Mmm. Hamburger

Jakarta Hotel Puts $110 Hamburger on Menu

JAKARTA, December 18 (Reuters) - A hotel in Indonesia is dishing out a hamburger that costs more than twice the monthly minimum wage in some parts of the country.

The $110 hamburger offered by the Four Seasons is made of Kobe beef with foie gras, Portobello mushrooms and Korean pears -- served with french fries, of course.

They're not exactly selling like hot cakes yet, but the hotel says it has sold 20 of the 1.0 million rupiah ($110.1) hamburgers since they were launched this month.

"One burger has 225 grams of Kobe beef. It is so expensive because the flavour is really different," said Erwan Ruswandi, the chief of the restaurant offering the gourmet burger.

"The calves in Kobe get special treatment ... they drink beer mixed with milk, vitamins and eat pesticide-free grass. We add foie gras and also some Korean pears. We import all the materials, and they are high quality so it is so expensive."

The minimum wage in most parts the country of 220 million is as low as around $40 a month.

A tiny number of Indonesians are among the richest people in Asia while millions live in dire poverty in urban slums or shanty towns in the countryside.

Shake Shake Shake!

Earthquake #20 (well, there have been a bunch of little ones lately)

Magnitude? 5.8
Date? Monday, 18 December, 04:10:21 AM local time
Epicenter? 45 miles SSW of Banda Aceh or 4.891°N, 95.059°E
What was I doing? Sleeping. All the big ones have been during the night. This one was a good shaker!...But I stayed in bed and waited it out. :-)

Pilkada

Pilkada is the Indonesian word for local elections. Aceh had its general election on Monday December 11. The governor (gubernor), mayors (walikota) and district heads (bupati) were all up for grabs. This is the first time mayors and district are elected democratically.

There's been a ton of coverage in international media and you can read them if you want in-depth coverage. But to give you the overview, there were 8 pairs of gubernatorial candidates. There were 1.5 pairs of GAM-affiliated candidates, but GAM did not officially endorse anyone, thus the candidates ran as independents. The guy who's the projected winner - Irawandi was a political prisoner and was actually in jail in Banda Aceh at the time of the tsunami. The water knocked down the prison and he escaped. He also is a OSU (Oregon) alum and studied veterinarian medicine there. In pre-election polls 2 weeks prior, he was not even in the top 3. The quickcounts have him at 39% (in 2 separate polls). It came as a big shock to most election insiders because the pre-election pools did not have any candidate above 25%. Some have attributed his win to grassroot level mobilization in the previous GAM stronghold areas in North Aceh. That area is also most densely populated area in Aceh. Another reason may be because Irawandi was seen as the traditional Acehnese candidate, not backed by any national party. So, an undecided rural voter would likely vote for him. On a side note, 77% of Acehnese live in a rural setting.

Lobby of the Swissbel

On Monday, I came back from Jakarta around noon, so I missed out on all the election observing hoopla (most polling stations closed around noon). I attended the 2 evening press conferences at the local 4-star hotel that night to hear the results from the 2 separate organizations doing quick count. The hotel lobby was packed with international journalists, local and international NGO reps and election junkies like me.

While we were having dinner, Irawandi walked past our table and sat down in the private glass-enclosed room. He was all smiles.

He's the fuzzy guy sitting down with glasses. We were all star struck.

Gobbling Away in Aceh

Last year, I had a turkey sandwich at Caswell's with my boss on Thanksgiving Day. It was a rather forgettable Thanksgiving.

This year...did we put on a show!

A friend and I took off from work at 2:30pm and started cooking like a pair of madwoman. The 12.34lb turkey was tenderly massaged with butter and garlic and lovingly rubbed down with sage. It went in the oven promptly at 3:30pm. We then shifted our focus to the pumpkin (completely from scratch) and apple pies, the mashed potatoes and stuffing. We were sipping on white wine, had 2 ovens going, all 4 burners burning, and good cooking music blasting. We were on a roll!

Around 6:30, as we were basting our bird, we realized that the oven was no longer hot! We ran out of gas! Literally! By 7, a new gas tank had arrived and the bird continued roasting. By 8, the little temperature poppy thing was still unpopped and we were late! We took it out anyway and piled everything into a car and headed over to another friend's house to feast. While en route, the poppy thing popped up! We were oh so delighted (didn't really want anyone to get sick from an undercooked turkey!)

The turkey turned out beautifully and so did the mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, cranberry sauce (all the way from Jakarta), 2 kinds of stuffing, grilled veggie, corn on a cob, pumpkin pie, apple pie, jell-0, and whipped cream!

Happy Turkey Day from Aceh!

Here are more photos from Thanksgiving in Aceh

Black Magic Woman

...or rather man. This was in the Jakarta Post today.

Witch Doctor Tries to Jinx Bush's Visit

A man claiming magic powers drank freshly slaughtered animal and snake blood Thursday as part of a ritual he said would jinx the upcoming visit of U.S. President George Bush.

Ki Gendeng Pamungkas slit the throat of a goat, a small snake and stabbed a black crow in the chest, mixed their blood with herbs before drinking the potion and smearing it on his face...he believed the ritual would succeed because "the devil is with me today."

He believed the ritual - performed around one kilometer from the palace in Bogor - would cause Secret Service agents guarding Bush to fall into a trance and believe the U.S. leader was under attack, causing chaos.

Penang Pics!

Wheeeeeew it's been a long week! It's been all work and no play for Sharon...well...I did take some time off Wednesday night to play some mah-jong, since all 3 of us picked up mah-jong sets in Penang last weekend.

Finally had some quiet time this evening and posted some of the good photos from the trip. Check them out!

Penang Bound!

After a very very long 4-day week, I'm going to Penang, Malaysia for the long weekend. Here's a recent article about Penang from the NY Times Travel section. In the article, it specificially mentions the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. That's where we're staying!!! Fatt huh???

Will take lots of pictures!

