That's Ayasih on the left and Nasrul on the right:

When I made my way out of my room that morning, folks had been at work for some time. In the main dining area, cups of mineral water are stacked neatly into a sphere:

I gasp when I look down onto the main living room area. I knew the kids had been busy carting the furniture and rugs away the evening before, but I wasn't quite prepared for this:

At the head of the table is the "throne" where the young couple will sit:

Lots of noises are coming out the kitchen areas, so I bring my camera and invade the cooking spaces. I pass the dessert workstation (what else can I call it?), where friends and relatives are busy preparing dessert plates to add to the table of food:

I go into the inner "dry" kitchen of the house. There's a big dining table in there, but it's been converted to a prep table for the occasion. You can count at least five large-capacity rice cookers in this dry kitchen, with more along the counters outside of camera range. Friends, relatives, neighbors all chip in with their cheerful labor:

More prep work on the floor (on mats) next to the dry kitchen dining table. The girls are chopping up un-ripe papayas, turnips, and red and green chilis:

In the outer ("wet") kitchen, where most of the heavy-duty cooking occurs, a couple of ladies are hard at work adding to and stirring up huge woks full of different curry dishes:

So what are in the pots? The stirring lady obligingly shows me. The first one is a jackfruit curry, with unripe jackfruit (which is good eating by itself as a fruit when ripe) and a meat (mutton) cooked together in a curry:

The next one is interesting. Beef and unripe bananas are cooked together in a sweet (!) curry, a uniquely Acehnese concoction, they told me. I had some of this later. The unripe bananas cook to a consistency that closely resembles potatoes! (I expected something mushier!) The beef turned out very tender. Very interesting:

In the main hall, the guests start arriving. This event is definitely a ladies' event, as you'll see. To the right of the little girl that's standing up (top left), dressed in the light blue outfit is Ida, the lady who's being honored. The lady in orange is her mother, my landlady. She's referred to in Acehnese as "cot niah," (pronounced "chot neah"), indicating her status as the main lady of the household.

"Shi Niah," the landlady's mother, entertains some old friends that came for her granddaughter's ceremony:

Because of the number of guests expected (turned out to be in the hundreds!), the guests, relatives, and friends bring cooked food and dessert to help out --- like a potluck! These dishes are stacked in the temporary holding area (it's actually one of our dining rooms), awaiting processing by the kitchen crew or the dessert workstation crew:

The dessert workstation crew is working now mostly on cakes and sweets the guests brought with them:

The newly-processed or cooked dishes are put into smaller serving plates and stacked high in the main dining table:

At long last, the ceremony starts with a lady sprinkling water (oil?) onto the young couple. The couple is wrapped together with a piece of batik material. Ida's husband runs two Honda motorcycle dealerships in Banda Aceh. I'm not sure what's going on, but it's pretty interesting:

The few male guests allowed to sit in the main ceremony are at the far end of the room. The guy in the white shirt is Ida's dad (my landlord). As I noted before, this is a ladies' event.

After the ceremony with the sprinkling of the water, well-wishers converge to congratulate the couple:

Then some senior relatives and friends say a few words and lead the group in a series of prayers asking God to look after the couple and their unborn baby (well, I assume that's what's going on!). Our landlady (Ida's mother, in orange) is crying:

The young couple during the prayers. They're both decked out today in religiously appropriate attire. When they're hanging out and relaxing at our guest house, they normally dress like young people everywhere: he in a T-shirt and jeans, she in a sarong (she's pregnant!) and T-shirt, no headgear (I guess I'm considered "family" because I live here!).

Our young guest sneaks a peek at the photographer during the prayers:

And the mid-day meal begins! First, the couple and the ladies who were part of the ceremony go to the table and eat their meal. As they finish, they leave one by one, and other ladies who have been watching the ceremony from outside come in and take their meal.

The men have their own buffet line. After filling their plates, they go to the men's dining area (one dining room off the main hall and also on chairs and tables arranged outside). After I took these pictures, I also went through this buffet line, went outside, ate my food, then went back to my room and collapsed. Rough work, taking pictures!

