It’s time to write something for our non Dutch speaking friends. We are still learning how to use the web log.
We go back to May 2007 when our Indonesia story started. Wim got the message that the project in Aceh province in Indonesia was about to start. We have been waiting for this message for quite some time. It means that our world will start looking different from what it looked like in the past ten years.
After we left Indonesia in 1998 for Holland we knew that it would take ten years before we would be going on long term assignments to warm countries again. At that we time we had decided that it was best for Annisa, our youngest daughter, to go back to Holland and get her secondary education over there. The reason being that we always seem to get projects at places where there were no international schools. Primary school education at home is a challenging task. Nunung did a very good job at teaching her. But secondary school at home is a complete different game. Annisa was at that time academically far ahead of her peers, but socially she did not have a clue. She grew up among adults and never really had the chance play with kids of her own age. Our hearts were bleeding at times when we could see that she was longing for some friends. Nunung was going to stay in Holland with Annisa and Wim was to go and work abroad alone. At times it was difficult for us as a family to be apart for so long. Fun is double fun when it is shared. Sorrow is less severe when you share it. But we survived.
Now ten years later. Annisa is having fun as a first year student at the Nijmegen University. She nosedived into student life as if her life depended on it (freedom at last she must have thought). And she loves it from the looks of it. The beginning was a bit tough both for Annisa and her parents. We never could have thought that it was so hard to let go of the youngest (and it is still difficult). So Nunung and Wim could set out again for the expat live we love so much. That we were in for some difficult times came to us as no surprise. We have a philosophy that when something good is to happen to our lives it will come easily. If it is not made for us to enjoy than it normally comes with a struggle.
So did our assignment in Banda Aceh not come easy and it has not been easy from the start up to now. The client is not helping either. Since May this year we are struggling to get the project on the rails. The plan was for us to go and live in Meulaboh on the west coast of Aceh province. After having visited Meulaboh several times we decided not to go and live in Meulaboh but in Banda Aceh.
Subtract of one of my fieldtrip reports: “The trip to Meulaboh was delayed by one day since the father in law of our driver Mughlis passed away on Saturday morning. Since the funeral has to be completed the same day before sundown and respect had to be paid to the family, it was decided to postpone the trip one day.
Only one week before we lost our senior district planning manager for Aceh Selatan Mr. Soemarno. He went into hospital Friday last week. Most of his colleagues were with him when I visited him that day. Saturday morning 10:30 AM he passed away. Two of our colleagues went by road to bring him to Medan (a 10 hour trip) and he was buried Sunday morning last week. Tomorrow in Meulaboh an attempt will be made to meet up with the Bupati and the people of Pemda of Kabupaten Aceh Barat. The bupati (Pak Ramli) is an elected official with GAM (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka Geurillas) background. I already met his younger brother who was the GAM panglima wilayah barat (Commander western region) Pak Abu Yus, who operates a restaurant on the way from Sigli to Meulaboh in the mountains.”
What happened to meulaboh?
Of the 50.000 inhabitants nearly 80% drowned. The inhabitants who occupy the houses in Meulaboh at the moment either survived due to having a house of more than one story or were out of town during the tsunami. The other part of the houses is occupied by family from the deceased from other towns.
“a story goes that 400 Christians mainly Chinese had to leave the town to celebrate Christmas, since it was made impossible for them by the local Muslim fanatics, to celebrate in Meulaboh. All survived the Tsunami. Now the word is that the fanatics probably made a mistake and were punished for it.”
Many of the present inhabitants have no economic bond with the city. They merely sit out the time for the house to be sold and move back to where they came from. The y also do not contribute anything to the city that way. The houses can not be sold because there are no buyers (they are all dead). So economically the city does not represent much, which is reflected in the merchandise offered in the local shops. The merchandise is of very poor quality and mostly out dated. Early mornings we see many people walking on the streets who are obvious mental patients. You would normally see that in every city in Indonesia. In Meulaboh the number is much larger; no wonder after what these people had to go through. The city did not only lose its people but also it’s sole.
Meulaboh was built in the swamp (rawah) in the lowlands at the foot of the Bukit Barisan mountain range. The city quarters (what is left of them) have for a major part been re-build. The climate is moist and warm in town. The land is flat and surrounded by swamp, not a very pleasant place to live. The houses are built very close to each other and poorly ventilated. I guess that every person sleeping in this town can hear someone else breathing during the night. Some weeks ago the ocean was high due to strong winds in South Africa in combination with springtide. At least one quarter of the town was flooded again with some 30 cm sea water. Some of the houses are for rent with special conditions. E.g. no persons from opposite sex are allowed in the house unless they are married with each other. No parties can be given in the house. No alcohol can be consumed in the house and the house owner has the right to come and check when ever he wants to.