This is what I do in Banda on a Monday night

It's past 1am. A friend and I just watched the last 5 episodes of Prisonbreak. All done!!!...Until Season 2 makes its debut in Aceh!

What's next? I think Lost.

Ugg, better get to bed.

Bats, Pizza & Fireworks

I celebrated my birthday yesterday...numero 2 in Aceh.

We went down to the beach at Lampuuk around 5pm to relax and watch the sunset. We sat down at one of the beach bordered by some large caves. Right as the sun dipped under the horizon, thousands and thousands of bats flew out of their home for feeding. As the throng exited their cave, their formation in the sky looked like a long piece of black ribbon being tossed by the sea breeze. It was a pretty amazing sight!

After the bat viewing, we walked to Joel's Restaurant about 5 minutes away from the beach. Joel grew up in Lampuuk and had a restaurant on the beach before the tsunami. Because of his business and the large number of backpackers that passed through Lampuuk previous to the tsunami, he had made many friends from Europe and was living in Italy when the tsunami happened. A couple of months later, he returned to Lampuuk to help to rebuild his community. I met him over a year ago when he first returned. With funding from NGOs, Joel opened his restaurant a few months back with a help of an Italian woman. He built a traditional Acehnese house on stilts, a brick oven and started growing lovely basil plants in the front yard. The restaurant is now a favorite of ours. It serves up fantastic thin crust pizzas, great pastas, and fresh grilled fish.

Mmmm...pizza

Friends surprised me a lovely chocolate cake after we gorged ourselves on 9 pizzas, 2 plates of pasta, a lobster, a gigantic grilled fish, and countless beers. The cake was made by a woman in the village...maybe she had gone through our project's cake making vocational training! :)

Post-dinner activities included fireworks on the beach. During the past couple of weeks, vendors have been selling fireworks on the streets in celebration of Idul Fitri - the end of Ramadan. We stocked up quite a few roman candles, sparklers and a variety of other pyrotechnic paraphernalia.

Pretty cool huh???

Nima enjoying her sparkler

Someone lighting a roman candle in the big fire.

Thanks to everyone for the birthday greetings! You've made this a most memorable birthday!

$5 Addiction

First there was Alias (it got too confusing and and I gave up after Season 3). Then there was Grey's Anatomy (Seasons 1 & 2). Now there's Prisonbreak.

I'm a total sucker for television series.

For less than a McDonald's Value Meal, I can score myself an entire season here in Banda town. The variety has gotten to be mind boggling: Dawson's Creak, Buffy, CSI from every city there is, Sex and the City, Smallville, L Word, 6 Feet Under, Nip/Tuck, The Simple Life, ER, Seinfeld, Will and Grace, Friends, Lost, The Amazing Race, Entourage...you name it, Banda's got it! Plus the quality of series are typically pretty good. Except once in awhile, they jumble up the order of the episodes!

A friend and I have been cooped up in my room since last Saturday watching 2-5 episodes of Prisonbreak per session. I've got the big projector screen and surround-sound. It's a pretty sweet set up!

We finished Season 1 last night. Will start Season 2 tonight...

...will they break out of Fox River???

My Sweet Bike

I had been contemplating buying a motorbike for a few months now. Some friends thought it was a great idea and some thought it was just a horrible horrible idea! I came back to Aceh after vacay and was in a total funk and decided that buying a bike would make me really happy. So I went out to the dealership over lunch one day and bought one!

And oh am I happy with my decision!!!

I've gotten to be pretty good at maneuvering it around the Banda town traffic. The traffic circles were a bit daunting at first - as the traffic goes clockwise instead of counter clockwise and there are always 500 bajillion cars and motorbikes around it. But after a couple of whirls around the circles around town, I feel pretty confident now...the trick is to just keep going at the same speed as everyone else! Then the next test was driving through busy market streets and narrow back alleys. So on Saturday, the friend who taught me how to ride and I went around the busy streets and alleys surrounding the central market. The streets are currently even more crowded now than normal because it's the end of Ramadan. Proud to say, I made it out of there alive too!

Here are the specs for my bike...sorry it's in Indonesian.

Yiiiiikes

Sorry to all those loyal readers out there. I've been a total delinquent blogger!

I spent 3 weeks away from Aceh. First was in Jakarta for a team building session, which turned out to be pretty fun. Saw some friends before hoping on a plane to Singapore, where I met up a relative that I haven't seen in years! Then, 7-hour plane ride to Tokyo and 9 more to San Francisco, where I was greeted by dim sim, trip to Napa, chocolate bouchons, and yummy duck (all within 12 hours of landing). Went to Alcatraz for the first time ever and drove up to Davis (where I lived from '89-'94) and had lunch with a friend who's a soon-to-be mommy. Heaps of thanks to ChoiboyX who let me crash at his place, searched for the perfect fish taco with me (although I ended up having an enchilada) and took me to the airport at 5am!

DC was fantastic as well...well aside from all the medical appointments to make sure that I'm not dying from some asymptomatic tropical disease. I was able to catch up with friends, family and coworkers. It was great timing that a friend from Chicago was in town for law interviews and another from SF was in town for training. Other highlights included a wonderful Sunday afternoon with Can Attack and company where wine consumption paired with experimental and competitive cooking started at 2pm. Went bowling with 3 high school buddies at this new posh bowling alley and almost beat Captain F. Had planned on doing a midnight monument biketrip with a friend, but that fell through...will have to save it for next time! All in all, had a great great time in DC.

From DC, I took the Chinatown bus up to New York for a 2-day jaunt. Stay with Mr. Ironwood (Thanks!!!) in his 6-story walkup (85 steps that nearly killed an IKEA furniture delivery boy). NY is one of those places where everyone seems to end up at some point. I saw friends from high school, college, DAI, and even hung out in Central Park with a coworker from Jakarta!

