Adventures in Pulau Weh

Ahhh... I don't think I want to go back to Simeulue!! I finally made it to Pulau Weh, the beautiful little island directly off Banda Aceh - and the most northerly part of Indonesia. You can even visit the "Nol Kilometre" landmark, which marks the very start of Indonesia. I wonder if they have a "2432973 (or whatever) Kilometre" landmark at the other end of the archipelago? :)

I liked the fact that it was through work that I got to pay my first visit to this little paradise. The Banda Aceh office had organised a two day team building workshop there, and having planned to come directly to BA from my R&R for staff interviews, I decided I could join the team building. And I'm glad I did! Not only was it fun, involving a whole bunch of team challenges and fun activities, and I got to know more of the BA staff better, it was held at Freddy's resort, or Sumur Tiga, about 15 mins out of the main town of Sabang. Freddy's is on a beautiful little unspoiled beach, to which it's guests have almost exclusive access. You can go snorkelling directly offshore as well. So in between our teambuilding activities, we spent our time face down in the water looking at pretty coral and fishies :)

Then I managed to convince the boss that Elni (Simeulue Office Manager) and I should spend Friday in Sabang as well, and use the blissful isolation to shortlist candidates for our WatSan Engineer positions, for which we want to interview on Monday. Not only did we want to stay in this lovely place, but very conveniently there was a big party planned for Saturday night on Rubiah Island, just adjacent to Iboih Beach, another beautiful spot on the island. Hehe!

So that we did. It didn't actually take long, and we headed to Iboih on Friday afternoon. Considering we had shortlisted already, I went out on a boat with a few crew that had arrived early for the party, and did some snorkelling. Again, really beautiful, more so than at Freddy's, because it was further out to sea. We saw some beautiful blue-spotted stingrays. Our boat "Big Fish Too" capitano Eddie gave us a tour of his property and the hot water springs there, which were bubbling out of the mud. Great to sit and warm your feet with or have a 'hot shower' in! Unfortunately we spent a bit too much time enjoying ourselves onshore, and the tide went out, leaving our boat somewhat stranded amongst the coral! About half an hour and a lot of legwork later, we managed to get ourselves unstuck and headed back to Iboih.

Saturday was spent sleeping in (after a few drinks the night before) and again heading out in the water for some snorkelling. Just offshore there was some ok snorkelling, and we saw a sea snake too, which I'd never seen before. But it was in the afternoon that the snorkelling highlight arrived - again Eddie was prepared to take his boat out, and we went to the Marine Garden behind Rubiah Island, where the snorkelling was really beautiful. We saw some amazing coral, a huge array of fish, tonnes of starfish, but the highlight for me was a gigantic moray eel. After cruising back home again, we fired ourselves up for the party on Rubiah Island.

Our resident walking ideas-man-party-guru Michael had rustled up a whole bunch of fruit, alcohol and a blender and was concocting yummy cocktails to start off the night (and they were bloody strong!). After a couple of those I was a bit worse for wear, because I was dehydrated from the day's activities, and I'd come down with a stomach bug so I was feeling shite. I spent half the night traipsing back and forth from the toilet... boo! I was pretty disappointed because I had been looking forward to this party for a long time. But I still wanted to at least make it over to Rubiah Island to get a bit of the action, so I took a boat over with some of the crew, and hit the dance floor for a while. It was a pretty good party, but the usual people I hang out with were being unusually clicky and unsociable, so I just chatted to random people the whole night and hung out with Yudi. Water was my drink of choice... but it was still fun, and I met a whole bunch of interesting people and danced like an idiot like usual. Michael, said party-guru, had also brought along fireworks and fire twirlers, which provided a couple of cool highlights. Someone had also brought a neon frisbee that glowed in the dark, which was pretty rad. I managed to last it out til about 12:30 before putting myself on the boat back home. Had to get up early this morning for the 8:30 ferry, and I was suffering most of the way home...

A good remedy for that was a day out and about in Banda Aceh, c/- my mate Yudi, who works for ARC in our construction team. We hung out at his place in Lhoknga for a bit before cruising to a nearby cave with a beatiful blue river/lake, which unfortunately had been made that much less natural by building a big fuck-off dam near the cave entrance. Still, it was a nice place to relax, and watch the local kids' antics and guitar expertise. Then we just cruised around to some of the local beaches, where Yudi surfs, and finished the afternoon with a swim at Lampu Beach and a barbeque fish dinner watching the sun set. Beautiful. It was a great way to spend a Sunday, particularly as I was feeling so crap at the start of the day. But getting out and about and a couple of panadols was as good a way as any to shake that.

