Trip to Penang

I've got to leave the country again because my visa has expired. I came in on a 30 day visa on arrival and it is almost expired. That means I have to take a trip to Penang island in Malaysia for a few days to get a new visa. How tough is that? I leave tomorrow morning and leave from Meulaboh to Medan this afternoon. I can't wait to eat at a western restaurant like Chili's again. I'm getting a bit tired of fish and rice every day. I'll be back on Saturday to Medan though.

Unique Communion

Today at church we had communion. Because of where we are though, it is impossible to get wine and grape juice is not common either. For the drink, the only thing we could find was Groovy Grape Soday. I'm sure God got a smile out of that one.

Women's Vocational Center in the news!

We made the Jakarta Post with an article about the center. Contrary to what the article says, we will be open longer than 3 months.

Jakarta Post Article

Acehnese woman finds solace through sewing

Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post/Meulaboh

Kartini rocks her daughter, Rafi Karanda (4 months old), to sleep in a miniature cloth hammock hanging from the door. After she is sure that Rafi is asleep, she begins sewing.

"I sew in this studio in order to temporarily get away from the tent. Sewing in the studio helps ease my trauma," she said.

The 30-year-old mother has good reasons for being traumatized. She lost her husband and a son to the tsunami disaster in December last year. Now, there are two children left, namely Rafi and Rima.

Kartini, the resident of Meulaboh, West Aceh regency, joined the sewing studio earlier this month. The sewing studio was set up by Samaritan's Purse, a foreign non-governmental organization (NGO), that was established to help mothers affected by the tsunami. As part of its efforts to help the Acehnese women, the organization has opened sewing and cooking studios, and a trauma counseling center.

Joining the sewing studio has given Kartini an escape from the tent. Living in a tent has been a miserable experience for her. She has to hug her children tightly to her when the wind rises and rocks the tent. In such situations, the trauma inflicted by the tsunami comes back to haunt her. "By sewing, I can ease the trauma, although I always have to make sure Rafi is OK," she said.

She only earns a little money from sewing. She even has to pay Rp 4,000 (0.4 U.S. cents) per day on the minibus to take her to and from the displaced persons camp where her tent is located. She is also frequently distracted from her sewing by Rafi. But, the fact that she can still sew makes Kartini happy.

Now, Kartini is dreaming that maybe one day she will be able to buy her own sewing machine so that she can sew by herself and make more money. She imagines having a house and sewing for a living.

Kartini was a seamstress before the tsunami hit Aceh's coastal areas on Dec. 26 last year. She had a lot of customers in her former kampong in Padang Serahet subdistrict, Johan Pahlawan district, West Aceh regency. The subdistrict is in the center Meulaboh, a coastal city in West Aceh regency.

Many of her customers perished in the tsunami, but she hopes that her remaining customers will remember her and will be willing to use her services.

The sewing studio where Kartini now works every day was established on Aug. 2 and it will stay open for three months. A total of 43 people attend the studio and all are victims of the tsunami. The NGO that helped set up the studio hopes that the women, including Kartini, will become self-reliant after learning sewing skills at the studio.

For Kartini, who is already a skilled seamstress, her participation in the sewing studio is only temporary. In the studio, she sews school uniforms that will be handed out free to child victims of the tsunami. She is paid between Rp 25,000 and Rp 27,000 by Samaritan's Purse for each uniform she makes.

Despite making only a little money, Kartini nevertheless says that attending the studio is much better than sitting scared in her tent as the wind threatens to blow it down.

Acehnese Bird Houses

I wake up each morning to the sound of swifts chirping which is a very nice sound. At first I thought that there were lots of birds around but it turns out that it is recordings of birds that I am hearing. The most prestigious food in all of food in China is something called birds nest soup. It is reportedly good for longevity and is served to honored guests only. For the history of birds nest soup, click here. All around Meulaboh there are enormous houses that I thought were big storerooms or something like that. Turns out they are houses for housing the birds. After they build their nests, they are harvested and sold for hundreds of dollars. The sounds I always hear are recordings to attract the birds to the houses.



Here is a photo I took this morning of one of our staff houses. You can see the massave bird houses in the background.

My 15 minutes

Today about 15 reporters came to the women's center in Meulaboh and interviewed me and some other people there. Reporters really can be quite nosey. I think they really liked the place and I'll be looking for newspaper reports about the center in the news. Almost all of the really big newspapers were there. Quite exciting.

New Computer!

I finally got my new computer. It is an Apple Powerbook 12" with a super drive and extra big hard drive. I'm excited to learn how to use it and play around with all the features. Sweet.

People

Dealing with people is hard. I love my new job but it has a lot to do with dealing with people. That makes it hard. Please be praying for me on Monday as there will be some major things happening in one of my projects. Hopefully the outcome will be good and either way the project will be able to move forward in a way it has been struggling to.

Enter the wind

I've managed to pick up a bit of a cough the last couple days and it is making me feel quite miserable today. I think part of this is because of the air conditioner in my room. I'm so used to not haveing one that the dryness and coldness is killing my lungs. It is interesting that Indonesians believe in something called "masuk angin" which means you catch a wind. At first I thought this was ridiculous until I realized that we catch a cold, equally as ridiculous. Either way, I'm not feeling very well.