Now I'm back in Aceh and not totally thrilled to be here. It's been gloomy here with the onset of rain season. Ramadan is in full swing, meaning 3 restaurants are open for lunch and everyone in the office is in a dour mood. Also a bit depressing that friends are leaving the place, meaning if I don't make an effort to make new friends, I'll be stuck watching 'Lost' in my room every night. Blaaaaaaaah. But at least I can now download Season 3 of Grey's Anatomy and I just bought myself a motorbike!!!!...More on that later. So...things are on the upswing!

Health Exam and Koran Reading

The provincial election that will be held on December 11 will be the largest direct election ever held in Indonesia. Over 200 candidates are running for Governor, 19 Bupati (Head of Regency) and a handful of Mayors. But before each candidate can be officially register, they must pass 2 tests.

The Independent Election Commission (KIP) requires each candidate to undergo a health examination and also tests their ability to recite the Koran. The seven-hour medical examinations will test their mental health, lungs, heart, eyes, ears, nose, abdomen, throat and central nervous system. Candidates found to have a history of drug abuse will be eliminated. They also must pay $200 for the test.

More importantly, each Candidates' ability to recite the Koran will also be tested. Each candidate will be asked to read for 15 minutes!

Homebound!

I'm going home for 2 weeks in 2 weeks! Just bought my tickets, it's a done deal!

I'll be in SF from Sept 10 - 12 and DC from 13 - 24. I'm also hoping to make it up to New York for a day or two. Drop me an email if you want to be included on the social calendar :)

Tension

First the 1-year anniversary of the Peace Agreement (August 15), then followed by Independence day (August 17) and the religious police raiding an UN compound (also August 17), tension in Banda is a little high right now. It'll probably remain high until the provincial election that is scheduled for December 11.

On Tuesday, there was a large rally in Banda Aceh in front of the Grand Mosque. The crowd was mostly from outside the city. I was headed to Lhokseumawe that day; on the road we saw caravans of large trucks filled full of demonstrators who were making their way to the provincial capital.

Photo from the Serambi Indonesia newspaper

The center part of the town as well as the University area were closed down, causing major traffic detours. However, the rally was peaceful.

What has been a bigger headache for the international community has been the religious police.
Here's the article from Deutsche Presse-Agenteur

Jakarta- The United Nations has lodged a complaint after Muslim morality police in Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province broke into a UN diplomatic compound and peered through windows at sleeping foreign diplomats, an official confirmed Wednesday. The late-night raid, which violated international conventions on diplomatic privilege and immunity, was the latest incident involving Aceh's controversial "Sharia police," who have illegally detained women for not wearing headscarves and publicly flogged people for drinking alcohol.

The incident occurred at 11 p.m. last Thursday night when 30 men, both Sharia officers and regular city policemen, forced their way into the compound of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, despite protests from UN guards.

"It's a violation of diplomatic rules - a clear violation," Barry Cane, a WFP spokesman, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Cane said the Sharia police, who are civil servants charged with enforcing a controversial Islamic law statute in Aceh, wandered around the compound, which contains both offices and residences for foreign UN workers.

He acknowledged that the policemen peered into the bedroom windows of UN diplomats while they were sleeping.

"I don't even want to speculate" on their motives, Cane said, although another foreign aid worker familiar with the raid told dpa they were hoping to catch the Westerners drinking at their private bar.

"The matter was taken up with the provincial government, which apologized," Cane said, adding that a UN security official was in Aceh investigating the incident, and that the WFP filed a protest with the Aceh police department.

However, Cane said the WFP remained concerned that the Sharia police, who are apparently operating out of control of any authority in Aceh, would attempt to raid the compound again, even though they know it's a diplomatic mission protected by international convention.

The Indonesian parliament allowed Aceh to implement Sharia, or Islamic law, in 2003, despite the rest of the Muslim-majority nation being secular.

Since then, the Sharia police have become a law unto themselves, dragging women off of motorcycles and out of hotel lobbies for not wearing headscarves, making lewd sexual references, and illegally detaining them.

The group's antics have infuriated both Acehnese citizens and foreign relief agencies, which are spending billions of dollars helping Aceh recover from the 2004 Asian tsunami as well as a recently-finished 29-year separatist war.

It remains unknown why the UN or Indonesia's Foreign Ministry did not publicly acknowledge the incident, which occurred on the country's August 17 Independence Day.

"No one wants to make a big deal about it publicly at the moment," one UN official, speaking on background, told dpa. "It's a very sensitive issue, but there was no attempt to cover it up."

Sharia police officials in Aceh could not be reached for comment.

© 2006 DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agenteur

Shake Shake Shake!

Earthquake #19

Magnitude? 5.2
Date? Thursday, 24 August, 01:31:51 AM local time
Epicenter? 55 miles SSW of Banda Aceh or 4.721°N, 95.083°E
What was I doing? Sleeping

There was another earthquake Wednesday afternoon aruond 6pm, a pretty good jolt. But it wasn't on the USGS website!

Decisions Decisions

Monday night had finally rolled around in KL. I had been there for 3 full days and had tried to do as many non-Aceh things as possible. I watched 2 movies (bad ones), went to an orchestral concert, took public transit, ate scallops, oysters, cherries, roasted chestnuts and pork, and walked and walked and walked.

Then it came to my last meal in a civilzed world and I was just completely overwhelemed with the decision making process. I was at the Suria KLCC, which is the uber-mall underneath the Petronas Twin Towers. It's got a super foodcourt and a multitude of restaurants. What do I have? Do I have some Chicken Shwarma at the Lebanese place in the food court? How about some Beef Fajita at Chili's, or do I go for some sushi at one of the Japanese places? Or maybe some Green Curry with Shrimp at the chic Thai restaurant? Or a lamb chop from the San Francisco Steakhouse. What I really wanted was a couple of fish tacos, Baja style. Unfortunately, Chili's didn't have that on the menu. Oh so sad.

I ended up having a BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad with extra avocado and a bowl of Potato and Leek Soup at the California Pizza Kitchen. HA.

Click here for KL photos.

