First 24 hours in Pidie

The drive to Pidie was incredible. It was like a Formula One race track without the safety bumpers. Our driver was most skillful careening around other vehicles and going around curves while going uphill. The back seat passengers got a bit queasy and we have negotiated the shotgun seat to be rotated on subsequent trips to Pidie.

We are being driven around in fancy vehicles. There is much evidence of the NGO element in the area.

We're in some kind of villa. It is quite a lovely setting. There is a soccer field beside us. There is another team here working on local government. They arrived first and have the best rooms....we'll get one of those rooms next week when we come back. The house itself is quite huge and grand. We are delighted to have air conditioning in our room. We bug spray it at night. In the morning we awake to prayers at 5:00 a.m. It really wasn't that disturbing but then they are on Rob's side of the house. He particularly appreciates the raspy voice of the chanters.

We had an 8:00 a.m. meeting with the Bapada (local administrator/town manager). He fully endorses the project and sees the role that library can play in community development. He wanted us to 'improve human resources'. This is very forward thinking as we have found that most people do not think of the library as a place that is important.

We were then taken on a tour of two school libraries; (one trade school, one high school) and the public library.

The library needs everything, as we had guessed. They need shelves, The only thing they don't need is the ton-o-books that are on their shelves.

More later gotta go for dinner now.

D & K.

Pluses and Minuses

We had a mixed day today. A pretty good flight into Medan. At this stage a 1.5 hour plane ride seems like a walk in the park. The scale of things has really changed....much smaller, much grittier. For instance, your belongings go through the security machine and land on the floor in a melee of people. After lining up for our visas, we found our luggage was already gathered by a KEEN porter who we then had to chase after to keep up with, while we moved from the arrivals to the departures area for our next flight.

We had some time to spare so we ventured into the city of Medan. Note - we had no knowledge of the Indonesian language or even how to parrot the word 'airport' back to the taxi driver. However, we made friends with our driver Tom, who gave us his phone number so we could call him back for the return trip to the airport.

We walked about Medan, slightly nervous, as we were carrying the laptops, while dodging traffic and taking it all in. We don't know how it happened but the minus of the day was that Dawna lost her wallet. Yes, you read that right, the sad news is Dawna has no wallet, no money, no credit card...you get the picture.

The good news is, we were visiting a bank around the time we noticed the absent wallet. The friends we had made at the bank helped us to call Tom the taxi driver. Alas, no wallet left in taxi, but he did come back for us and return us to the airport for our final flight to Banda Aceh.

The silver linings abound, Dawna's ticket and passport were in a separate pouch (Thanks Ruth) and Katherine is helping out with the lack of cash etc. So we are now staying at a nice hotel in Banda Aceh and it seems to be quite pleasant here. We know we will be spending our weekends here and there will be a lot of interesting areas to explore over the different missions.

We have met our third colleague, Rob. He seems like a great seasoned traveller/worker who has been working on library related projects in Asia since 1986.
We meet With FCM folk tomorrow, have a briefing at the local office and then head to Pidie in the afternoon.

All in a days work here on the great adventure. Dawna has a lovely new lime green wallet.

We've managed to roll with today's pluses and minuses.

Time for bed.

D&K.

Singapore Airport

It's Tuesday morning and we have two more flights in front of us today.

The VERY long 15 hour flight from Toronto to Hong Kong was the biggest challenge so far. The time crawled by even though we had great seats with lots of space and leg room. We had the coolest rejuvenation at the Hong Kong Airport, in the 'Traveller's Lounge'. $40 US got us a shower, seated massage, GOOD coffee (for Katherine), internet access and all you could eat food and drink. We spent our time internetting and massaging so we did not get to eat too much.

Next stop was Singapore, where we had 12 hours and stayed in a lovely upscale boutique hotel. We ventured out for a walk to get a phone card. We didn't quite get to the 7-11 but laughed when we passsed a Sally Ann. Much to Katherine's disappointment it was closed since it was late in the evening.

We seemed to have kept up with the sleep and the time change. We will see if the jet lag kicks in.

We have been trying to take photographs of ourselves for the blog at various stages of our airport jauntings but we are miserable at it. It does keep us laughing though. Perhaps it is the subject matter!

We have been prepping on the flight for the project, getting our heads around different approaches. I keep wanting to get there to really understand the lay of the land before making too many assumptions. We haven't met anyone with first hand knowledge of the area. Any Indonesian people we have met have not ventured that far north. There are so many islands (depending on who you talk to it's 5,000 to 10,000 islands. What we do know is that Indonesia is the 4th most populated country in the world.

Over and out,
Dawna and Kat.

Leaving the Rock

I am heading back to Toronto today, leaving the rock after a really wonderful time here. Someone has requested that I slide a little Newfoundland post into the blog, so here goes.

Ten things that I learned while in Newfoundland....

Cod cheeks are actually delicious.

The wind blows cold at Cape Spear and the landscape is ruggedly beautiful.

People from Newfoundland are exceptionally kind and friendly.....barring last night's wacky cab driver.

You can come to St. John's and not get screeched in.

Puffins are a lot smaller than you think.

The coastal drive to Bay Roberts loops through beautiful little towns.

The painted houses here are an integral part of the character of the place. I was drawn to them continually.

The hills of St. John's could make mountain goats of us all.

You need to come back to Newfoundland again and again.

And last but not least I have learned that Aimee is a wonderful travel companion and I look forward to future jaunts and excursions with her.

I head to the airport in less than an hour. Rush home, throw my clothes in the washer, pack, try to sleep (although I am certain this will be impossible!) and then head to the airport to start my next adventure.

WOO HOO!!!
Dawna.

before it all starts

Now settled into the going. Have a wack of files in a toolkit hopefully to cover a range of themes or concepts to help out with libraries in Pidie.
Strange to be waiting to get going with the long flight at the front end of it all.
now to check what my partner has posted!

Packing for Pidie

It has been a bit of a scavenger hunt and a guessing game packing for Indonesia. There are a few things to conside for sure. It is a Muslim country and I will be expected to wear a hijab on request. This is fine by me. The harder part will be to have to wear long sleeves and long trousers in the humid heat. I'm told that I'll be glad of the long sleeves for mosquito protection.

I am the type of traveller that likes to have all of the things I need to make things comfortable.

To date, some items I have packed:
A light to clip to my ear (like on 24!) so I can read at night and to help if power is unreliable.
A super huge quick dry towel that will serve as a wrap and a beach blanket and towel all in one.
Things to make things comfortable on the 4 flights to get there: eye cover, neck pillow and travel yoga book.

I know I will likely not have stuff I wish I had and vice versa but for now it is fun to imagine what I might need and how things will be.

Still hard to think that by this time next week I will have had my first day of work in Pidie.

D.

How it began

It's hard to believe, but less than a month ago I heard about an opportunity for a special project in Indonesia. I put my name forward and to my big surprise I was asked to work on the project. The news was made even better when I heard that my friend and colleague, Katherine would be joining me.

We leave in five days and I wanted to establish a way for me to keep track of my thoughts along the way. We will have 4 missions to Pidie District and we will re-build their public library system. Currently there is one public library, which sustained significant damage during the tsunami. The library has also been covering for about 40 school libraries that were totally lost in the tsunami. By all accounts it will be a challenge.

I'm in Newfoundland at the moment, having a mini-holiday with my friend Aimee before the CLA conference. We have been to Cape Spear to see the most easterly point in Canada. I kept thinking as the wind chilled through me, that by next week I will be hot and humid. I have been enjoying my time here and treating it as a way to relax before the big trip and first mission to Pidie District.