So, my run of fun adventures is over for now.... let the games begin on Simeulue when I get back on Wednesday....

More Javanese jaunts

The train to Malang would have been good – had I got on the right one. I’d just settled in for some much-needed sleep when the ticket inspector informed me I’d got on the wrong train. Bloody hell, how many trains actually come through Jogja at 2am in the morning? So I got off at the next station and waiting around for the next one. Finally arrived the next morning and after a bunch of running around in Malang – which seemed like an ok city, but I didn’t want to stay, I had other adventures on my mind – I set off in the direction of Mount Bromo.

So after being told the wrong bus station to leave from, which took me ages to get to on the public mini-bus, I spent another ‘ages’ on the same mini bus getting to the right bus station, and made my way from Malang to the little village of Gubla klakan (ahh I have no idea how to spell this!). Once I got to the outskirts of the city the countryside became beautiful, all agricultural land with sugar cane plantations and rice padis. When we started our descent to loftier ground it became more beautiful and I could see mountains in the distance. Upon reaching the gorgeous little hill-top village of Gubla klakan, I found it was the ‘end of the road’ – for mini-buses, anyway! So an ojek (motorbike) was in order, if I wanted to get to Ngadas by the end of the day. And for good reason; there was no way a van would have made it up that road! Cobblestoned in some places, full of holes and crumbling away in others, and up steep inclines (luckily I only packed light, because I had to get off the bike a few times to get up the hills!). Beautiful steep, intensively terraced mountainsides with all sorts of vegetables: taro, corn, cabbages, cauliflower, tomatoes, you name it – all surrounded by misty mountain tops, diagonal roads snaking down the mountainsides, and little villages dotted around.

After reaching Ngadas, perched on top of a mountain with a view of Gunung Semeru – Java’s highest peak and a currently active volcano – and being ripped off by the ojek driver (“the price of fuel’s gone up and it’s really expensive!” – but my fault for not properly agreeing on the price before I left), I headed to the only accommodation in the town: Family Mulyadi’s homestay. The family were lovely, very welcoming, but their accommodation was pretty basic and a bit grotty – and for what it was, pretty expensive. Still, their hospitality made up for it and I stayed longer than I intended because of it. I really enjoyed my stay with them, they went out of their way to look after me. :)

The village of Ngadas is an anomaly; it is only small – around 800 people – but it is home to four religions living peacefully side by side – Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim. It works there, so why not around the rest of the world? It’s a very picturesque and peaceful place, home to farmers who work their guts out on the steep slopes of the mountains around them tilling their terraced fields. Not to mention bloody cold! I wore my hoodie and beanie for a lot of my time there! Fortuitously for me, there was a Hindu festival, as well as a Dangdut concert on the same time I was there, so I decided to stay. I spent the first day on the back of the bike belonging to Dhani – the son of the family – cruising around the place, checking out the lakes on the mountainside and generally taking in the beautiful scenery, under the ever-watching evil eye of Gunung Semeru, which spewed out clouds of volcanic ash every five minutes or so in what appeared to be a warning of some sort of impending doom. I had planned to trek from Ngadas to the top of Semeru, but given it’s active status, the entry was closed. So cruising around on a bike sounded like more fun, plus I already had a bunch of walking ahead of me to get to Bromo…

The Hindu festival was held in the temple on the top of the hill, of which I understood a minimum but was interested to watch everyone in their traditional gear (followed by a free lunch!). I like being the only bulé at events and in small places. It always attracts conversations with the locals, which I found easier to do given my recent language training. Then later that night the Dangdut concert was held on a small stage at the end of the main street. They had hired a local band – which contained a cast of thousands, complete with fluorescent orange shirts – and four singers, who were, well, quite terrible, but they were yokels, so it was ok! So after a whole bunch of electronic failures and horrible feedback, which is the norm in Indonesia (and quite acceptable to people who don’t get live music very often!) the real entertainment arrived – a couple of Indonesian beauties from Malang, complete with revealing attire and promiscuous personalities. For the locals wrapped up in their traditional-designed sarongs and beanies to ward off the cold, it made things that little bit warmer :)

But it was then time to depart from my new family and head off on a trek to Bromo. The trek involved a walk up a steep hill to the crossroads at Jumplang; from there it was a beautiful walk down into the valley, which ran alongside the old crater wall of the massive volcano that previously existed. It apparently exploded in spectacular fashion and blew off its top, allowing the formation of Mt Bromo and other small volcanoes inside it. It’s said in local legend that the top of the old volcano landed in the current location of, and became, Mt. Semeru. Interesting theory…

It took me about four hours to walk to Bromo, and I was the only person there until I met a couple of guys from Holland going the other way. I had by then reached the famous “Pasir Laut” or sea of sand that surrounds Mt Bromo, and I could see the crater. Bromo is still active, but it is by no means a high volcano. In fact it is very low, and you can climb to the crater rim up a horribly steep (well after 4 hours walking it was!) set of 253 stairs. Next to Bromo is the now extinct Mt Batok, which is now completely solid and has a domed top and beautiful lava-carved crevasses running down all sides.

