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Short Timer

The rain just started splattering on my tent roof. I have just come inside from washing my clothes, and having a shower. So it's perfect timing. It will cool things off, and I might not get sticky again before bed. Every day, about 6 PM, I put on my swim shorts, then take the clothes I wore that day and wash them. If I do a pair of pants, a shirt, and underwear daily, it's not so bad at all, and only takes me fifteen or twenty minutes. I have no socks to wash, as I have worn flip flops for the past couple weeks, trying to walk for a while in Rahman's 'shoes'. He's the one who asked me for my shoes when I go. He does all his work around the camp wearing flip flops, and I imagine that's all he owns.

Only a couple of days here for me. I am certainly looking forward to going home. But, I know I will miss the people and the life and work here. My time of a little more than four weeks is a long time to get to know people, and to start to feel some ownership in the camp. I find that I have become much more of a 'people person' here than I am in my normal life at home. It's not so easy to keep to yourself here, and much more important to help each other out and be part of the little community we have here. The French military is also leaving this weekend, so they are throwing a party on Friday night. That will be a fitting way to end my time here.

We stay busy enough with our Internet Café, but I have time here and there during the day to help the SRSA people with some tasks around the camp. This morning I started out by helping them put up a couple large tents. This afternoon ended with me helping four of them put rocks into what will be a septic system for the toilets. It was good to exert myself physically for a while, as that hasn't happened much for the past month.

We usually have about fifty people coming through the Internet Café during the day who use one of our four laptops. In addition, there are many more people who bring their own laptop with them, and either plug into one of the network cables, or use the WiFi hotspot for wireless access. So far we have registered seventy-three laptops for use on our network. We continue to get rave reviews of the service, and I can tell it's a valuable communication tool as the NGOs continue their work here trying to bring some sort of normalcy back to the lives of the people in Aceh province.

What sort of work is going on? I can't tell you everything, but I have heard of a few things I can pass on. Samaritan's Purse teams continue to pump salt water out of wells. They also have medical teams flying out in their helicopter, passing out chemical-treated mosquito nets, and checking people for malaria. They are finding quite a few people with malaria. The French military, and World Relief, among others, have been cleaning school where possible, and putting up tents for schools in places where that is needed. Other groups continue to distribute rice, oil, some other staples, and cooking kits to those who have lost their rice paddies or other sources of food. Altogether, there are almost one hundred non-government organizations, and UN agencies, working in the areas of non-food items, agriculture and food security, sanitation, water, health, education, food, protection, coordination and support, shelter, infrastructure and rehabilitation, and livelihood.

I just came back in from helping Lee (SRSA electrician for the UN camp) get the lights going again in part of the camp. The SRSA team is in a meeting, and a half hour ago the Swedish generator stopped. I didn't want to disturb them to tell them, but the lights in the 'net café were out, and in other parts of the camp. Eventually they noticed, and Lee and I went out in the rain to take a look. There's something wrong with the ignition switch, and we can keep the generator running if we hold the switch in the start position, but if we let it go back to the on position, it stops running. I'm not going to hold the switch on all night, and neither is Lee, so we switched everything over to run on the generator that the Belgium B-FAST left. They can work on the generator in the morning, when it's light, and hopefully not raining. Meanwhile, I'm left feeling like I need to keep checking for leeches. There are lots of them here, and they come out when it gets wet. One of the SRSA guys pulled seven off of himself tonight. I was out in the grass by the generator and pulled one off before it could start sucking blood. I've checked myself thoroughly, but it's still a concern. By the way, the wooden sidewalks that have been put in really come in handy when it has been raining for a few hours, and there are huge puddles throughout the camp.

A couple days ago I was introduced to someone from Banda Aceh, the provincial capitol. Banda Aceh was hit very hard by the tsunami, even more so than Meulaboh, the town where I am. At first I thought about asking this person if their family was OK. But, I found I couldn't do it. I was afraid that I would hear a terrible story, and selfishly, I didn't want to have to hear that. I also don't want to stir up memories or emotions, even though I know one way to deal with something like that is to talk about it. I did find out about Iberahim, one of the two guys who helps around camp. He used to have a house and a family, and lived very near the beach here in Malibu. His home was completely destroyed, and his wife and all his children were killed. He now lives in a IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp. Then, when the Belgium B-FAST team came, they befriended him. I could tell he really enjoyed their company and friendship. It was sad when he had to say goodbye to them on their return to Belgium. He hasn't recently, but at first he would regularly point to the phones in the 'net café and tell me he wanted to call Sonia, one of the ladies from B-FAST.