Ok, so after quite a late finish at Traders for an old geyser like
me, who had been on the road for the last three days, we began the next
day with a nice early start ... The plan was for the Simeulue crew
(Steph, Jon, Nam and myself) to drive to Bukit Lawang and do a bit of
jungle trekking, hoping to catch a glimpse of the orangutans of Gunung
Leuser National Park. I must have been totally shagged as I slept
through my alarm, so we didn’t leave til around 7… anyway we jumped in
our little hire van and cruised along the bumpy, potholed road for a
couple of hours. Nam’s suggestion of hair of the dog wasn’t really to
our taste, but he’d brought his own supplies and it worked for him! I
attempted to sleep to no avail :(
We met up with Anna,
the fifth Simeuluenian on the tour, at the EcoLodge in Bukit Lawang, and
then proceeded to our all-day trek. I don’t know if it was the best
idea considering how knackered I was and how little sleep I’d had! But
it was certainly a good way to get the blood flowing and I soon found
myself feeling wide awake and enjoying the trek through the humid but
cool forest.
Gunung Leuser NP is beautiful, and it
wasn’t long before we had left behind all traces of human impact on the
forest. We were tailed by quite a lot of inquisitive brown monkeys
throughout the journey. Our guides knew how to call to the orangutans,
and after a couple of hours of walking we came across a large one that
was obsessed with throwing a plank of wood around the place. A bit later
we found a small group of them, including a couple of young ones and a
baby, and later on another group. In all I think we saw about ten for
the day. All the adults were female, and were semi-wild; they were all
once inhabitants of the Bohorok Rehabilitation Centre, which is now
closed. Although it was initially set up with good intentions, over time
it began to practice unsustainable methods of reintroducing orangutans
into the wild, preferring to continue feeding them enough to keep them
around, thus bringing in the tourist dollar. Very sad, and thank
goodness it is no longer practiced. However, there is still a feeding
platform at the site of the old centre, which is open to view feeding
twice a day, and continues to bring in the orangutans (who could resist
handfuls of pineapples and bananas?) – not to mention the tourists. In
addition, whenever the orangutans approached, our guides had plenty of
fruit to give them as a reward; plus tourists were encouraged to
interact with them. This doesn’t really encourage them to assimilate
back into the forest! As we were walking towards our little destination
where we would take lunch, they were following us with the intention of
scoring more food… so we had to get outta there in order to eat in
peace!
Orangutans are amazing creatures; extremely
strong but agile in the trees. As you’d expect! What surprised me most
was that they had incredibly long arms, but quite short legs. I know
they need long arms for swinging through the trees but I expected their
legs to be longer. Their feet, which look more like hands, are also very
adept at grasping trees and vines. They are fantastic to watch as they
cruise around the forest. I also didn’t know that they are territorial,
with a large range that they move within, and that they make ‘nests’.
These are simple platforms in the trees, lined with leaves, which they
use to sleep in each night. The nests are only used for a single night
at a time, and then they move on to a different part of the forest.
Later
on in the trek we came across my namesake: an orangutan called Jacqui.
Hehe…! Gold! This orangutan was obsessed with following trekkers and
hugging everyone (like me when I’m drunk), so we had to be on our toes!
And then we met my favourite little critters: Thomas’ Leaf Monkeys.
These guys are the rock stars of the monkey world, with awesome black
and white striped mohawks, long tails, and beautiful long fingers and
toes to curl around branches. They are very inquisitive and always
leaping around the place.
In fact all the monkeys were
quite amusing when they launched themselves off trees, because they
always landed with a huge crash, and it can sometimes scare the hell out
of you, especially if you happen to be standing under the tree at the
time… :)
Once we’d finished off our trek and had
returned to the Eco Lodge, almost immediately the heavens let loose and
it began to absolutely piss down. In some ways I was glad that we
weren’t doing an overnight trek, and had elected to start out early! We
had met a few other trekkers along the way who were doing just that…
they would have got drenched.
We moved camp the next
day because there were no rooms left at the EcoLodge, and found what I
thought was much nicer accommodation further up the river, and further
away from all the touristy crap. We had monkeys on our roof in the
morning (beats an alarm clock any day – although it sounded like someone
throwing large rocks on the roof!) The rest of the time spent at Bukit
Lawang was just cruising around the river, relaxing, reading books and
enjoying a few beers with fellow travellers. Not to mention the best
fruit salad I have ever seen in my life. It looked like something that
should adorn someone’s head at the Carnivale in Rio. :)
So
back to Medan, enjoying a small dose of reality, stocking up on
essential foods and DVDs, and back to Simeulue. Blah. I do love this
place, but already I want another holiday!
Friday, March 28, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Everything is good for you, if it doesn’t kill you…
So I begin my ramblings about yet another fun adventure in Indo.
Easter 2008: certainly an Easter to remember, for a mixture of good and
bad reasons!
Ok, so let’s start from the very beginning, a very good place to start! I’d granted my team two days of TOIL because they worked on a public holiday and Saturday; plus they have also been working pretty hard over the past few months and have been getting very frustrated with all the s#!t that’s been going on with the WatSan program (read previous blog!). So together we planned to take what was affectionately known as The WatSan Holiday. All members of the team (me, 2 engineers, 1 PHAST staff, 5 construction supervisors and 2 truck drivers) were keen, bar one of the PHAST team, who was joining the ‘other group’ of local staff in Bali.
[I really hate the divisiveness and power-mongering of the personalities in this office. There’s two rival factions operating here and it’s crap. I wish people would just get along!]
Anyway, back to the story. So the plan was to head to Lake Toba together, spend a couple of days there, and then cruise back to Medan. All good! The normal route to Toba is to fly to Medan with Susi Air (1 hour) and then drive the 5 hour journey to Parapat. However, at 1 million Rp, the return flight is out of the budget of many of our staff, so they elected to take the overnight ferry from Sinabang to the port of Labuhan haji on the southern coast of Sumatera, and then drive from there up to Lake Toba.
Considering it’s not actually that far, it surprised me how long it takes. Halfway through Monday, we find out that the ferry didn’t actually arrive on Sunday as scheduled due to bad weather (we’ve had lots of storms lately). So we didn’t leave til Tuesday evening; all good, nothing we could do about it, so on we get Tuesday night, all rearing to go.
The ferry was actually a lot more comfy than I expected: I was expecting a vast, open, smoke-filled area with bench seats or chairs arranged for people to sit on. But it actually had comfy, permanent reclining seats and a TV (should have guessed that last part). Thank God there was a non-smoking section! The smokers (a majority of the passengers) were content to sleep in a smoky second section. All the cars, buses and trucks were loaded in the hold, and passengers up top.
Not that that meant we actually slept much, if any. Started off the night imparting my extensive knowledge of card games (Black Bitch – yeah!) before a bit of telly and attempting to sleep in ‘reclining position’. It got quite rocky at various points of the journey … let’s just say the delightful sounds of retching weren’t conducive to sleep, nor was the loud music from various people’s mobiles! Indonesians have a real penchance for loud music at both late and early hours…I think the most amusing part was the rooster crowing at 5:17am. First I thought it was someone’s mobile phone alarm, until I noticed one of the passengers sleeping on the floor had a box with holes punched in it! J GOLD for Australia!