Given that I had to walk past Bromo to get to Cemoro Lawang, the town on the top of the old crater rim where all the accommodation is, I figured I might as well climb up the stairs and have a look around. It was early afternoon; normally the hordes of tourists prefer the early morning to ascend Bromo, so I had the place to myself – apart from a few touts on horseback that rushed up, offering their services to carry me to the foot of the steps. No way, not after walking so far was I going to pay too much money to be carried 500 metres! The view from the top was beautiful; you can see quite far around the sea of sand, which is quite an uusual landscape, and walk around the crater rim. I chose not to, due to all the choking, sulphurous steam that Bromo was spewing out! At the foot of the mountain is a serene Hindu temple, which managed to escape the last lava flows in the last eruption.

So I slogged out the final ascent from the Pasir Laut up the old crater rim to Cemoro Lawang and found myself a nice place to rest for the night, the amusingly named Lava View Cafe, from where you can’t actually see Bromo at all – nor any lava! In its defence, the Café is a spin-off of the Lava View Lodge, which has the best views of Bromo in town… but is too much like a sterile hostel for me. I prefer more homely (and cheaper) places where people looking for the same thing as me are staying!

I met a cool Canadian there and together we planned to ascend Mt Penajakan together early the next morning. It’s a 2.5 hour walk up the mountain, beginning at 3am, if you want to get to the top for sunrise. Many people take a guide up there, but we managed to find our way in the darkness, taking a few wrong turns but sorting ourselves out eventually! It was beautiful traipsing up the hill, especially at around 5am when the sun begins to emerge and the transformation of the landscape from darkness to light begins.

So we made it to the top for sunrise, but to my dismay so did everyone else – but they did it the easy way, via jeep. Oh well, they missed out on a beautiful walk, and paid for it :) But our efforts were definitely worth it. The view over Mount Bromo, Mount Batok and Mount Semeru – seething in the background – all amongst a sea of mist was stunning, and became even more stunning as the sun rose. It looked like someone had poured liquid cloud into the valley until it was full, but with the sunrise, the cloud slowly drained away, its tendril-like fingers trying to cling onto the crater rim for as long as possible, and the whole scene became tinged with gold.

What was also nice was that all the tourists left after the sun rose – they’d come, seen and conquered and their rushed day-trip inventory meant they had to leave (is that really travelling?) to get down to Bromo to climb up the stairs, so we had the place almost to ourselves for a while. An interesting character on the summit was an Irishman and his travelling companion – a large, somewhat dirty, stuffed toy lion called Mortimer – the two of them had travelled to a remarkable number of countries together and Mortimer was the only one allowed to pose for photographs. I was given, and happily accepted, his business card.

We embarked on our ascent down the road towards Bromo, the same road along which all the jeeps drive, and were offered a ride from a bunch of guys on a day trip from Surabaya. They were all Indonesians of Chinese descent, were a friendly bunch and we were kinda tired, so we accepted the offer! They had been driving all night to get here to see the sunrise.

Once we had descended the mountain it was quite surreal driving through the mist which cloaked the sea of sand in dreary, semi-darkness. Upon arriving at the entrance to the pathway to Bromo, the hordes of touts offering horses descend upon you – and it’s an effort to convince them that you can in fact walk by yourself to the stairs – but what I found amazing was their silhouettes through the mist, as you walk towards Bromo.

I didn’t mind climbing up there a second time, because at this time of the day it was beautiful from the top, with the valley still cloaked in mist. The Hindu temple is only just visible, and more and more of the surrounding landscape is revealed as the sun rises. This includes the masses of touts on horseback, ferrying tourists to and from their hotels at Cemoro Lawang who can’t be bothered (or aren’t able) to walk or take the steep path to the foot of the stairs. The unfortunate side-effect of their presence is the horse shit. Boo!

