Posting from Changi (Again)

I think this is my 3rd or 4th post from the Changi Airport from Singapore. This time, I'm only here for about 3 hrs - my shortest layover here by far! I'm on my way to Hong Kong where I'll hang out with Mama Z and Papa Z for the week, and then I'm off to Vietnam to visit my friend Christen.

On a different note, just read in Washington Post that journalist Jill Carroll has been freed in Iraq. Some of you may know that Jill's twin sister works with my company as well. Couldn't have asked for better news!

I'll be posting occasionally from Hong Kong and Vietnam, so stay tuned!

Cats and Dogs

A few of nights ago, I went out with a friend to this area called Rek in the Chinatown area of Banda Aceh. Rek is an outdoor dining area surrounded by kaki-lima - literally translates into 5 legs. Kaki-lima are food carts and each food cart specializes in one kind of dish.

At the beginning of our meal, my friend commented on the cuteness of all the cats that were running around trying to beg for fish and chicken scraps. As we were finishing our meal, I heard this weird noise that was coming from underneath my chair. I thought it was two cats fighting over some scraps but then, I looked down and found 2 humping cats going at it. Definitely added to my dining experience.

Cats and dogs do not go under the knife here in Aceh and they roam and procreate as they wish. On the WFP compound, cute puppies run around and entertain diners. Here in my own backyard, I've got 3 new little kittens and they like to come into the office and explore. I found 2 of them hanging out outside of my porch the other morning. Cute stuff!


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Is it Winter?

It's so cold here that I've got my AC off.

Time to break out that cashmere sweater!

Zagat Guide - Aceh Edition (Part 2 of Many)

Ayam Tangkap literally means ‘arrested chicken’. It’s actually the name of a traditional way of cooking chicken in Aceh, not a specific restaurant. There are about 4 joints that specialize in this method of cooking. The chicken is cut into tiny little pieces with bones, and then dry fried with different kinds of edible green leaves, mild green chili peppers, and topped with fried shallots. The tiny morsels of charred chicken, topped with a hint of lime are full of flavor, even the bones are good to chew on. A plate of chicken ($4) can be shared by 4 diners and the main dish is accompanied by a varied of Acehnese vegetables and meat curries served in small dishes.

Gunung Salju translates into Snowy Mountain. It is a Banda Aceh institution and only prepares one dish - a delicious gravy that tops either noodles or rice. Mie Bistik Ayam is the sauce with noodles. Thin egg noodles swim in a shallow bowl of brown gravy, topped with chunks of fried potatoes, sliced tomatoes, hardboiled egg, shredded lettuce and sliced breaded chicken. It was rumored that the owner was once offered $1000 for the recipe, but refused. This small restaurant with 10 tables is located in the heart of Banda Aceh, and also serves homemade ice cream. A bowl of Mie and a fruit juice will set you back $1.50.

The Canteen at the UN-WFP is located in the garage area of the World Food Program house. Its semi-outdoorsy setting is enhanced by the litter of cute puppies that circle your feet while dining. You will only see other expats and UN workers eating here. The open kitchen allows diners to see chefs flambéing pieces of meat. Prices are quite reasonable compared to other restaurants serving western style food. Chicken Steak with Mushroom Sauce, vegetables and fries is only $3, and the same sides paired with a nice black pepper steak will only set you back $4.50. However, the Chicken Kiev is quite dry. Pasta dishes and hamburgers are also worth trying. There’s also an extensive Indonesian menu. Good choices for a reasonable price, but you have to deal with the UN staff.

Gettin' Hitched

My procurement guy went home to his village in Aceh Selatan (South Aceh) last week and this week he announced that he has found a girlfriend and will get married in November. His family and the Village Head picked 3 girls for him to meet and apparently he clicked with one of them. Easy as that.

