The first few months in Aceh

How are you? I hope everybody is as well as I am right now. I think it is once again time to tell a short story about my whereabouts. It is one of these stories or call it “quick snaps” of my life; to keep you involved and updated. But it is difficult to begin this time. In the small update I gave you 4 months ago, I told you that I finished my internship in Sri Lanka and eventually got my first job. Fortunately, during my 10 days in Germany between the assignments, I had the time to meet some of you and some of you took the time to meet me. It was a blast!!!! And packed with surprises!!!! Unfortunately it did not work out with most, not even thinking about you guys outside Germany. Well, I think it is the life I choose at the moment and therefore we have to stay in contact via mail, msn and skype. However, I miss you and I am sorry that I am so lazy with writing. But let me begin to catch up.

Well, I am in the middle of nowhere right now; in a 4-wheeldrive jeep. Next to me is Iwan, my friend and driver on the steel. Christine, our intern, is at the back. We are driving on 3-8 meter wide pists, build and left unfinished by AUSAid (the Australien Development Cooperation – it seems they have been drunk when planning it). The last 5 hours we were driving though probably the world’s worst Tsunami Impact Region, packed with housing programs from various international agencies, crossed a thousand proforma bridges, saw probably 35 refugee camps and some hundreds emergency tents in the …. yeah right, in the middle of nowhere. The night begun, and so the adventure. The problem in real life adventure is that it is quite boring until something real is happening. So I listen to the latest Indonesian Pop-charts my singing Iwan has on tape.

It seems that some of you did not get the mail I send in late April, so I should start from the beginning and also tell about Aceh itself, the job I am doing here and the insanity that is going on. The problem is that everything is quite connected so please forgive if I jump in the topics sometimes. About 10 weeks ago I got a job with GTZ (German Technical Cooperation) in Aceh, Indonesia. Aceh if you (Es laeuft gerade “1,2 Polizei”-ich glaub ich sterb) probably know attracted quite attention since the Tsunami (Tsu – Wave; Nami – Harbor) was not “the wave in the harbor”, but the wave who took the harbor in a whole and all that was around. Aceh, on the tip of Sumatra, was the most affected region by the Tsunami 1 ½ years ago. The destruction makes the damage the Tsunami caused in Thailand or Sri Lanka look minor. About 230.000 people died. About 215.000 are missing. The Province Aceh, (at least until the election next November) called Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, with the capital Banda Aceh lost 97,5 % of their GDP from one day to the other; actually within 3 hours.

It is very difficult to describe what has happened here, and impossible to imagine. These 4 satellite pictures show quarters of Banda Aceh.

I don’t know if they can show a bit of what has happened here… Yes, I think they do. Probably better than being here today. In fact it is not only very hard to imagine when you are on the other side of the world, but also hard seeing when you are here.

The destruction was so massive that everything hit by the wave in the area vanished. Actually the second wave was the only one recognizable being a wave. The first, third and fourth were more an extreme increase of water heights; it pond up to 30 meter because the water was blocked by the mountains on the one side and the pressure of the sea pushing the water from the other side. The worst destruction however was caused by the current when the water was withdrawing. The main impact area is nothing but wasteland nowadays. Even though Banda Aceh was not one of the main impact regions, whole quarters and suburbs of the city are completely gone. These impressions can still be seen all everywhere. In many minor affected suburbs you can still find curiosities.

Can you tell me what is wrong with these pictures.

Yes. This electricity boat will probably never get back to the sea anymore. The “waves” carried his boat 5km inland and smashed it onto houses, cars and people. Other boats followed.








I climbed the electricity boat to give you an overview, what it means when people say Banda Aceh was destroyed. The picture in the middle shows you a quarter almost untouched by the wave. You see (in the front of the picture) that the houses are very close to each other and that you probably could walk through the city from one site to the other, by stepping from one window in the other. The second picture shows you a quarter of the capital 5 km inland.