Anyway, so come 7am we arrived bleary-eyed in Labuhan haji. A Lontong breakfast preceded us all piling into a rusty, clapped-out bemo (fitting 11 people into this thing was a feat of its own) and after about an hours delay due to a totally disorganised driver, heading off towards Toba.
For the entire day. And what a long day it was. At least when we stopped at the mid-way point, we had beer. Guinness, even! :)
Finally we reached the town of Sidikalang, where we were to change buses. It was also the home town of my engineer Aduma, so I met her parents (lovely folks!), got serenaded with some local Batak songs and drank Tuak (palm wine) with the locals.
We got the last bus – a big, rusty, smoke-belching green monster with air brakes that squealed every time the driver put his foot down – and headed off to Pangururan in the rain. It was pretty damn crowded when we boarded, and sitting on a school bench perched in the aisle wasn’t the nicest way to treat my ass. But it wasn’t too bad – that is, until an oncoming motorbike attempted to overtake the car it was tailing, saw us coming, and in attempting to pull back in, lost control and skidded right in front of the bus. The bus driver accordingly swerved to miss it, and put us right into the ditch.
Luckily everyone came out unscathed, if not a little rattled. Which you think would have been a good reason to drive carefully for the remainder of the journey. But oh no, not this guy. It seemed to make him more determined to drive faster, perhaps wanting to get to Pangururan on time. Given that the road was only wide enough for our bus (let alone oncoming traffic, the majority of which were trucks), it was raining steadily, the road snaked along the edge of a steep cliff, and there were major roadworks the entire way, it was a very foolish way to drive and we spent much time almost in ditches or right at the edge to allow trucks to pass. But we made it by about 9pm, and set about heading to the losmen 3-by-3 in becaks.
Pangururan is actually on Samosir Island, in the middle of Lake Toba, just on the other side of the small peninsula that joins the island to the mainland… hence Samosir isn’t technically an island. Anyway. The losmen was pretty crap, but it’s redeeming feature was the hot springs in the mountain behind, the water from which had been transported long distances via a criss-cross of pipes to hot baths (men and women separate of course, not to mention bule’s (foreigners) and locals having their own separate areas too…). Talk about a great way to relax after 12 hours sitting cramped in Indonesian transport!
The next morning we set off on foot from the losmen back to the centre of town, took a million photos by the lake (Indonesians are such posers – but they never smile! Such serious expressions!) and jumped into another bemo to cruise around Samosir island. Samosir is such a beautiful place, bright green rice paddies set against the volcanic mountains dotted with pine trees; you can almost imagine an overnight snowfall and Julie Andrews singing from the hilltops! The Batak people bury their dead in above-ground family tombs that resemble small palaces, and together with the churches dotted around the landscape (Bataks are Christian), not to mention the enormous blue lake that engulfs Samosir, it makes for an intriguingly beautiful landscape.
We arrived in the town of Tomok and proceeded to hit the shops – and there are many full of the usual touristy crap. Spent quite a bit of time perusing said crap, especially as the construction supervisors and drivers were keen to buy souvenirs and presents for their families, given they’d never been to Toba before. After lunch we jumped on the ferry and headed to Prapat, the main town in the area and transit point for coming and going to Medan. So off in another bus we went, this time one in much better condition (as was the road!) and a lot less crowded. Phew!
So about 5 hours later we were back in Medan. And while totally exhausted, all I wanted was some meat and a glass of red! So off to Traders Bar & Restaurant with the Simeulue crew for a big fat steak, followed by a few games of 9-ball and some margaritas. Life is good.
But this is only half of the adventure. Read next blog for instalment 2. Mainly because I can’t be bothered typing it right now… but there’s orangutans in it, so you’ll want to read it. Hehe!
Ok, so let’s start from the very beginning, a very good place to start! I’d granted my team two days of TOIL because they worked on a public holiday and Saturday; plus they have also been working pretty hard over the past few months and have been getting very frustrated with all the s#!t that’s been going on with the WatSan program (read previous blog!). So together we planned to take what was affectionately known as The WatSan Holiday. All members of the team (me, 2 engineers, 1 PHAST staff, 5 construction supervisors and 2 truck drivers) were keen, bar one of the PHAST team, who was joining the ‘other group’ of local staff in Bali.
[I really hate the divisiveness and power-mongering of the personalities in this office. There’s two rival factions operating here and it’s crap. I wish people would just get along!]
Anyway, back to the story. So the plan was to head to Lake Toba together, spend a couple of days there, and then cruise back to Medan. All good! The normal route to Toba is to fly to Medan with Susi Air (1 hour) and then drive the 5 hour journey to Parapat. However, at 1 million Rp, the return flight is out of the budget of many of our staff, so they elected to take the overnight ferry from Sinabang to the port of Labuhan haji on the southern coast of Sumatera, and then drive from there up to Lake Toba.
Considering it’s not actually that far, it surprised me how long it takes. Halfway through Monday, we find out that the ferry didn’t actually arrive on Sunday as scheduled due to bad weather (we’ve had lots of storms lately). So we didn’t leave til Tuesday evening; all good, nothing we could do about it, so on we get Tuesday night, all rearing to go.
The ferry was actually a lot more comfy than I expected: I was expecting a vast, open, smoke-filled area with bench seats or chairs arranged for people to sit on. But it actually had comfy, permanent reclining seats and a TV (should have guessed that last part). Thank God there was a non-smoking section! The smokers (a majority of the passengers) were content to sleep in a smoky second section. All the cars, buses and trucks were loaded in the hold, and passengers up top.
Not that that meant we actually slept much, if any. Started off the night imparting my extensive knowledge of card games (Black Bitch – yeah!) before a bit of telly and attempting to sleep in ‘reclining position’. It got quite rocky at various points of the journey … let’s just say the delightful sounds of retching weren’t conducive to sleep, nor was the loud music from various people’s mobiles! Indonesians have a real penchance for loud music at both late and early hours…I think the most amusing part was the rooster crowing at 5:17am. First I thought it was someone’s mobile phone alarm, until I noticed one of the passengers sleeping on the floor had a box with holes punched in it! J GOLD for Australia!
Anyway, so come 7am we arrived bleary-eyed in Labuhan haji. A Lontong breakfast preceded us all piling into a rusty, clapped-out bemo (fitting 11 people into this thing was a feat of its own) and after about an hours delay due to a totally disorganised driver, heading off towards Toba.
For the entire day. And what a long day it was. At least when we stopped at the mid-way point, we had beer. Guinness, even! :)
Finally we reached the town of Sidikalang, where we were to change buses. It was also the home town of my engineer Aduma, so I met her parents (lovely folks!), got serenaded with some local Batak songs and drank Tuak (palm wine) with the locals.
We got the last bus – a big, rusty, smoke-belching green monster with air brakes that squealed every time the driver put his foot down – and headed off to Pangururan in the rain. It was pretty damn crowded when we boarded, and sitting on a school bench perched in the aisle wasn’t the nicest way to treat my ass. But it wasn’t too bad – that is, until an oncoming motorbike attempted to overtake the car it was tailing, saw us coming, and in attempting to pull back in, lost control and skidded right in front of the bus. The bus driver accordingly swerved to miss it, and put us right into the ditch.