Greetings from Kuala Lumpur

I've got a long weekend. Thursday was Indonesia Independence Day (61 years!) and Monday's the Ascension of Muhammad. I took the opportunity and skipped town for a much needed mental break. I arrived in KL last night. What a lovely city! I love how the people here speak pretty good English, Malay (which is 80% similar to Indonesian) and Chinese...so I can get around with no problems at all!

I found a great deal online for a 5-star hotel for about $70 per night and decided to pamper myself. The hotel is located about 2 min away from one of KL's monorail lines, so it's super easy to get around. However, the Monorail/subway systems are owned by several different companies, so transitting between lines is kind of a pain and you have to buy separate tickets. Oh well. It's still nice to be able to take public transit though.

I went shopping at the mall that's at the base of the Patronas Towers this morning. Caught a movie - Mistress of Spices...thumbs down. Then, walked over to the Bukit Bintang area of town and just bought myself a 100GB harddrive for about $100. Not bad! Tonight I'm going to hit up the Chinatown night market.

Sunday is the opening day of the Malaysia Philaharmonic Orchestra, so I'm hoping to catch one of the four free concerts that will be going on during the day. Gotta soak in all that cultural stuff!!!

Shake Shake Shake!

Earthquake #18

Magnitude? 5.4
Date? Sunday, 13 August, 03:41:46 PM local time
Epicenter? 40 miles W of Banda Aceh or 5.520°N, 94.732°E
What was I doing? Laying in bed, finishing disc 8 of Grey's Anatomy* Season 2.

I'm totally addicted to this show. I bought Season 2 on Tuesday. I finished it this afternoon. 8 discs in 5 days. Nuts!

Protest in my backyard

A protest organized by the Students Care for Palestine and Lebanon Movement marched upon The European Union house and the UN Compound on Tuesday afternoon. There were about 90 of them. I think this was by far the largest and well-organized protest in Banda Aceh since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah started. The protest was well policed and there were no arrests. Acehnese are used to protesting (usually against the military or the government) so they know pretty much what they can / can't do in a protest without getting in serious trouble.

They burned an Israeli flag, scaled the fence and mounted a banner at both the UN and the EU. They also demanded admission for 10 of it's members to enter the compound and air their grievances. This was refused. They then burned banners at the gate and marched away before dispersing.

On their leaflets, the protesters:

• Urges the UN to make a concrete solution to save the civilian in Palestine and Lebanon.
• Urges the UN to put Israel on charge for its Military Aggression to Palestine and Israel.
• Urges the UN and EU to draw/pull out the US right of veto in the UN.
• Stated to support the Peace troops which prepared by TNI to Lebanon.
• Asks all the Muslim in Indonesia especially in Aceh to gives material and moral support to what Palestine and Lebanon fights in against Israel Zionist.
• Boycott the US products and its allies in Indonesia.

The UN and EU compounds are about a 5 min walk from my office but I was no where near the protest. These photos are from the ADB photographer.

I feel like I'm in Berkeley again!

Climbing the EU Fence

Kind of a cool picture huh?

The banner says: UN should charge Israel;
UN must respond fast, resolute, neutral;
No US veto in UN; UN must prove it's not a US puppet;
Send peacekeepers

Finished!!!

The rain stayed away, the girls played with big smiles, the boys played their hearts out (5 setter) and the crowed was wild (the home team won). The congressman and family seemed happy which made USAID happy (plus we branded like hell).

So glad it's over. Well, I still got 200+ balls sitting in my office waiting to be picked up and the final reports that need to be turned in. But so glad it's over!

Here are some pictures from the event


Traditional ceremony of blessing the court and the players before the match.






The winning team

Life or No Life?

How important is your job to you? I have encountered plenty of workaholics in my life. I have close friends back at home who have worked at investment banks where working back-to-back 100 hours a week is not unusual. I’ve had bosses who call me at 10 pm on a Saturday while on vacation to discuss the next site visit. I have friends in Aceh who work six-and-half days a week and toil until 2am revising work plans. With the tsunami rebuilding process being one of the most highly scrutinized humanitarian recovery efforts in history, organizations are under a tremendous amount of pressure to deliver deliver deliver – from the number of houses that are under construction, to how many latrines you’ve built, to how many coconut seedlings you’ve provided, to how many temporary employment opportunities you’ve created. The monitoring indicators are endless and the pressure is often intense from headquarters and donors.

Most people are well informed of the level of pressure involved in the job before signing their name on that contract. But what happens when you have an intense workload and want a life too? Or do you instead feel like you’ve overcommitted yourself and find yourself not doing either very well? Waking up at 3am worrying if you did your best on that proposal because you feel guilty for going out for beers? Cancel dinner plans with friends because you have to submit that report to that demanding 50-yr divorced workaholic boss who doesn’t have a life?

Is it possible to be successful at both?

Sharia Law in Aceh

In response to fahdp's comment about punishment of adultery in Aceh, International Crisis Group (ICG) has just published a really good article titled Islamic Law and Criminal Justice in Aceh.

The article gives a brief history of how sharia law evolved in Aceh and the issues in enforcement.

Shake Shake Shake!

Earthquake #17

Magnitude? 4.9
Date? Wednesday, 2 August, 12:26:42 AM local time
Epicenter? 70 miles SE of Banda Aceh or 4.878°N, 96.135°E
What was I doing? Trying not to think about volleyball

This one was one quick jolt followed by some pretty big sways - like I was on a boat.

Balled Out

My life has been taken over by volleyball. Saturday at 7am, I'm crawling out of bed to give an opening speech at the girls tournament. Monday night at 2am, I'm waking up worrying if my additional 270 balls will arrive on time. Wednesday night at 5am, I'm panicking if it'll rain on Saturday afternoon and the whole thing would have to be scrapped!

