Banda Aceh Update Week #5

I recently heard this quote: ‘When was the last time you did something for the first time?’ Well, I think I have done something for the first time every day this week!

Choices for entertainment are limited here in Banda Aceh, so the week started off with my housemate and I watching an obviously pirated movie (which you can buy on almost every street corner, sold as ‘new releases’) which had random dubbing, mostly in English, interspersed with Russian and German (just during key parts!)

I have been learning a lot from my Australian housemate, starting with Australian slang (‘hey mate’, ‘not happy jam’, etc), trivia like kangaroos and emus (the animals on Australia’s flag) cannot move backwards, and that you can make/bake virtually ANYTHING in a rice cooker (instead of the gas stove which makes our kitchen hot!). Rice cooker highlights this week include couscous & vegetables and banana bread.

The neighbourhood children teach me a lot as well, and have started to test me on my language skills e.g. being able to count to ten. When I was playing a counting game (with a three year old!) at one of the shops close to my house, another little girl in the store called me ‘Fanta bule’ i.e. the white person who drinks Fanta :-)










Although there are delicacies like ‘happy punch’ (soft drink and milk) in some of the more posh restaurants, one of the main grocery stores often does not have common things like milk, bread, yogurt or chicken, which makes planning meals a bit of a challenge, however the lady that takes of our house makes us yummy Indonesian food like tofu with curry and terung belado (eggplant with chilli sauce); some of my other ‘new’ favourites are rendang, which is beef coconut curry, and rujak, which is fruit salad served with a sweet and spicy sauce of sugar and chilli.

Frustrating experiences (like the lack of staple items in the main grocery store) are balanced by unexpected conveniences like the ‘health system’ – this week I came down with a sore/infected throat (or as I say in my limited Bahasa Indonesian ‘tenggorokan aduh’ = throat ouch!), but instead of having to 1> wait to get an appointment with the NHS, 2> queuing to see the doctor and 3> queuing at the chemist, here in Aceh you simply go to the nearest ‘apotek’ (chemist) and tell them what medicine you want and how much – no need for doctors/prescriptions! The chemist did not even seem the least bit interested in why I wanted medicine…

Many people have been asking about what the conditions are like here in Banda Aceh ‘post-tsunami’ – as far as I can figure out from talking to local people and NGO folks, tens of thousands have houses have been rebuilt over the past 4 years, often very simple houses like the one in the photo below, but apparently there are still 2000 to 4000 people (or families?) that are still waiting for their own house…









I also had the opportunity to visit the highly acclaimed Tsunami Museum which opened with fanfare back in February, but is still not really open to the public i.e. you can walk around parts of the outside of the museum but you can’t yet get into the main museum area to visit the exhibits (assuming that there are some…). The outside of the museum is shaped like a ship, and inside there is a focus on water (not surprisingly), here’s a picture taken around the main ‘fountain’ area…














Each of the official religions in Indonesia is allotted a certain number of public holidays, and one of the three public holidays for Christianity is Ascension Day (which was Thursday May 21st this year). The office that I am visiting took Friday off instead of Thursday so that we would have a long weekend, and I spent the day visiting some of the main tourist sites here in Banda Aceh, including the Tsunami Museum mentioned above, the Grand Mosque (one of the largest in Southeast Asia) and the Pesar Central (central market) where I finally found some chicken…





In addition to touring around, I am continuing my language lessons – and although many of you know how shy (‘malu’) I am, I have also learned practical words in Bahasa Indonesia about how to complain, mainly in relation to (lack of) service…

The last new thing I tried this week was to have a cream bath, which is basically an intense scalp massage followed by a series of hair conditioning treatments; it was very relaxing and a nice way to spend an afternoon! Bye for now…