Luckily everyone came out unscathed, if not a little rattled. Which you think would have been a good reason to drive carefully for the remainder of the journey. But oh no, not this guy. It seemed to make him more determined to drive faster, perhaps wanting to get to Pangururan on time. Given that the road was only wide enough for our bus (let alone oncoming traffic, the majority of which were trucks), it was raining steadily, the road snaked along the edge of a steep cliff, and there were major roadworks the entire way, it was a very foolish way to drive and we spent much time almost in ditches or right at the edge to allow trucks to pass. But we made it by about 9pm, and set about heading to the losmen 3-by-3 in becaks.
Pangururan is actually on Samosir Island, in the middle of Lake Toba, just on the other side of the small peninsula that joins the island to the mainland… hence Samosir isn’t technically an island. Anyway. The losmen was pretty crap, but it’s redeeming feature was the hot springs in the mountain behind, the water from which had been transported long distances via a criss-cross of pipes to hot baths (men and women separate of course, not to mention bule’s (foreigners) and locals having their own separate areas too…). Talk about a great way to relax after 12 hours sitting cramped in Indonesian transport!
The next morning we set off on foot from the losmen back to the centre of town, took a million photos by the lake (Indonesians are such posers – but they never smile! Such serious expressions!) and jumped into another bemo to cruise around Samosir island. Samosir is such a beautiful place, bright green rice paddies set against the volcanic mountains dotted with pine trees; you can almost imagine an overnight snowfall and Julie Andrews singing from the hilltops! The Batak people bury their dead in above-ground family tombs that resemble small palaces, and together with the churches dotted around the landscape (Bataks are Christian), not to mention the enormous blue lake that engulfs Samosir, it makes for an intriguingly beautiful landscape.
We arrived in the town of Tomok and proceeded to hit the shops – and there are many full of the usual touristy crap. Spent quite a bit of time perusing said crap, especially as the construction supervisors and drivers were keen to buy souvenirs and presents for their families, given they’d never been to Toba before. After lunch we jumped on the ferry and headed to Prapat, the main town in the area and transit point for coming and going to Medan. So off in another bus we went, this time one in much better condition (as was the road!) and a lot less crowded. Phew!
So about 5 hours later we were back in Medan. And while totally exhausted, all I wanted was some meat and a glass of red! So off to Traders Bar & Restaurant with the Simeulue crew for a big fat steak, followed by a few games of 9-ball and some margaritas. Life is good.
But this is only half of the adventure. Read next blog for instalment 2. Mainly because I can’t be bothered typing it right now… but there’s orangutans in it, so you’ll want to read it. Hehe!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Work-schmirk-stress-mess!!!
I am so stressed at the moment. There are so many issues going on
with the program. Things aren't happening and it's driving me insane. I
have an end of 2008 timeline hanging over my head and we're already 3
months behind schedule.
My WatSan program is at a standstill with an overpricing investigation, and until its all sorted, the country manager won't sign any purchase orders. So, no materials are coming in and we can't build any more toilets and wells, or install any more septic tanks. We built a new warehouse at the beginning of January in Along village for all the new materials we were supposed to get ages ago... so it's been sitting there since, waiting to be filled! Our logistics and finance people have left, leaving a massive gap. Our 'run-around guy' has taken over Logistics since the senior logistician quit and her sidekick resigned (he was the subject of the overpricing investigation), but he is totally unqualified and, while doing his best, is not doing a good job. So my two engineers now refuse to work with him out of frustration. I don't blame them - I'm as frustrated as they are - but I think they're being a bit harsh on him.
The last week has been bloody stressful too: we recently recruited ten new Indonesian Red Cross volunteers, and have put them through 3 days of PHAST (hygiene) training and 3 days of Community Development Training. Our construction supervisors attended the CDT as well. I have been running around playing driver to ferry people to training, because logistics and/or my staff hadn't organised the cars properly. Today is the final day, a full-day induction to Indonesian Red Cross (booooriiiing!). They will all be knackered by the end! I have been trying - quite unsuccesfully might I add - to understand the training content, which is tiring enough in itself!
My two hygiene promotion staff don't get along well and have been decidedly unfriendly and unco-operative towards each other all week. Thank god there are other people around for them to hang out with.
And then, to top it all off, I hit someone with the car yesterday. We were coming back from a great stress-free afternoon at the beach with all the volunteers and staff, I was driving at night and an oncoming car blinded me at exactly the same point where an old man was walking on the road. He wasn't wearing visible clothing, plus there are no lights or road markings. Luckily I only clipped his elbow, and there was no serious injury. Our staff went back a couple of hours later to check if he was ok or if he needed any further medical care than the traditional massage we organised for him. He was ok, thank god. Turns out he was the father of one of our drivers, which in some ways was good but in others made things more difficult.
I was in shock for the next 2 hours, and turning over and over in my head what could have happened. Thank god nothing worse happened. I've come down sick becaues of all the stress of the last week or so, and all I want to do is sleep.
But it's off to the field tomorrow. We have an ARC Board member, Tsunami Operations Manager and his assistant, plus Communications manager coming to visit. We'll have to drive to Salang and give them a tour of all our projects. In some ways it will be good fun, but in others I just wish that it wasn't all happening at the same time!
Can't wait til Thursday when all our visitors leave and I can rest. Let's just say Easter can't come fast enough. Because the training included working on a public holiday and a Saturday, we can take a couple of extra days off over Easter, so I am taking my team to Lake Toba for a bit of rest and relaxation, which should be fun :)
A week away from work will be a real refresher. Game on!
My WatSan program is at a standstill with an overpricing investigation, and until its all sorted, the country manager won't sign any purchase orders. So, no materials are coming in and we can't build any more toilets and wells, or install any more septic tanks. We built a new warehouse at the beginning of January in Along village for all the new materials we were supposed to get ages ago... so it's been sitting there since, waiting to be filled! Our logistics and finance people have left, leaving a massive gap. Our 'run-around guy' has taken over Logistics since the senior logistician quit and her sidekick resigned (he was the subject of the overpricing investigation), but he is totally unqualified and, while doing his best, is not doing a good job. So my two engineers now refuse to work with him out of frustration. I don't blame them - I'm as frustrated as they are - but I think they're being a bit harsh on him.
The last week has been bloody stressful too: we recently recruited ten new Indonesian Red Cross volunteers, and have put them through 3 days of PHAST (hygiene) training and 3 days of Community Development Training. Our construction supervisors attended the CDT as well. I have been running around playing driver to ferry people to training, because logistics and/or my staff hadn't organised the cars properly. Today is the final day, a full-day induction to Indonesian Red Cross (booooriiiing!). They will all be knackered by the end! I have been trying - quite unsuccesfully might I add - to understand the training content, which is tiring enough in itself!
My two hygiene promotion staff don't get along well and have been decidedly unfriendly and unco-operative towards each other all week. Thank god there are other people around for them to hang out with.
And then, to top it all off, I hit someone with the car yesterday. We were coming back from a great stress-free afternoon at the beach with all the volunteers and staff, I was driving at night and an oncoming car blinded me at exactly the same point where an old man was walking on the road. He wasn't wearing visible clothing, plus there are no lights or road markings. Luckily I only clipped his elbow, and there was no serious injury. Our staff went back a couple of hours later to check if he was ok or if he needed any further medical care than the traditional massage we organised for him. He was ok, thank god. Turns out he was the father of one of our drivers, which in some ways was good but in others made things more difficult.
I was in shock for the next 2 hours, and turning over and over in my head what could have happened. Thank god nothing worse happened. I've come down sick becaues of all the stress of the last week or so, and all I want to do is sleep.
