from the horizon

As promised here is another video I put together with footage from around Banda Aceh. Hopefully it gives you an idea of what it is like here.

As part of the ongoing reconstruction effort in Banda Aceh the UN blew up a water tower. I should probably mention that the water tower was damaged by earthquakes and had been looming over the city block like a derelict UFO for a couple of years.

I was a little unimpressed by the explosion (I blame Hollywood), however I was fairly certain that it was the recently elected governor pressing the fire button, who just happens to be an ex-GAM (Free Aceh Movement) leader. Adds an extra layer of irony: Rebel Leader Blows Up Infrastructure of Banda Aceh with Support From the UN (I resisted the urge to use that as the post title)

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When I was studying Computer Systems Engineering – learning how to build electronic circuits, write software to be embedded into microchips, interface computers with the real word and making robots dance – I used to feel sorry for all of those computer programmers stuck designing mundane accounting systems. They were just creating systems which were really just glorified abacuses (sorry abaci doesn’t sound right). I had the potential to put my skills to good use, to create a robot army and take over the world. And yet here I am, stuck behind a computer, programming an accounting tool. What happened?

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(Same same but different)

I arrived back in Banda Aceh on Friday on a Garuda flight from Jakarta. When people wishing you a safe trip, you take it a lot more seriously when the airline you’re flying with has had a plane crash two days prior.

It is good to be back in Banda Aceh, especially after Jakarta. The drive from the airport past rice paddy fields and luscious greenery is a stark and pleasant difference from the motorways, skyscrapers and traffic in Jakarta. Once again I was straight into work, and met with the Chief of Party to clarify and prioritize my work. It was a good meeting, and we managed to reduce to number of databases which they wanted from ten to seven. This is actually still a massive amount of work, but I’m doing my best to cherish the 30% reduction. I also think that I have found a staff member who will be able to work with me on the databases, which will make the work a lot more interesting. Although it will be useful to have another person working on the projects, it will force me to be more disciplined with the design and allocate the workload – both of which are probably good things. Also the staff member doesn’t speak that much English – so it will be another motivation to learn Indonesian.

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I’ve just arrived in Indonesia to start a 6 month contract building a variety of databases and do some general IT training for an NGO here. At first I’m little apprehensive about being back on the “Aid Circuit”. After 3 months in beautiful New Zealand, the chaos of Jakarta took a little adjusting. But the Indonesian people are so friendly , and I know that I’ll settle into things soon enough.

And then in the first 24 hours I’ve been here there’s been another earthquake in Sumatra, killing around 22 people and a plane crash in Yogyakarta, killing at least 22 people.

I remember, that’s why I’m here – to try and make a difference. I just hope this isn’t the sign of things to come…