Aceh Journal: Peterpan

"apa kabar Banda Aceh?"
That's Ariel's first sentence. Last Feb. 22 there was this worst traffic jam I've ever had here in Banda Aceh! A Bandung boys band named Peterpan came to town and rocked Banda Aceh! :)
About 30,000 people, young and old, boys and girls came. Not to mention expats ... all gathered in Harapan Bangsa Stadium to see Peterpan. They threw a concert, a charity concert, and it was really good. I've never seen Acehnese as excited as that night. Not when they get a new house, not when they get a cash grant. A different night in Banda Aceh ... which is good because I can see some smiles again in the faces of those people.
What's so unique about this concert is that males and females are separated. Males to the right section, females in the left. They said this is Aceh, the only place in Indonesia that applied Islamic syariat in daily lives. Thousands of couples came that night, but none was able to enjoy the concert together. Unique ... I've definitely never seen anything like that before! :p

God is good, he is really good.
This week started bad for me, but ended pretty well. Remember the person I talked about in my last journals? Well, he did something bad again. This time he tried to slander me. It was Monday morning when I came to the office only to find angry (sort of) faces from the drivers. One of them asked me my intention in writing that Acehnese are assholes. So I said it couldn't be me because I never said or wrote anything like it. Later I found out that this man has been telling lies to my coordinator, my manager, the HR, the drivers and the securities by saying that I've been insulting Acehnese in my emails. Apparently he has been spying on my emails through the system, and in God knows how many occasions he read my emails. My personal emails!! So he's been trespassing, until last week when he made the wrong move. He did all the slandering to make me look bad in front of my colleagues. He was trying to get me kicked out from the office. FOrtunately, God's with me, and when GOd's with me, I am safe. My manager warned me for the second time, but I denie all the charges by showing him proofs that I was innocent. I denied all the charges and then waited. In brief, I was released from all charges, the drivers and the securities later realized that they've been used for personal reason, and the management punished the bad guy. So now I guess the whole thing has turn against him. Like I said ... God is good, all the time He's good. He made everything good in His time. May God bless this man and change his heart.

Anyway, update about Aceh. BRR as the government's supervising organization for NGOs will open a recruitment process. THey say they will need hundreds of new staffs. A French guy was drowned when swimming in Lampu'u, Lhok Nga. His body has yet to be found. Talking about Lhok Nga beach ... people has started to use this beach for recreation once more. On weekends hundreds of people come to Lhok Nga (in front of the cement factory) to swim or have a BBQ or just to have fun there. It's nice knowing that people are not afraid of the beach anymore. A year after the tsunami, the trauma has left the heart of the people. I don't know if this is a good news or not. I mean does this happen too fast? or right about time ...
What people desperately need right now is houses. It's sad to know that in some areas people are still living in tents. Again ... this is classic. Back to the government and stuffs.

So have a good day, folks!
Say your prayers for all the victims and the people serving here. We need them.
God bless y'all!

thanks
hye

photos: www.flickr.com/photos/hye
blog: hyemania.blogspot.com

peterpan's songs from the OST album Alexandria: hye.undergroundcandy.org

Aceh Journal: Valentine

LAGU RINDU -Kerispatih-

Bintang malam katakan padanya (Night stars please tell her)
Aku ingin melukis sinarmu di hatinya (I want to paint your light in her heart)
Embun pagi katakan padanya (Morning mist please tell her)
Biar kudekap erat waktu dingin membelenggunya (let me hold her tight when the cold shackled her)

Tahukah engkau wahai langit (do you know, o, sky?)
Kuingin bertemu membelai wajahnya (I want to meet and caress her)
Kupasang hiasan angkasa yang terindah (I'm setting the most beautiful sky ornaments)
hanya untuk dirinya (only for her)