I ended up staying in Cemoro Lawang for 4 days, 2 more than I intended. But I was glad I did. I met a guide in the café by the name of Mas (Javanese for ‘brother’) Tris, who was a friendly, environmentally-minded guide who made his money taking people up Penajakan for sunrise and on various other treks. After getting to know him a bit better, I learned that there was a Vulcanology office in the village, and he took me there to meet the officers that monitor the seismic activity in the park. It was really interesting to learn about the geology of the area and formation of the landscape.

I also spent the next day with him for a climb up Mt Batok – an omelette breakfast on the summit was a nice reward for an hour’s climb! – and then down through the valley to visit a nearby cave, which housed a Hindu temple. While I normally like to do walks like this myself, I’m glad I asked him to accompany me, because I learned a lot about the history of the park, the local legends about the park’s formation, the flora/fauna, and that they were installing solar panels around the park to power all their sites – not to mention practice my Bahasa Indonesian!

I also learned that he regularly volunteers his time to educate school kids from the local villages about environmental issues, conservation, and why it is important to take care of the park. He also throws in an hour’s English lesson for the kids each time. I was very interested in this, considering he gets no money to supplement his small income from guiding, and must borrow a small building from the Park staff. I asked to join Friday’s class. Of course I was more than welcome, and it was fun to meet the kids – about 25 attended when I was there – and be the subject of their English language practice. They each had to introduce themselves to me with phrases they had learned in class. Once their English lesson was over, they were off to the Vulcanology office to learn about the geology of the park. I was so impressed that I decided that this was the cause to which I would donate the money I had been gifted from my previous work colleagues in Adelaide, to put to a worthy cause. I had not managed to find such a cause in Simeulue – one on a small scale run by an individual or small organisation, as most projects are run by NGOs or the UN – but this was perfect. Mas Tris loved it, and continues to update me to this day about the activities he does with the kids, which I really appreciate.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29164&l=68c05&id=543196685

After my time in Cemoro Lawang, which I had really enjoyed, I accompanied my trusty motorbike driver on the beautiful, scenic drive from Cemoro Lawang down the valley to the main road where I would take the bus to Surabaya. Along the way I stopped at a beautiful waterfall, which involved a walk along the accompanying river to reach. The river had carved its way down through the cliff, so that the water cascaded out of a large hole in the ‘roof’, which was about 20 metres high. It was quite a wet walk near the waterfall, and people were keen for visitors to rent umbrellas for the ‘rain’.

My time in Surabaya was short – only one night, from where I flew to Jakarta. Surabaya isn’t a city I’d live in. It’s big, dirty, smelly, traffic-choked and has few attractions save for a crumbling old colonial city – which has not been maintained – and the usual mammoth shopping centres. The one I chose to wander around was the biggest I’d ever seen, and was full of designer clothing and accessory stores. This is the other side of Indonesia – the excessive wealth of the minority, as in Jakarta. I hated it! So I went for a wander around the kampungs (villages/poor suburbs) surrounding the shopping centre, where I felt a lot more comfortable, even though I was walking around at night, and soon found a bunch of friends sitting on the side of the road drinking vodka and playing guitar. So I spent the night hanging with them, and they were nice enough to deliver me to my hotel on their bikes. A nice way to ‘see’ Surabaya by night!

After a brief stop in Jakarta to apply for a new passport I headed to Banda Aceh, where Elni and I had planned to interview candidates for two WatSan engineers, and fortuitously managed to get ourselves invited to the well-timed 2 days of ARC team building in the beautiful island of Pulau Weh … ahhh life is good! The holiday continues!

Escape from Simeulue

And yes, I'm bloody happy about it!

And I wasn’t the only one. It was a bit of a mass exodus from Simeulue; many staff on the Susi flight were ARC. Sendhi, Yudi and I all had a night’s stop in Medan, so we cruised around Sun Plaza, went shopping, hung out in our lurvely hotel, jumped in the pool, had cocktails, did normal things. Ahhhhh....

I didn't realise how tired and stressed I was until I left Simeulue. It took me two days to recover all my sleep.

So, it was then off to Yogyakarta (affectionately known as Jogja), Java, for an enjoyable weekend cruising around Jogja with Embun, a previous ARC Simeulue employee, who now works in the Banda Aceh office. We did all the touristy stuff; visited the Taman Sari (the water garden where the Sultan used to entertain all his wives) and Royal Palace (the previous haunt of the Dutch government), visited Desa Perak (literally Silver Village – where you can buy beautiful jewellery), and cruised Malioboro St, the main shopping/touristy drag, with all its crappy tourist outlets. There was a motorbike festival there on Saturday night, and there was a live concert and other entertainment all along the street, so it was a cool place to be. All the bikies were out in force showing off their bikes, plus you could buy a whole bunch of leather, helmets, stickers and other accessories. It certainly was a bike fest! We eventually retired to a nice little bar with live music and amused ourselves with the drunk old Indonesians and their drunk old dancing.

