Glorious Gloria Gaynor

The song 'I will Survive' has been stuck in my head for the last 3 hours.
This is fairly excruciating in a silent office where the clickety clack of the keyboard and the mini avalanche-like rumbling of the air-conditioner are all that keep me company.

Yes, Gloria Gaynor, in all her discotheque glory, is playing on repeat in my head. Especially this bit

- music roll-
go on now go
walk out the door
Just turn around now
'cause you're not welcome anymore

Yeah, actually the part that bugs me is WHY. Why is it stuck in my head? I definitely didn't hear it on the radio this morning.
So... is my brain trying to send some not-very-subtle encouragement? Maybe it wants me to know i will survive

• this stack of 4 reports that i have to write. All of them. At once. And i'm procrastinating on my blog.
• the prospect of another 4 months of long distance. And who knows how long more after that?
• the endless stream of workdays with no trips planned in the near future. Sitting, rotting, waiting for an excuse to bolt.
• pretending i know what i'm doing at work. I still feel bad being the inexperienced 22 year old fresh grad grilling people who have worked all their lives in development. I'm sorry. It's my job. Please know you guys are infinitely more knowledgeable!
  
• the rut. I think everyone past a year of working falls into it. I'm glad i'm in an out-of-the-mainstream job. Can you imagine seeing your whole life planned in front of you? Career-wife-kids-retirement-death. Gotta shake it up a bit.

Alternately, my brain could just have a penchant for cheesy disco music with faux-violins and eighties-style melodrama. Yeah. That's probably it.

But hey,

I will survive.

India - there and back again

I'm Back! (Like, a week ago)
India was absolutely amazing. Maybe it's cos the reports left me quite anxious about what I would see. Maybe it's cos this is the first of MY PROJECT's that i've visited (the rest have sort of been carrying on stuff that's started before I joined, but this one I saw from the proposal stage so it's like my baby!) Anyway, i didn't get to fulfil my imaginings of bright spice pyramids and temples and elephants and old palaces but I'm not disappointed because Karaikal is nothing like the Mumbais and Delhis in my head. It was a lot like Aceh and Jogja in that there were small, poorer communities and they were tsunami-hit, so very much a work trip. So, India for tourism will definitely be on the cards in future.

Anyway, this was a great project to have seen. I didn't have much time to be a tourist but it was rewarding enough to keep me satisfied.

A brief summary: The project is run by a locally-based organisation that has been involved in this sort of work for 25 years. They set up child activity centres that offer supplementary education (think tuition class) for children from coastal area villages (the ones that were hit hardest by the tsunami) and also serves as a playing space and a place for them to learn about rights and for peer support.

It's amazing that in that simple building, where there is like one desk and 4 chairs (the children sit on the floor), there are these active, inquisitive, enthusiastic minds. They were asking questions, and really vocal, and just so hopeful about everything. I was really touched by some of the stories i heard. They face issues that we never had to deal with. Some kids pull out of school because they are going to get married, or they have to help their parents work, or they just feel demotivated because they were orphaned by the tsunami and don't have enough support.

The children really believed that education was important and they are all part of this children's club which is set up in the activity centre. So, when their friends cannot come to school (maybe they are made to join the work force or to get married) , they group together to approach the child's parents and tell them that their child is better off staying in school. They even collect money amongst themselves to buy school bags for those who can't afford them.

In one of the activity centres, the power kept cutting off so the children collect 2 rupees each a month to pay an electrician to make sure that the power supply stayed on.

I was just astounded to learn how progressive India is. And we like to think that we are developed and have it all figured out.

The Karaikal area was really badly hit by the tsunami five years ago as fishing villages lie all along the coastal area. Whole villages were demolished and we heard that there was one where only one concrete building remained of the 100s of houses in the village.
All the children we spoke to in the school had been hanging on for dear life or had scrambled up to higher ground.
The project also covers disaster preparedness training for 3 schools where the kids are taught basic first aid and what to do in case of disaster. Haha.. I MIGHT have learned that before in scouts, but those kids definitely would stand a better chance than i would of surviving a flood or an earthquake.

The third part of the project is a microcredit component where women are trained in alternate livelihoods and also how to manage their businesses. So, women who previously had no means of earning an income now can start their businesses on loans of 4,000 rupees (that's just under RM 300!) giving them an improved income of at least 500 Rupees. The women are taught accounting skills and cost/benefit analysis, etc... and are organised into little collectives for support and in the hopes of forming co-ops in future that are capable of taking loans from banks. From my limited experience, i really believe that microcredit is one of the best ways to get people out of poverty. In particular, microcredit targeting women.