The drinking water supply in Meulaboh can be compared with other Indonesian cities that are built in swamps. The water is acidic and brownish yellow of colour. During the rain season this becomes even worse. There are no real big stores or supermarkets. The city looks more like a Kampong and not a Kabupaten (provincial district) capital. There is no place to go for a game of billiards nor is there a cinema.
One of the remarkable things that happened during the Tsunami was that only 5% of the local government workers perished in the flood, because there government housing estates were built on higher ground further away from the ocean and river. Hence the complete government apparatus was in tact and working when disaster relieve came. No wonder that the Bupati (former not elected district head) built him self a megalomaniac size office and had the main mosque repainted. Just across the Bupati office is the District Hospital. There I met with two American ladies who worked in the hospital. They told me that the hygienic and medical conditions are deplorable. I said that that is mostly the case in frontier cities in developing countries. No they said; ” we worked all over the world in third world countries and this here is a real bad case”. A good thing to remember, don’t get sick on the west coast. It is said to see that the donor money could have been used for much better purposes than a large office for a megalomaniac.
There is a large number of expatriates in town, but no social club of any kind. The expatriates are all young to very young people. I was told that older people do not last longer than a week and run away. Between the different NGO’s (none government organisations there is quite some competition. Who is to build houses where, since all say they came first. They are literally fighting for a place to “help”. A very sad situation to see. But not all is lost. There are two places where you can buy beer. Than you have to drink it at home (if the landlord allows and your neighbour does not tell on you).
Conclusion; Meulaboh is not the place for us.
Getting to Meulaboh is not easy either. A trip along the west coast from Banda Aceh via Calang will take 7 to 8 hours on really bad road. A better road exists through the mountains via Sigli in the north and Gempang in the mountains, a 10 hour trip. This road has become too dangerous to drive due to the lack of maintenance, as can be seen on the photographs.
The rock in front of the hole is the only warning sign. Photograph 1
We go back to May 2007 when our Indonesia story started. Wim got the message that the project in Aceh province in Indonesia was about to start. We have been waiting for this message for quite some time. It means that our world will start looking different from what it looked like in the past ten years.
After we left Indonesia in 1998 for Holland we knew that it would take ten years before we would be going on long term assignments to warm countries again. At that we time we had decided that it was best for Annisa, our youngest daughter, to go back to Holland and get her secondary education over there. The reason being that we always seem to get projects at places where there were no international schools. Primary school education at home is a challenging task. Nunung did a very good job at teaching her. But secondary school at home is a complete different game. Annisa was at that time academically far ahead of her peers, but socially she did not have a clue. She grew up among adults and never really had the chance play with kids of her own age. Our hearts were bleeding at times when we could see that she was longing for some friends. Nunung was going to stay in Holland with Annisa and Wim was to go and work abroad alone. At times it was difficult for us as a family to be apart for so long. Fun is double fun when it is shared. Sorrow is less severe when you share it. But we survived.
Now ten years later. Annisa is having fun as a first year student at the Nijmegen University. She nosedived into student life as if her life depended on it (freedom at last she must have thought). And she loves it from the looks of it. The beginning was a bit tough both for Annisa and her parents. We never could have thought that it was so hard to let go of the youngest (and it is still difficult). So Nunung and Wim could set out again for the expat live we love so much. That we were in for some difficult times came to us as no surprise. We have a philosophy that when something good is to happen to our lives it will come easily. If it is not made for us to enjoy than it normally comes with a struggle.
So did our assignment in Banda Aceh not come easy and it has not been easy from the start up to now. The client is not helping either. Since May this year we are struggling to get the project on the rails. The plan was for us to go and live in Meulaboh on the west coast of Aceh province. After having visited Meulaboh several times we decided not to go and live in Meulaboh but in Banda Aceh.
Subtract of one of my fieldtrip reports: “The trip to Meulaboh was delayed by one day since the father in law of our driver Mughlis passed away on Saturday morning. Since the funeral has to be completed the same day before sundown and respect had to be paid to the family, it was decided to postpone the trip one day.
Only one week before we lost our senior district planning manager for Aceh Selatan Mr. Soemarno. He went into hospital Friday last week. Most of his colleagues were with him when I visited him that day. Saturday morning 10:30 AM he passed away. Two of our colleagues went by road to bring him to Medan (a 10 hour trip) and he was buried Sunday morning last week. Tomorrow in Meulaboh an attempt will be made to meet up with the Bupati and the people of Pemda of Kabupaten Aceh Barat. The bupati (Pak Ramli) is an elected official with GAM (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka Geurillas) background. I already met his younger brother who was the GAM panglima wilayah barat (Commander western region) Pak Abu Yus, who operates a restaurant on the way from Sigli to Meulaboh in the mountains.”
