My Aceh Diary part 1

About 3 weeks ago, A. and I went on a trip to Aceh with 4 of the Sher~E~Punjab (SPB) crew. We went there as part of a church-affiliated charitable organization that works with all sorts of marginalized groups of people locally, like prisoners and poor people, and that also does relief work in Indonesia, India and other parts of Asia. This organization has been in Aceh since the December 26 2004 tsunami which devastated communities all around the Indian Ocean. Our team was lead by a member of the organization who has been part of the Aceh relief project since the beginning - Pastor D, who we began to endearingly call Pak D after a couple of days there.

The majority of the housing reconstruction efforts in the area we visited have been completed by now, with the help of countless NGOs from around the world. We were there mostly to perform (SPB took care of that nicely) and play with the kids.

We started off early on Monday morning from Changi Airport, with a long afternoon stopover in Medan, the biggest city in Sumatra. Medan has all the atmosphere of a mini-Jakarta – crazy traffic, big shopping centres, people everywhere, large advertising signboards, big mansions and dilapidated housing blocks. It was funny though; there were so many run-down looking apartment buildings with weeds growing on the walls and a big satellite dish on top. While walking in one of the smaller residential roads, we passed by a house, saw an orange flag waving outside it, and realized it was a Gurdwara. There was a two-storey square-shaped building next to it with an open space in the middle which looked like a school. A guy saw us staring as we walked past and shouted to us in greeting. It’s too bad we only managed a quick sat sri akaal and didn’t have time to go in to check out the place; it would’ve been cool to see what it was all about.

Later we went back to the airport for our flight to Banda Aceh, the capital city of the province of Aceh. We arrived at the tiny airport around 5 in the evening, and the landscape immediately told us we were no longer in a big city – no tall buildings, only lush greenery as far as the eye could see.

Aceh is mostly rural. Inland there are a lot of farms in the valleys between mountains, and in the outlying areas are fishing villages. The inland wasn’t really affected by the tsunami, but many of the coastal areas were very badly hit. The village that we were going to be staying in for the next 4 nights is about a 45-minute drive from Banda Aceh on the northeastern coast. To get there, we took a labi-labi, a kind of lorry/taxi/bus service that can seat up to 10 people in the back. Here’s a picture of our labi-labi driver at the airport putting our bags in a safe spot:

On this ride, I sat at the edge, next to the back door, which was left open for air circulation. A bit scary but it was a great viewing spot.

As we moved further away from the inland, the shadow of the tsunami started appearing. 1½ years later, we could still see its effects on the coastline. Houses destroyed; overturned fishing boats; the only people we saw in these parts were passing through on the road on a motorbike or in a labi-labi. The ocean looked eerily calm, so serene yet so threatening at the same time. The evidence of destruction surrounding the ocean was a stark reminder of its potential to destroy.

It was getting dark by the time we got to the village. As soon as our labi-labi pulled into the village, scores of kids came running from all across the village to welcome us. They were so excited; they kept pointing to the poster of our performance schedule asking where this and that person was. They were looking for all the guys in turbans but we only had one on this trip, so I think they were a little disappointed.

For the most part, there is no running water in the village, although some people have installed pipes leading from wells to their homes. Even then, they have to be careful about not using up the well water. Most people shower at the community wells and collect water for everything from drinking to flushing the toilet. We didn’t drink the water, only bottled water, but after a couple of days got braver and had Coke with ice in it a few times. Nobody got food poisoning or anything so that was great. Most people now have electricity, but it needs to be used sparingly. We tripped the power one evening when one of us turned on a hair dryer.


We were fed really well on the trip, mostly by one very warm and friendly family. A typical meal looked like this (see picture on the left).

Oh yeah, see that dish next to the kettle that looks like brown mush with fangs coming out of it? That’s crabs, caught just that afternoon. Here’s Mr. Crab pre-cooked:


The woman in the picture is the biggest crab expert in the village, and graciously gave us some of her catch for the day.

[I've spent the last 4 evenings and this morning struggling with the formatting of the pictures and text on blogger, and i've finally got it looking decent. So i'll stop here for now. I'll post more on my thoughts about the trip in another entry...]