But it's off to the field tomorrow. We have an ARC Board member, Tsunami Operations Manager and his assistant, plus Communications manager coming to visit. We'll have to drive to Salang and give them a tour of all our projects. In some ways it will be good fun, but in others I just wish that it wasn't all happening at the same time!
Can't wait til Thursday when all our visitors leave and I can rest. Let's just say Easter can't come fast enough. Because the training included working on a public holiday and a Saturday, we can take a couple of extra days off over Easter, so I am taking my team to Lake Toba for a bit of rest and relaxation, which should be fun :)
A week away from work will be a real refresher. Game on!
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Hail to the thief
I had a nice little visitor late on Saturday afternoon.
I was in my living room with my music turned up loud, as I tend to do often, and had the back door open to let in some light (my house is really dark! it needs more windows) and some fresh air, when I heard a rustling noise at the back. At first I didn't think much of it, but it went on for a bit too long to be anything innocent, so I went to check it out.
The next thing I saw was someone scrambling up the embankment behind my house, heading for the trees. He was carrying a box and a plastic bag with something large in it. When I yelled out "who's there?" at him, he dropped everything and continued up the slope. But then he stopped and waited at the top, watching me. I could see his outline clearly in the trees, but he thought I couldn't see him! He sat there for a while, so I yelled out (in my very crappy Bahasa) "I can see you!!" and "what do you want?". I couldn't quite understand his answer but what I heard was that he was looking for food.
Yeah right. He would have to have watched my place for some time, from the back, to know how to get in. You can't access the back yard unless you come over the steep hill behind the house (it's cut into the hillside) and climb through the barbed wire fence. It's the same way he got out as well. The fence was damaged a few months ago after some heavy rain, where the soil collapsed from the hillside and slid down into the back yard, taking some of the fence with it. It was this breach in the fence that he utilised.
Anyway, I couldn't get hold of anyone to come and help me - my boss was in Medan and mobile signal was crap - so once I was sure he had gone, I climbed up the hill and retrieved what he had dropped. Inside the box was nothing valuable, just odd bits and pieces left behind by a previous delegate, and in the bag a blow-up mattress. Strange. Our premises manager went and followed his track up the hill the next day, and found a tool box that he had abandoned as well; a bit more valuable than the other crap!
Most creepy though was the fact that he would have to have come inside the house and into the room right next to the living room to steal those things. I didn't even hear him come in. Let's just say I won't be leaving the back door open any time soon. And I'm getting that fence fixed!
I was in my living room with my music turned up loud, as I tend to do often, and had the back door open to let in some light (my house is really dark! it needs more windows) and some fresh air, when I heard a rustling noise at the back. At first I didn't think much of it, but it went on for a bit too long to be anything innocent, so I went to check it out.
The next thing I saw was someone scrambling up the embankment behind my house, heading for the trees. He was carrying a box and a plastic bag with something large in it. When I yelled out "who's there?" at him, he dropped everything and continued up the slope. But then he stopped and waited at the top, watching me. I could see his outline clearly in the trees, but he thought I couldn't see him! He sat there for a while, so I yelled out (in my very crappy Bahasa) "I can see you!!" and "what do you want?". I couldn't quite understand his answer but what I heard was that he was looking for food.
Yeah right. He would have to have watched my place for some time, from the back, to know how to get in. You can't access the back yard unless you come over the steep hill behind the house (it's cut into the hillside) and climb through the barbed wire fence. It's the same way he got out as well. The fence was damaged a few months ago after some heavy rain, where the soil collapsed from the hillside and slid down into the back yard, taking some of the fence with it. It was this breach in the fence that he utilised.
Anyway, I couldn't get hold of anyone to come and help me - my boss was in Medan and mobile signal was crap - so once I was sure he had gone, I climbed up the hill and retrieved what he had dropped. Inside the box was nothing valuable, just odd bits and pieces left behind by a previous delegate, and in the bag a blow-up mattress. Strange. Our premises manager went and followed his track up the hill the next day, and found a tool box that he had abandoned as well; a bit more valuable than the other crap!
Most creepy though was the fact that he would have to have come inside the house and into the room right next to the living room to steal those things. I didn't even hear him come in. Let's just say I won't be leaving the back door open any time soon. And I'm getting that fence fixed!
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Scariest day of my life!
We had a real scare here on Wednesday: a 7.5 magnitude earthquake.
The biggest one I've ever experienced. The epicentre was actually on the
island, not out at sea: it was on the north-west coast, just north of
our project area (Salang), in Simeulue Barat sub-district.
http://www.gdacs.org/reports.asp?eventType=EQ&ID=34930&system=asgard&location=IDN&alertlevel=Orange&glide_no=&datetime=20080220&groupid=34919
I was in the landcruiser coming back from the field, and we were crossing a bridge (all of which are already suspect without an earthquake to destroy them!) when the driver slowed down; ahead of us, a motorbike and its two passengers, one a little girl, fell off for apparently no reason. It all seemed a bit strange! Then the car started to stutter, like it had a flat tyre and was stalling (that's what I actually thought it was). It was only when I noticed all the trees swaying and the car was really rocking that I realised what it was! It was such a bizarre, unfamiliar sensation.
Luckily, we were off the bridge by then but had stopped to wait it out. The passenger in the front jumped out quick smart, he was so scared. In the back, I didn't have time to get out, and I couldn't do anything I was so shocked by it. It was really disconcerting and I was in shock for a little while once I realised what had just happened. I didn't like it one bit, being totally unable to control what was happening to me. Thank goodness we didn't get stuck on the bridge.
There was quite a large aftershock soon afterwards, and a small one about ten minutes later. People were clearly traumatised by the whole thing, the memories of the big one here three years ago still fresh in their minds. As we continued back to Sinabang, there were hundreds of people sitting on the road and outside of their houses, with shocked and scared expressions on their faces, packing up their things, all their valuables bundled up in boxes, rucksacks, bags and wheelbarrows. Some households had put out their valuables by the road: stereos, tvs etc. Many people were heading to the hills to wait it out on higher ground; others were just sitting outside their houses waiting for the next aftershock. There were also a lot of people warily watching the sea to find out if a tsunami was coming. I must admit I had one eye on the beach as we drove along the coastal road. I don't think many people slept in their houses last night.
Our staff were all pretty scared by it too. Most of them aren't from here and haven't experienced big quakes before. Some of the staff that were still in the field slept outside in the compound or in the landcruisers. Others slept in the office here in Sinabang, particularly if they would have been home alone otherwise. My boss camped out at my place, as his wife and baby are still in Medan and he didn't want to be in his house alone either! We polished off a bottle of gin to calm our nerves while contemplating it all that night!
The other thing that was a bit scary was that all mobile signal was lost and so we couldn't communicate with anyone. The sat-phone in the office had a flat battery but luckily the other one was working and my boss managed to get in touch with all staff to make sure they were ok.
There wasn't much damage in Salang, even though it was quite close to the epicentre. The major damage happened in Simeulue Barat. A few temporary shelters and some BRR(govt)-built houses collapsed (not surprisingly given the quality of the construction!), and unfortuantely some of the Japanese Red Cross community halls suffered damage to walls and ceilings. Our latrines held up really well, apart from a few; many more were damaged where construction had just begun and the brickwork was not yet reinforced. So we came out of it unscathed, thank goodness. We don't need any further hold-ups to our program!