Sure, people get married for love and stuff. But it seems like the Acehnese are more focused on the practical reasons for getting married – procreation and the process of procreation. Back at home, we focus so much on finding that perfect guy/girl and experiencing the fairy tale romance. Here in Aceh, people find someone they’re compatible with and get hitched. The love part comes after marriage. The concept of divorce is nearly non-existent, so couples really are stuck with each for the long haul and have to work at building a relationship - something most American couples probably don’t spend enough time at before calling it quits.

But before my procurement guy gets married, he’s got to come up with the dowry. In the case of Aceh, dowry = 24 kt gold. The bride’s dowry is depended on what district she is from and if her family is of noble origin. Gold is measured out in mayam. 1 mayam is equal to 3.3 grams of gold. If a girl is from Aceh Selatan, she’s worth about 12 mayam (the cheapest). If a girl is from Aceh Besar (where Banda Aceh is located) she’s worth about 18 mayam, and if she’s from Pidie and of noble blood, she’s worth a whopping 25 mayam! A mayam is about $50, depending on how the gold market is faring that day.

Once my procurement guy is married, he will continue to work here in Aceh and his wife, who’s a veteriarian with the government, will continue to live Aceh Selatan. He plans to go back every 2 weeks.

The Death Icon

Have you ever seen this icon on your iPod? Well, I did this morning and it equals DEATH.

The hard drive inside of the iPod makes this clicking noise.

Anyone's had the same problem?

Sea Critters

I feel like my life have been taken over by crustaceans. Not just the little cute scampies in my bathroom, but also bigger, uglier, and tastier ones for our project supported villages.

Over 14 months have passed since the tsunami and most of the village cleaning, rice paddy fencing are pretty much finished. Our program and every other donor and relief organization are moving into the next phase where we’re helping villages identify livelihood opportunities and establishing small micro-credit schemes. Since most of villages are near the sea, aquaculture is a big area of development.

2 weeks ago, we started a pilot program of fattening meat crabs in 3 of our villages on the northern coast. About 500 kilos of crabs arrived and were placed into cages half submerged in water, where they’ll be fed fish heads and other goodies for the next 6 weeks to 3 months (depending on size) before they’re sold to restaurants in downtown Banda Aceh and perhaps even Medan. This program wasn’t the most well thought out (that’s why I think all the crabs will die). When I visited, the villagers had placed crabs of different sizes into the same cage – and as we all know, crabs are cannibals. I don’t know how good of a chance those little crabbies stand in surviving. The villagers also did not request for any kind of scale for weighing the crabs before/after fattening. So, who knows if this pilot program is really worthwhile? We’ll see how that one goes.

Looking for crab to show us


checking for the fullness of the crab

On Sunday, I went to the villages of Saney about 1.5 hours down the west coast to prepare for the ConocoPhillips VIP visit that took place the following day. Some of you may already know, our project has 4 private sector partners, CP is one of them and they support 5 of our villages. Since we knew the villagers were going to serve the President of CP lobsters caught offshore, we decided it was only right to sample the fare as part of our thorough preparation process. We had lobster noodle for lunch - probably $50 worth of lobster over 50 cents worth of instant noodles…delish, nevertheless!

From Cage...


...to my plate

Saney was pretty rich before the tsunami, since its fishermen regularly pulled in $300 - $500 worth of marketable seafood every week. We’re hoping in the next few months to help the fishermen to build better holding cages and perhaps even getting some kind of cooling facilities into the village so they can store caught lobsters and fish for longer and package them for long distance shipping.

What the???

Unbelievable

The exchange rate is about 1.60 Singapore Dollar to 1 US Dollar. You do the math. After taxes and fees it's a little more, but not much! Click on the image for a more clear view.

Leon Powe had 41 points tonight versus Oregon! Go Bears!

MTV Cribs - Scampi Style

Custom made glass enclosure measuring 50cm x 50cm x 15cm with a teak Balinese carving as climbing post.
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Amazon Delivers!

My coworker came from Jakarta this afternoon bearing a big-o (and I mean BIG) box from Amazon.com. He asked me if someone sent me bricks from America.

