Jacqui in absentia

I seem to have gone MIA from this blog of mine. Probably been too lazy. So now that I'm having an unproductive day at work, it's a good opportunity to add some more bits and pieces.

I'm knackered today - I have spent the last 7 days in Salang, and it's tiring! Not just the work but the travelling conditions as well. It's about 3 hours driving each way on horrible pot-holed roads, and you arrive at your destination feeling pretty shabby.

Last weekend, the manager of tsunami operations for Australian Red Cross paid Simeulue a visit and wanted to see all the projects in Salang over the weekend. So, somewhat reluctantly, we played tour guide for him; I wasn't all that keen on spending my weekend 'at work', and two of my staff - who had already spent the entire week there - were required to attend. Not surprisingly on Monday they were pretty tired, and then had to go to Salang again this week (as did I). Lucky it's Christmas soon - they'll get a break!

Anyway, the weekend turned out to be quite fun, explaining all of our projects and cruising around Salang. I learned a lot about the other programs. We spoke to community members who had been recipients of first aid, hygiene and agriculture training; toured agricultural plots; traipsed around rice padis; as well as visiting households where the WatSan team has built dunnies and wells.

On Monday our Monitoring delegate (and fellow Adelaidean) Marty arrived. We headed off to Salang to undertake a week of activities to evaluate our Indonesian Red Cross volunteers, discuss the program with them, and interview community members about the training program we run with them as part of the WatSan activities.

Staying in Salang for a week can be very trying, particularly as the base camp is usually stuffed to the rafters with ARC Staff and Indo Red Cross volunteers; it reminds me a lot of school camp in Port Vincent (year 8 for the record!). Dormitory accommodation; two mandi (bathrooms) to be shared between around 20 people (I can't believe how long Indonesians spend in there - considering all you're doing is pouring water over yourself with a ladle!! Let's just say that you're waiting a long time to get your morning wash!); the call to prayer by the mosque across the road at 5am; a noisy fan in the room; phones going off at random times of the early morning; and having to sleep with the light on: one of my staff is scared of the dark. NOT good for a decent bout of shut-eye! I'm always really tired after a week in Salang due to lack of sleep.

Then there's the food issue. The staff here are REALLY stingy when it comes to spending their valued per diem allowances. They get around 80,000 Rp a day ($10) on top of their salaries, but only spend around 35,000 (about $4) a week on food in order to save truckloads of money.

This is the typical contents of my stomach during a week in Salang:
- rice (and shitloads of it)
- fish (often salted to the hilt, and fried)
- fried eggs (or omelete)
- chili
- tomatoes
- cassava leaf (often the only other vegetables you get)
- (sometimes) cabbage, carrots and/or beans

This week we actually got chicken, but as it's 'expensive' for staff we usually don't have it. Let's just say the meal consisted of a scungy chicken in an oily coconut curry-like sauce, with rice. No vegetables, unless you include chili! Metamucil would probably do a roaring trade in this place, were it available... hehe!!!
Whatever other ingredients you provide are at your own cost and end up being shared, much to the delight of the staff. Marty is a legend in this regard, because he always brings delicious goodies over from Banda Aceh: cheese bread, bacon, cheese, capsicum, pasta - things you can't get here on Simeulue. He even brought ham this time! Both of his recent visits have involved one night of pure joy food-wise, as well as a carton of beer. Normally I don't take beer because I don't have anyone to drink with. The staff love it too - they get the left overs! While the Muslim staff can't drink alcohol or eat our pasta creations due to the inclusion of piggy products, the Christian crew think all their Christmases have come at once.

A lighter moment was provided by our attempt to consume ham sandwiches for lunch on Thursday; considering we were in a mosque with almost all Muslim colleagues, we had to be content with eating outside, but still in the mosque compound (which isn't really kosher) because it was raining. It was all very secretive.

The other bad thing about all of this is that unless you go for a run, swim or regular walk each day, there is no exercise to be had. So you're sitting around all week, eating lots of rice and oil, and getting a beer gut. Our main form of exercise so far seems to be playing frisbee with the local kids. We are in the process of building a badminton court on the compound, but so far we only have the court itself - no net or poles yet. Hopefully soon.