I really hope that's the worst one I experience here. I never want to experience it again.
Here's the report from the initial assessment of the damage:
21st Feb 08 at 11.30
Subdistrict: Simeulue Timur
2 deaths, 26 light injuries, 1 light damage to a harbor, 1 light damage to Junior High School
Simeulue Tengah
3 offices – light damage, 2 health facilities –light damage, 1 Junior High School/SMP – serious damage
Simeulue Barat
25 people light injuries, 3 mosques – serious damage, 1 mosque – light damage, 1 market – light damage, 9 offices –serious damage, 11 offices – light damage, 2 health facilities – serious damage, 2 health facilities – light damage, 1 harbor – serious damage, 5 Primary Schools serious damage, 2 Junior High Schools – serious damage, 1 Senior High School - serious damage, 2 Senior High Schools - Light damage, 1 Police Office – serious damage
Teupah Selatan
1 death
Salang
2 Primary schools – light damage, 1 Senior High School – serious damage
Teupah Barat
3 houses – light damage, 2 mosques – light damage, 15 market/kiosks –light damage, 15 offices – light damage, 2 bridges – light damage, 5 Primary schools – light damage, 2 Junior High Schools –light damage, 1 Senior High School – light damage.
Teluk Dalam
7 houses – serious damage, 13 houses –light damage
Alafan
No info – so far
So that's all pretty devastating ...
http://www.gdacs.org/reports.asp?eventType=EQ&ID=34930&system=asgard&location=IDN&alertlevel=Orange&glide_no=&datetime=20080220&groupid=34919
I was in the landcruiser coming back from the field, and we were crossing a bridge (all of which are already suspect without an earthquake to destroy them!) when the driver slowed down; ahead of us, a motorbike and its two passengers, one a little girl, fell off for apparently no reason. It all seemed a bit strange! Then the car started to stutter, like it had a flat tyre and was stalling (that's what I actually thought it was). It was only when I noticed all the trees swaying and the car was really rocking that I realised what it was! It was such a bizarre, unfamiliar sensation.
Luckily, we were off the bridge by then but had stopped to wait it out. The passenger in the front jumped out quick smart, he was so scared. In the back, I didn't have time to get out, and I couldn't do anything I was so shocked by it. It was really disconcerting and I was in shock for a little while once I realised what had just happened. I didn't like it one bit, being totally unable to control what was happening to me. Thank goodness we didn't get stuck on the bridge.
There was quite a large aftershock soon afterwards, and a small one about ten minutes later. People were clearly traumatised by the whole thing, the memories of the big one here three years ago still fresh in their minds. As we continued back to Sinabang, there were hundreds of people sitting on the road and outside of their houses, with shocked and scared expressions on their faces, packing up their things, all their valuables bundled up in boxes, rucksacks, bags and wheelbarrows. Some households had put out their valuables by the road: stereos, tvs etc. Many people were heading to the hills to wait it out on higher ground; others were just sitting outside their houses waiting for the next aftershock. There were also a lot of people warily watching the sea to find out if a tsunami was coming. I must admit I had one eye on the beach as we drove along the coastal road. I don't think many people slept in their houses last night.
Our staff were all pretty scared by it too. Most of them aren't from here and haven't experienced big quakes before. Some of the staff that were still in the field slept outside in the compound or in the landcruisers. Others slept in the office here in Sinabang, particularly if they would have been home alone otherwise. My boss camped out at my place, as his wife and baby are still in Medan and he didn't want to be in his house alone either! We polished off a bottle of gin to calm our nerves while contemplating it all that night!
The other thing that was a bit scary was that all mobile signal was lost and so we couldn't communicate with anyone. The sat-phone in the office had a flat battery but luckily the other one was working and my boss managed to get in touch with all staff to make sure they were ok.
There wasn't much damage in Salang, even though it was quite close to the epicentre. The major damage happened in Simeulue Barat. A few temporary shelters and some BRR(govt)-built houses collapsed (not surprisingly given the quality of the construction!), and unfortuantely some of the Japanese Red Cross community halls suffered damage to walls and ceilings. Our latrines held up really well, apart from a few; many more were damaged where construction had just begun and the brickwork was not yet reinforced. So we came out of it unscathed, thank goodness. We don't need any further hold-ups to our program!
I really hope that's the worst one I experience here. I never want to experience it again.
Here's the report from the initial assessment of the damage:
21st Feb 08 at 11.30
Subdistrict: Simeulue Timur
2 deaths, 26 light injuries, 1 light damage to a harbor, 1 light damage to Junior High School
Simeulue Tengah
3 offices – light damage, 2 health facilities –light damage, 1 Junior High School/SMP – serious damage
Simeulue Barat
25 people light injuries, 3 mosques – serious damage, 1 mosque – light damage, 1 market – light damage, 9 offices –serious damage, 11 offices – light damage, 2 health facilities – serious damage, 2 health facilities – light damage, 1 harbor – serious damage, 5 Primary Schools serious damage, 2 Junior High Schools – serious damage, 1 Senior High School - serious damage, 2 Senior High Schools - Light damage, 1 Police Office – serious damage
Teupah Selatan
1 death
Salang
2 Primary schools – light damage, 1 Senior High School – serious damage
Teupah Barat
3 houses – light damage, 2 mosques – light damage, 15 market/kiosks –light damage, 15 offices – light damage, 2 bridges – light damage, 5 Primary schools – light damage, 2 Junior High Schools –light damage, 1 Senior High School – light damage.
Teluk Dalam
7 houses – serious damage, 13 houses –light damage
Alafan
No info – so far
So that's all pretty devastating ...
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Australian adventures ... you little beauty!
So I managed to squeeze quite a lot in to my little holiday. I
arrived on the morning of the 25th Jan, was collected by mum and
dad (yay!) and then it was off to the second day of the Adelaide Test
with Scott and Glenn, Liv, Dan and Jack, and a bunch of other
random mates who I ran into on the day. After a long day on the hill in
the sun, beers in hand, and almost starting a fight with a total
w@#$er who deliberately snapped the pole of the large Aussie
flag I’d managed to flog off some unwary spectators sitting in front of
us, Dan, Jack and I went down to Seaton for a nice birthday barbie in
the park. Just what the doctor ordered after a long day at the cricket:
snags, salads and beers! And most of my extended family. The young-uns
of the group (even though I turned 28 the next day, I still considered
myself part of this category) proceeded to the beach to spell out
random words using only our BODIES (see Facebook album #2849324839203
for evidence…hehe). In fact, evidence of all of these adventures can be found in various Facebook photo albums.
My birthday and Australia Day (yes, they’re one and the same, and I love it) started off with a great brekkie at the markets with my old pal Renee, who also shares the same birthday as me, and who I haven’t seen in ages. Then it was off to the cricket again, for another drunken adventure with my good buddies Bel, Troy and Scotty Bradey. Had an awesome day on the hill with them, then we made our way via the new, fancy-pants electric tram to Glenn and Louise’s to catch the tail end of their Hottest 100 barbie – not that we needed any more beer! We cruised to the Goody for a few, then I went into town to join the gals for Zoe’s hen’s night.
