working

I just turned off the lone book-on-cd that I downloaded to my mp3 player before leaving the States. I’m rationing it to myself, only a few tracks each night, to fill the quiet space in my room with a now-familiar voice. Time is passing quickly – I can’t believe the week is drawing to a close. It’s been a good one, and busy one. I wrote a lot, edited stuff, had lots of meetings and this and that. I think if I read another concept paper or try to analyze any more matrices, my head might explode. But it’s being out of the office, turning the endless stack of proposals and plans and paperwork into tangible experiences, that I’m anxious to do more of, and am beginning to.

Last weekend I went to cover the opening of a special training my colleagues were holding for the new local psychosocial teams. All Aceh residents, and tsunami survivors as well, these inspirational individuals will act as counselors for entire communities. It’s a unique and effective therapeutic approach that I’m learning more about all the time. Activities they’ll implement range from small discussion groups for adults, separated by gender, to games, singing and art projects for kids (much like Shades of Blue). The goal is to tap in to the resilience and strength which has sustained disaster-affected communities so far, and spur them on toward the final phases of healing and recovery through positive group activities. It’s not only interesting, it’s working, and empowers people in a lasting way.

Sundays, I quickly learned, are the only semi-days-of-rest around here. And mine entailed a trip to the newly-reopened Pante Birak, which I personally like to call the Super Wal-Mart of Banda Aceh. When most of the shops here are about the size of your living room, this two-story grocery-esque store is a haven for locals and expats alike. My day was made when I found… yes, a bottle of Clorox and a roll of paper towels (which no one uses here! nor do they have rolls inside their “rolls” of toilet paper because they don’t use dispensers, but that’s another story…)

That day, though, and again later in the week, I drove out (well, I don’t technically drive anywhere, the drivers do, which is still taking some getting used to), I rode out through the tsunami-affected areas and surveyed the progress. There is still a lot of rubble, but no mountains of debris. There are sagging tents and makeshift houses, but some new structures and restored homes, and workmen everywhere laying roads, building bridges, putting up more houses, tacking down rooftops – it’s a beehive of activity – the actions of recovery in process.

One site I visited was a temporary housing community to interview a friend of one of my officemates (literally “office mate,” as in I can look over the top of my computer screen and see her across our joined desk space). Wan Maulida and her daughter’s pictures are on the Photos page for you to see, and I spent a few hours getting to know them and learning about their life there. She and all her neighbors lived in the tsunami-devastated areas and are now lumped together in a small community of three-room, oddly brightly-colored houses (we all joke that someone from South Beach picked the color scheme for all the new housing here!). Even though they agree it’s not ideal, everyone I talked to was optimistic and thankful simply to have a place to live. I watched them haul water by the bucket-full back and forth through the muddy roads to their homes, watched them (and joined them) in wiping sweat from their foreheads in the baking heat and humidity, and I saw in them the word that captures their essence – resilience. Unspoken strength is innate in disaster survivors; after trauma, functioning itself is a victory, and the people of Banda Aceh are more than victorious…

The people of Banda Aceh are also very fun! My favorite driver, a local guy in his early twenties named Hadi, has a collection of mixed cds that makes even yours truly look like a novice. It’s all bootlegged music (as is almost anything here that comes on a cd or dvd here) and costs only a dollar or two, thus I plan on coming home with a case full! So, I’m not lacking for a good dose of cruising music when the need arises. However, I’ve unfortunately acquired the nickname “Britney Spears” among the drivers, even though it’s the Gwen Steffani songs that I sing all the words to…

In addition to a good music source, I’ve also acquired another essential in my life – a friend that cooks. A media colleague invited me over for a friendly dinner, but I soon found before me the most fantastic meal I’ve had since arriving here. And “what did you have?” you may ask… Well, I’m not exactly sure because the electricity was off (a daily occurrence in Banda), so I couldn’t see what I was eating per say, but it involved chicken and vegetables and was truly delicious. A Middle East native, he even prepared Basmati rice to perfection. Yum! And when I’m not making new friends that cook for me, I’m eating peanut butter and crackers, so, no worries, I am far from starving to death.

Other highlights of the week included calling in to Carrie’s surprise 30th birthday party (yeah!! Happy day, sista!), successfully chatting with Jennifer on SKYPE (which totally works and is *free* and downloadable from skype.com), reading the awesomely encouraging posts on my blog from you guys, and peering at my condo in Virginia Beach via satellite on Google Earth. The picture print-out of my Shore Drive neighborhood is now hanging on the wall here beside me… oh, it’s the little things.

Tomorrow, we’ll be sharing a special meal with our local staff. They’re all Muslim and the month of Ramadan they fast every day from sun up to sun down. So, the evening meal and prayer is a celebratory time of sorts, especially as the month draws to a close. And tomorrow, we’ll all gather to “break fast” with them with a big dinner at one of our houses. It’s a great way to honor such a dedicated and hard-working group of people – the work here literally couldn’t happen without them!

The power is off again now, and I’m going to try to sleep before my room gets too hot… We’ve just acquired the fifth house for incoming staff, and if you wouldn’t mind, do say a prayer that I’m able to transition over to the new one… on a scale of 1 to 10, it would raise my comfort level from about a four to about a nine. All the love and prayers I’m daily feeling are much, much appreciated… thank you.

With love from Banda,
bonnie jean