Our friend and co-worker Margaret Stoffel, who stayed in our guest house before she moved into a rented house, was also invited. She came (while I was fast asleep) with her house-mate Henny, and they both ate at the table. Later, she told me that she had never seen so much food in one place!

(The other day, the landlady told me that Ida liked my pictures [which I'd put on their PC for them]. So the landlady told me that she'd like me to take pictures when they have a ceremony for the newly-born baby. Uh-oh ...)

A church, a trip to Lamno, and a birthday party for the Prophet

2007-06-09T14:19:00.000+07:00

After a three-week hiatus, I am back. I'm still not really caught up for my on-line school work, but some of the photos have been begging to be blogged, so here I am. Prodding from Pat has helped, too! ;-)

A few weeks ago, on Ascension Day (a public holiday here), I was walking around town when I blundered onto this church:

Choir rehearsal was in full swing, led by Pak (Mr.) Yuniarto. Pak Yuniarto greeted me, asked me where I was from, and then immediately told me that I was doing the first reading. Uh... I'd never been lector before! He said nonsense, anybody could do it, and that the English-language Mass was starting in about 20 minutes!

Then the parish priest, Father Fernando, came out and introduced himself. He's an elderly Italian missionary priest who's been in Banda Aceh for 20-odd years or so, preceded by about 5 years tending the souls in a leper colony in south Aceh. (He didn't say much, but I think he saw a lot of horrible things during the civil war in Aceh.) He said he and his colleagues saved themselves during the tsunami by running to the upper floors of a nearby mosque. He apologized in advance for his poor English, saying that the English-language sermons were difficult for him. A very nice fellow, Father Fernando:

Thus did I find my local parish. So don't worry, Fathers Jerry and Bob in Acme and ER, I'm in good hands! (Fr. Fernando wasn't exaggerating about his English-language sermons, unfortunately!)

I took a ride with Juan Gonzalez to another local tsunami-related oddity, the boat on the roof:

After we took the photo, we walked over to the house on which the boat is sitting. This scene is located relatively close to my Guest House, right near the fishing port of Aceh. It was deposited on the house during the horrible morning of the tsunami, December 26, 2004.

As we walked to the house, the landlord next door came out, and we had a nice chat. We sat under the boat, which is firmly lodged on the roof of the remains of a house that used to be the staff quarters of the Indonesian national oil company. The house was uninhabited at the time of the tsunami. He said that sometime before 9 a.m. (if I recall his story correctly), the big earthquake struck. Things in the house fell down, shelves and cabinets, glassware shattered, everything was a mess. Then, about 15 minutes later, people started running back from the port area, screaming that a wall of water was on the way.

The water started rising very rapidly, and his family and his neighbors ran up to the upstairs of his house, At the highest, the water reached above the second floor, and over 50 people were huddled first on that floor and then on the roof. His concrete house (and the one with the boat on it) were the only houses in the area to survive. All other houses were smashed and swept away. The 50-odd people were able to come down by late afternoon to a scene of utter devastation. He and his family were lucky because they had relatives in a kampung (village) inland from the city, and they reached their relatives at night after walking all afternoon and night. They finally had something to eat around midnight. The unlucky ones were the survivors who had nowhere else to go.

I was told that at Banda Aceh on that morning, many families and young couples had left home after the early morning prayers to the area's stunning beaches to spend a lovely Sunday morning relaxing and picnicking. Most never came back. The World Bank estimates that 230,000 people lost their lives in Aceh Province that day, all along the west coast of that Province and in Banda Aceh itself.

Today, as you can see from the photos above, the neighborhood is rebuilding. New houses are all over the place, and pretty soon there'll be no way to move the boat out even if anybody wanted to! A typical house rebuilt with assistance from one of the NGOs (non-government organizations) that poured into the area for relief is just across the road from the house with the boat. This particular house was provided by CARE.

