| 22 January 2006 - Eric It has been one year. At the shores of Ulee Luee in Banda Aceh, where the Acehnese bore a loss unprecedented in recorded history, Aaron, Eddie and I joined local citizens and world leaders to observe the tsunami anniversary, acknowledge milestones in recovery and recognize a job yet unfinished. We have been fortunate to work with many sweet people representing every corner of the world who did remarkable things considering the complicated nature of the rebuilding process. Germans, Singaporeans, Brazilians, Australians, Brits, Spaniards, Belgians, Chinese, Argentines, Italians, Cubans, Canadians, French, Kiwis, Russians, Filipinos, Norwegians, Malaysians, Japanese, Jamaicans, Indians, Africans, Swedes, Mexicans, Arabs, Pakistanis, the mighty Turks and a bunch of Americans among others came to do what they could and made a difference. Banda Aceh was quiet on New Year’s Eve except within the walls of Big Fish where we rang in a festivitae the likes of which could not and must never be duplicated. With homemade pizza, handpicked fireworks and friends out of this world, we three reflected on the year and celebrated success. The year’s honor must go to the Acehnese for their strength of body and character who through it all somehow managed a smile and kept not only their patience but also their sparkle. At a recent AIRO gathering, Aaron offered up in Indonesian a humorous anecdote of one of my less-than shining childhood moments; something about dumping out coke to cash in the bottles. So funny I forgot to laugh I assure you. I could only think of one whole Saturday during High School when Aaron and I worked shoulder to shoulder to replace the water pump on Mom’s old Lincoln. We skinned every knuckle but managed to get her back together then washed and waxed in time for Aaron to drive to homecoming dance in his orange polished cotton disco suit. Hilarious, I assure you. As for Eddie, I’ve seen him so scared he ran out in the streets near naked during earthquakes. Another time wearing the same priceless expression, he carried a club larger than a baseball bat into the bathroom to confront a huge lurking spider. True, we did both once panic at an approaching tropical rainstorm but what did we know then of local weather? Another rich moment was listening to the Rose Bowl over the Internet. Aaron and Eddie were celebrating out of their gourds with the whole crowd in Austin right here at the Big Fish. You’d have thought they made the touchdowns themselves the way they carried on spiking this and that in their sarongs. I’ve been honored by working next to such men. Instilling a deep sense of reality to our fisheries recovery effort, one of the year’s true highlights, was a recent all-night Indian Ocean voyage aboard the 22-meter Bal Qis. From Banda Aceh we headed due west into the sunset for about three hours and anchored. The fisher crew, who spoke only Acehnese, took great pride in tying their rigs as I had earlier that day. Using reel and line the young man on the deck next to me was catching something every few minutes. He held my line and showed me how to do it. I mimicked his technique exactly but nothing. We switched rigs and he continued reeling in fish while I still nothing, which proved it has more to do with damn luck than anything. The ship’s cook treated us to a spicy rice curry using squid and fish as fresh as possible without actually diving. It was superb as the entire experience at sea with these gentlemen. I lay on the upper deck of the ship staring upward during the calmest, darkest moment of night. Fishes flapping on deck, a brilliant, milky-wayed sky swayed gently above and I wondered what might be going on in the rest of the universe. I’ll admit at times I wondered whether I should have ditched the coffee and cigarettes and carried only saffron, but, watch set on Aceh time, suitcase full of coffee, cigarettes and saffron, I am home and without hernia. Eric Lyman 22 January 2006 Boise, Idaho, USA |
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Journal Entries
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Journal Entries
Manatath Ayutyula Thailand
Ayutyula Temple - Eric
Foot over Ayutyula