Most people don't understand how much preparation goes behind organizing an event this size. I've got 16 villages and 8 schools participating in this 10-day tournament that is sponsored by USAID, Nike and APL, a shipping company. That's 24 teams of 12 players each. The finals will be on this Saturday and the event will be attended by an US Congressman who's decided to drag out his entire family (wife + 3 kids) to Aceh for a 3-day visit as well as the Governor of Aceh Province and a bunch of local officials. I've had to work with Nike on getting their products shipped here (they were suppose to send out 12 balls PER participating team = 288, instead they shipped out 18!), work with the shipping company on getting their money transferred to our village that's hosting the tournament, coming up with a budget that is all encompassing, work with my procurement and accounting staff to make sure that village is spending every dime properly, take care press releases, go on-site to make sure the banners are hung up correctly, make sure the village will prepare enough food for 400 people for the BBQ that's following the awards...OK, my head is beginning to spin just writing this. So I think I better stop.

I plan on getting very drunk on Saturday night. Either celebrating the success of the tournament or the fiasco it might turn out to be.

Another One?

According to CNN.com just now, a 6.1 earthquake hit Western Indonesia on the island of Sumatra.

I'm ok! Didn't feel a thing! No worries!

'Aceh World'

Some entrepreneurial Acehnese started an English weekly newspaper. Typically I don't pay much attention to it, but a copy landed on my desk today so I was forced to read it during downtime this afternoon.

This story grabbed my interest in this week's 'Aceh World':

"Italian National Arrested for Adultery"

...An Italian, 30 years of age, who works with an international humanitarian organization in Aceh was arrested by the local sharia police for committing adultery with his translator, an Acehnese woman...The local sharia police received an anonymous text message about the whereabout of the pair...The sharia police broke down the front door and caught them red-handed...The Italian was also caught in possession of dried ganja leaves and alcoholic drinks. The suspect will be charged with the crime of possession of narcotics with a maximum penalty of 10 years prison time. The woman suspect will be charged with a violation of the sharia law for committing adultery.

They were caught red-handed! I wonder what that means...

'Aceh World' is like the Hello! and People and National Enquire for Banda! Maybe I should get a subscription.

Lake Toba

From Medan to Tebingtinggi to Pematangsiantar and then onto Parapat at the shore of Lake Toba. We drove and drove. First through the non-descriptive urban sprawl of Medan, then past Bridgestone rubber tree plantations and terraced rice paddies. Slowly mosques became churches and we knew we had entered Batak country. The famed Lake Toba lies in the middle of this mystical land. The Lake itself was created some 75,000 years ago after a massive volcanic explosion that was supposedly exponentially more powerful than Krakatoa and Vesuvius. Water filled the collapsed caldera and created the serene 400-square mile lake. Fast forward a few thousand years, as the fault line beneath Toba shifted, another volcano grew and soon enough, it peaked through the water and formed the island of Samosir in the giant lake.

Legend has it that no Westerner laid eyes on Toba until 1863 - at least none who survived the experience. The daunting mountains and the fearsome reputation of the Batak people whose homelands surround the lake - the original ''headhunters of Sumatra'' - had for centuries worked to discourage upcountry wayfaring. The Batak I encountered on my trip were more than friendly. They approached with smiles at the dock wanting to practice their English. They showcased their strong traditions of singing and guitar playing on ferry rides. They returned our request with smiles when asked if we could take photos of their traditional houses with boat-shaped roofs.

On Sunday morning, as we drove through the green plateaus of Samosir, we passed women in their Sunday best clutching bibles and slowly making their way to service. We heard hymns and songs escaping from country churches that dot the expansive landscape. We saw shirtless young boys playing soccer lakeside.

Only too soon did Sunday afternoon approach and it was time to get in the car and drive and drive again. We left behind the lake, the island, the churches, the cool breeze and descended back to where we came from.

On the road from Medan to Lake Toba. What's wrong with this picture???

Lake Toba before sunrise...yes I woke up at 5:45 to take pictures!

Ferry pulling up to Tumok on Samosir Island

Details on a Batak house

Nature

Traditional Batak house

House

Horas! = Hello!

Soccer on Samosir (Island), Toba (Lake) and Sumatra (Island) in the background.

Going to church

Being serenaded by 2 Batak boys on the ferry

A Happenin' Place

Mega tsunami in Aceh...
Bombs in Kuta...
Mud slides in Sulawesi...
Earthquake in Yogya...
Tsunami in Pangandaran...
Bird flu...all over

Thanks for those who were concerned about me. The tsunami hit near the recent Yogya earthquake. Same fault line but different island.

Mangosteens

It's not a cross between a mango and Bruce Springsteen.

Kingdom: Planta
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Clusiaceae
Genus: Garcinia

Mangosteens are in season at the moment and I'm completely smitten with these beautiful fruits. The purplish outer shell is rather hard. But don't be fooled as they're easily opened after a couple of pokes with your fingernail, or a butter knife - if you're civilized. Inside, a milky white fruit, shaped a peeled mandarin orange is engulfed in a deep wine colored spongy layer waiting to be devoured.

Mangosteens are rarely found in the US because they can only be grown in the tropics and are illegal to import without fumigation due to fears that they harbor the Asian fruit fly.

We went to one of our villages in Leupung district, about 30 minutes south of Banda Aceh. There was a fruit orchard full of ripen mangosteens, rambutans (furry red fruits that taste like lychees) and durians (stinky spiky things). The villagers knew that I liked mangosteens and picked like 20 of them off the tree. I ate most of them there and carried back enough for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I ate all these, plus more!

My fingers are still slightly red!

Export Quality Bags

The typical plastic bag in Aceh are these thin and wimpy black and pink striped bags. They're pretty inconsequential compared to their hardy and strong American cousins. However, the other day at Pante Pirak, affectionately referred to as PP, which is a local super market chain, I got this hardy and strong American-bound plastic bag with a dollar store graphic on the outside! The cashier didn't even have to double bag for my 4 large boxes of juice! The bag was meant for some dollar store chain in Texas!

The other night, cans of ginger ale arrived in this California-bound bag:



Thank you to Wooly for saving the bag for me! What a great present!!!