Briefly, my other observations of India:
- food is good and cheap! I didn't get roadside stuff because Delhi belly is too notorious, but no tummy problems and lots of tasty food ala mamak.
- the driving is insane. Seriously. The car horn is a suggestion to get out of the way... But they really have a whole other type of instinct for traffic avoidance. Couldn't drive there, i think. And the honking goes on well into the night.
- Goats and cows are everywhere on the road.
- There's lots of temples everywhere too. Or maybe cos the area i was visiting is a pretty famous pilgrimage site for Christians and Hindus.
- All the ladies wear saris! They could be sitting in the dirt or straddled on motorbikes but they are wearing the most beautifully bright saris! *sigh* colourful after my own heart...

It was really a project-filled trip and no time for leisure so I am just so pumped with enthusiasm for this project.
So much so that i have a ton of reports to write up. *groan* This is the worst part of the trip. Catching up on work.
Will put up photos if and when i get to it, otherwise... they be here on my Facebook album.

Amazing India

Peruse and enjoy!

India for the Spiritually Unready

Oops.

Way too long since i wrote something.

The weeks have been filled with report-reading and then hassling for better reports (try it. 5 submitted all at once) and the not-so-successful India trip planning (yeah, Visas just beg to be forgotten until the very last moment), the demanding house guests and lots of time with Aaron.

Highlight being very respectable homemade Bogan Parma, pictures of which i've been meaning to put up but thus far has evaded me.

So, just a short note. I'm alive and kicking. I have been OUT of my 1 week return from Melbourne quarantine. And, I am going to India TOMORROW.

It's great i get to go to India for work. But before you get jealous, i also have to grill them over their report and then write a report about what i found out on the trip.
And with a full schedule, i am hoping there is time for a bout of shopping (or temple hopping. i'd be a fan). Did i mention the 7.40 am flight time? (that means checking in 2 hours before which means leaving my house 4-ish IN THE MORNING)

Pictures of the trip to be up in time (of course, after i'm back and after i've taken them). Meanwhile, i shall grace these pages with a Holy Cow.

Well, you can't say you didn't expect that from me!

Hop, Skip and a Painful 8 Hour Flight to Melbourne

I went to Melbourne and back and took not nearly enough photos.. And they're up on Facebook. But here are things that stood out for me:

• Leaving a piece of luggage in the cab. Ah! Always check you have all your luggage before giving boyfriend a massive hug! If the nice cabby ever ever stumbles upon this, I am the girl who ran down Franklin St at midnight in my red coat and I would still like my bag back.
• Seeing Tulloch, Suggy, Bec, Nikki, Liz, James, Dani, Marissa - learning more about tall Paul and seagulls, a certain infatuation for a musician and EATING TIBA's again!
• Salt Pepper Chicken Ribs...
• Giant dinner with the most random of crowds: Vong? Mark Hoo? Grace? May Lin? Tas? Stephen? Prateek? Jon? Allen? ... you got to admit it's a strange mix to be in Taco Bills
• Yummy breakfast where i was told that i'm "lucky" to be allowed into the group. I MADE THE GROUP!!! (not over that yet)
• Perusing the NGV... art galleries are the new in, yo.
• An amazing double date day which involved lunch at my fave Pellegrini's, churches and the mesmerising Fitzroy Gardens
• Dali exhibition where i found out that Dali is a sick, twisted, erotic man
• Playing a few new games... It's lovely to not be pretentious and have to go out to be cool and have fun. What's wrong with good company and a gritty mental challenge?
• The fellowship of the fitball and the Ladder theory - most definitely a highlight!
• Watching all the goals in a Aus v Japan World Cup qualifier from near goalside. =D
• Lunch at the pizza place. More cute guys and awesome canneloni. (Thanks Maybelle)
• My favourite juice bar and the South American secret recipe juice...
• Emasculating Aaron and Parkes at Madame Brussels followed by THE BEST SIEW YUK in Anada Tapas restaurant.
• Cute Bartenders at Anada and Black n Pearl - skinny Robert Downey Jr.
• Reliving IH bar with peppermint patties *yum*
• Another AWESOME breakfast with the boys. Everyone must love English breakfasts!
• Chatting with Pushpy, KK, Adrian, Evan... was good times being back in 301! and the antics never end, although you feel like an ah ma
• Furious foursome Bang-ing after a nice home cooked meal in front of the tv at CC's place

Gosh, i miss melbourne already! Not least because there are no paranoid people screaming swine flu. A return is on the imaginary cards. Now to get over my fear of tiny uncomfortable Air Asia seats for long haul flights... Photos on FB

Chronicles of Aceh - Part Trois

Yay! Not a one week delay between day 2 and 3!
Sorry to burst your bubble but those drying nets there? Yeah, that's how your ikan bilis is made. Hahaha.. Not exactly the most hygienic of ways but 100% pure natural goodness! Also, probably a good reason to remember to wash any salted fish you buy!