To show you the extent of the housing (and other) reconstruction in the countryside, I'll show you some pictures of a weekend day trip I took with a bunch of people from my office to Lamno, a district town about 70 km away from Banda Aceh. The road trip took us down the west coast of Aceh province, which took the brunt of the tsunami. We were joined by Margaret Stoffel, another former Peace Corps volunteer that served in Malaysia over 30 years ago with Juan and me. Margaret had just arrived in Banda Aceh the previous week to join our project staff. As we set out of the city, we pass some roadside fruit stands catering to motorists:

Our young driver, Mumun, is excited. He's from that area, and is muttering something about the "blue-eyed girls of Lamno:"

The coastline of the west coast of Aceh is often rugged and mountainous. We see the beginnings of the mountains as we head out:

Much of the coastal road was damaged or washed away, and temporary, unpaved roads and temporary bridges constructed by emergency repairs in the first phase of reconstruction have kept the road open. US Aid is constructing about 250 km of this highway, and Japanese aid is constructing the road further to the south. We cross numerous rivers. We only saw one intact bridge in the whole journey. Whole stretches of pavement had disappeared, carried away by the receding tsunami.

The coastline is beautiful! I'm hard-pressed to imagine a wall of water coming in --- I understand it was an equally beautiful day on December 26, 2004. In some coastal areas, because of the geometry of the coastline and the layout of the coastal plains areas, the wall of water rushing in exceeded 20+ meters in height (67+ feet), and in some places it was as high as 30 m (99 feet)! Recall that in Banda Aceh, next to the house with the boat, the 50 neighbors were standing on the roof of the house.

We start to see signs of reconstruction as we pass coastal communities affected by the tsunami. While the city of Banda Aceh has erased most of its scars, the countryside is still rebuilding. The herculean efforts of the Indonesian government and the international community made emergency repairs to the smashed roads, and allowed a flood of foreign gov't aid and NGOs and private organizations to fund and supply massive amounts of new housing and basic infrastructure for the survivors. We see many signs for housing reconstruction like the following, this one with some US AID (Agency for International Development) money :

Another housing project in a fishing village, well away from the coastline, but along a river for access to the coast:

Along the temporary road here were the remains of the foundations of the fishermen's houses that had been washed away by the tsunami... the superstructures had disappeared. Whole villages disappeared without a trace on that horrific day.

More housing reconstruction, this one a partnership of Oxfam and Muslim Aid:

The houses seem pretty nice. The World Bank estimates the need for housing to be around 93,000 to 120,000 . NGOs and foreign governments have responded admirably well, and many tens of thousands of houses and buildings have already been built, and many are underway. However, the reconstruction of other civil infrastructure (roads, water supply, sewerage and sanitation, irrigation systems, drainage and flood control facilities, ports and other transportation facilities) have been much slower. NGOs know how to make houses, but are not as conversant in these other types of works. (This is where our project is supposed to help fill the gaps.)

And the US cavalry arrives! Just kidding. Well, actually, the US and Australian navies did arrive when the need was greatest, and their sea freight ability and amphibious landing equipment did greatly help ease the dire situation in the isolated coastal communities.

The reconstruction of the terribly damaged coastal road we're on is starting, with the US AID paying for the design and construction of this highway. Unfortunately, I understand that land acquisition problems have caused a steep rise in project cost, a subsequent scaling down of the project, and a long delay in implementation. But things are finally starting! Below the "USAID" line, it says, "From the People of America," and "Construction of the Banda Aceh - Meulaboh Road."

Surveyors, grading crews, and bridge builders are all along the coastal highway:

And contractors' staging areas and equipment depots are springing up all over the place. Folks, whatever its problems, this road project is your tax dollars at work, for a very good cause!

We pass through a fishing town and go past a roadside stall selling dried fish of various types:

By this time, we're only halfway to Lamno, and we've been on this (mostly) unpaved temporary road for the past few hours. We decide to rest our weary behinds at a local waterfall attraction:

There are busloads of local school kids going to cool off at the pool of water below the waterfall:

Some of us decide to sit down for a coffee break at the local coffee shop. The group, including Yours Truly, is a hodge-podge group of project staff from office boy to team leader:

The shop owner agreed to have his picture taken, but he insisted on getting his picture taken by his big curry pot:

Refreshed, we soon resume our journey along the coast. "Bailey Bridges" like these enable us to cross coastal rivers and inlets along the temporary highway. As I noted above, we only noticed one intact bridge in the tsunami-affected area. It's hard to imagine the incredible force and violence with which the water struck...

