| 18 February 2005 - Eric So much has happened in the last week. When we had an earthquake the other day, Aaron and Eddie thought I was shaking them to wake up. They’ve gone from running out in their underwear to sleeping through it. There was a little incident out front of our house where one man on a becak motorcycle brushed a man on another. The second man was just yelling and pounding the other in the head while we and hundreds of other people watched the whole thing. It was a stern reminder of how folks take the law in their own hands around here. Despite the short time frame, shortened further by Aaron’s hospital stay, the project has come together amazingly well. During a meeting a few days ago with our master craftsman Marjukih and the wood supplier, Afan, Aaron ironed out the details in Bahasa Indonesian to draft a hand written proposal and close with the first payments handed in cash to both. Now we are working out the scheduling details of work activities and delivery of boat motors to be clamped on the rear of each boat upon completion. The wood will come from special trees deep in the jungle where it is being cut and carefully dried near the city of Lamteuba. The first shipment is slated to be delivered in a few days. I have found the type of wood I need for my kayaks so I’ll be cutting and grinding under coconut, papaya and mango trees beside the others. The project site is a piece of land along an ocean inlet and backed up against the hillside. It is littered with wrecked boats and tsunami debris. There is one boat of the same type and size we intend to build sitting squarely upside down on the inlet bank. Its hull has been ruptured and it will likely end up being scrapped and converted to a little office/nap shack. The place all around is being cleared and it won’t be long till I have it looking beautifully. Banda Aceh is quite different from Sabang where we were lucky to spend last night. After taking care of some business in Krueng Raya, we took the ferry over to Sabang and grabbed a couple of rooms at the Hotel Putra Salja. This was a sweet little place in downtown Sabang, clean enough that you’d leave your shoes at the front and walk through the lobby, up the stairs and to the room. It was nice to see a part of Indonesia that wasn’t ravaged by pollution or tsunami or just plain chaos and cruise through the clean streets of one beautiful little village on the island of Weh at the northern tip of Sumatra. The ride into town on the public transport was an adventure by itself seeing the way the natives pack as many as possible into and on top of a little van. Everybody was talking and everyone was cheerful cruising from the port at Balohan and over the jungled mountain into Sabang. At one point the van died out and we couldn’t make it over the hill. Eddie, wearing his city slicker hat, quite willingly offered to walk up the hill to reduce the load. But the driver laughed and took a different route. In Sabang, the locals were charming, the women beautiful and the whole place had a paradisiacal feel that we should have experienced much earlier. Eric Lyman - Banda Aceh, Sabang, Sumatra, Indonesia |
Journal Entries
Journal Entries
Eric scopes out the site
where he will provide
project management for
the next 2-3 months.
where he will provide
project management for
the next 2-3 months.
AIRO Team with head
boat makers on new site,
in front of trashed boat.
boat makers on new site,
in front of trashed boat.
Aaron and Syrya look at
fishing nets brought to the
new site - they
really want to get back to
fishing.
fishing nets brought to the
new site - they
really want to get back to
fishing.
Steep hills in back of
property offers security
and some weather
protection.
property offers security
and some weather
protection.
The site is down off the
road and opens to a
waterway connected to
the sea.
IT'S PERFECT!!!
road and opens to a
waterway connected to
the sea.
IT'S PERFECT!!!
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