Inside I found 3 truly lovely books from Denise and Jim: Thomas Keller's French Laundry and Bouchon cookbooks and the much awaited Collapse by Jared Diamond in paperback. For those who are not into cooking and haute cuisine, Thomas Keller is arguably the best chef in America and owns 2 outstanding restaurants in Napa and a new restaurant - Per se in New York. The French Laundry is one of those restaurants where reservations disappear 2-3 month in advance. It's a dream of mine to dine at one of his joints. The 2 cookbooks are beautifully done, written by Thomas Keller with Michael Ruhlman. They're filled with not only receipes but also stories about ingridients and beautiful photos. I've seriously lusted after these books for a long time!

As for the Jared Diamond book...let's see if he talks about llama in this one.

Thanks so much to Denise and Jim for the unexpected presents! It's very very generous of you. After I go home, I will come up to Delaware and cook you a meal from the cookbooks!

Lovely lovely books.
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Mohammad Usaidi

I went to visit a birthing clinic a couple of days ago. The little house was badly damaged by the tsunami flooding so 2 of USAID's projects teamed together and helped to rebuild the place. The Basic Human Services project provided the medical equipment and medicine and the Environmental Services Project (another DAI project) provided clean water and waste water removal systems for the little 3-room clinic.

We met the young midwife who runs the place and she told us that in rural Indonesia, midwives not only provide prenatal support and birthing care, but they also act as a pediatrician. She had just delivered the first baby a few weeks ago in the new facility, and the parents named the son Mohammad Usaidi.

Get it? USAID + i. Maybe in a few years, there will be lots of Acehnese boys name Usaidi.

KKN

KKN which stands for Kolusi, Korupsi, Nepotisme is one of the buzz words in Indonesia. Although Indonesia did not make Forbes Magazine’s Top 20 Most Corrupt Countries this year, korupsi is still very much part of everyday life.

The last Governor of Aceh is currently in jail for purchasing a Russian-made helicopter for more than the going rate, and pocketing the difference. He was the first high profile government official to be arrested since Indonesia's new President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), promised he would make fighting corruption one of his government's top priorities.

But KKN doesn’t happen just in the government but is a way of life here. Working from the perspective of a bilateral donor, I hear stories of local organizations engaged in funny business. For example, we have been giving grants to this local NGO. We found out recently that some of the funding and materials we purchased for the NGOs operations has been misappropriated, i.e. motorcycles meant for field staff going to the villages have been given to the mother of the head of the NGO. After a little more investigating, turns out the leader’s mom, and sister also hold management positions in the organization…kind of sketchy. I’ve also seen a lot of dubious receipts from grantees...The husband is a head of the organization and rents cars from a vendor, that turns out is owned by his wife...grantees buying water pumps from a cell phone store...funny business.

In earlier posts I’ve mentioned that we’ve been doing a lot of recruitment and I’ve been conducting quite a few interviews. We were hiring a couple of Procurement Officer. We asked one particular young man how he choose a vendor and how did he negotiate the price. He said proudly that at his current unnamed-international-NGO, he would get 3 quotations from 3 different vendors (we liked this), and that he would take the lowest price to the 2 other vendors and ask them to match it. But sometimes the vendors with a slightly higher price would offer him a commission/kickback. He then would award it to that vendor, justifying the decision with something like faster delivery time, or better service. He was eager to point out that he didn’t keep that money but instead passed it to his boss, who’s an expat (we did not like this). The young man was really proud of this and made it sound like a selling point to me and the other expat that was conducting the interview. It was really sad that he did not see anything wrong with his actions. We did not hire him.

Damn, and I was hoping those kickbacks would fund my exotic vacations.

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On a slightly different note: I used to read about barriers to FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) and obstacles to conducting business in foreign countries and now I've experienced it first hand. After 9 months and 4 days, I have received my Indonesian working perming and multiple entry business visa. It's an efficient place.

Party Time!

My CEO was in town the past couple of days and I had to throw a reception for about 100 people in honor of him. Nice spread, eh?