We continue to drive along the stunningly beautiful, but scarred, coastline.

We notice what used to be (according to our driver) a beautiful coastal spot lined with coconut groves. All that remains are stumps. There are attempts to grow pine trees (the parallel lines behind the stumps) on the beach.

Many beautiful coves and beaches are similarly bare of coconut and other trees that normally adorn coastlines:

We climb to a vista point where we take a short break before we start the descent inland toward Lamno. We take photos and admire the view --- islands, coral, and crystal clear blue water !

The crew insist I become the subject of a photo instead of taking pictures of them all the time. As I see this picture, I'm amazed at how much I'm reminded of my Dad ...

An eagle soars below, and my telephoto lens captures it. I wonder if it saw the tsunami from above....

As we begin our descent toward Lamno, we view some coastal valley communities that are rebuilding. In this community, some housing and the community center are nearly complete, but the mosque is still missing its dome...

As we near the district town of Lamno, we start seeing more traffic and people.

We approach the outlying areas of the town. Our driver starts talking about the blue-eyed beauties of Lamno again.

Apparently, many girls have blue eyes when they are infants and very young, but the eye colors change as they grow older. Something to do with shipwrecked/captured Dutch/Portugese/British (pick one) sailors, and, well, you know ... I decide to see if my D40 and telephoto can be used in a quick windshield survey to capture any blue-eyed girls.

The results are inconclusive, so we adjourn to a restaurant for a late lunch before we head back to Banda Aceh. We are given plates full of rice, and we line up in front of the food display and pile whatever dish we want on the rice. We pay for what we take.

This is my lunch --- curried fish and gravy, a piece of deep-fried fish, and some cooked local veggies all placed on the rice on the plate. I figured that this place was close enough to the coast that the fish should be fresh and delicious. They were. Note the bottled water --- always a good idea when visiting an area for the first time! The plastic bag contains some crackers that are good as a condiment with the rice dishes.

On the way back, we stop and spend an hour or so at a nice, sandy beach outside Banda Aceh. The late afternoon crowd is checking out the scene:

Margaret and IT support guy Bagus take a dip. Bagus brought swimming trunks, but Margaret goes right in wearing whatever she was wearing earlier...

Elsewhere, surfers do their thing. Before the tsunami changed everything, the nearby island of Nias was an international surfing attraction.

Our secretary Santi, who organized this trip, is joined by her husband at the beach stop. Santi is the second wife of her husband.. The first wife apparently did not survive the tsunami.

Our production manager, Henny, also joins us at the beach with her fiance. Henny couldn't make it on the trip with us, because she and her fiance were picking out her wedding dress. Henny will be married in November. I am looking forward to photographing what I hope will be a traditional Acenese wedding!

Before we head back to town, we cool off with coconut water. The shopkeeper lops off the top of the coconut with a machete, exposing the cavity containing the coconut water. After drinking the cool coconut water with a straw, we use a long spoon to scrape off and eat the soft coconut flesh lining the water reservoir.

The next day, we were all invited to the house of Udin, another one of our drivers. The occasion was Maulid, the celebration of the birthday of Prophet Mohammed. Udin and his family held a kenduri, a feast inviting all neighbors, relatives, and friends to their house for a big meal. We arrived and are immediately ushered inside to the food table. Again, we are given a plate of rice and we take what we want and put them on the rice. The rice is garnished with some spices --- it itself is a festive dish.

As guests come and go, food is continually replenished. Here the hostess (Udin's wife, in green) and her mother (or is it Udin's mom?) add rice to the depleted rice pot.

Here's the dessert table. Lots of traditional Aceh sweets made from bananas, tapioca, sweet sticky rice, gelatin, and also some watermelon:

A close-up of the sweets that Santi's husband brought for Juan and me (which Juan can't eat because it's too sweet): banana that's been stewed in something very sweet (probably coconut milk and sweetened condensed milk?), some jackfruit (the yellow thing sticking up from the sweet broth), and sweet sticky rice (the white and brown stuff). Very high in calories, high in carbs, and probably also high in cholesterol. In short, a great dessert!!

The guests are continuously arriving and departing --- they eat, chat for a short time, and leave to make room for other neighbors and friends.