Lagu rindu ini kuciptakan (I compose this song of longing)
hanya untuk bidadari hatiku tercinta (only for the beloved princess of my heart)
Walau hanya nada sederhana (although only in simple notes)
Ijinkan kuungkap segala rasa dan kerinduan (let me express all this feeling and longing)

find and download the song in: hye.undergroundcandy.org



Valentine .. one of the most celebrated day in the world, has no meaning here. No festival, no heart decorations or whatsoever in Banda Aceh. Apparently Islam doesn't believe in Valentine.
hmm ... that's why nobody sold any rose last year ... (yea .. this is my 2nd valentine in Aceh) Luckily the church is going to have something to celebrate it, otherwise I'll get crazy for not being able to celebrate holidays like Chinese new year and Valentine. Well, Valentine's not really a holiday, but still ... I'd like to at least enjoy the fun of it. I hope you guys out there are enjoying Valentine ... :)

Last week I met a kinda creepy guy. Creepy in the sense that he has the courage to tell me what he thinks about me and what he thinks God wanted me to know in our first meeting. It was an evening when I feel bored and then met some friends. Later I was invited to come to their house, and that's when I met him. at first it was kinda creepy, but then I thought that this is exactly the kind of thing that gives me encourgement. God really speaks in an awesome way, a way that can be strange for us. Especially when you feel bored or encounter problems. Last Friday the HR officer called me and meant to give me another warning. This time I didn't take the warning because I thought it was very silly. She told me that my signature in the email is taken a an attempt to spread the gospel. I then talked to some friends about this, and I did not get the same impression as the HR had. But anyway, that was not a big deal. I agreed to erase the signature, and she took the warning back.

Sometimes I think I've had enough with all this. A year has passed and I see these people getting worse instead of getting better. Worse in a sense that they feel much more comfortable with the NGOs here and all the benefits they van get from NGOs, and they really are trying hard to maximize that advantage. Writing fake proposals and spreading it to NGOs, taking tsunami victims grant money, etc. etc. There were times when I thought I would just end my being here and go back home, but then I tried to remember why I came here at the first place, and I'm trying so hard not to give up.

Nothing much is happening in Aceh lately. Construction is on the way, and the same goes to every other programs. One thing I wanna share this time is about school and its teachers. These few weeks I got the chance to visit some schools. I found that in some of the schools in remote villages, the teachers are not being paid to do what they're doing there. The government won't even admit them. Sad day! how they stil have to wait several months to get one month salary, and how they still have to wait a year before the government finally admit them as a service teacher (one of the requirement to apply for the government employee).
Just think about them, and how much they've given you. I know there might be some teachers who have bad personality, but if you just think of how they've educated you ...
I was touched when those young teachers said they have to hike cars to get to the school and sometimes have to sleepover in one of the villagers' house because thay it's too late for them to go back home.
Let's think of someone dear this valentine. Not only the ones close to your heart, but also ones who played a great role in your life ... and pray for them.

Love is all around, whether you know it or not! :)
God bless you

hye
Feb. 13, 2006

*needprayersupport*

www.flickr.com/photos/hye

Aceh Journal: Gong Xi Fa Chai

Gong Xi Fa Chai 2557 to all who celebrated it! :)
Yesterday I went to church only to find a surprise waiting. They held the service in more to a chinese way, chinese songs (not that we don't ususally sing chinese songs, but this time the songs have chinese atmosphere). At the end of the service, the church gave out an ANGPAO to each who came to church. I was rather shocked! I've never found or been in any church that gave out angpao to the congregation.

*note: angpao is money in red envelope that is usually given to younger people from their elders, after the young
people perform a greeting to respect the elders (or in another word: those who are married and has worked)

Being home is always nice, isn't it? Being around family and friends ...
I went home for a week the other week, and it was fun!
Met some friends, some new ones too! Spent time with family was also great.
I also got the chance to join the other guys training the new students who joined reserved army in campus.
Celebrating birthdays with my family and friends ... it was a great week! :)
Thanks for the messages and emails and gifts you guys sent! :)
But now I have to say goodbye to civilization for another 6 months maybe ...