"The Development Set"

Excuse me, friends, I must catch my jet
I'm off to join the Development Set;
My bags are packed, and I've had all my shots
I have traveller's checks and pills for the trots!

The Development Set is bright and noble
Our thoughts are deep and our vision global;
Although we move with the better classes
Our thoughts are always with the masses.

In Sheraton Hotels in scattered nations
We damn multi-national corporations;
injustice seems easy to protest
In such seething hotbeds of social rest.

We discuss malnutrition over steaks
And plan hunger talks during coffee breaks.
Whether Asian floods or African drought,
We face each issue with open mouth.

We bring in consultants whose circumlocution
Raises difficulties for every solution --
Thus guaranteeing continued good eating
By showing the need for another meeting.

The language of the Development Set
Stretches the English alphabet;
We use swell words like "epigenetic"
"Micro", "macro", and "logarithmetic"

It pleasures us to be esoteric --
It's so intellectually atmospheric!
And although establishments may be unmoved,
Our vocabularies are much improved.

When the talk gets deep and you're feeling numb,
You can keep your shame to a minimum:
To show that you, too, are intelligent
Smugly ask, "Is it really development?"

Or say, "That's fine in practice, but don't you see:
It doesn't work out in theory!"
A few may find this incomprehensible,
But most will admire you as deep and sensible.

Development set homes are extremely chic,
Full of carvings, curios, and draped with batik.
Eye-level photographs subtly assure
That your host is at home with the great and the poor.

Enough of these verses - on with the mission!
Our task is as broad as the human condition!
Just pray god the biblical promise is true:
The poor ye shall always have with you.

Ross Coggins
"Adult Education and Development" September 1976

"Aaa-Weeh!"

That's how the people say A&W here.

A&W has arrived in Banda. My office is filled with these plastic cups they gave out on opening weekend.

The Mozza Burger = CRAP
Fish Sandwich = Not so bad but so tiny!
Chicken Strips = Looks can be deceiving
Rootbeer = Sweeter than I remembered
Curly Fries = Mmmmmmm, soo good

Happy Belated Fourth!

I was trying to remember what I did last year for the 4th of July. Can't really remember! I had to look back at the blog from last July and seemed like I was busy decorating my pad and dreaming about Salami (Cousin Will- where's the salami you promised?)

All the USAID folks went down to Medan for a party at the American Consulate, which meant 2 less Americans to party with on the Fourth. I also got this brilliant idea of trying to find fireworks in Banda. After checking out a couple of stores in the Chinese part of the town, I ended my search empty handed. No shooting illegal fireworks off of my roof this year. There needs to be an internet site that delivers fireworks to Banda - overnight service preferred.

It's safe to say I did not do anything Americana on the 4th of July. I had lasagna for lunch, watched non-Americans slug it out at Wimbledon and celebrated an Aussie's birthday.

Wait, I did eat some M&Ms. Does that count?!

"I'm Sick Today"

I don't remember if I've written about this.

Under Indonesian labor laws, when an employee is sick, s/he is entitled to take a sick day. But the number of sick days is unlimited - not like in the States where you accrue a certain number of sick days per month. However, the employee must have a doctors' note if s/he is sick for more than 2 days.

Sounds like a pretty good system, no?

NO!

I must say that the Indonesian workforce is not the most motivated workforce. With the predominant attitude that 'a half-ass job is a good enough job', some employees use unlimited sick days as an excuse to lounge at home.

Today is Monday July 3. Everyone gets tomorrow off because it's a US Embassy holiday. This morning, 5 staff from our Jakarta office called in sick, and another one from Banda called in sick. Hmm, interesting that all these people caught some kind of mystery illness over the weekend!

Hundreds Wearing Robes Force Tourists To Leave Aceh Beach Resorts

June 27, 2006 09:45 AM

BANDA Aceh, June 26 (Bernama) -- Hundreds of Muslims wearing robes and veils from a number of Islamic boarding schools in East and North Aceh and Bireuen regencies, went to Ujong Blang beach resort in Lhokseumawe on Sunday and told tourists to go home.

According to a report by the Indonesian news agency Antara, the move was apparently aimed at avoiding immoral deeds in the beach resort some five km from Lhokseumawe.

The group believed that wicked deeds could invite disasters like tsunami, which had devastated Aceh at the end of 2004, according to Teuku Abati, who led the action.

Muslims driving away tourists in Ujong Blang beach came from all Islamic boarding schools in Aceh province, he said, adding that the action was part of efforts to avoid the violation of the Syariah (Islamic law) in the province.

"Launching the action two months ago, we have thus far carried out sweepings from Bateilik in Sigli regency to East Aceh, and the action will be continued," Abati said.

He said the group funded their operation out of their own pocket without being exploited by other groups.

The group is hoping that the action will eradicate immoral deeds, especially sexually immoral ones, in recreation places, he explained.

However, the group's action had left an impression of arrogance as when they arrived at the tourist locations, they simply kicked chairs and tables in cafes and at the same time shouted aloud to tourists.

Volleyball!

We've built about 20 volleyball courts as part of psycho-social rehabilitation of the communities we work in. In turn, we've just finished sponsoring our first tournament that took place in Lhoong - a hamlet that's about 1:15 south of Banda Aceh. Our villages from up and down the coast participated - all together, we were able to pull together enough teams for fill a 16-team single elimination bracket.

I went down to check out the finals and the competition was fierce! On the courts were some of the tallest Acehnese I've ever seen! Or maybe they were mercenaries, since I never see them on a typical field visit. The home team won 3-1 in front of the home crowd and took home 4,000,000 rupiahs! That's $400! Well, if you split it 12 ways, that's like $30 per player, which still ain't bad!

Next up will be a 2-week tournament that'll start the 3rd week of July. This one will be co-sponsored by USAID and Nike. The finals will coincide with a Congressman's visit. I'll have to start the planning process next week, since this one will have both a men's bracket and a women's bracket. We're hoping to fill 8 teams for the women's side. Stay tuned. I may have photos of girls wearing jilbab (headscarves) with a swoosh on it!