In one of the inner rooms, our crew sits down for the serious business of eating. Nora, at left, is our accountant who commutes every other week from her home in Bandung, on the island of Java. Henny is to Nora's right, and then Margaret. Next to Margaret is Udin, our host. Our secretary Santi is at the right.

More guests arrive and enjoy the meal. Everybody is having a good time, and stuffing their faces...

as am I !!! (Juan Gonzalez on the left, Santi's husband on the right.)

Initial Photographs of Banda Aceh ...

2007-05-13T16:06:00.000+07:00

This weekend, we have what I've been told is a relatively rare two-day weekend, giving us time to do errands and (for me) take my first photos of Banda Aceh. On Saturday, Juan Gonzalez moved into a house he rented for the duration of the project. His wife Pam will move over from Las Vegas next month. Our secretaries helped him buy some starter stuff for his house, and I tagged along. Here are the photos:

This is a shot of guest house where we stay. I occupy a big bedroom with attached bathroom in this house. They serve us a simple breakfast of eggs, which I augment with a bowl of Quaker oatmeal that can be bought in a big bag in town. The landlady told me that "God was good to us. Our house was not touched in any way by the tsunami, not even a burned-out light bulb. Our neighbors were not so lucky." She added additional bedrooms to the house and now uses it to house visitors like us. A recent visitor (before I got here) was a personal acquaintance of hers, the former Malaysian prime minister,Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammed.

The house has a pretty impressive interior: a koi (carp) pond and a sitting room is visible when I step outside my room.

Our neighborhood mosque, barely visible from the upstairs of this house, has a gleaming silver dome. It and the other mosques in the area serve as a built-in alarm clock, with the call to prayer blaring out at 5 am every morning through loudspeakers. This mosque's meuzzin has a decent voice, but unfortunately the same can't be said for the others around us. Check out the prayer in the Wikipedia entry for Azaan.

At 7:40 am, one of our project cars shows up to transport the three or four of us that stay in this house. Here's Brad Philips, the project director, getting into the car. Brad's a former Thailand Peace Corps Volunteer. His dad lives in Meadowview Commons in Elk Rapids, MI.

In our temporary office (we move next month to more permanent office space), I sit across from Heni (L) and Shanti (R), typist and filing clerk, respectively. You'll see them again later in this blog.

This is the house that Juan just rented. It's Saturday afternoon, and we're off to hunt for some basics that Juan needs to keep the place going until his wife Pam shows up next month. Many nice houses have been built lately for the expatriate market, accommodating the flood of foreign aid workers and engineers coming into Aceh.

This is the street scene outside the premier department store and supermarket in Banda Aceh. Note the motorcycle-driven rickshaws known as becak (pronounced bey-chak). Years ago, these becaks were driven by bicycles instead of motorcycles.

First, the towels and other linens.

While Juan, Heni and Shanti are puttering around the linens, I check out the household dry goods/hardware section. It's very well stocked.

There are checkout counters on every floor. A cashier and bagger staff this floor's checkout unit.

Our last stop is the grocery store (supermarket) on the ground floor. Also excellently stocked with local and imported goodies.

We locate sugarless jam and sugarless peanut butter! Very important for a low-carb diet. (No, I didn't say low-calorie!)

Heni and Shanti take a break from helping Juan and pose for a photo.

Familiar supermarket checkout scene: cashier-and-bagger teams man the checkout counters. No so different from anywhere else!

We now move on to another area, a more traditional market, to buy more stuff. We drive past the provincial mosque for Aceh, whose formal provincial name is Nanggröe Aceh Darussalam.

We reach a more traditional market area, looking for bed linens. This is the main street outside the alleys that we scoured to find the linens.

There are a lot of fruit vendor stalls along the streets. Note the long papayas typical of SE Asia, unlike our Hawaiian ones that are shaped more like eggplants.

Another fruit vendor, this one selling out of his pickup truck.

This guy is a banana specialist (with a few mangoes thrown in)

Some folks, like this gentleman, come to the market on becak's...

while others, like these young girls, roar through on their motorcycles!