Rubber

I just got back from Panga where there is a Rubber project that SP is doing. I'm now officially in charge of it. I got to see the fields where they are going to be planting the rubber trees to replace ones destroyed in the Tsunami. I wish I knew something about agriculture.

Panga

I'm taking a helecopter trip for the day today to Panga. I'm traveling up there to get a handle on a project. I can't write more because I need to leave for the airport. Later.

Quick Appology

Sorry everyone for the lack of updates recently. I've been flying between citys about every third day and I didn't have a computer until a few days ago. I still don't have a way to connect it to the Internet until a few more days so I'm still stuck borrowing other people's computers when I have the chance. My NEW laptop will be arriving in less than a week and so I will be switching it out again.

On Sunday I flew up to Banda Aceh and spent a couple days there. We visited some property and went over all the plans for the computer centers. Tuesday I flew to Meulaboh and now it is Indepenence Day so I have the day off. Still waiting to hear about the funding. We expect news any day now. I promise to write more when I have my computer and internet set up again.

New Computer

I decided to go ahead and buy a new computer this week. I bought a 12" Apple Powerbook. Yes, I have officially gone over to the other side. I've always been a little dissatisfied with Windows and have played around a lot with Linux over the years. As I am needing to buy a laptop and wanted to get something good, I couldn't find anything that matched the features of the powerbook for ANY price. Throw in that I get to play with Mac OS X and I'm sold. I also bought an iPod even thought I don't listen to music all that much. Maybe I'll start.

Anyways, I just got back from Meulaboh where I didn't really have a computer yet and there really isn't internet access so that is why I haven't written in a few days. I'll be in Banda Aceh starting Sunday and back in Meulaboh for a while starting Tuesday.

Medan

I got to Medan yesterday and officially started my new job of Progam Manager, Livelihoods. I spent most of the day meeting with people and learning the ins and outs of how stuff works at Samaritan's Purse in Indonesia. I'll be spending the next three or so weeks with the current Program Manager, Livelihoods learning the ropes. Monday I'll fly to Meulaboh and then back to Medan on Thursday. Sunday I'll be flying back to Banda Aceh finally.

More comments on Singapore

Here are a couple of funny signs that I have seen and remember:

In the bathroom next to the urinals was a sign that said,
"Our 'aim' is to keep the toilet clean. Your 'aim' will help."

On a patch of grass about a quarter of the size of a football field was the sign,
"Public Land: Enter at your own risk."

Risk of what? It is a patch of grass you can barely throw a frisby in. I guess you are out of luck if a meterorite hits you while you are on public land.

One thing Singaporians are very good at is making it convenient to give up your money. When I bought my digital video camera in Indonesia I waited around for 30 minutes trying to pay while they ran my local credit card, visa electron and my two foreign credit cards, visa and discover. After several attempts, copies of my passport, visa and drivers licenses shipped to their boss and trying to call my bank in America to confirm my visa card, they finally came to the conclusion that I couldn't use any of them. I had to go down five flights of stairs to an ATM machine and pull out all the money in cash and give it to them. In contrast, in Singapore they don't even look at my credit cards. They know they will work and charge it before you are really sure you want to purchase it. Oh, and they accept any kind of cash you have. In Indonesia they will only exchange perfect 2001 $100 bills without any marks or folds on them. If you hold one edge and it doesn't stand stiff like it has been in a wallet, they won't take it. We actually "launder" the money by starching and ironing to get it to where they will accept it. In Singapore it doesn't matter what shape it is in, they will take it.

Finally, while I was eating breakfast this morning, I was watching a crosswalk with cops standing at it. Many of the pedestrians were crossing when the walk light was red. The cops were pulling them over and giving them tickets. The funny part was that they kept doing it! People just kept coming.

I'm headed back to Indonesia tomorrow. I've purchased tons of stuff and had a great time. I'll fill you in more later.

Consumerism to the max

I've decided to write a bit of a critique of Singapore from what I have seen in the last few days. Singaporians really attempt to model themselves after the US though so most, if not all of this probably is applicable to the US as well.

Singapore is known as Asia's shopping center and it shows. Everywhere you go there is stuff to buy and helpful slogans encouraging you to buy. There are two main things that seem important to the people, improving the state of Singapore and improving their own life.

Here are some of the slogans I've seen:
Its about me, me, me.
The future is ours to build.
How well does it fit you?

There were many more slogans like this that stun me every time I see them. Basically they portray the advancement of mankind and Singapore and how important consumerism is to Singapore. It is SOO important for people to keep buying because if they don't, the economy will collapse. If Singaporians had to rank the important factors in their lives, it would look something like this: Singapore, Self, God, Job, Family, others. Singaporians have given up many freedoms and rights in the name of security and success. They are also incredibly self centered when it comes to getting ahead. If we follow the teachings of Moses and Jesus, we should love God first and others second. It really saddens me to see an entire nation so focused on getting their state ahead and then seeing themselves get ahead and then they start thinking about God and others.

Don't get me wrong, Singapore isn't a terrible place. On the contrary, it is like a piece of America plopped in the middle of Asia. The problem is just the general focus of the people on things other than God. One thing Indonesians have going for them is their devotion to their religion, not money.