But the real reason I was in Jogja was for a week's language course at Alam Bahasa Language School. I'd been trying to get my hands on this course since I first arrived; first I was told that the concept had been cancelled, and then a few months later I discovered other staff were still going, so (quite annoyed) I was finally allowed to go. I've only got 3 months left of my contract (but I might extend) but goddammit I want to be able to communicate more effectively in Simeulue! Then, for example, I can have a proper conversation with my field staff and communicate with the community in Salang.

I had booked myself into the school’s homestay accommodation, in order to ‘make myself’ practice what I learned in the course – and I was glad I did. The Suharno family were very welcoming and friendly, and had a beautiful house that was only about 15 mins walk to Alam Bahasa every morning. There were always people coming and going in Suharnoville – all 4 of their sons and their families, which made for a nice atmosphere, and allowed me to talk to different people as well as have enough time to myself. They were also really helpful with information about how to get around, where different services were located etc. Lovely people.

The language course was great, it was all one-on-one tuition and I learned so much. It really brought together all the words that were jumbled around in my head, and put them into the right context, not to mention proper sentences! The staff there were cool, and organised karaoke one night at the very Japanese-sounding “The Happy Puppy” karaoke bar… hilarious! Let’s just say on one side of the room were all the bule’s, who couldn’t sing for shit, and the Indonesians, all who did karaoke regularly and were pros. So it was a real contrast in terms of songs chosen (Indonesian: all sloppy love songs; Bule’s: old school tunes like the Beatles) and the quality of singers… again, hilarious!

My week also included a day trip to visit Borobodur, the huge Buddhist complex outside of Jogja. It was really beautiful there, like a small-scale Angkor Wat. I must admit I thought it would be bigger, but it was one big temple set against some moderate hills and a vast plain, the views of which you could gaze out across from the top. The temple was composed of a number of tiers that reduced in size from bottom to top. On the very top was a large dome that represented an upturned lotus flower, and a whole bunch of candis that also represented the lotus, each containing a buddha inside. It is good luck to reach inside them and touch the feet of the buddha – if you can reach! Tip-toes required!

The other highlight of my trip was the group of bikie mates I made while I was there. I met them one night returning from a swim at the nearby hotel pool. They were sitting outside of their mobile phone shop, one of the many I passed on my way to school every morning, drinking cheap wine and smoking ciggies. They invited me to join, and I did, and once I knew these guys, each day after my lessons I would stop in at their shop and say hello, hang out inside and drink tea with them. They were all nice guys, fun to hang out with and belonged to the local chapter of a classic motorbike club. They were into wearing black, each had a cool old bike from around the 1950’s or so, and were very dedicated to their cause!

They invited me to their friend’s wedding, as well as the pre-wedding party the night before. I was the only bulé there, not to mention the only young female – none of the guys’ girlfriends came because they don’t drink – not that it stopped me… But it was good fun. The wedding was also nice, held in a big community hall with all the grandeur of the traditional Javanese wedding ceremony and the wedding garb that the lucky couple wear. What was most fun about hanging out with these guys was ‘rolling’ – or cruising around town on their motorbikes, which seemed to be a favourite pastime :)

So after the wedding I bid my new friends goodbye and boarded the 1:50am train from Jogja to Malang… more adventures to come in the next thrilling instalment…

I love investigations.

I haven’t written for such a long time. AGES in fact. I’d put it down to not wanting to get my ass in trouble for potential rumours and/or threats of violence against my staff for being such dishonest little fuckers, and considering this a public site, I refrained from putting in too much information. Still, now I’ve decided to come back to it and put a bit of info in here. I’m past caring about what people think any more.

So, let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start… Our Logistics team started uncovering some anomalies in prices for WatSan materials, and started asking questions, and now we’re in the middle of a full-blown investigation of all staff in Simeulue (including me). There's rumours of staff collusion with suppliers on prices, getting kickbacks, preferring particular suppliers for personal gain, and not delivering what materials in the quantities they say they're delivering... blah blah blah.