Juan, with Shanti doing the bargaining, found a set of sheets for his bed. This being a traditional market, none of the prices are fixed and you have to bargain for the best price. As a foreigner, you'll probably not get as good a price as a local would. This area got hit by the tsunami pretty badly. Some of the stores upstairs in the buildings are still shuttered --- the owners did not make it during the disaster.

We finished this outing by visiting what has become a tourist attraction... this barge was a municipal electricity generating plant offshore. When the tsunami hit, it was lifted up and deposited on this residential neighborhood (which itself suffered substantial damage).

Another shot of the barge. Note the houses nearby. One of them is an ad-hoc restaurant catering to the tourists who come to gawk at the barge.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Now it's Sunday. I take some time off from doing GIS homework and decide to walk around the town a bit (at least the parts nearer to my quarters)... I manage to wander into the area where we've been eating dinner the last few days...

I walk past a bunch of guys hanging out at a local coffee shop. They ask me to take their picture, so I do. And here they are!

In this town recovering from the effects of the tsunami, there's a KFC... the economy must be doing well ...

then I run into a Pizza Hut! Could there be more examples of fine US cuisine?

You bet! There was an A&W restaurant in the part of town nearer to our guest house! Hmmm... is this the US idea of disaster relief? (Actually, the US AID is building roads and other solid infrastructure in Aceh ... these fast food places are the Indonesian franchisees of the US brands.)

The local corner news-stand is busy with hangers-on this Sunday afternoon. The news-stand owner and his buddy graciously agree to being photographed.

... as did the parking attendant

I then stumble onto a nice, fancy coffee shop. They serve local coffee (Acehnese !) in press pots and serve sandwiches and western fare. I savor the local coffee. Note the not-so-local baseball cap I was wearing today.

I end today's blog with a photo of a local member of the true Master Race, who's not too pleased at having his nap disturbed...

NEXT: there will be a hiatus between now and the next blog; I am seriously behind in my GIS course, and need to catch up!!! ... Will let you all know when to look!

Through Singapore and Medan to Aceh!

2007-05-10T05:18:00.000+07:00

I spent two days in Singapore to get a business visa to enter Indonesia, purchase some computer equipment, meet up with some old (and new friends, and to go to the US Embassy to add blank visa pages to my passport. At left was my home in Singapore: the Copthorne King's Hotel.

The trip to the US Embassy represented a sad sign of the times. Instead of being a relatively friendly building in the middle of town, as it was in the early 1990's, it is now at the edge of town. It is a huge, fortress-like building, huddled for mutual protection (it seems) with its two neighbors, the British and Australian High Commissions (embassies). Submachinegun-total Ghurka guards patrol the outside of the embassies (mainly the British one), and presumably the US marine guards are on the inside, ever watchful for intruders. (Many, many US embassies are like that these days: built for security, not for open-ness.)

Anyway, enough text. Below is a pictorial of my two days in Singapore, and my overnight in Medan, Indonesia, on the way to Aceh.

Early morning traffic outside the King's Hotel. Across the street is the Singapore River, district once full of dinghy warehouses but now transformed into a trendy, yuppie restaurant and entertainment district.

Near the hotel is the Jalan Besar HDB Estate (one of the numerous public housing facilities in which the majority of Singaporeans live).

At the base of the hi-rise buildings are the shops and play facilities for children. Being one of the older facilities, the relatively small Jalan Besar estate is populated predominantly by an older population. Other, mammoth, housing estates are located away from the central business district of Singapore. They are, in themselves, bustling residential and commercial centers.

Grocery stores, butchers, all kinds of businesses, and restaurants line the ground floor level of the housing estate buildings.

A peek inside one of the restaurant areas reveals a food court with numerous indivdual stalls serving up an incredible variety of, in this case, Chinese regional cooking.

Fans of duck and chicken dishes won't be disappointed! ("Aaaflaack! "--- Joe Walker)

Prep work is the same in commercial kitchens everywhere!

This stall's menu board shows a huge variety of potsticker and noodle dishes.

And then I smelled them! DURIANS! The King of Fruits, the Fruit of Kings. Learn more at Durian On-line and at the Wikepedia. The Durian On-line site captures the enthusiasm of real durian fans. It's an acquired taste; once acquired, it will seize you and will not let you go. Yes, I love durians. (My Michigan license plate is Durian.)

