day 3

The last day spent in Meulaboh. Its a pretty surreal day for me cause i got up early and went shooting.. to get good shots of villagers going to the .. where else right.. Toilet!! i hid in the bushes but to the knowledge of one of the villagers elders, of whom we spoke to before i went into hiding :P
we went back also to Alue Bakong .. hopefully i am lucky enough to get kids or adults " in action" in which i did!



i felt that the trip was a great success... because of the shots i took on the 3rd day. it wasnt as "National geographic", but i was there witnessing the kids and the people of Aceh as they are living day to day. i hope the shots i took was a decent documentation that i hope will be a stepping stone to many other trips of such nature.

i thank WTO and the many people who help and believe in this cause.

Day 2

Day 2 was more tours of areas developed and monitored by IOM ( International Organization for Migration ) and a few from Spanish Red Cross and Indonesia Red cross. Nora from IOM was kind enough to show us around despite her busy schedule. At this stage i have have great admiration for social workers like Nora, Juliah, Helga, Iqbal and even the driver Rizal .. and even those great volunteer and social workers back home. i admired their courage and enthusiasm with compassion..to help and meet urgent issues of this world, despite all odds. and here i am worrying about the nitty gritty stuff back home when the people here dun even have a decent toilet.. to poop and to shower.





i slept soundly that night, but woke up ard 3.. and was imagining of how someone need to pee or having a diarreoa ( i still cant spell it correctly ) in that village .. to walk thru the lonely path alone.. and to do his or her business in the open .. amongst the vastness of the dark! i fell asleep awhile after with thoughts hanging.

Just back from Meulaboh, Aceh. its was a tiring trip for me. maybe cause of the plane rides. I went there to experience and document toilets. but instead i got a bit more. i went to Meulaboh without even knowing where it was, all i know was its a place hit by the 2004 Tsunami. i wanna experience it as it is.. as a naive, working Singaporen adult on a usual trip. you know like a short trip to lets say Batam :P




Having lived my childhood in a Singapore kampung and visited my relatives in central Java. i wasnt suprise at Meulaboh lifestyle. but what really really strikes me most was that.. unlike the rest of the world.. this place was struck by the devastation of the Tsunami and it bounced back up pretty fast!! the people are friendly and the food is great! and the beaches i went to where untouched and awesome!

so i guess its pretty safe to say that Meulaboh is taking its time to recover to its fullest..

now i was there to document toilets by WTO. T for Toilet, not Trade. and i thank god that i get to read my papers while doing my business back home!