Staff R&R and Annual Leave were suspended until further notice, and ARC sent in a Senior Finance Person (SFP) from Melbourne to conduct interviews with all staff. The investigation process was extremely stressful and frustrating for everyone, particularly due to the length of time it took, the way in which it was done and the lack of information to us about what’s happening with the results. I wish they’d bloody hurry up! I have been fobbing off staff left, right and centre with “it will be here soon” and “I don’t know anything”. All I want to do is go on my R&R and get away from this bloody place!

As the SFP predicted on her departure, “this place is about to fall apart” – precisely what happened the next week, in spectacular fashion when my staff had a big argument and verbally abused each other. Hooray for WatSan!

I feel that this investigation has caused relatively ‘commonplace’ (so to speak – in Indonesia; corruption is ingrained in this place) activities, no matter how appropriate, to be blown totally out of proportion. It has made them seem so much worse than they actually are (I have no qualms about the seriousness of them, however), and chatting to people in other NGOs, this is not a case special to ARC.

ARC appears to place such huge importance on this process, and wants to treat it as a serious matter, yet the investigation has been done in a piecemeal fashion. It’s all been done for show and there’s little substance. It’s all well and good to do an investigation, but for goodness’ sake, do it properly.

The interview process was completely rushed, a number of people were not adequately interviewed (including me – I did not have enough time for my interview) or not interviewed at all. The 5 construction supervisors were all interviewed at once, allowing them time to potentially collaborate on their story. Our previous Logistics officer was neither interviewed nor involved in the process and our previous head of office was only chatted to ‘informally’.

I don’t even know there will be a process for staff to know the accusations against us, and receive the opportunity to argue against the allegations. Surely this is the right of all staff, particularly as the investigation has to date only revealed verbal allegations. Because there is no hard evidence, we cannot pin anything on anyone, even though the fraud policy states that we just need adequate verbal information to take action. I am extremely worried, given the nature of the staff and the situation that is Simeulue, that much of the ‘evidence’ in that report is potentially fabricated by some in order to bring others down, get themselves ahead, or get revenge for incidences that have occurred in the past. That’s how the staff are in this office. There’s a real ‘divide and conquer’ attitude. But all implicated staff should have the right to ‘a fair trial’.

Plus I have one staff member who, prior to the investigation, had applied for and won another position with another NGO. Yet due to this investigation, the position has been put on hold until the results of the investigation are known. I worry that if any allegations are made against this staff member which are not actually true, and they are totally innocent as they maintain, are we tarnishing their record forever by believing a story that someone has made up because they don’t like them? Are we preventing this person from being employed when they have every right to work for the NGO without suspicion for corruption? And does this person get to argue her case of innocence?

For my part, they were one of the people I suspected least, and from a manager’s perspective my signature is on every document they submitted for orders of materials. I had no problem with them at the time. However I do admit that for this person to maintain that they did not know anything was happening (and I'm sure it has, I'm just not sure to what extent) shows either total stupidity and ignorance, or what I think is actually true – they were implicated by simply knowing what was going on and turning a blind eye to it – something we could say for many, if not all, people in the office.

However I will never actually know this, because to date I have not been allowed to read the report. I don’t know if I’ll even get a chance to read it, because I was investigated as part of this too.

What our management must remember is that people like myself work with the staff here every day and we have both personal and professional relationships with them. It’s easy for someone in HR that is outside of the process to implement the recommendations because they personally do not have to deal with the consequences in Simeulue. They are isolated from the everyday stresses that this whole issue has caused and will continue to cause until the saga is over.

We must be extremely careful about the way we implement the report’s recommendations. Outside people must be very well briefed beforehand on each situation or possibly even not involved at all – hence my question about us reading the report and implementing the recommendations ourselves.

I also want to know if any other investigation has been undertaken; ie: is Simeulue the only perceived ‘corrupt’ office, or has this served as a prompt to formally review all our operations in Indonesia? We are ignorant if we think this is limited to Simeulue. Corruption is part of the every day in Indonesia – for example, by using a particular supplier you always get a freebie; a pack of cigarettes or an extra gallon of Aqua bottled water. It’s normal. ARC have to remember this. Sure it’s not how we should do things, and staff who have read the fraud policy know it, but old habits die hard.

What’s scary is I don’t know who’s taken it further and is actually taking big kickbacks from purchasing large quantities of items like quarry materials, timber, hardware etc. I really hope none of my staff are involved, but I become less and less adamant of it by the day. It’s hard not to be a cynic.

So the saga continues…

Hooray for Simeulue.

Every time someone writes me an email or a msg, I say, yeah I'm great, how you doing?

