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| June 15/05 A Month in Lamsujen |
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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.
This morning on the weekly trip to Banda Aceh, we passed a sad sight. A king tide has wiped out several refugee tent camps. Some of the survivors there had recently planted food crops. It looks like the land may have shifted again as many of the tents are now in the centre of small lakes.
The look on the people's faces as we passed said it all -- total misery. They can't rebuild their houses here as the area is just tidal swamps now. The government hasn't given them any new land yet.
Having a woman on staff has already changed the dynamics between us and the village. Neighbour women now come and sit on the porch to chat, something they never did before.
On Monday we start our first real training for World Vision staff, our team and 20 local farmers in six half-day sessions. These workshops will help me gauge the capacity of the local people and get the community talking about a sustainable future.
Our 2 hectare training site is beautiful. We have a temporary training hall under a huge mango tree that is dripping with ripe fruit. It's cool and shady and the backdrop is green jungle mountains with a fast river roaring through the valley. The air is fresh and the local monkeys make a whooping noise in the tree canopy. The World Vision staff is excited as this kind of training is rare.
Chakra and Pete have returned to Bali for a break. Chakra is briefing the IDEP board on our progress. Pete Williams did a fantastic job setting up our new website, recording our progress and showing what we do to the rest of the world. Finally after many years, I am able to have somebody to record this work. As an all- rounder I never have time to photograph myself or my projects.
This type of web site will help raise funds as well as serve as an educational tool for other projects. I hope to slide it into our aid2trade project. This blog will expand in the future as the other staff join on. I've yet to get a laptop also. We are using World Vision's hotspot at present but this won't last too much longer.
The house refit is going well with three functioning toilets/showers now! My first bean garden is up and we've begun the vegetable garden construction. That's it for this week. Adios amigos, Steve
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