It was a fun night out with my old work buddies, although it was a bit quiet. I managed to convince them to come to Supermild because I thought that the bar/club we were at was a bit mellow, plus everyone was being pretty lame and not dancing or anything. Supermild was itself kinda mellow, but I liked it a lot more and I had planned to meet up with Trace and Isaac there. They never showed (boo!), but Bradey did a bit later on. By then I was totally knackered and cabbed it back to Dan’s where I crashed on his couch. Ahhh sleeeeeep!
I was totally knackered on Sunday, but it was the perfect remedy to lounge around in Dan’s backyard and talk shit until mum and dad came past in the early afternoon en route to Jamestown. I was in awe of how brown and dead everything seemed on the drive up there, but it was nice to be home. The wind farm being constructed on the Hallett Hills had progressed quite a lot, but everything else about Jamestown and the farm was pretty much the same. I went to see my grandparents, and caught up with my old school mate Lauren and her family. We took little Bree to the Hallett Pool and then organised a barbeque with Helen, another school mate who has just moved back to Jamestown to teach at the local school, which was a great catch up. And then Lauren and her mum offered to drive me back to Adelaide the next day, which was awesome. We took Bree to the beach for the first time; she was quite apprehensive about this new environment!
By this time I was getting all revved up for one of the highlights of my trip: The Big Day Out, a day-long music festival that happens at the start of February every year and tours the capital cities of Australia. The headline acts this year were Rage Against the Machine and Bjork. Awesome! I had been to Trace and Isaac’s new house for dinner the night before, and the day of the BDO we cruised to Goodwood to Glenn and Louise’s for a pre-fest barbie and beers, before walking to the Showgrounds. Spent the day with Trace, Isaac, Scott Searle, Glenn, and Lana and George. It was a bit of a funny day, because Scott met Lana’s new flame and I met Matt’s. Anyway.
I love the BDO not only because the music is RAD(elaide) but you run into so many people you haven’t seen in ages. Rage were AWESOME, as was Bjork; other great sets were Regurgitator, Faker, Midnight Juggernaughts and Spoon. Silverchair were kinda lame but I saw their whole set, as I was waiting on the other stage for Bjork. Loved being right at the front to see this crazy, amazing woman, who came out after her all female brass band in her appropriately Bjork, colourful mumu! It was quite amusing because after Bjork, Rage were playing, and there was a very clear distinction between the crowds that were there to see each; in fact you could almost say that each crowd hated the other act as much as each other. Rage were also fantastic, and as I was in the D –zone for Bjork, I was also there for Rage, and managed to get a great view without being sucked up into the writhing mass that was the out-of-control mosh. I was totally knackered after that, and so after a bit of time in the boiler room to catch Carl Cox I got outta there and headed to HJ’s with Lana and George for some onion rings on the way home.
And then, I had Zoe’s wedding to attend the next day; another planned highlight of my trip home. I was pretty knackered from the BDO but still excited about the event! The ceremony was held at St Paul’s church in Glenelg, which a small crowd of friends and family witnessed. Zoe looked absolutely gorgeous, as did her bridesmaids, and the groom and his party were very smart. I took Scotty Bradey as my hot date, on Zoe’s request, which I was more than happy to do! He didn’t scrub up too badly either :).
We went for a beer or two at the Pier before cruising down to CafĂ© Salsa at West Beach for the reception. A totally great fun, drunken night ensued with my old workmates, including Pete and Laura who had come over from Canberra, so it was a great catch-up session and an especially good reason for doing so. I got bailed up by some of Zoe’s family friends, who were trying to set me up with their son. Surely he can do his own groundwork?! They even took my photo and showed me a seemingly endless stream of photographs: “here’s Matthew out fishing, with our yacht, with the dogs…” – la di da! It was kinda amusing, but quite uncomfortable!
So I crashed with Pete and Loopy at a mate’s house, and embarrassingly he had to kick me out of his bed at about 3am (not my fault – Pete said I could sleep there!). Thank god he gave me some time to put some clothes back on before crashing on the couch! All amusing the next day. We cruised to the beach in the arvo as a hangover remedy, which worked, before having a quiet beer at the Goody. This quiet beer turned into a random drinking session with Scott Searle after the others all left, and we chilled on the couches in front of the cricket on TV before crashing at Glenn’s house around the corner.
The next adventure was three days in Melbourne, good old Tiger Airways for having $20 fares! So Jess and little Sam came to pick me up, bless em, and we had a great old catch up and babysitting session that afternoon when her sister Kylie brought her 3 kids over. Was great fun doing art and craft, going to the park and generally playing mum with two babies and two little kids running around. Good part is, I can give them back at the end! Pete came over for dinner and with Mike home after work we had a fun evening in. Lounged around the next day at the beach, before catching up with Alison, my aunt, and seeing her new house. I took her for coffee in Church St and found out all about what’s been happening with my cousins. Then I went for dinner at the best restaurant in the world, the Moroccan Soup kitchen, with a whole bunch of mates who live in Melbourne: Lear, Troy, Dave, Pete, Jess, and Rob, who’s just moved over from Radelaide. It was so great! Day 3 was yet another one of leisure with Jess, and we perused various book stores with Sam in town before having a delicious Japanese lunch with Pete and the Sallys. It was awesome to see them too, and find out all the exciting info about the Sallys’ plans for a child and the process they’re going through to do it.
The most amusing thing that happened on that trip was that a certain mother called me out of the blue to “apologise for bailing me up at the wedding, but to follow up on our conversation” and “put the ball in my court”. She had seemingly got my number from Zoe and after discussion with her son Matthew, decided to call me and give me his number – then it was up to me what I did with it! She went on about how it was hard for young people to meet each other these days, that you could meet a potential mate in a dodgy bar somewhere only to find out they were a stalker, and that by introducing her son to a friend of “such a reputable family” it would make things so much more pleasant. So I thought I’d have a bit of fun with it, and invited this young man to some drinks I’d organised in town for Friday. Unfortunately he was unable to come due to work and fishing commitments. Dammit! I would have loved to see how this would turn out… and just to meet the guy; surely he can find his own girlfriends without the help his MOTHER! Ha ha haaaaaaa, totally hilarious!
Unfortunately Cee was ill with pneumonia and had returned home to Radelaide, but the good thing was, I could see her when I myself returned there. So that I did after leaving good old Melbs, I spent the afternoon at their place with her, Jo and Flick before sprucing ourselves up for dinner in Gouger St with Bradey, Trace and Isaac.
Then the madness began. I had organised (what I thought was) a ‘farewell’ that night at Sangria Bar, and invited a whole bunch of people to come – and many of them did! Sangria was already packed, and we just added a few more sardines to the tin. I haven’t been that drunk in a very long time; the 2 bottles of wine at dinner were a good way to start, and while I didn’t buy another drink for the whole night, I always had one (or two, or three…) sangrias in my hand. I was having so much fun seeing everyone and sangria is so easy to drink, that I totally lost control of my drink-moderation activities and, well, went in headfirst. Not that it was a problem, except at the end of the night, after relocating to Supermild for a while, when I had to be escorted home in a taxi. Hehe, thanks Frosty! (Again – you certainly are the Symonds guardian angel!) I had such a great night, and so many people that I didn’t expect turned up, including Matt, who also brought along Chris and his other mate Belts, who has been living in London the last couple of years. It was great to see everyone, and it would have been a very apt send-off and put me in perfect condition to get on a plane and sleep for 7 hours. But due to a problem with getting my passport back (see next blog), I was staying extra days, so I was able to sleep in at Cee’s place, and while ratfaced the whole day, we had yum cha in Gouger St – the perfect hangover cure.