This little old lady has been drying fish since ever. She was really cute and spunky! I dunno if i could stare at those little fish all day every day. And Indon culture lesson, ikan bilis is known as ikan tri.

This is probably my favourite picture the whole trip. Love the blue blue sky.

You will not believe how many nets of dried ikan bilis there were...

The restaurant and lodge from yesterday? This is a view of the "cliff" that it was on. To the left of the picture, there's a tree that sort of stands alone? They say the wave nearly covered the top of that during the tsunami.

Now this is Really, REALLY fresh fish.

Left the project site at Lhok Kruet and on the journey back. This is a piece of the bridge foundation for what used to be the main road. That got destroyed during the tsunami. The current road is about 2 km in, but there are still bits of it that are treachorously close to the water's edge.

Haha.. really. Would you drive over that? It's held strong so far, though!

Here's a better view of the river 'ferry' service. 3 boats tied together with a platform on top. These engines were stronger than the earlier one as it was crossing the river mouth, nearer the sea. Inceidentally, rafts are called 'raket' in Indon (like 'rakit' in BM) but i was curious as to why they would name themselves a racket, which it really is. The 'raket' racket. Hur hur hur.. i am so funny with my puns (-_-")

Not just any lady using a parang (machete) to straighten a nail on a plank... She's actually sitting in one of a row of stalls that has popped up at either end of the 'raket' rackets. Whole communities actually exist on the traffic that uses the rafts! Hats off to them, i say. Anyway to earn a living.

So after a slightly scary journey on bad roads in a 4wd in the rain, we made it to our next project site called Krueng Tunoh. There's something about the air right after rain. So fresh, and makes for beautiful misty hills! And green somehow tends to look greener too.

The mangrove trees that we helped to fund. They're planted along the fringe of the ponds which are used to grow prawns. Beyond the pond, sort of where the hills converge? Just past that is the coastline, which is why the water came rushing in come tsunami.

You don't really get kampung food much more authentic than this. Note the lack of cutlery other than serving spoons. And the best kind of table mat - a floor mat!

Okay, looking back at this photo, i really wonder WHY i ate anything with sauce that looks like muddy water. But you know, all sense sort of escaped me. I have a STRONG suspicion that this is the dish that left me with debilitating food poisoning the next day.

The lady at the back is the kind host who cooked us that nice (- food poisoning crabs) meal. Her husband is on the right and the dude on the left works for our project partner. Anyway, story of being told off for not being pure enough. It was time for solat after the meal and when they asked if i wanted to, i said no. And i think being a predominantly Muslim country, this was pretty alien to them. The farmer (husband on right) said: "Oh, once upon a time in Aceh, EVERYONE had to pray. Now it's alright though. But they would have to cover their heads and make sure their clothes covered their wrists. Also, here, women who want to be married have to be able to read the Quran. *gulp* Back in the olden days, women had to have a white cloth lain under them on their wedding night." *double gulp* I couldn't help but feel that that was directed at sinful, immodest me.

Anyway, this is round the other side of earlier pictured ponds. At the base of the cliff you can spot a tiny bit of sea spray. Basically the sea formed a sort of pincer around a hill. And the village is right behind the hill. Water rushing in from all sides so that about 2 km of land got washed away

More mangroves...

Me posing in front of the pond. Hahaha... Look, i was already dressed decently okay? Just minus the headscarf. I don't think i deserved that lecture about the good wife!

This is Pak Wahab and, apart from being a bit too rigid Muslim for my liking, he is a real star. He lived in a small house next to the pond and was farming pre-tsunami. He had a wife and a few kids ranging from 5 months to 8 years. They were all at home when the tsunami came in and he remembers holding on to his 5 months old baby and trying to outrun the waves. Sadly, his whole family perished. In the following 3 months, he hand dug the ponds that you saw above. He's since remarried and has a daughter, and is a real champion for our project. It felt almost sadistic to hear his story, because he said you never forget about the family you lost. Especially on festive days, when there used to be so many people and they could share all the food together but now it's a lot quieter. We cannot even begin to imagine what some of the Aceh people have gone through.