Fuck, that's a lie.

So, here 'tis:

I'm stressed to my eyeballs because:

• my program is months behind schedule due to a pricing/logistics process review,
• subsequently, the big boss has put the kibosh on all material delivery, which doesn't mean much because no materials have been arriving for us to construct anything anyway,
• my boss just left (we are only two expats now and I've lost my drinking buddy!),
• the community want our heads on stakes,
• my staff are totally stressed out, and:
• on top of that we are all being investigated for corruption.

I love Simeulue.

Out of Aceh

Well. Not really sure why I’m writing. Just bored I guess. I’m sitting in the Tiara Hotel in Medan, on the way back to Simeulue. I’ve just hit up Sun Plaza for some groceries – I always stock up on the comforts of home (which in this trip have included baked beans, cheese, capsicums, pasta, yoghurt – but no olives! Boohoo!!) – and have wandered back to my hotel room.

I have been in Banda Aceh since Saturday, so 4-and-a-bit days all up. My boss Paul, his wife Popy and I went back to farewell Natasha, our Logistics delegate, who used to work on Simeulue but has spent most of the last 3 or 4 months in BA. Oh whoops, I meant we went back for some staff meetings. On Saturday night she had a farewell bash at the Big Brother House (one of the 2 ARC staff houses – the better one with younger people and not the boss!), which was good fun and involved Proper Food.

Tuesday night was the local staff bash; everyone came around for a yummy Chinese dinner and karaoke on the magic mic – which we originally hired for the national staff who love to sing, but ended up being way more fun for us when they all left! We dug up quite a few gold nuggets from the 70s and 80s and spent the night screaming our lungs out. Great fun.

BA is such a different world to Simeulue. For a start, it’s a bustling metropolis of 400,000 people and a hell of a lot more expats. In fact almost every NGO and Red Cross society known to man ascended on the place soon after December 26, 2004. As a result, amny support services and buildings sprung up everywhere and the place rapidly grew (and continues to grow) at a rate of knots. There are proper restaurants (many of which are able to legally sell alcohol, and most of which I’m yet to visit – although I’ve managed to eat at a different one every meal this week!), parties on every weekend, and many groups of active people getting out and playing sport, mountain bike riding, surfing and running. A big singles scene exists there too. I’m always exhausted after visiting Banda because I spend the whole time drinking, eating and partying too much (oh yeah as well as working)! It reminds me a lot of Monrovia actually.

On Sunday, we went for a drive around BA. I’d done “the tour” before, but the others hadn’t… That said, we went to a beach I’d never seen, and a major leg of the tour I hadn’t yet seen was to mosque in the centre of town.

Baiturrahman mosque is, by far, the most beautiful mosque I’ve seen in Indonesia. A huge, sprawling white complex with beautiful contrasting black domes, it is the religious centre of the city. I was not allowed inside the building, but I was able to wander around the spacious grounds, with my hair covered of course (and long sleeves/pants. No arms or legs showing, ladies!). Let’s just say I was the only bulé for miles around, and the locals thought it was rather unusual-slash-amusing for one to be wandering around their sacred mosque. Not that they minded; I was just the focus of the gaze of every Acehnese for 20 minutes.

Banda Aceh is also quite mountainous, considering it is right on the coast. I was surprised at this when I first arrived. There are a number of hills behind the town shadowed by volcanoes dotted around the countryside. It really is a beautiful area; when you drive from the airport you are surrounded by these mountains, which slope down to a maze of rice paddies dotted with villages and mosques. And it’s just so green! Whenever I compare Indonesia with Australia, I’m always amazed at the contrast. Funny what a decent amount of rain can do... :)

And so it’s back to Simeulue tomorrow morning. Thank god the early morning (6:40am) flight was fully booked. We get to fly at 10:40 instead. Hooray for sleep-ins. We plan to stock up on gin (and other things, like olives!) from “Mr Ben’s” – which is just around the corner – on the way to the airport. Hopefully we can smuggle it through the airport. Shouldn’t be a problem on little Susi Air... fingers crossed.

In some ways I’m looking forward to going back. The simple life really is refreshing after the hustle & bustle of places like Medan and Banda Aceh. Not that I mind the big city, but when you get used to living in Simeulue, these places become very tiring very quickly! (not to mention access to alcohol 24-7!)

a little help deciding...

Ah gawd.... life just keeps getting more and more interesting...

