Well, the last few weeks have been interesting, to say the least. I planned to blog about my new house, and the transition to there, but of course I was assigned to travel with our broadcast team from the US, which delayed moving in for a little while. Traveling with the team was a great experience, as I got to finally see all of the various projects SP is doing here in Indonesia. Although I have traveled to Banda Aceh before, I had never seen the shelter projects there. As soon as I find them, I’ll post some pictures from the trip. The sound guy got sick in Sri Lanka before arriving in Medan, so part of my job description was boom guy. For every interview, I was the guy holding the big boom mike over the nervous interviewee, trying to keep it out of the shot. It was good to hear first-hand stories of how our work is changing people’s lives. We met people who have a new house, a new job, and a better education because of our work, and it really justified for me the long hours far away from home. We can only pray that lives will be impacted permanently through our help.
Right now I am on a MAF plane, just leaving Nias for the second time in two weeks. We had a great couple of meetings here, working to develop a program for building houses here as well. So many people were affected by the earthquake in March, and still have no house, only tents. We’ve been asked to work in a remote mountain area, where 1500 houses are needed, but we’re waiting for funding in order to do this project. Out of a need for 30,000 houses since March, so far none have been built, and only about 7500 promised, including our potential project. It seems a lot of agencies are also running to the end of their funding. It is good that at least in Aceh we have been able to commit to building almost 2000 houses, and will have completed several hundred by the end of the month.
After returning from my big tour last week, our Regional Director arrived from the US, and Paul took him on a tour for a few days, leaving me to take care of Medan office. They had an inauguration ceremony for our first shelter project. Although we have completed one small project, and soon a second in the Banda Aceh area, this project south of Meulaboh is much bigger, and was started in early March. We have been working in this community since the first week of January, first with emergency shelter and water purification. Finally, we were able to invite some dignitaries and organize a community celebration to recognize the first people moving into their new homes. Although I was unable to attend, I will attach pictures of this great event.
Meanwhile, back in Medan, I finally did move into my new house, which is actually a team house. So, although I am the permanent resident, any team members coming to Medan for a break will stay at the house, rather than at a hotel. We are able to rent this massive home, and furnish it nicely and staff it for much less than a hotel bill, and it’s much more cozy and comfortable for all. I enjoy having different company over almost every night, although the new cook isn’t so happy about it!
I also haven’t properly introduced my office or the staff, which I intent to do this weekend.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. There was one other thing that kept me busy this week. You may have heard that there was a plane crash in Medan. It landed about 5 kilometers from our office, three from my house. It landed in a residential area, on a major highway. The plane really only cleared the runway by 500 metres, before crashing on the road and exploding in a ball of fire. Out of 117 people on board, only 19 survived. An additional 50 people on the ground were killed. I took a team from our Medan office to respond right away, and we were at the wreckage within an hour of the crash. Yet another once-in a-lifetime-is-enough experience. We handed out bottled water to the emergency crews frantically trying to rescue anyone and put out the fire before it spread further. The governor of North Sumatra province was onboard, and the former governor. Neither survived the crash. This led to a national day of mourning and a state funeral, as well as a ceremony and funeral for the unidentifiable bodies the next day. The city was hit hard by the losses, and between the road closures, funeral processions and general malaise, traffic and business was at a standstill for the rest of the week.
Well, that’s it for today. We have a management meeting tomorrow, and need to find funds for Nias houses by next week, so that should keep me busy for a little while.
Thanks for reading!
God bless you all, Chris
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Chris at the scene of plane crash in Medan, Indonesia
Chris at the scene of Mandala Airlines crash in Medan, Indonesia
Copyright Chris Sheach 2005
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