Being back here for a week has brought me lots to write here.
First one is news update: we have had another rice harvest here in Banda Aceh, in our return villages (Beuradeun, Lampisang, Keuneu'eu).
I guess it was a good news that people got the result of what they've been working on for months now. A proof that with hard work and good co-op, we can produce good result. There have aslo been several volleyball tournaments in town, and the enthusiasm was great. While watching one of the volleyball tournament, we happened to see an accident. A car hit a little girl, and the girl fainted. What's interesting was that most people who were watching the game suddenly went to the street to not only help the girl, but also to hit the driver. He has stopped to help the girl, but couldn't reach her because the villagers came after him and hit him. A question suddenly came into my mind ..
Is this what we're like? I know that that is not a strange thing to see in Indonesia, but is this really what the acehnese want NGOs
to see here? Can't we stop this kind of behaviour? I mean, after all that the government has done to prevent such thing to happen, what else do we have to do to stop this?

That accident unfortunately became the start of a series of unfortunate events I encountered last week. Later that week, I got banned from using MC's email. The problem was actually very simple. We were joking through emails in the office, following the previous email about insurance policy. I so happened to be the last person to reply those emails when the IT dept. felt offended about the content of the email. IT dept also mentioned about email abuse that was going on in the office. I felt that IT has taken the joke seriously, and so I apologized to them for doing so. Unfortunately IT has taken it too seriously that they banned me from using the office email. So Monday morning I went to them to ask what they want from me. It turned out that the IT administrator was very offended with the email I didn't even sent them. My bad! He was so angry (offended) that he dragged me to the Aceh director to report my "wrong doing". Then after the problem was solved, he still refused to give me access to office email and internet connection. This guy took it very personal and implicitly ask for an open war with me. I thought like that because he didn't ban the other parties that took part in the joke emails. I thought that this was a position discrimination, because I am absolutely sure that if any person with higher rank than myself did the same, he wouldn't block the internet access. Now that was the last bad thing that happened to me. Weekend gave me time to think what's wrong with everything, and after several discussion with friends and colleagues, we agreed that what we actually need is for all NGOs to run a psycho test before they hire people.
NGOs are seen from the people who work for them, right?
How good does the NGO want to be seen depends on how good the performance of its employees. But what if the employees are psycho? Wouldn't it nullify the good performance the employees have performed?
I have talked to some NGOs national staffs about this, only to find the same idea.
We found several cases where the NGO became the victim of its employee selection procedure. In one NGO, I found that the person they thought was good turned out was the bad guy after all. She set up a coup to take over the office, and provoked other employees to strike. In another NGO, I heard that one of its consultant think herself as a King and positioned acehnese in general like that, and therefore acted like so.
There are still lots of cases where jealousy was the cause and the locals were the bad guys.
So maybe if NGOs run a psycho test before they hire anyone, all those strikes and psycho actions can be reduced.

What I heard from people was that Acehnese think of themselves as a king or kings descendants, that's why sometimes they act like an asshole (excuse my language! :p)
I'm not saying all Acehnese are like that. We've met lots of people who are nice and have good hearts, only there are also lots of people who have bad characters.
In another occasion, a friend also told me that in general, all Sumaterans are like that, think of themselves as king.
Ofcourse I have no proof or whatsoever about this, but I found this interesting.

I apologize if any of my language here in this journal is inappropriate or offended you. I wouldn't want to have another problem
just because of my use of language, would I? :p

Another unfortunate event was the cancellation of movie night last Saturday. We were originally planning to watch The Chronicles of Narnia at my house,
but then everything went wrong and we had to cancel the movie night. Well, better luck next time! hehe .. :p
Poor us! We don't have any cinema here that we have to buy pirated dvds to watch new movies.
Ouw, another thing was we also had to cancel our retreat to Toba Lake due to the restructurization that is going to be implemented in the office.

Anyway, keep praying for the humanitarian works that are being done everywhere, and for the people who are working there! :)
I know it helps a lot!

*inbadmoodallweekhye*

Feb 01, 2006

updated photos: www.flickr.com/photos/hye