So, my boss Paul has accepted a job in Banda Aceh. He leaves in a month! Which means.... I'll probably be A/Head of Office until they find someone new (if that's what they decide). I think it will be difficult to recruit someone that's prepared to come and work in Simeulue, especially if it's only for a short time (around 9 months I'm guessing, in order to close down our operations here by early next year). So who knows, maybe I'll be Head of Office until I leave Simeulue.

Paul and I are going to Banda Aceh tomorrow, for some meetings next week, and also to farewell our logistics delegate Natasha, so hopefully that will shed more light on what's gonna happen.

That whole concept scares me a bit. I don't feel experienced enough to be Head of Office. But of all the delegates in ARC I am probably the one who understands most about projects in Sim! And we are winding down our projects now; there is only the WatSan project and the construction project in Kota Batu (building 120 houses for people displaced by the earthquake), which also has an associated integrated program of health/hygiene/livelihoods training. I'm a bit worried about Kota Batu though, because it's been in the pipeline for 3 years and they haven't even started building houses yet. So many delays. The construction delegates haven't even visited the site. So bloody slack. It frustrates the hell out of me. Until construction begins the community aren't even remotely interested in doing any training, so one relies on the other. Plus the WatSan component of the construction designs hasn't even been properly considered! I get the distinct feeling they'll lump it all on me as the only ARC WatSan delegate in Indonesia... which would stress me out even more, on top of having to run the office. It would also mean I probably wouldn't get out to the field as much, which I'd hate. But that said, as HoO I'd also get to decide...

Plus I'm really gonna miss Paul. I love having him around, he's a great guy, really laid back and loves a drink (maybe a bit too much)! He's really active too, always out on his bike or going running. Thank goodness we have Nick, our new logistician here, for a bit of bule normality! But he's a lot older and more conservative than me, so I don't enjoy his company half as much as I do Paul's. But that said, I'm really happy for Paul - he finally gets to live with his family. He'll be so much happier in Banda Aceh, there's so many more people and things to do, and his job will be better paid, have better support for him and his family, and he won't be subject to the shit that regularly gets launched at us from ARC Banda.

And in terms of other departures: Jon, my mate from Care, is leaving on Wed. We're having a farewell for him tonight. His girlfriend Steph, another great mate, is leaving the following Sunday. So two of my favourite people are leaving! :( They have been the most fun to have around on the island, and are always keen to get out and about and do things. I will be very sad (not to mention bored!) when they leave. At least they're moving to Australia, so I can see them when I eventually get home!

Nam, my tennis buddy and another favourite person on the island, leaves in a couple of months too. I'll have to satisfy my tennis cravings through the local old guys that play. Still fun, and it will help my Bahasa, but not as fun (nor energetic!) as Nam. Plus, he is the only one prepared to play early in the morning; all the old guys play from about 4pm. Early morning is better because it's not so hot and there isn't a queue to get on the court.

The only people left after that will be Anna from GAA, Chigusa from Japanese RC (who are both great and like to get out and be active), 2 Norwegian Red Cross people (who we hardly see), plus 4 Germans who I don't see that much and who are quite a bit older and more boring... so the options are certainly shrinking! However, our national staff are lots of fun, and hopefully they will be able to fill the gap left by my other friends. Plus I'm also thinking I should get off my ass and explore Indonesia a bit more with my weekends, and use up some of my leave to do so. There are lots of places that are easy to get to from Medan that don't take much time to get to.

For example, on Sunday Steph and I are going to Medan and then to Berastagi to climb the volcano there. I am taking Monday off to do this, so back to work on Tues - simple! Should be fun too, a last hurrah for Steph and I.

So, all of these departures, the workload of Head of Office, and the probably lengthy delay before a new HoO arrival will definitely shape my intentions about staying on here. I'm strongly considering leaving at the end of my contract now, and travelling back home with my sister Ange.

I definitely have something to look forward to - Ange's arrival! She is travelling home in early August, after 2 years working in London. Yay!!! She gets to Medan on August 8; we plan to travel around Indo together and I want to show her around Simeulue too. Then she plans to go to Bangladesh to visit friends there. Possibly some other countries in SE Asia as well. I would love to join her for this part of her travel. Then I must decide to either come back here, or travel back home with her. I miss her so much, and can't wait to see her!!

If I did come back here, it would be because I want to support my WatSan team, and see the project to the end. It's scheduled to end 2008, but we're already 3 months behind and not making ground quickly, particualrly due to logistics. So who knows how long it will drag out for. I could be here for another year! But I think I'd like to be home for Christmas, or at the most by my birthday (end January). Something to aim for maybe.

So we'll just have to wait and see what happens... :)