On the way out of Krueng Tunoh, passed by this contraption which i found interesting. There's a fishing net underwater and at night, they switch on a light suspended in the middle to attract the fish. They then pull the net up and voila! Easy catch...

A visual for you to show the before, during and after tsunami photos. See the greenery that was lost? Not just that, but most of the soil is still salinated from the sea water and that means you can't grow anything on it til the salt's slowly gone out.

This is pretty much the same view as above. All those patches of sand were once covered in vegetation, if i'm not mistaken.

And here's a shot of that large USAID- funded American highway that runs through the Aceh towns. What a disconnect! I mean, they're blowing up hills and tearing down mangrove forests that were JUST PLANTED post-tsunami just to fit this monstrosity in! Plus, the project started 2 years ago, and with the state of portions of its road, I won't be surprised if it's not done 2 years down the line. Ggrrr... the amount of misused funds and abandoned projects!! So disheartening.

Anyway, another mandatory sunset snap. In my defence, most of these pictures were taken from the car so they're not perfect.

Another snap of those lovely dried fish. Not very good but you can see they hang the fish/sotong from the roof to dry. This lady's just collecting them as the sun sets. But it's really quaint - they're flattened out so they all look like pomphrets! (incidentally my fave sort of fried fish)

You can just about see the tiny fishing vessel here. It's called a 'bagan' and is a large net in the middle with a small boat attached so that you can leave the bagan out while ferrying yourself and hired help back and forth from land. (Plus the catch too)

And there, the sun set on day 3. This is probably the last photo-heavy day and I would have loved to have some more free time the next day, but the muddy-water sauced crabs decided to strike. And it was food poisoning of the throwing up sort. Ew.

Chronicles of Aceh - Part Deux

Righty-o. A week later and continuing where i left off. It may take me a while to complete these chronicles of Aceh.
This is the view from inside the car on top of a raft crossing the river. Those planks on the riverbank then get attached to the raft for the car to drive onto land. It costs about 20,000 Rupiah to cross (USD 2) and whole economies of the raft sort have popped up since the tsunami washed out bridges (and they either haven't been rebuilt or makeshift bridges get washed away with the next big flood). Anyway, raft ferries - definitely an experience!

The headless survivors of the tsunami. You can see the waves went way over the treetops. And that stretch of water between the rocks and the trees? That used to be beach. But the water never quite subsided so a lot of the coastline has been lost to the waves.

Parts of a bridge that was destroyed in the tsunami. 4 years on and left to rust. (That wouldn't happen in Malaysia - they'd have taken the metal for scrap! But this is about 3 hours drive from the city...)

Just one of the temporary houses that were given in the immediate post-tsunami. Apparently they pack neatly into a box - sorta like an Ikea house. Some people are STILL living in these houses. Others have sold them to be used as shops while some have just connected them to their new permanent houses for an extra wing in the house!

This is what remains of a restaurant and lodge situated on a cliff. It got hit pretty hard as this was the furthermost point of the coast so it took a pretty bad beating. The cliff isn't too short, either.

View from the cliff. Even now the waters look scary. This is meant to be the calm period in between monsoons!

Fish cages that we helped to fund. Each little hut connects to cages that can house about 1,000 fish! See the planks? We were told upon arrival to walk along the sides as the middle bits were old and crumbly. Now imagine bow-legged walking in fear of dropping down. Quite funny.

This is an improvised fish hatchery. One of the fish cage culture people decided he didn't have to wait for fish hatchlings from outside and took it upon himself to breed his own little fish hatchlings. I wish i was full of the same initiative.

Just so you know i'm not talking about empty pools of water. See? Fish hatchlings!

Pak Abu - he of the indomitable spirit. He is such a champion. One of the driving forces of the fish culture project, he was there when the tsunami hit. He lost all 8 of his family members and was only saved because he had been up in the forest collecting wood. Of the 8, he only found the body of his younger brother. But now he's married, has kids and has learned to move on.

The mandatory sunset shot.

The more unusual cows on the beach at sunset shot.

Shoo shoo! Home with you cows. But apparently they sleep by the beach. What a life!

Some of the kids in the tiny village. How sinful did I feel when even the little children said 'I have to go home now. It's time for Solat!' Not being Muslim in Aceh is a little discriminatory. I felt like a harlot for not covering my head and saying my prayers. (i was told off - but more on that in the next set of photos)

And this i was very amused by. Aren't these the most gorgeous dried sotong you've ever seen? Hahaha.. a row of them could work as beaded curtains almost!

Here are some of the crabs from our project. Very much alive in the morning.