All white / shiny roof tops are new houses! The old houses are red by rust. Imagine, these pictures are taken 1 ½ years after the Tsunami and only Germany alone promised 500 Million Euro for reconstruction for all three countries hit by the Tsunami, and Indonesia definitely got the biggest piece. NGOs like Care International or Oxfam (the latter was just accused to be involved in a corruption affair – this can cost your hand in the Islam dominated Province Aceh) have each about 200 Million $ for their own. Almost all countries have some activities here (BRR published a list on the net – 6 pages! - even the Italian) and housing programs were and are very popular (the reason is more that they are so easy to implement and impact is easy to measure). But they have to hurry, due to the grant prohibition for 2007. But isn’t that massive. They did so much and still so less. However, the activities in the whole region are very widespread. The most activities, like ours, are concentrating on the east coast. The impact was not as massive as on the other side, but due to the higher density of population, villages and therefore economic activities, the destruction was worse. Our program “Economy Recovery and Microfinance” (ERMF) is among the other 4 GTZ programs (Technical Vocational Training, Administration and Registration, Local Government, Health) the biggest program and split into two main activities: “Economic Recovery” and “Microfinance” The Recovery component deals with a “In Kind” - Grant Programs (This means under the title “Back 2 Business” we grant micro and small enterprises productive assets up to 500 Euros, to enable them their restarting of their business – we give out 1 Million Euro for fishing nets, sewing machines, small generators, but also build new lakes for prawn farming, a dike, etc.) (Gunnar is dying when this is over). Other major programs, which – other than the Grant program that ends this November – is our BDS (Business Development Services) programs as well as a project to support the economic economy by improving the political and business environment. The picture shows our project focus region.

(SORRY BUT I COULD NOT UPLOAD THIS PICTURE YET...WILL TRY TO FIND ANOTHER ONE)

These funny roads of a total length of 200 km from Banda Aceh (BA) to Lohkseumawe are in a good shape. Even though they are pretty dangerous, our drivers can bring you here in less then 6 (!!) hours. Ok, you really should not sit in the front when having an easy heart. True. But I think this is quite typical for Indonesia, and if you are not able to read in cars it might be a bit boring, but at least it is reasonable.. Well…. Being lucky (or not?), I am not forced to go to Lohkseumawe more then once a month…or two months. The people from economy recovery on the other hand have to travel almost weekly and more and more like Gunnar, a friend and tempan sekantor (Kollege) is even moving all the way down.

I am back in my field of microfinance. It is very nice to find another region with such less and poor microfinance services to work on like Sri Lanka was Even though the SL has quite much activity ongoing but the quality was, is and regarding the war nowadays will probably stay very bad for some time!. The projects I am involved in are mostly focused on capacity building and product development. I am working together with the local university to develop a range of coursework modules for their bachelor degree, even conducting lectures myself at the university (quite funny), work together with Technical Service Providers (TSP) to establish some sort of regular trainings, trainings for trainers, setting up a banking labortarium for on the job trainings, as well as the implementing of Management Information Systems. But one of my most favorite projects is in the starting position: The establishment of a new rural bank in Lhokseumawe with local shareholders with local shareholders. Yes, it probably means that I will have to travel this 6 hour route some times, but it is a perfect project, especially, because one bank is planned to work on Shari’ah principles. If I get the contact to the other BPR opening here in Banda Aceh, or find a 2nd one we can open on convenient banking principles... It is my phd-thesis I always wanted. But I still haven’t talked with my supervisor about that., but an external PhD, within a year…why not? Or half working and then in 2 years? hehe.... And perhaps we can also work together with Hannah from CGAP (a pretty need organization) to experiment with new, alternative delivery mechanism. (I hope you are as excited as I am Hannah!!!) The rest covers pretty much organizational and management issues of the program and of course … thanks to Dirk….ppt-presentations. What a shame. I mean, I like doing them at home, with a glass of wine, a cigarette, and good music. But I am in Aceh. It is interesting how the Islam - Quran can be interpreted.

We have 2 restaurants. The highlight is the “Pace Bene”, an Italian with 3 dishes. There is no cinema. No pub. No theatre. No funpark. We have one extremely expensive café, promoting “Bali, Jakarta, Aceh”, instead of “London, Paris, New York”. We work between 50 and 84 (my personal record) hours a week. We don’t want any special treatment. We like what we do. But a beer from time to time would be nice. I mean, being German…….we need food. Honestly, we are very happy here. And we get our beer. But we have to do it "illigally". Its not 100% cleared yet. I am not sure if the short description of my projects sounds interesting for you, but for me it is a almost perfect. Never had so much fun! You should also see my hacienda. Well…..see….This is the entrance. At night we have torches all over the place!

This is the living room, this is our garden. But at least we have Mangos, Coconuts, Strarfruits and Guave. We will no get Papaya and Bananas.

OK , we still need some time with our garden, and actually it changed already. Now we have green and some more plants. This weekend I gonna try to build a BBQ. Because one day Irene will come and all who know her, damn she can eat.

Here we can go up to our rooms and this is my room. (above) And here…this is the view from my balcony, from which you enter my room. Leave the door of the toilette open….this view.












