Some Months After Aceh…

I have a promise that I haven’t fulfilled. I promised to write more about my life, and the inspirations I found as I worked in post-tsunami Aceh, Indonesia. Yet when there are just too many stories to tell, added with procrastination in the name of that cliché ‘too-tired-after-work’ excuses, the stories remains stored my mental memory instead of in my laptop’s.

 

My life progresses so fast. Somehow I am overwhelmed by its speed (yet I still enjoy it :)), and along the way, I have more stories to record, and to tell. So, some months after I left Aceh, I landed in a new organization. Decided to be faithful to my profession as a disaster management as well as a communication practitioner, I chose to join the ASEAN* Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management. It is known by its shortened name, the AHA Centre, in which AHA stands for the ‘ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance’. So here I am now, expanding my working area from the northern tip of Sumatra Island to thousands other islands across ten countries in Southeast Asia.

Only in my first week after joining the Centre, a super typhoon hit the island of Mindanao in the Philippines on December 4, 2012. More than a thousand lives were taken, almost another thousand were missing as the mudslide swept New Bataan, a municipality in the province of Compostela Valley (also known as ComVal). Damages and loss were widely spread over 8 provinces with Davao Oriental and Compostella Valley as the most severely affected provinces. More than eight hundred thousand people were displaced, as more than two hundred thousand houses are damaged (UNOCHA Humanitarian Bulletin Issue 14, 2013). 

Royal Malaysia Air Force (RMAF) officers securing the load of relief items for the Philipines at the RMAF Base in Subang, Malaysia, on December 7, 2012

On the day when the typhoon swept the island, I and some colleagues were in our hectic days of preparing for the launching of the Disaster Emergency Logistics System in Subang, Malaysia. The logistics system will help a quick mobilization of emergency relief items during disaster emergency response. 

Change

I took this picture from here

Change. That is the theme of life.
Change happens within us at the counts of seconds. Constantly, continuously, sometimes - depends on the inputs, drastically.

Change is the process that happens everyday, as our marrow produces millions of blood cells, as our body transforms foods that we chew, air that we breathe, water that we drink, into things that keep us alive. Change is the regeneration of dead cells with the new ones. Change comes as grey hair that grows as we grow older, wrinkles that start with fine lines, height that we gained since we were child, curves that are sculpted at our torso, million things that we see along the course of our life, millions of thing that we witness, experience, deal with.

A Little Girl Named Liza (A Note from Aceh - 1)

Many times in life, I ask myself about what I would really like to do and what kind of person I would like to become. I believe same questions come across your mind too sometimes. I believe all of us want to have a meaningful life, as much as becoming a meaningful person. We have abundant options and opportunities in life, and it is up to us to decide how we would spend our times, where we would go, what we would do for others, what we would do to ourselves, and those are really, the true privileges of being a free human being.

In my search for a meaningful and fulfilling life, I decided to leave for Aceh, a province severely hit by the massive Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004.  I often felt overwhelmed when I was there, meeting so many people, observing so many things, and doing so many tasks (oh yeah, there are always excuses for everything :-) ), yet I know that stories from Aceh worth to tell, as a reminder to myself, that doing things that I love feels so good, and to others to know how beautiful it is to live the call in our hearts.

Aceh and the project we did there were very special to my heart that I decided to come back after living two years in the U.S. to study. I bet you agree: only special places, where we have special reasons, could get us to do that. Aceh was one of those places to me.

These days I really miss the moments when I traversed to schools in rural areas of Aceh. I met dedicated teachers, beautiful children who looked timid at first but so eager to learn. I love the feelings when I was surrounded by those little, alive, curious eyes, and as I smiled back, and talked to them, they would stick to me, following me wherever I go. I love to hear the cute voices of the children, and those little figures running around with happy faces. I love the moments, when in between discussions and disaster preparedness drills that we conducted, these kids would curiously come to me and shyly observed how I used my DSLR camera and video camera to record their activities. I miss the moments when I just sat on the school yard, showing them the buttons on the camera and how the devices recorded their and their friends’ faces. I knew I could always expect the cheering as I replayed the images before their eyes.

Liza and I :)

I can’t ever forget that day when I arrived in that small elementary school in Meulaboh, a town at the Western Coast of Aceh. It was the closest town to the epicenter of December 26, 2004 earthquake and tsunami, and this little girl named Liza told me so fluently how she lost her mother that day, while she was having a bowl of instant noodle soup. I got teary eyes and choked while she calmly talked about death and a life-changing event (most people I know in Aceh rarely called that tsunami ‘tragedy’) – while she was enjoying her lunch.

Jakarta, Caracas, Que Viva

It's been more than two months that I live in Jakarta. 'The Big Durian' - some people dubbed this city, trying to match New York's nickname, 'the Big Apple'. Some of them think that durian is so Indonesia (and forget that this exotic fruit is also a favorite in other neighboring Southeast Asian countries), some of them think that 'durian' is just a perfect analogy of the legit, creamy, sweet, tasty - yet stinky kind of living that most urban(-ized) people here are having. To me, I would like to add 'thorny' and 'dangerous' to the equation too, as that's exactly what durian is about to me.