Tree Power!

This is from the World Bank's monthly Aceh Conflict Monitoring Update:

Three separate villages in Aceh are planning to protest bad roads by planting trees in the middle. In three separate incidents from difference corners of Aceh, villagers protested bad roads by planting trees, or by threatening to plant them, in the middle of the road. In on village, villagers planted more than 20 banana and tuber trees in a road that the community claims the government has not maintained in 15 years. On Pulau Weh, villagers have begun planting various types of trees in the middle of the road that leads from the city of Sabang to Kilometer Zero. Finally, in Aceh Barat Daya, villages threatened to plant a road with rice if the government did not immediately repair a road that they have promised to on numerous occasions.

Civil disobedience!

Electricity Headache

If I don't have electricity for a couple of nights, big whoop. As long as I have flashlight and some water in a tub to pour over myself and some clean water to brush my teeth. I'm pretty low maintenance but I guess I forget how high maintenance some others are.

So for the past week, we've had some out of town visitors staying in the Guesthouse. I got this annoying/semi-nasty email tonight complaining I'm not meeting their needs because there's no electricity at night and no running water. Stuff like this makes me want to scream. You're in Aceh, suck it up!

What pissed me off more was when I came home tonight, I found my satellite TV box smoking. Literally Smokin'! Apparently there is usually a power surge when the generator gets turned on, and it zapped my TV box! Guess there will be no TV watching for awhile. Sucks.

Otherwise, have had a good couple of good food days - Thursday night was tuna cucumber avocado sushi, fried wontons with prawn filling, and seared tuna. Friday was salmon at the Italian place. Saturday was beef and tomato stew with cous cous and golden syrup dumplings (surprisingly good!) and today was banana nutella crepes. Oh, and I forgot to eat dinner tonight.

I'm going to bed now. Hope tomorrow will be a better day in the electric world.

Super Duper!

Worldcue® Alert
Severity: Informational Alert

Communications/Technology: Electricity supply severed to parts of Aceh since June 18; prolonged power disruptions possible through mid-July.

This alert affects Indonesia.

This alert began 21 Jun 2006 03:02 GMT and is scheduled to expire 15 Jul 2006 23:59 GMT.
A prolonged power outage has been affecting six regencies in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam since late June 18. The East Aceh, North Aceh, Bireuen, Pidie, and Aceh Besar regencies have experienced a total blackout, while parts of Central Aceh and the capital of Banda Aceh are also lacking electricity. Major towns in the blackout area include Lhokseumawe, Bireuen, and Sigli.

The outage resulted from the felling of three metal electricity towers, severing the region's primary power connection to neighboring North Sumatra Province. The vandalism occurred in a sparsely area in the Sungai Raya subdistrict in East Aceh. Power outages caused by saboteurs were relatively common during the 30-year Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (Free Aceh Movement, GAM) rebellion, but authorities have not identified any suspects. GAM officials have denied involvement and former rebels are reportedly helping police locate the perpetrators.

According to officials from the state-run PT PLN utility company, repairs could take longer than three weeks. Some businesses may use generators in larger towns, but expect no electrical service in rural areas in the affected regencies. Natural gas production disruptions are unlikely, but the outage will probably inconvenience many workers in North Aceh.

Finally!

Ok guys! The photos from my Cambodia trip are finally online! Sorry it took so long. It's been a busy week!

Wow. I've only been back for a week...doesn't feel like it at all!

Click here for Cambodia Pics!

20,000,000,000 Dollars

Wait. No. That's 20 billion Rupiahs - roughly about 2 million US Dollars! That's how much grant we're suppose to cut by this Friday! So, the Banda office this week has been quite a madhouse. We've got about 20 villagers in the office everyday since Monday learning to write grant proposals. We're at full capacity in the guesthouse as well, with lots of staff from Jakarta up here to chip in - even had someone sleep on my floor last night! To add to the madness, we've had rain rain and more rain since Saturday evening. The rain knocked my new World Cup antenna into pieces! AND last of all, some assholes sabotaged some electric towers down south, affecting the power supply of the entire eastern coastline of Aceh province. I've had a few hours of power on Sunday, virtually no power yesterday, and some today. I've been lucky though, got some friends who haven't had power for 36+ hours and no generator. Sucks. According to the grapevine, it'll take about 10 days to repair the damage. Ack!!!

Damn, should have gone to Cambodia this week!

Remember the Scampies?

For all of you who are fans of my Scampies, I'm sorry for not giving you updates about them. They're all still alive! But now, after waiting for a couple of months, my friend JC has finished editing the video about my Scampies!!! THANK YOU JC!

Best way is to download the video titled Sharon's Crab Farm and then open it with Windows Media Player, or whatever video-plyaing program you've got. It's kind of funny, you can watch my Scampies scramble around in their Crabitat and take a bath. My housemate Richard also makes a quick appearance.

Ha. Enjoy! Thanks again, JC!

Indovision Sucks

I'm back in Aceh. Don't get me wrong, I had a great time in Cambodia and a fun 1-day stopover in Jakarta, but it's nice to be back...

...until I found out that we don't get the local channel that shows World Cup at our house because Indovision - the satellite TV provider blocked that channel! Even when I'm paying like $35 a month for it! Sucks!!!

So, my staff went out and bought an antenna just now. Will get to watch the matches in the comfort of my home tonight!

Phnom Penh Phun

Hello from Phnom Penh.

It's a lovely city situated at the crossing of the Mekong, Tonle Sap and Bassac Rivers. The city was laid out by the French during their occupation, it's got wide boulavards with traffic circles and the streets are laid out in a grid. To make life even easier, all the streets are numbered with even ones going east-west and odd ones going north-south. The city's got some amazing (and cheap) restaurants along its river front. I've def. been eating well since arriving here.

