We are back in Banda Aceh – three months on from the disaster to see what has happened since. The town is a lot more active – from the days I was there the population has grown – a lot of the people who had fled the town must have returned. What is left seems to be back to some sort of normality though when you venture towards the coast the sheer devastation is again indescribable.
There are no hotel rooms available so we actually stayed in the apartment of a man who owned one of the remaining hotels - which had been taken over by Oxfam. With only one bedroom, he did put in another bed in the lounge/dining room/entrance hall for me. Cleaner and nicer than before – still had to shower out of a bucket, though there was a western style loo.
Our trip was to focus on the shift from the emergency phase of the relief to on going support for the communities given by the NGO’s in the field.
We also went to see Martunis and his father at their house. He was looking much better and back at school. Along with the other stuff that had been given to him by the Portugese FA, were two signed shirts from Ruis Costa and Ronaldo which were just hung up in the wardrobe. As they arevery special and should have been on the walls we bought some picture frames and framed them properly for him to keep them safe.
Being so close to Oxfam we concentrated very much on their efforts – helped by Kim their PR officer - who lived in Malaysia as a child and spoke some Bhasa. A fantastic guy who’s heart was totally and utterly on the job in hand.
Here is Kim talking to some of the locals who are replanting vegetation close to the shore that was washed away. In five years this landscape will be transformed again in to lush mangrove swamps.
Further down the road we came to this very small fishing village which was absolutely picturesque. Clear blue water with crabs running along the shoreline, boats moored and hills in the distance.
Turn around however and it’s a different story. Just behind Billy if you look carefully is another of their fishing boats which was washed ashore and dumped 100m away. Just as we left they were in the process of dragging it back through the wrecked trees to the shore to repair it and set sail once again.
Other things that stood out that showed the power of the wave was a coal barge – a big sea going vessed with tug that must have had 100’s of thousands of tonnes of coal on board just washed ashore like driftwood. Left in the middle of the road a new one was run around the outside and an enterprising villager had set up a café under the bow and was doing a roaring trade.
On this 11km stretch of coastline 80% of the population vanished.
What has amazed so many people who have visited Banda is the attitude of the population. Yes they are grieving but they are holding their heads up high and are getting their lives back together with a force that is generally unheard of. They are working very hard for themselves and not relying on or demanding handouts.
The government has done nothing for them in the past as the conflict between the Acehineese rebels and the Indonesian government has made Aceh unstable and its been closed to all foreigners; tourist or for business. As a result they are very pleased to have people around who have no ulterior motives other than to help and though in large parts they have nothing, they are still very generous in giving what little food they have in way of thanks. Trust of foreigners is very high and the government, military and the police very much feared and despised.
Feeding a package back to London one of the engineers at the uplink station watched, kneeling with tears in his eyes. Unbeknown to us we had been filming in his community – and he found it very traumatic. He had lost most of his family. This is a case where for the previous days we had seen him he had been doing his job. He was working hard. Up until this point I hadn’t even thought about any loss and it was humbling to see such courage. The fact is though, everyone is the same and has the same attutude. Truly amazing.
I am not sure why but we always seem to have technical problems here. This time my brand new camera broke so we had to use the spare and spend a day reshooting. Then when it came to doing lives the ‘talking head’ wouldn’t power up so we had to quickly invent a plan b… or was it e …. any way we got everything done and only missing one spot.
Sorry but I have to have a bit of indulgence and they are magnificent - old Toyota Landcruisers in fantastic condition.
I want one!!