The weekend was spent recovering from all the shenanigans of the past 2 weeks, although on Sunday I headed to the beach with Lana and friends, and then out to the Largs Pier with Scott Searle. James came down to join us for a few beers and we watched the cricket before crashing out. I love random Sunday adventures! The best kind :)
So the rest of the week was down to just cruising around and enjoying my time at home. It was kinda boring because everyone was working, but I still made the most of it. I spent a day at the SA vs TAS one-day match (which was dismally lost by SA in a lacklustre display of batting) with Rover and Burnsy, had lunch and random beers with old workmates, went out to my old tennis comp to see the crew, and got in a couple of hits of tennis (had to get my eye back in to take on Nam when I returned!). I even had a final dinner at the Colonist with Bel, Troy and Bradey, which culminated in getting pissed with Bradey, talking shit and cruising down to Henley Beach in the van with CC and Dry cans in hand. Helped me to sleep on the plane the next day!
All in all: a totally excellent adventure. I am really gonna miss everyone this time around. And I’m not back for at least 6 more months. Still, it’s all part of the deal :)
So.... back to work for a holiday.
My birthday and Australia Day (yes, they’re one and the same, and I love it) started off with a great brekkie at the markets with my old pal Renee, who also shares the same birthday as me, and who I haven’t seen in ages. Then it was off to the cricket again, for another drunken adventure with my good buddies Bel, Troy and Scotty Bradey. Had an awesome day on the hill with them, then we made our way via the new, fancy-pants electric tram to Glenn and Louise’s to catch the tail end of their Hottest 100 barbie – not that we needed any more beer! We cruised to the Goody for a few, then I went into town to join the gals for Zoe’s hen’s night.
It was a fun night out with my old work buddies, although it was a bit quiet. I managed to convince them to come to Supermild because I thought that the bar/club we were at was a bit mellow, plus everyone was being pretty lame and not dancing or anything. Supermild was itself kinda mellow, but I liked it a lot more and I had planned to meet up with Trace and Isaac there. They never showed (boo!), but Bradey did a bit later on. By then I was totally knackered and cabbed it back to Dan’s where I crashed on his couch. Ahhh sleeeeeep!
I was totally knackered on Sunday, but it was the perfect remedy to lounge around in Dan’s backyard and talk shit until mum and dad came past in the early afternoon en route to Jamestown. I was in awe of how brown and dead everything seemed on the drive up there, but it was nice to be home. The wind farm being constructed on the Hallett Hills had progressed quite a lot, but everything else about Jamestown and the farm was pretty much the same. I went to see my grandparents, and caught up with my old school mate Lauren and her family. We took little Bree to the Hallett Pool and then organised a barbeque with Helen, another school mate who has just moved back to Jamestown to teach at the local school, which was a great catch up. And then Lauren and her mum offered to drive me back to Adelaide the next day, which was awesome. We took Bree to the beach for the first time; she was quite apprehensive about this new environment!
By this time I was getting all revved up for one of the highlights of my trip: The Big Day Out, a day-long music festival that happens at the start of February every year and tours the capital cities of Australia. The headline acts this year were Rage Against the Machine and Bjork. Awesome! I had been to Trace and Isaac’s new house for dinner the night before, and the day of the BDO we cruised to Goodwood to Glenn and Louise’s for a pre-fest barbie and beers, before walking to the Showgrounds. Spent the day with Trace, Isaac, Scott Searle, Glenn, and Lana and George. It was a bit of a funny day, because Scott met Lana’s new flame and I met Matt’s. Anyway.
I love the BDO not only because the music is RAD(elaide) but you run into so many people you haven’t seen in ages. Rage were AWESOME, as was Bjork; other great sets were Regurgitator, Faker, Midnight Juggernaughts and Spoon. Silverchair were kinda lame but I saw their whole set, as I was waiting on the other stage for Bjork. Loved being right at the front to see this crazy, amazing woman, who came out after her all female brass band in her appropriately Bjork, colourful mumu! It was quite amusing because after Bjork, Rage were playing, and there was a very clear distinction between the crowds that were there to see each; in fact you could almost say that each crowd hated the other act as much as each other. Rage were also fantastic, and as I was in the D –zone for Bjork, I was also there for Rage, and managed to get a great view without being sucked up into the writhing mass that was the out-of-control mosh. I was totally knackered after that, and so after a bit of time in the boiler room to catch Carl Cox I got outta there and headed to HJ’s with Lana and George for some onion rings on the way home.
And then, I had Zoe’s wedding to attend the next day; another planned highlight of my trip home. I was pretty knackered from the BDO but still excited about the event! The ceremony was held at St Paul’s church in Glenelg, which a small crowd of friends and family witnessed. Zoe looked absolutely gorgeous, as did her bridesmaids, and the groom and his party were very smart. I took Scotty Bradey as my hot date, on Zoe’s request, which I was more than happy to do! He didn’t scrub up too badly either :).
We went for a beer or two at the Pier before cruising down to CafĂ© Salsa at West Beach for the reception. A totally great fun, drunken night ensued with my old workmates, including Pete and Laura who had come over from Canberra, so it was a great catch-up session and an especially good reason for doing so. I got bailed up by some of Zoe’s family friends, who were trying to set me up with their son. Surely he can do his own groundwork?! They even took my photo and showed me a seemingly endless stream of photographs: “here’s Matthew out fishing, with our yacht, with the dogs…” – la di da! It was kinda amusing, but quite uncomfortable!
So I crashed with Pete and Loopy at a mate’s house, and embarrassingly he had to kick me out of his bed at about 3am (not my fault – Pete said I could sleep there!). Thank god he gave me some time to put some clothes back on before crashing on the couch! All amusing the next day. We cruised to the beach in the arvo as a hangover remedy, which worked, before having a quiet beer at the Goody. This quiet beer turned into a random drinking session with Scott Searle after the others all left, and we chilled on the couches in front of the cricket on TV before crashing at Glenn’s house around the corner.
The next adventure was three days in Melbourne, good old Tiger Airways for having $20 fares! So Jess and little Sam came to pick me up, bless em, and we had a great old catch up and babysitting session that afternoon when her sister Kylie brought her 3 kids over. Was great fun doing art and craft, going to the park and generally playing mum with two babies and two little kids running around. Good part is, I can give them back at the end! Pete came over for dinner and with Mike home after work we had a fun evening in. Lounged around the next day at the beach, before catching up with Alison, my aunt, and seeing her new house. I took her for coffee in Church St and found out all about what’s been happening with my cousins. Then I went for dinner at the best restaurant in the world, the Moroccan Soup kitchen, with a whole bunch of mates who live in Melbourne: Lear, Troy, Dave, Pete, Jess, and Rob, who’s just moved over from Radelaide. It was so great! Day 3 was yet another one of leisure with Jess, and we perused various book stores with Sam in town before having a delicious Japanese lunch with Pete and the Sallys. It was awesome to see them too, and find out all the exciting info about the Sallys’ plans for a child and the process they’re going through to do it.