As it turns out, the Jalan Besar HDB Housing Estate is right next to what was my office when I worked for a couple of years as construction manager for the Burger King Corp.'s Asia Pacific Office in Singapore. We bought many of our electrical things (transformers, adaptors, etc.) from Mr. Lim and Miss Gu of the small electrial shop near the office. I dropped in for a visit, my first in, oh, 12 years or so. Yes, they remembered me! From them, I bought a bunch of plug adaptors to use in Indonesia. They poured me a cup of coffee and we had a nice visit.

I then proceeded to the Chinatown MRT (subway) station a couple of blocks away.. Singapore has a very nice subway system to take you around.

The interior is nice, clean and spic-n-span. It's usually very crowded during rush hour, but in off-hours, it's very comfortable. It's airconditioned, fast, and, of course, no chewing gum (<--- click on link) !!! I took the MRT to the City Hall stop (after one transfer), and walked to the Funan Centre computer mall. I bought some spare parts and an external hard disk for my laptop to take to Indonesia. This is one of two main computer malls in Singapore. This one is more consumer-oriented, while the other is more hobbyist-oriented.

Then on to one of the fine American dining establishments in the city... to meet up for lunch with a couple of old friends and colleagues from my Burger King Asia Pacific days. (No, we just met here --- didn't eat here!)

Dennis Koh and Joyce Ying worked with me in the Burger King regional office. Dennis was our training manager. He recently left the BK Corp. and is now a free-lance trainer. Joyce is still with BKC and helps franchisees straighten out their supply chain problems. ("Where are those ##@@!!?? whopper patties we ordered from Australia!?!")

After a short nap at the hotel to prepare the more gruelling meet-up at night, SC Leong ("Jaguar" --- front right) and his wife (the only lady in the photo) picked me up for drinks and food with the Singapore crew of the Malsingmaps mapping enthusiasts. (Mrs. Leong is a graduate of Western Michigan U in Kalamazoo!) These folks and their counterparts in Malaysia are all users of Garmin GPS units. Because Garmin had no maps of either country when they started selling their products in Malaysia and Singapore, the Malsingmaps members took matters in their own hands and created the maps themselves, with volunteers sending in tracks and mappers using them to make the maps. The maps are updated fortnightly, and are posted at their website for the Garmin (and now Mapking)-using public. They are an incredible bunch, and I am honored to be associated with them. Go visit their website and look around! If you're a Garmin user, they will be happy to help you if you post a question in the forums there. We went to the BrewWerkz brew pub, and had me a last bit of boutique beer before going off to Banda Aceh!

The next day, after getting my extra passport pages at the fortress that is the US Embassy, I went to Singapore's Changi airport to fly out to Medan, Indonesia. I whiled away the hours at the laptop station with free hi-speed internet. The one next to the coke can is mine.

It was already dark when we got into Medan, Indonesia. But in the morning, from the hotel room, I could see the provincial mosque (see the minaret and the dome), the government buildings with Dutch-style roofs, and the white shopping mall that dwarfs the mosque. The mall has the logo of Sogo, a Japanese department store chain.

This old "Dutch colonial"-style mansion was also visible from my hotel room window.

A quick trip after breakfast to the airport and into the domestic terminal waiting room, sitting around for the Aceh flight to be called. Medan is a major terminal in the island of Sumatra, which is about the size of California.

The Boeing 737 that flew us from Medan to the Indian Ocean side of Sumatra, plopping us down in Banda Aceh.

And waiting there at the Aceh airport was the smiling face of old Peace Corps buddy Juan Gonzalez, who's the deputy director of the project I'm on, and my direct supervisor. I had arrived!

A Long Journey !

2007-05-08T00:34:00.000+07:00

SINGAPORE - May 8

My rear is still feeling the effects of sitting for a long time on a series of uncomfortable seats!

The flying times were: five hours from Detroit to Los Angeles (LAX), 13 hours from LAX to Taipei, and five hours from Taipei to Kuala Lumpur. The Traverse City - Detroit trip and the Kuala Lumpur - Singapore trips took about an hour each.

