09 February/06 One Year Later
It's been a year since I first stepped foot on the tsunami zone in Aceh, Indonesia. What a year! This has certainly been one of the most challenging projects I've ever undertaken. Aceh has been troubled for many years. Before the tsunami, the Acehnese were struggling with general poverty, military conflict, pollution, corruption, and the destruction of their forests from illegal logging.
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07 January/06 Preparing for 3rd Village Development Course
It's raining here. I've got the15 cadets under shelter, weaving coconut leaves to make a dust break for the fence. The illegal logging activity has picked up with many large trucks grinding their way up the valley past our house and farm. The dust drifts in over everything and everyone when it's dry.
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24 December/06 Second permaculture course completed
Our second permaculture course at Greenhand Field School finished 10 days ago. The course went well with 23 trainees completing their Village Development Course. Half the training was practical, so we added a few more food gardens to our training facility.
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11 October/05 First Permaculture Course!
Sorry for the long silence. Communications here are difficult at the best of times. My biggest problem is getting a hotspot here for the internet. World Vision's satellite dish has packed it in so we have no phone and the sea has taken out several kilometres of road between here and Banda Aceh.
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30 June/05 Green Aceh Conference and Update
Sorry I'm late on this blog, it's been a big week. Last week I had to travel to Banda Aceh to speak on sustainable agriculture at the 3-day Green Aceh Conference. The conference brought together all the innovative green strategies like agriculture, housing design, waste management and appropriate technology.
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June 15/05 A Month in Lamsujen
The rain has been pelting down at night and the village is a quagmire. Our little truck looks like a mining vehicle. I finally found some new springs for it. The roads have been pounding our car to pieces. Both door locks have fallen out as well as the headlights. We've broken two sets of shock absorbers and the roads keep getting worse.
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June 5/05 A Trip to the City and Rosa Joins Us
This week we kicked off with a trip to Banda Aceh on our scooter for the Green Aceh pre-conference meeting. It's a very rough trip, for us and for the scooter. The roads receive no maintenance at all and are getting worse. There are no trail bikes for sale here or in Medan.
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May 28/05 Getting Settled
It's been another eventful week in the zone. We are full steam ahead turning our house into the 'Base Camp'. Many local men and youths come and help us each day. At first they asked to be paid, but we said we couldn't because we weren't a rich international NGO. They came the next day anyway, which is a good sign. The women are keeping their distance as we are only 7 guys at present. Hopefully this will change when Rosa joins us.
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May 21/05 Early Days in Lamsujen
Well, we finally have a foot on the ground. We've now rented the abandoned house at the edge of Lamsujen village within walking distance of the project site. This gives us a base. The house will be an excellent model for our home garden demonstration. At present we're cleaning up the house and adding a few rooms.
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May 16/05 The Scouting Party Arrives in Lamsujen
Chakra, Pete and I took 2 days to drive up the east coast of Sumatra from Medan. The overloaded truck kept breaking down and we did running repairs. It was great seeing all the different farming systems and architecture along the way.
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