Although it has been pouring rain most of today, last weekend and most of last week were absolutely beautiful. On Sunday I visited what’s known as the ‘Sultan’s Palace’, or at least a replica of it – representing days gone by in Aceh. I also was able to visit a local beach; gorgeous colours but a strong current…
Things in my neighbourhood continue to be interesting – one of the local business men is apparently trying to set up a portable ferris wheel; he and his buddies have been riveting off the rust and painting the seats all week :-) Then there’s the fish man who visits most mornings; he begrudgingly agreed to let me take a photo of him this morning, only after I agreed to buy a fish.
Although I am pretty comfortable now with my basic language skills, there are still things that get ‘lost in translation’. For example, a man came to my door the other night, very agitated and obviously needing to tell me something important and all I could understand was ‘mati’ and ‘tiga atau empat’ (three or four) – I guessed he meant the power may be out for 3-4 days (since ‘mati lampu’ means that the power is out), but what he was actually telling me was that someone in our housekeeper’s family had died and that she would not be coming around for 3-4 days; ‘mati’ actually means dead and the direct translation of ‘mati lampu’ is dead light...
And then when I was having dinner with some colleagues the other night, one of lady’s daughter’s shoes fell off. When I saw the brand of the shoe, I started to giggle but I just could not bring myself to explain what was so amusing…
I am off to Jakarta Tuesday evening, to Dili via Bali on Wednesday, visiting my new office and home Wed eve until Friday morning, then flying back to Jakarta Friday evening and overnight to the UK, to arrive back on Saturday afternoon….so the adventure in Aceh is nearly over, but I hope to send updates from Timor-Leste once I get settled in early August…bye for now!
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