We took an overnight trip to Sihanoukville - a beach town 4 hours south of here on the Gulf of Thailand. Beautiful stretch of beach lined with restaurants and girls selling delicious lobsters/crabs/springrolls/bbq squid.

So far, I've taken about 300 photos. It'll be quite a task to sort through the pics and pick out the best ones for posting! I'll get the photos up once I get back to Aceh!

I fly to Jakarta via Singapore tomorrow. Will spend 2 day in JKT for meetings before finally landing back in Aceh on Tuesday morning.

Hello from Siem Reap

So I just checked my blog. The template is all weird but I can't really fix it at the moment - currently in Siem Reap, Cambodia, on a road-side internet cafe, typing on the worst keyboard ever.

I arrived here yesterday morning and met up with my friend Ben, who flew in from Bangkok. Today we spent the day exploring the Angkor temple complex. The temples are all really photogenic, meaning I will have lots and lots of photos to post when I return.

It's really really hot here (even hotter than Banda) but at least it's dry heat!

365 Days in Aceh

A year ago today, I woke up in the big comfy bed of the lux Four Seasons Jakarta, took a nice hot shower (not knowing it was going to be my last one in 2 months), had a sumptuous breakfast buffet (knowing it was going to be my last good meal for awhile), and then was promptly shipped out to Aceh. We touched down in Aceh at around 5:50pm (these were the days when the 12:50 Garuda flight was still the 1:50 flight). My boss decided that we were going to go straight down to Ulee Lheue - the hardest hit part of Banda Aceh to show me some tsunami damage. After a somber car ride, we ended up in Ulee Kareng where I was greeted by all of the project staff - most of them spoke very little English or too scared of me to speak to me. After experiencing my first Kopi Aceh and feeling out of place, we then went to Banda Seafood for dinner (these were the days when it was the only good restaurant in town). By the time we finished dinner, it was past 9pm, and poor jet-lagged me, was about to do a face plant in my udang lada hitam. We finally arrive at the office and guesthouse. First thing the boss wants to do is to give me a grand tour of the compound. By the time I stepped into my room, it was way past 10. I was greeted by a toilet that didn't flush (7 months, 16 days & 23 hours later I found out that it DID flush), cold brown water coming out the shower, and a couple of dead cockroaches around the room. After a year, I can admit that I was on the verge of breaking into tears (ok I did break into tears, but I blame my Malaria meds) and asked myself repeatedly just what the f--- I had gotten myself into. I was not a happy camper that first night. Then of course, the Kopi Aceh did its trick and it was 10am in DC and I couldn't sleep for hours.

Fast-forward to 1 year later.

I'm still here. Things have changed quite a bit here. You can pretty much get your dirty hands on anything you want (if you know the right person - usually a Chinese) - booze, pork, 1 gig memory cards, mini-tripods, tampons, Haagen-Dazs (at $11 a pint), decent Italian food, and apparently there's an abundant source of fresh basil off of some backroad in the mountains...

Last night, as an excuse to go out and have a drink or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5...we went to Pace Bene to celebrate my 1-yr here in Aceh.

Su Lin, Bryan, Justin, me and Rohan enjoying our Lychee Vodka cocktails and Bintangs.
I hope I'm not getting Pace Bene in trouble if the Sharia Police Googles "Booze in Aceh"

I'm kind of surprised I've kept up this blog for so long, as I was never a kid who could keep a journal for more than a couple of weeks. I hope to keep this up for as long as I'm here. Who knows, maybe I'll even have some guest bloggers to give their perspective on life in Aceh.

I'm leaving for Cambodia tonight and hope to blog a little from there.

Hati-Hati

We went to the beach at Lampuuk on Sunday afternoon. I just got a bulletin saying that someone drowned that afternoon at the same beach. That makes:

• 5km stretch of beach
• 8 dead in 11 months
• 2 Indonesian aid workers
• 3 international aid workers
• 3 Indonesian non-aid workers
• 0 Acehnese
• 6 deaths over the weekend

Here are the signs at the beach:

Well...did take some good pics at the beach...was def trigger happy. Here are some good ones.

Sunset

Btw, hati-hati means be careful.

Wedding

A tradition Acehnese wedding is made up of 3 parts. First is the religious ceremony at the mosque and then is the reception/lunch at the bride's home, and then the last part is the party at the groom's. This past weekend, we attend the part 2 of my staff Eddy's wedding.

Being part of the groom's entourage, we all met at a mosque near the bride's house, were Eddy got dressed. Then, we all marched over to the bride's home. After welcome dances performed by the bride's house and the gifts were carried in, everyone had a big lunch and then we lined up to congratulate the new happy couple.

The entourage. Eddy brought about 200 people from his village. All in all, there were 2,000 invitations that were sent out.


Truck full of gifts for the bride's family. Depending on where the groom's from, the gifts are different. Eddy's from Pidie district, so they give sugarcanes, coconuts, lots of bananas and clothing, kitchen stuff.


As we entered the bride's house, we were greeted with girls performing a traditional Acehnese welcoming dance.


We were def the hippest wedding goers


The new couple!

Response to a Comment

I'm answering to an Anonymous comment posted at 5/28/2006, 12:22:11 AM, local Banda time.

Regarding English bookstores in Banda Aceh. The only place I know that sells English reading material is Caswell's Coffee in Peunayong area, off or Jl. Panglima Polem, across from the original Mie Razali noodle shop.

They have imported fiction and non-fiction and usually stocks the latest Asian edition of weekly news magazines - Newsweek, Forbes, sometimes the Economist. The books are expensive though. You're better off stocking up on books on your next trip to Jakarta or Singapore.

Big Quake

You've probably heard about the big 6.3 earthquake in Central Java that took place early morning on Saturday, local time.

The earthquake was centered near the historical city of Yogyakarta, where I spent 2 weeks last October attending language school. I've heard that all the teachers from the school are ok!

Just to give you a sense of the geography: Yogya : Aceh :: Houston : Seattle