| 10 February 2005 - Eddie From the very start, it was "Banda Aceh or Bust!" And now we will finally be three in Banda Aceh! I am writing this on Garuda Airlines, sitting next to the President of AIRO, the man with the plan himself, Aaron Lyman, heading to Banda Aceh. Eric retuned from his short break in Medan last night, and now Aaron is very ready to join our on-site efforts after spending the first two weeks in Jakarta. We are all in very good spirits; he is excited to finally join us in Aceh, whatever the conditions might be - I showed him hundreds of pictures and it only made him more charged to get there. And after spending a couple of days with him in Jakarta, I now feel recharged and ready to return with a renewed excitement of carrying on in full force, and with full Indonesian language capabilities! Aaron made very good use of his time in Jakarta- created from scratch (or maybe that was an itch) the AIRO organization, quaizi as it may be, still, complete with business cards, letterhead stationary, even vests with the AIRO logo embroidered front and back. The vests are way cool, and give us am immediate look of being official and even important. Additionally, and more significantly, Aaron completed an entire Indonesian translation of the katadyne water purification systems and his bringing them to Aceh for us to insert into the individual units that we are distributing, greatly enhancing their proper use and effectiveness in providing clean drinking water. We hope to get down the western coast this weekend, distributing them as we discover the need. We are a little less happy with recent headlines in the Jakarta Post... 3 fairly major "after shocks" hit the same area of northern Sumatra yesterday, the last, a 6.2 on the Richter scale, was reported to be but 55 miles out from the shores of Aceh. On the phone with Eric last night, he said the buildings shook pretty good, it caused no apparent damage, save for a good scare that put most everyone out into the streets. He reported that locals were heading out of town in large numbers in fear of another tsunami and that polisi were out in force trying to talk people into returning home. There were also reports of looting in some vacated areas. Just got off the phone with Eric prior to boarding and he says all is back to normal - that of course is a very relative term in Banda Aceh right now, and will be for some time. Eric has secured transportation for us, a car and a motorcycle and is still working on housing. The options are extremely expensive or we stay in a room in someone's office complex, again. Not sure what we will work out but am confident we will do much better with language skills and in-country expertise of our esteemed, and now healthy President Aaron! Hopefully we can still get internet access at the UN Media Center - and if we go late at night, it is fast little hassle. It is also free. We will likely head back again to Krueng Raya for more detail on their current boat making capability - we will ask to see and photo their productions facilities, whatever they may be. We will also need to convince them of the need to bring in more of the villagers to the boat making work to both spread around the wages that will go into this effort and to establish more skilled craftsman in the area. We'll see how this goes. Your prayers, notes of encouragement and statements of pride over what we are doing here have been very meaningful to us. We really do lose perspective here quickly and appreciate these communiqués, messages and web site entries. Simply reading your acknowledgment of our efforts here keeps the wind in our sails. If you have a way of sharing/sending around the web site URL, www.austin-international-rescue.org, please do. We will continue to post pictures and stories there, as well as go there ourselves to read your journal entries, blessings and well wishes. We are about to land - and begin Chapter II of AIRO in Aceh - this time in full force!!! Hope in Aceh, Eddie |
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