But not so much later on that night. Now this is kampung cooking at its best. Kuali over a wood fire outside the house.

Largest crab i had ever eaten. I could only manage 1 half (the one with the giant claw, of course!) hahaha. The masak lemak sauce was TOOO tasty! If we were at a restaurant, i'd definitely tapau.

And that's the end of day 2. No nightlife in the kampung so nothing to it but to retire to my pretty pink mosquito-netted mattress. Fit for a kampung princess! I am definitely not suited to the life. No a/c is alright, but no fan either! Just the noises of the cicadas, people chatting outside and goats. Yeah. Goats.

Aceh Part Uno - The touristy day

So I didn't put up my Aceh photos right away. I did NOT catch swine flu despite my stubbornness with the mask. I DID get food poisoning following carefree kampung food consumption. And this was followed by a flu which DID get me worried enough to go to the doctor but, Clean bill of health!! I suspect someone may have cursed me following my last post though. Anyhoo, this will be more like a photo blog so soak it in!

Taken from the plane cos i was struck by how picturesque the greenery was. The mountains kept making me think Lord of the Rings! More like the map that precludes every good fantasy novel rather than the movie, though.
This is the entrance (well, actually the exit) from the Great Mosque a.k.a Masjid Baiturrahman. Had some tourist time before the work so stopped by here. Wanted to point out the 'Muslimin and Muslimat' dress code sign above

And this is the mosque itself. I thought it was peculiar that it had a black dome. But saw quite a few black-domed mosques throughout Aceh. When asked, they didn't think it was for any particular reason.

Right, Muslimin-muslimat time. This is obviously me in all my ah ma glory. Mak Cik Fatimah (i mean me) was smart enough to bring a scarf along for just such an occassion.

Islamic architecture - i am a fan. But these lamps make me think more of old railway stations. I reckon this is the Dutch colonial history sneaking in.

Just wanted to note that the sign says 'Don't lie on the floor' somewhere, but erm... peek in the background. (i don't blame him though. The mosque is really cool and airy despite no fans on)

More architecture shots. Apparently a lot of people took shelter in this mosque during the tsunami and miraculously, while there was fence-high water around it, inside there was only knee high water. I put that down to the steps leading up to the mosque, but there's a story that a Chinese lontong seller ran in during the tsunami and he swears he saw whitish hands holding the water back. The man is now a Muslim convert.

This is a view of the centre of the mosque from the 'Women's Only' section. (I felt bad violating the privacy of these women but my Muslim colleague said it was fine to take photos) Directly ahead and to the right a bit is the pulpit (i can't think of a better word) bit where sermons are delivered on Fridays.

After that, we went to see this part of town called Punge where there is a memorial to mark the tsunami. It sort of built itself, as you can see from the photos below.
This electric company tanker ship got carried inland by the tsunami. Can you imagine how huge the wave must have been? For one thing, a ship this huge got carried. For another, this is 4 km from the coastline. There are about 3 houses underneath the ship and they couldn't remove anything from underneath it.

This is the ship in its entirety. It wasn't dragged to its final spot, but carried and them promptly dropped when the wave subsided. So the drag back to sea must have been MASSIVE which is why so many people had the clothes ripped off their backs.

This is the view from the ship. Where the tiny towers are, just before the mountains - yeah, that's kind of where the coastline is. Most, if not all the houses are new. NGOs did lots of reconstruction work and they tend to have different coloured roofs to signify who built them. (e.g. red is for Red Cross and blue is for UNDP... but i don't actually know which NGO is what colour)

Touristy shot with my colleague. I'm so shamelessly without my headscarf. *gasp* (and this is end of photos of day 1)

This is just the view from a stop on the 5-hour 4wd journey to our project site. Yes, it was a bum massage cos the roads aren't really that great. But you could be fooled into thinking that picture was taken in Cairns or Tasmania, no? It's a gorgeous place...

This photo actually cost me 16 mosquito bites. Along the same stop as previous photo (we were out of the car for maybe 15 minutes?) Definitely the record for most bites in shortest period of time.

Fruit sellers in Lamno market. I love fruit stalls! They look so gorgeous. Kuinis were in season and that was when i learned that kuini is different from mango. Although it looks the same, you can't mistake the smell.
A goat. Rummaging in the rubbish bin. He's a really healthy goat though. That's the bin outside the fruit stall so it's got lovely organic goodies inside him. But still. It really tickled me. A goat. In a bin. At the market. *snigger*

I'm gonna hold off for a bit 'cos this is a long post already. Still to come - Aceh part deux!