May 12 -- We attended a ceremony for the opening of a children's library in Desa Nusa. This village was the one where Dellanna went several months ago to work with the three little girls who were so traumatized from the tsunami. Sanny (who translated trauma material for Dellanna) and her fiance built the library and continue to have fantastic influence in the village. There were Acehnese dances performed by both girls and boys that were very colorful. Village authorities spoke and board members from Medan Peduli (Sanny's organization) also spoke. This is another sign of hope in Aceh.

May 13 -- I met with the Director of Culture for the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Board for all of Aceh. He had invited me to come and brainstorm with him about creative ways to reintroduce native cultural forms at the village level. This man had been a participant in the Conflict Transformation workshop that I co-lead in March. Between the Suharto regime and its emphasis on economic growth and the civil war between Aceh and the central government, there is a generation of kids who have lost contact with their own culture, its art forms, etc. That productive discussion led to his offering to introduce us to the provincial heads of culture and art.

May 14 -- We returned to Lampoh Raya for the first time unannounced to see what progress had been made since March. We were warmly greeted. Very soon another car pulled in bringing the head of community development for UN Habitat, with whom we have been working in that village. We immediately went into a meeting with him, two assistants,and some of the village reps to review how the rebuiliding processes will be brought to a close. The 20 houses will be finished in two weeks. They are beautiful, some of the nicest we have seen in Aceh. The community center, built by World Vision, is already finished. The pipes are being installed during the next two weeks to bring the pure water down from the mountain spring. The last week in June we will attend a big celebration for the "surrendering of the keys" to the houses, for the community center, and for the presence of clean, drinking water. Imagine our elation!

May 15 -- We attended the official ground breaking for the Central Park in Banda Aceh. The contractor paid for all that was involved in the celebration. Present was the former mayor with whom we had worked, the current mayor, many of the heads of civil departments, school children and friends. I was asked to give one of the three official greetings/statements about the role of Compassion Frisco in helping rebuild the park, along with the mayor and the head of Catholic Relief Services. We completed the event by the three speakers laying the first stones to mark the occasion.

JANUARY IN ACEH

December 26, 2005 marked the first anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that ravaged this area a year earlier.

Compassion Frisco began 2006 in Banda Aceh by hosting a counseling team of six from Columbia International University in Columbia, SC. In late 2005 we surveyed staff directors from several non-government organizations (NGOs) to assess the level of stress their personnel were experiencing as a result of their work post-tsunami. The combination of working with survivors who were traumatized, along with the challenges of an area where the infrastructure had been destroyed, drained the physical and emotional energy of the NGO workers.

The team was professional, caring, and flexible with a great sense of humor--all the traits that equipped them to function very effectively. They did seminars with staff and volunteers from three NGOs, as well as training another NGO staff in identifying stress symptoms in children. This particular group works in seven villages with children and their parents who survived the tsunami. The fifth seminar was at a hospital where some staff and surviving neighbors around the hospital were enabled to deal with feelings and memories of loss that were very crippling. One-on-one counseling was also a part of the service rendered.

The day prior to the team's arrival, Dellanna and I flew in a UN helicopter to Calang, and on to Krueng Sabee, to see the classrooms for the alternative school that Compassion Frisco leveraged being built for the village. There are four classrooms and a small adjoining dormitory for teachers who may need lodging. Two of the rooms are situated on a mesa overlooking the other two classrooms. Village coordinator, Pak Yusuf, proudly pointed out that when the school is lit at night, it can be seen from Calang (about five miles away.)

Compassion Frisco has also helped forge a partnership with a Filipino who will be coordinating community development in Krueng Sabee with a team being put together for that purpose.

As we come to the close of January, we have just received 7 volunteers who will be working in Aceh for the next five or six months. The two women will be working in Banda Aceh, one as guest house coordinator, and the other with children and youth activities. The five men will be engaged in construction, clearing fields for farming, and youth athletic activities. Orientation and working out assignments is the order of the day.

As we returned in early January, we have assumed the role of facilitation of a couple of the networks with whom we are working. This role includes mentoring, as well as interpersonal and organizational relations. All our prior experience in Indonesia is serving us well in this role.

Next month we will report on efforts to create micro-businesses for women, the water project in Lampong Raya and the status of the Central Park in Banda Aceh.

NOVEMBER - From a worker in KS:

I have been on the ground in Aceh for a week now, and I must download a bit of what is going on. The bottom line is that it is still a desperate situation. This week I've spent a lot of time in "Glory" land, the little community here in BA that we love and are trying to help. An organization has pledged to build 700 houses and there are none that have been finished. 11 are fairly close to being finished, but there are many in shacks and tents. Work is progressing on the medical clinic, though the major funding has not yet come through. We are moving ahead by faith having received word from several organizations that they will help with funding. The people of this neighborhood have taken us into their hearts and love us deeply. They have been patient with us, but our hearts want so to be able to do tangible things that would begin to restore their hope. So many promises have been made and broken.

     Yesterday we just walked in some of the fields of debris in the neighborhood. I saw small shoes, toys, photos, broken pieces of lives still lying shattered on the ground. Even the few new houses being built are being built in those fields of debris. Where are the bulldozers clearing it and dump trucks of clean dirt to replace it and level it? I have so many questions.

     I took another trip down the west coast to Calang on Wednesday and then we drove to Krueng Sabee to see if anyone has come forward to help those people. STILL they are in the tents they received just after the tsunami. The tents are moldy and falling apart. When the winds and rain come they blow down and now the people are becoming sick. The leader was especially concerned about the children. He said that they are coming down with respiratory flu and high fever and that really the village is in an emergency situation. UNHCR originally committed to build 1000 houses, but were forced to leave when the official relief phase was declared finished. They have returned and said they would make good on the commitment, but it is caught in government red tape. In the meantime the people are exhausted. The leader said it would help even if each family could have 40 pieces of wood and a bag of nails to build a platform for their tents to get them out of the mud. They don't even have the tools to rebuild themselves. We are hoping to send a team next week to meet with people in all of the different vocational areas to determine exactly what the livelihood kits should contain so we can get the word out for people to buy those and send them. Pray for this team. We are also hoping to take a leader of a large organization with us next week whose organization builds houses. He will take with him a photographer to document the horrible conditions. Please pray for both of these efforts to give the people of Krueng Sabee a small bit of hope. Above all pray for the people of Krueng Sabee that God would provide for their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. They are so weary.

     I saw another thing from the windows of the chopper flying low over the west coast. I saw little patches of tents some of 5 or 10 or 15 where nobody is helping. Some are barely reachable from the barely accessible roads. There is a pocket of 10 or 15 tents on an island that no roads can travel to. I just wonder what they eat and drink. I wonder what they do when someone gets sick. I just wonder if they know there is life and love wanting to find them.

Lynette