The most amusing thing that happened on that trip was that a certain mother called me out of the blue to “apologise for bailing me up at the wedding, but to follow up on our conversation” and “put the ball in my court”. She had seemingly got my number from Zoe and after discussion with her son Matthew, decided to call me and give me his number – then it was up to me what I did with it! She went on about how it was hard for young people to meet each other these days, that you could meet a potential mate in a dodgy bar somewhere only to find out they were a stalker, and that by introducing her son to a friend of “such a reputable family” it would make things so much more pleasant. So I thought I’d have a bit of fun with it, and invited this young man to some drinks I’d organised in town for Friday. Unfortunately he was unable to come due to work and fishing commitments. Dammit! I would have loved to see how this would turn out… and just to meet the guy; surely he can find his own girlfriends without the help his MOTHER! Ha ha haaaaaaa, totally hilarious!
Unfortunately Cee was ill with pneumonia and had returned home to Radelaide, but the good thing was, I could see her when I myself returned there. So that I did after leaving good old Melbs, I spent the afternoon at their place with her, Jo and Flick before sprucing ourselves up for dinner in Gouger St with Bradey, Trace and Isaac.
Then the madness began. I had organised (what I thought was) a ‘farewell’ that night at Sangria Bar, and invited a whole bunch of people to come – and many of them did! Sangria was already packed, and we just added a few more sardines to the tin. I haven’t been that drunk in a very long time; the 2 bottles of wine at dinner were a good way to start, and while I didn’t buy another drink for the whole night, I always had one (or two, or three…) sangrias in my hand. I was having so much fun seeing everyone and sangria is so easy to drink, that I totally lost control of my drink-moderation activities and, well, went in headfirst. Not that it was a problem, except at the end of the night, after relocating to Supermild for a while, when I had to be escorted home in a taxi. Hehe, thanks Frosty! (Again – you certainly are the Symonds guardian angel!) I had such a great night, and so many people that I didn’t expect turned up, including Matt, who also brought along Chris and his other mate Belts, who has been living in London the last couple of years. It was great to see everyone, and it would have been a very apt send-off and put me in perfect condition to get on a plane and sleep for 7 hours. But due to a problem with getting my passport back (see next blog), I was staying extra days, so I was able to sleep in at Cee’s place, and while ratfaced the whole day, we had yum cha in Gouger St – the perfect hangover cure.
The weekend was spent recovering from all the shenanigans of the past 2 weeks, although on Sunday I headed to the beach with Lana and friends, and then out to the Largs Pier with Scott Searle. James came down to join us for a few beers and we watched the cricket before crashing out. I love random Sunday adventures! The best kind :)
So the rest of the week was down to just cruising around and enjoying my time at home. It was kinda boring because everyone was working, but I still made the most of it. I spent a day at the SA vs TAS one-day match (which was dismally lost by SA in a lacklustre display of batting) with Rover and Burnsy, had lunch and random beers with old workmates, went out to my old tennis comp to see the crew, and got in a couple of hits of tennis (had to get my eye back in to take on Nam when I returned!). I even had a final dinner at the Colonist with Bel, Troy and Bradey, which culminated in getting pissed with Bradey, talking shit and cruising down to Henley Beach in the van with CC and Dry cans in hand. Helped me to sleep on the plane the next day!
All in all: a totally excellent adventure. I am really gonna miss everyone this time around. And I’m not back for at least 6 more months. Still, it’s all part of the deal :)
So.... back to work for a holiday.
So, it's back to Simeulue.
...back to the 5:30am call to prayer. Back to my squat toilet and
cold water mandi. Back to “hello mister!” from everyone on the street.
Back to the electricity cutting out all the time and intermittent
internet connection at the office. But do you know what? It’s nice to be
“home”.
I got a few nice little presents on arrival. The ARC driver, Sumardi, was there waiting for me at the airport. My fancy-pants new front yard was complete, all plants installed, the tacky concrete fake-tree-trunk garden borders, the gorgeous little white stones laid in the concrete driveway and the gaudy orange and pink bars of the fence glistening in the sun (in fact it’s more like a beacon of light you can see for miles around, like the Batman symbol).
I had a large monitor lizard scurry away into the trees when I opened the door to my backyard, and a gorgeous, huge, black and brilliant blue butterfly sauntered past. My housekeeper had stayed back a little late especially to welcome me back and my fruit and vegie man was excited to see me (although he asked me where his present was). And, I had a Christmas card from my grandma waiting for me. All these little things made it easy to come back!
I thought it might be difficult; the last three weeks at home have been nothing but damn good fun. I will have to go on a serious alcohol detox though! I don’t know how many alcohol-free days I had, but there weren’t many.
My holiday was extended by almost a week due to some admin mistakes by ARC, which meant that my passport containing the new Indonesian working visa didn’t arrive from the consulate until Thursday morning (14th Feb). It was supposed to arrive the previous week. I had a few changes of flights, phone calls to and from ARC, and running around to get on the internet and visit airline offices to get it all sorted. In the end, I didn’t mind – it meant I got to stay longer! So I had more time to have coffees, beers, and food with more mates before heading back to Indo. Finally.
So, back to the grind. But I’m looking forward to it. Already I’m a bit disappointed because things haven’t progressed half as much as I would have liked. Our country manager hasn’t signed off on our big bulk order of WatSan materials due to the recent discovery of corruption in our organisation on behalf of one of the Logistics officers, which means all our construction is totally held up. And our new Indo Red Cross volunteers haven’t been interviewed nor training for them properly organised.
At least the new warehouse for all the (apparently) incoming WatSan materials is complete, and the corrupt Logistics officer has resigned. And I will be the most popular person in the office because I have presents for everyone!
I got a few nice little presents on arrival. The ARC driver, Sumardi, was there waiting for me at the airport. My fancy-pants new front yard was complete, all plants installed, the tacky concrete fake-tree-trunk garden borders, the gorgeous little white stones laid in the concrete driveway and the gaudy orange and pink bars of the fence glistening in the sun (in fact it’s more like a beacon of light you can see for miles around, like the Batman symbol).
I had a large monitor lizard scurry away into the trees when I opened the door to my backyard, and a gorgeous, huge, black and brilliant blue butterfly sauntered past. My housekeeper had stayed back a little late especially to welcome me back and my fruit and vegie man was excited to see me (although he asked me where his present was). And, I had a Christmas card from my grandma waiting for me. All these little things made it easy to come back!
I thought it might be difficult; the last three weeks at home have been nothing but damn good fun. I will have to go on a serious alcohol detox though! I don’t know how many alcohol-free days I had, but there weren’t many.
My holiday was extended by almost a week due to some admin mistakes by ARC, which meant that my passport containing the new Indonesian working visa didn’t arrive from the consulate until Thursday morning (14th Feb). It was supposed to arrive the previous week. I had a few changes of flights, phone calls to and from ARC, and running around to get on the internet and visit airline offices to get it all sorted. In the end, I didn’t mind – it meant I got to stay longer! So I had more time to have coffees, beers, and food with more mates before heading back to Indo. Finally.
So, back to the grind. But I’m looking forward to it. Already I’m a bit disappointed because things haven’t progressed half as much as I would have liked. Our country manager hasn’t signed off on our big bulk order of WatSan materials due to the recent discovery of corruption in our organisation on behalf of one of the Logistics officers, which means all our construction is totally held up. And our new Indo Red Cross volunteers haven’t been interviewed nor training for them properly organised.
At least the new warehouse for all the (apparently) incoming WatSan materials is complete, and the corrupt Logistics officer has resigned. And I will be the most popular person in the office because I have presents for everyone!
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