It started out nicely enough at Traverse City airport, but by the time we got to Los Angeles, stood in line for an hour with a gazillion other people to check in at the Malaysian Airlines counter, and staggered into the waiting area at 12:30 a.m., it wasn't so nice any more.

The 1:30 a.m. flight was packed with folks from India, Malaysia, the US, and a handful of Europeans. The Malaysian Airlines flight is also a code-shared Air India flight, and the flight was full of Indian expatriate professionals (lots of computer and IT types) going back to India after assignments in the US. I sat next to an American couple from S. Dakota. The husband was working for a US company owned by a Malaysian conglomerate, and was en route to a business meeting-cum-vacation in Kuala Lumpur. The missus was along for the vacation part.

The flight from LA to Taipei, Taiwan, was 13 hours long. The seats had individual movie screens to keep us entertained while we were awake, with food being served several times. Most everybody managed to get some sleep.

When we arrived in Taipei, we all disembarked, lined up for a security check, then poked around the airport mall for a few minutes, then trooped back to the waiting room again to board the flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. All in all, not a particularly exciting transit through Taiwan!

Five hours (and one movie and several shorts) later, we arrived at our flight's destination, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Here my seat neighbors disembarked, and most of the Indian passengers went on to India. I sat around at the beautiful airport waiting for my flight to Singapore. I whiled away my time by sipping iced coffee at the airport's Starbucks, and calling our good friends Patrick and Philomena Augustin, a Kuala Lumpur couple Patricia and I know from our Peace Corps days more than 30 years ago.

Finally, I boarded a Malaysian Airlines shuttle flight to Singapore after 3 p.m. local time. The last leg was a tolerable one-hour flight after a nice rest in Kuala Lumpur.

As we approached Singapore, I could see from the airplane window the outline of an artificial island planned, designed, and constructed by the engineering firm where I once worked. The island is being filled with incinerator ash and other relatively clean solid wastes from Singapore. When filled sometime in the middle of the century, the island will be capped and used as an open-air recreation area --- parks, golf courses, etc. I worked on the planning phase in the early 1990's in Singapore with the environmental engineering firm of Camp Dresser & McKee, Inc.

To-my great surprise, this island, Pulau Semakau, has a Wikipedia entry! Click on this link and learn about the island in whose creation I had the honor to participate way back then.

Thanks for letting me toot my horn... :-)

NEXT: A couple of days in Singapore...

Starting a Banda Aceh blog ...

2007-04-22T01:59:00.000+07:00

Hello, folks! I thought I'd try using this blog format to post some text and photos from the big island of Sumatra, Indonesia. A Wikipedia location map of Indonesia is to the right, and a more detailed picture of Sumatra is on lower left.

I will use this space to periodically post some photos and text so you can see what I see out there in Indonesia. In addition to the blog, I've added Aceh-related news items from Google News on the left-hand side of this page.

I will be departing Michigan, tentatively, on May 4, arriving in Banda Aceh in May 8 after overnight stops in Singapore and Medan. (I need to spend a whole day in Singapore to get the non-immigrant visit visa for Indonesia.)

First of all, where am I going? See the figure at left. My posting will be in the city of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province at the northern tip of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. For a quick-and-dirty look at its history and culture of this very unique province of Indonesia, check out this Wikipedia article.

This is the area of Indonesia that was devastated by the December 26, 2004 tsunami. Anywhere from 100 - 250 thousand people lost their lives. Here's some "light" reading from the World Bank on what they're trying to accomplish, through projects like ours, in Aceh province and Nias island.

Currently, there are a total of 17 projects that aim to bring this province back to its feet and bring it into the Indonesian mainstream. You can see the list of projects here. (The page loads VERY slowly, probably because it's on a local PC server in Jakarta!) Our project is No. 13 on the list.

The project to which I'm assigned ("Infrastructure Reconstruction Enabling Program" --- IREP), will be to help the Indonesian agency in charge of the reconstruction effort coordinate the efforts of five regional reconstruction offices to design and construct infrastructure in the province and the island of Nias.

To see some photos of the various reconstruction project areas that a European photographer took in and around Aceh recently, point your browser to this page (may load very slowly).

OK, folks, watch this space!