At this point you might wonder what I am actually about to talk about in this post. Oh well. I will talk about my new life in Jakarta, how I recently realized that my two years of encounter with a Venezuelan guy has equipped me with the skills I need to live in this Big Durian, and how J-Lo and Marc Anthony's Que Viva got me to a thought to discover a missing link in my life.

Balancing Life

There is something about blue sky, clear water, and the dripping sound of fountains that feels peaceful. I guess that is why people try to reproduce those natural beauties in places where people want to relax. Like the view that you see in the picture above: the pool view of a hotel near my office where I had lunch today.

One day in autumn 2006, as I hiked along the track of Healing Forest in Nagano, Japan, our guide explained that human DNA retains the memories of its primal lives millions of years ago. Those are the memories of living so close to nature, where the abundant of fresh air, the scent of the woods, and everything that awakened human senses came from the forest environment where our ancestors lived. The sensations from the forest are invigorating. How it happens is maybe similar our memories about dinner with our family that we retain so well, that when we sense the scent of warm meals in the air around the early evening time, our hearts would swell from a beautiful feeling. The only difference is, with dinner, our senses have direct experiences while with forest, our DNAs recorded it and replay it, giving us a somehow good feeling without direct-experience-based explanation.

An Escape To Discover

5.46 p.m.
Cloudy sky hangs over the Indian Ocean. The usually-turquoise water absorbs the gray hues of the sky. Sounds of the waves, busy kitchen, people chat, gospels sang in German at the stereo, a space for myself at a corner of a café made of bamboo and coconut woods, an open view to the ocean, a book corner with shelves filled with books from many corners of the world, individuality that stands out but never disturb each other. Wide open air outside, and I know so well that soon dots of stars will cover every corner of its horizon.

This is the place I turn to when I need some moments to think. A place for a short escape, place to find inspiration. This is an escape to rediscover.

My Interview in The Story from Disaster Land

Today TV One, a national news television channel in Indonesia starts a new 30-minute documentary program called "Cerita dari Tanah Bencana" - literally means "The Story from Disaster Land". (TSDL). This program is developed in cooperation with the National Disaster Management Agency of Indonesia, covering disaster issues from Indonesian provinces that have experienced the worst disasters in the nation's history.

The issues include the stories of community's survival, the efforts done in post-disaster reconstruction and rehabilitation, the lessons learned from the disaster recovery processes, and the efforts to reduce future risks. I was requested to be one of the resource persons in TSDL series on Aceh. The request from one of the producers, Hendra, was very specific, "I want you to be the resource person because you were here, actively involved, since the beginning of disaster risk reduction in Aceh."
So I was just like, "alright, let's see how I can assist you."

I asked my supervisor if it was okay and he said, "well, the invitation is for you, and we would love to see you in that program." Oh. How lucky I am to have such boss. :)

When I was a journalist, I always said that one day I want to shift role from someone who interviews into the person to be interviewed. As I moved to Aceh to start my disaster risk reduction education and public awareness works, I enjoy my roles as the person producing and directing my organization's education and public awareness programs, including TV programs on disaster risk reduction issues. I learned a lot from the people I work with, and from the documents that I have to review. As time goes by, I gain more knowledge DRR and development, and really I love to share it.

So here are some cuts from my interview with TV One, a national television in Indonesia. Here I answered some questions on how post-tsunami blueprint unfolded, what made it fail to take place, and what would be the best approaches to involve the community in reducing disaster risks.

Thanks to everyone who gave me the opportunity to make my voice heard. :)

My Smile Is My Best Make Up

A neon sign I saw at Roppongi Hill, Tokyo :)

My daily routine starts with turning off my alarm, checking my mails, and doing a little writing or document review. Then as my driver arrived, I usually rush to get ready for work. Forget the make up, or proper hairdo. I would just hop in the car without make up, except when I have to go directly to a morning meeting or workshop. In the mornings when I arrive at work, I must first walk pass a metal detector gate, and then the security guards would run their metal detector bar over my bag. I cannot just walk into my office unoticedly. My first ritual at work is greeting all the security guards, have a little chit chat, and with a big smile, I excuse myself then walk another floor to my office. In Aceh I often arrive at work with bare face - without any make up, but something never leaves my face: my smile. :)

This kind of life is so different from when I worked in broadcasting industry. I was always neat and camera-ready, because people recognized myself, and they would expect me to look as good as how they saw myself on TV. I could not go shopping in flipflops with messy hair, because I felt like I have the responsibility not to let them down, added with a little ego of not wanting them to say that I looked messy in reality. 

The make up session before my shows - news or talk show usually was done for at least one good hour, with neat shadings, eyeshadows, fake eyelash, blush-on, and lipstick, and really good hairdo that involves the heat of the blowdryer and good salon products. I also sometimes wear designer or boutique-sponsored outfits, that sure looked good. It felt good, but in the last few years I feel good to live without the obligation to always look flawless.

I love my life and my works today. I can wear things that fit my personality. I often say that one thing that I love about working with the my organization, in the field office, is that I can wear my jeans to work.:) Physical look is not our capital, nor our commodity here. But still, looking good makes me feel good. I love to see people dressing up and groomed well, and thus I want myself to be as presentable. I can go with my jeans, but time to time I can also go with my nice suits. How good is that? :)