What happened to meulaboh?
Of the 50.000 inhabitants nearly 80% drowned. The inhabitants who occupy the houses in Meulaboh at the moment either survived due to having a house of more than one story or were out of town during the tsunami. The other part of the houses is occupied by family from the deceased from other towns.
“a story goes that 400 Christians mainly Chinese had to leave the town to celebrate Christmas, since it was made impossible for them by the local Muslim fanatics, to celebrate in Meulaboh. All survived the Tsunami. Now the word is that the fanatics probably made a mistake and were punished for it.”
Many of the present inhabitants have no economic bond with the city. They merely sit out the time for the house to be sold and move back to where they came from. The y also do not contribute anything to the city that way. The houses can not be sold because there are no buyers (they are all dead). So economically the city does not represent much, which is reflected in the merchandise offered in the local shops. The merchandise is of very poor quality and mostly out dated. Early mornings we see many people walking on the streets who are obvious mental patients. You would normally see that in every city in Indonesia. In Meulaboh the number is much larger; no wonder after what these people had to go through. The city did not only lose its people but also it’s sole.
Meulaboh was built in the swamp (rawah) in the lowlands at the foot of the Bukit Barisan mountain range. The city quarters (what is left of them) have for a major part been re-build. The climate is moist and warm in town. The land is flat and surrounded by swamp, not a very pleasant place to live. The houses are built very close to each other and poorly ventilated. I guess that every person sleeping in this town can hear someone else breathing during the night. Some weeks ago the ocean was high due to strong winds in South Africa in combination with springtide. At least one quarter of the town was flooded again with some 30 cm sea water. Some of the houses are for rent with special conditions. E.g. no persons from opposite sex are allowed in the house unless they are married with each other. No parties can be given in the house. No alcohol can be consumed in the house and the house owner has the right to come and check when ever he wants to.
The drinking water supply in Meulaboh can be compared with other Indonesian cities that are built in swamps. The water is acidic and brownish yellow of colour. During the rain season this becomes even worse. There are no real big stores or supermarkets. The city looks more like a Kampong and not a Kabupaten (provincial district) capital. There is no place to go for a game of billiards nor is there a cinema.
One of the remarkable things that happened during the Tsunami was that only 5% of the local government workers perished in the flood, because there government housing estates were built on higher ground further away from the ocean and river. Hence the complete government apparatus was in tact and working when disaster relieve came. No wonder that the Bupati (former not elected district head) built him self a megalomaniac size office and had the main mosque repainted. Just across the Bupati office is the District Hospital. There I met with two American ladies who worked in the hospital. They told me that the hygienic and medical conditions are deplorable. I said that that is mostly the case in frontier cities in developing countries. No they said; ” we worked all over the world in third world countries and this here is a real bad case”. A good thing to remember, don’t get sick on the west coast. It is said to see that the donor money could have been used for much better purposes than a large office for a megalomaniac.
There is a large number of expatriates in town, but no social club of any kind. The expatriates are all young to very young people. I was told that older people do not last longer than a week and run away. Between the different NGO’s (none government organisations there is quite some competition. Who is to build houses where, since all say they came first. They are literally fighting for a place to “help”. A very sad situation to see. But not all is lost. There are two places where you can buy beer. Than you have to drink it at home (if the landlord allows and your neighbour does not tell on you).
Conclusion; Meulaboh is not the place for us.
Getting to Meulaboh is not easy either. A trip along the west coast from Banda Aceh via Calang will take 7 to 8 hours on really bad road. A better road exists through the mountains via Sigli in the north and Gempang in the mountains, a 10 hour trip. This road has become too dangerous to drive due to the lack of maintenance, as can be seen on the photographs.
The rock in front of the hole is the only warning sign. Photograph 1
A motorcycle will not survive this hole in the bridge deck. Photograph 2The company rule is therefore NO driving after sundown. Both routes have however spectacular views. The winding mountain roads bring you along steep slopes and ravines in the rain forest with fast flowing rivers. While the coastal road shows you the spectacular and humbling power of nature. The tsunami force was so immense big that we can not comprehend what forces must have acted there.
The entire coast has subsided by some 40 cm to up to 1 meter at places (during the earthquake). This results in flooding of the coastal road during rain and high tides.
And than you have to push Photograph 3
The entire coast has subsided by some 40 cm to up to 1 meter at places (during the earthquake). This results in flooding of the coastal road during rain and high tides.
And than you have to push Photograph 3Another option is to send your car ahead and fly to Meulaboh. This has proved to be very unreliable. The weather can sometimes upset the whole flight schedule, sometimes resulting in days delay.
Soon to be continued …………………
Soon to be continued …………………