You can also see the volcano. We live a bit outside but close to the office. We are surrounded by nature. Literally! We feel the nature everywhere. The mountains are a few steps away. We have a natural pool some minutes down the road. The earthquakes are lull us to asleep. The volcano gives us some nice fireworks from time to time.
The Hacienda I live in I share with Sonia, Claudia, Eva (all GTZ though). We have so reinvest in the house. By this we build on our dream palace; the garden, the interior design, the projector. We really like it. We have mango trees, Coconut palm trees, Guava Trees, Star fruit trees and vegetables in the garden. Next months I will hopefully have a goat and therefore soon a bbq place in the garden.

Another way for me to escape the work and to relax and also to get new energy is Singapore. Irene and I just found a nice room in a condo close to NUS. Irene was recently accepted for a master program, jointly offered by NUS and TU Muenchen. She received a full scholarship by BASF and will come for her studies to Germany in June 2007, after her 10 months coursework at NUS. I will try to fly every 2-3 weeks for a weekend to her and enjoy theatres, cinemas, good food (the Indonesia kitchen is quite limited to Rice with Rice, or some Noodles. Pork is of course forbidden, and chicken is not too safe, since the birdflue spreads out in Sumatra.) and our relationship.. The distance is about 3 ½ hours by plane and the costs do not exceed a weekend relationship between Munich and Berlin. Yes, I am very happy at the moment. We listen to Iwan’s tape for the 4th time now and I really regret that I did not by an Ipod yet. But finally, with the first sun light and 12 hours later (230 km) we arrive in Melouboh. The adventure I promised was not a fake, but began with the next day. In the following few days we traveled through the west coast and visited about 17 loan and savings cooperatives in a jointly program with BRR – The Ministry of Reconstruction. BRR, is selecting 63 of these cooperatives for a (each) 40.000-70.000 Euro grant program ... it is a dicsussed approach. We joined their staff being in an observer role. I really enjoyed the trip in the beginning. It was a good opportunity to see more from Aceh and from the reality we face when implementing our program. Here are a few to give you an impression.

To get an impression of the landscape, the people and the living conditions on this very tip of Sumatra. Again and again the affects of the Tsunami are visible all over the place. Difference between the old and new coastlines, however, is only visible from the air. But indicators of a shift of the island are to be seen everywhere. The leftovers of bridges, 100 meter inland, the wasteland, lakes and . Where ever you go you can see the destruction of infrastructure and houses. The line of tents and refugee camps, the temporary buildings seem not to stop. When we come to a MFI we normally face the absence of reporting books, member lists and account information. The Tsunami took everything. But they did not take creativity of the people to get on money. And suddenly a motorbike crashed into our car. Doing 2 mistakes at the same time, we left the car and stayed for discussion. The next mistake was to believe the BRR people, that we just have to bring this guy to the hospital, pay 5 Euro and leave. Christine and I were quite helpless, because we could not just leave the guy there, and only with 5 Euros and no police… But it came back anyway. After we visited the last cooperative this evening, our people suggested to visit the village of the guy who crashed into us. “We have, of course to see how he is!!!!” When we arrived at the village we were sitting in the circle of wise men within minutes, and had to defend ourselves. The our people withdrew for a coffee and after some hours completely. Christine (able to speak a bit Indonesian), the frightened Iwan (almost not able to speak English) and me (I had 10 lessons so far) were alone. They showed us a totally damaged motorbike (Good that I made a picture right after the accident that shows the minor damage the biuke and the major damage at our car) and explained us that the poor fellow broke at least his right leg (so far) and has to fly to Singapore for treatment. The minimum amount we have to pay is 1000 Dollar. JUHU!!!!! At this point I really have to explain that the motorbike crashed into our standing car! After some hours of discussion and a furious brother, we finally called the police who took my driver into jail – for god sake I was not a tourist, but employed by the German Government. It took us 3 days at the police station, various discussions and several phone calls (the best was the one of my supervisor: “Matthias, I will send you a helicopter! Now! I will get you out of there! I am serious. - but I could of course not leave Iwan alone there. It would be quite unfair and I don’t want to know what they would have done with him) to have a report, stating that it was not our fault, the poor fellow will go to a local hospital and not to Singapore or to a shaman, that we will only pay his hospital bill and the damage on our car, when my country director called from BRR Headquaters. After a small chat between the official of BRR and the local police president, the police apologized and let us go.

Irene and me will come to Germany over Xmas. Hope to see you for a nice little PARTY! Matthias