project coast2coast to banda aceh, indonesia 15-26dec - part 1

15dec 2006 - Day 1
the first day was kind of slack. just manual work of checking in and out for our baggages and items that we brought over for the orphanage. met at the airport at 6am. boarded the plane at 8am and reached medan at 8am!! (haha! medan is one hr slower than singapore!)

our next flight to aceh was at 3.45pm! had lunch at some indonesia style restaurant. It's called a padang. they will bring out all the food they have and put it on your table. then we will eat those we want. so you could only touch the food that you want. if you accidentally touch a food then you must pay for it.

played some team bonding games while waiting for the next plane and i was forfeited lah! so many kids croweded around when i was singing "twinkle twinkle little star"! -_-"

boarded the plane to aceh and reached aceh at 4.45pm! saw the principal of the orphanage! SO CHARMING! :D went to our house! the house is called wisma!! so we were at wisma too while you guys were shopping at wisma!!

settled down and went for dinner at some road stall. their chairs and tables are really short. i had nasi goreng spesial which is fried rice, chicken (ayam), eggs (tulur) and prawns (udang). drank milo susu dingin (iced milo with milk)! their susu (milk) is like 2/3 of the drink! super sweet but super nice

back to wisma! had debrief and faciliation session! oh! our house is really good. it's super huge like half a soccer court. but the toilets have no flush system and no water heater. we cant even throw toilet paper into the toilet cos' it will choke up the sewage. bathed in cold water and the water is so dirty that you can't see what's below (water from the well).

aceh has so many mosquitoes as many as the number of people in singapore. they bite us with much pleasure and feast on our blood (like free flow).

oh! i had aircon in my room! :D

16dec 2006 - Day 2
woke up at 7am and had aceh bread for breakfast. their bread has this really weird taste but that was the only food available.

interaction at fajar hidahya. had station games. was supposed to play big fish and small fish with the kids at my station. had a hard time communicating the game with them. we then changed the game to ikan besar ikan kechik (which is the malay version) which didnt work out too. so we played "aku says" which is a similar game to "simon says" and then we played another game called "what is this (aper ini?)"

was super tiring handling 100 kids. had to repeat the games so many times that my voice went sore. was super super super tiring but i had loads of fun.

left FH and had lunch at another roadside cafe. we then went on an orientation trip to the wet market and supermarket. the wet market was really wet. it's like vegetables everywhere on the floor. and i see live cows and chickens being killed!! saw a few kids who caught live fishes down the stream! :D

back @ wisma for sports day/ pre-sports day demonstation. and did i say that mosquitoes are REALLY REALLY IRRITATING! i see like 10 thousands mosquitoes all around me!

dinner. which is nasi goreng again )):

then debrief. learnt a lot during debrief.
1) the aftermath of tsunami -does the effect linger and persist?
2) income gap among indonesians. (aceh is the 2nd most well-endowed state in indonesia but it is one of the poorest state in indonesia)
3) what's our motive for coming to banda aceh?

that's all for day 2! :D
my bro needa sleep. shall continue soon!

PLEASE STAY TUNE FOR PROJECT C2C PART 2!!

there are new things to be learnt everyday! :D -kavitha-