Work-wise this week, we sat through a whole bunch of very similar and often monotonous hygiene sessions, which while not really 'action packed', were quite taxing. By Thursday afternoon we'd had enough and decided to go back at the end of the day; Marty also had to get a flight back to Banda Aceh this morning (Friday) and considering potential delays in travel time due to the roads, it was a good idea - just how good we were yet to find out...

All was going well; we'd begun our bumpy trek back to Sinabang and then we arrived in the village of Kampung Aie which is notorious for its bridge being dodgy. They have been building a new bridge there since August, but it's not even half finished. So the old rickety bridge has to suffice. No problems if you're on a motorbike, like 75% of the population; but try driving a truck full of sand or a landcruiser full of people over it, and you're likely to run into trouble.

So when we got to the bridge it was already 5pm, and as was expected, a truck was stuck on the far end of the bridge, it's back tyres firmly wedged between two planks of wood, where a rotten plank had given way. It wasn't going anywhere fast, attested by the fact that there were about ten trucks, pickups and NGO vehicles piled up behind it waiting to pass, and they'd emptied all the sand out of it. Given the time, and that we are not supposed to drive in the dark due to security reasons, we decided to go around the obstacle. This involved driving back into town and down to the beach, where, according to the driver, the Landcruiser would be able to go around the river and then back onto the road.

It was smooth sailing - literally: the beach was the smoothest section of road in all of Salang! - and we had a great time dodging the waves. Then we took a tiny little bush track through palm trees to cut back to the road. Half way through we reached a swamp, which at first glance looked a bit dodgy - but after ditching his jeans and shoes and traipsing through the water and mud to check it out, our driver Sarwin declared it safe to pass, given it was rocky on the bottom and not too deep. But it was his approach to the mudhole that got us into trouble.

He roared the Lancruiser right into the hole, way too fast, which meant the car fully nose-dived straight into the water, and after smashing up and down a few times and water washing over the bonnet, we got properly stuck! The exhaust was fully submerged and bubbling away under the water, and we weren't going ANYWHERE.

So after a bunch of wheel spinning, trying to chock up the wheels with rocks, coconut branches and anything else half solid we could find, I decided I should walk back to the bridge to try and get help. Somehow the snap cord, shovel and any other items that should have been in the car for situations like this had mysteriously disappeared, likely sold by the driver for a bit of cash on the side ...

Our friends from the NGO CordAid had been waiting at the bridge when we first arrived there, so I figured we could get them to help. But when I arrived I couldn't find anyone I knew, let alone was I very able to communicate my problem! But eventually I tracked down the CordAid driver and his assistant, and between us we had enough Bahasa Indonesian/English to work out what to do, and they had a winch on their car.

In the end, after about 6 of 7 tries, we eventually pulled the Landcruiser out ... a tough gig considering it was much bigger than the CordAid Ranger, and most attempts resulted in a lot of wheel spinning and the Ranger being dragged toward the mudhole! I was waiting for the winch cord to snap!

So it was around 7pm by the time all this happened and we got ourselves out. Let's just say we owe a great debt to CordAid, we need to restock all our vehicles with emergency equipment, and we were totally knackered when we got back!

Ahh adventures in the mud, reminds me of Liberia. Makes life interesting though.

So in our wisdom, after dropping in on the boss to pick up my house keys, we decided to have a few beers. Paul, the head of office, goes a bit balmy during the week as he is the only English-speaking staff member when I'm in Salang, so come Friday he is gagging for an Aussie to speak to! We finished off Paul's 6 beers and some scotch before cruising to my house to drink the beers we had left over from Salang and to watch the Simpsons movie. For the record, it's the 6 time I've seen it! A 1:30am bed time was the result, not the best idea considering how tired we were, but a good wind down after a long week. Today has been a bit tougher due to it, but hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time...!

Bring on the weekend!!!!

Knowing my luck it will be raining the whole time...