| Eric Lyman Journal Entry 27 September 2005 Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia It’s good to have my friend Paul Clawges’ company and help around here all the way from Idaho. We are enjoying the Indian Ocean sunsets, hearty village food and language study. Boy, do we get the languages; Chinese, Indonesian, and Acehnese. We speak them all better than any other foreigners living in this neighborhood. If there is a Chinatown in Banda Aceh it is at Peunayong where there is a common Acehnese _expression, “Today relax. Tomorrow, relax again.” The whole country is getting ready for Ramadan in a few weeks. Paul, Eddie and I, (and Aaron, though he may not know it yet), plan to join our Islamic neighbors in learning something about the less fortunate by abstaining from eating, drinking and smoking during the damned daylight hours. Cussing is in there also. The Big Fish renovation is coming along. It still rattles night and day with unexplainable noises like scurrying, banging, screaming and plenty of tap, tap, tapping. Ten times a day we hear something funny, look at each other wide-eyed and shrug shoulders. I can’t tell you how many times I have carried a big stick downstairs expecting some lurker in the night and found only doors locked and barred. Like Eddie said. I was fortunate to be here for Indonesia’s Independence Anniversary and also the signing of the Acehnese Peace Accord last month. I mean guns were flying all over the place. Ex-fighters were laying down their arms and Indonesian soldiers were leaving the province, that is. There are lots of optimistic people from both sides believing this a grand moment for the Acehnese to begin enjoying a lasting peace. I have met several who had been imprisoned but were freed by the peace accord. They all seemed like nice guys. I am enjoying learning about boats and talking about boats. Boats up and down the Sumatran coast share a similar design but vary according to local application and preference. Common Acehnese boat colors are blue, red, green, yellow, well I guess all colors. You got the five meter, the seven, both wide and skinny, the seven and a half, the niner, the eleven, the fifteen and on up to the biggest in Krueng Aceh harbor, the twenty- seven meter of which there is one. In west coast Meulaboh, boats must be low profile to pass under their bridge. Now, that’s the kind of boat I’m talking about. In the AIRO works are renovations of six large fishing vessels in Lampulo. One, the 15- meter Alaska, rests alongside the road in a neighborhood one kilometer inland. Its owner used to live and work in Alaska. Another 23-meter boat owned by Islamic Relief will be shared among fishermen of nearby Lambada Lhok village. The others are sitting in the Lampulo boat yard awaiting their turn. There are three main voyages for large vessels. One leaves at dawn and returns at dusk using nets, poles and whatever else gets the fish into the boat. Another, which also returns the same day, goes out past the coral shelf into deep waters in search of yellow fin and larger fish. The third main type of fishing voyage from Aceh involves being out in deep waters for a week or more until either the boat catches its fill or supplies run out. Here’s something about fishing in Banda Aceh. Before the tsunami there were in Krueng Aceh, the river inlet behind us, ninety-eight large vessels that went to sea daily. Today, nine months later, there are twenty-seven. Peunayong fish market is growing but there is a lot of shrimp, crab and fish being transported to the markets here from Lhokseumawe and the east coast. Now with all this talk I’ll be going to sea. Yrrrr. |
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