15 hours in Aceh

It is my first morning in the office in Aceh, and I am waiting until people get out of morning meetings to get my official orientation.

I arrived in Aceh yesterday evening. Somehow, on the way up here, I found myself flying up with a buzz-cut wearing British construction worker named Wayne. He spends his days in the UK driving a truck and delivering materials for the building of terminal 5 at Heathrow. Now he is working as the warehouse manager in Lhoksumawe, about 100 miles away from Banda Aceh. The head of his logistics company knew people in Save the Children, and volunteered some of his staff to help out. Anyhow. I had a rather fun flight debating the worth of British vs. American English. Did you know that cotton candy is called cotton floss? What a totally inappropriate name.

When we got to Aceh, we got out of the plane on a beautiful airstrip, with mountains in the back, a clear sky, and a cool breeze. So different from the disgusting smog of Jakarta. We were picked up in the Save the Children vans, that have big stickers all over them, stating that they are “non-arms bearing vehicles” with large pictures of guns with the “no” symbol over them. We drove through the town, towards the office and the coast. Generally, it was a normal beautiful Indonesian town. There were large signs that stated that “You have now entered an area governed by Islamic Law”. This is one of the most Islamic areas of the largest Islamic country in the world. I am not sure how much this area is actually governed by Islamic law (which can be incredibly strict), but I have not seen a local woman without a headscarf yet.

On our way through town, the driver pointed out an area that looked like a new development site. There were bulldozers and pickups on top of newly flattened piece of ground. The driver told us that that was in fact the mass burial site, where over 100,000 people were buried. It had just been finally covered over. Another 100,000 people are buried separately all across Aceh.

I got taken to the office, which is in fact three different buildings, all next to each other, and introduced around to everyone. Way more names than I can remember. And then to the house where I will be staying. The house is painted fluorescent colors inside, with each room getting its own color. I am sharing the room with women in child protection. In a few days, I may get the luxury of getting a room.

In a few minutes I am off to “the field”, to the place where the absolute worst of the damage where the tsunami hit. They are still taking bodies out of the rubble, in some places. I’ll write more when I can.