October 27th - Back to work, again!

And yes, back to work… again! This week was short because the fasting month ended on the 23^rd of October, with Idul Fitri or Eid Al-Fitr (24^th and 25^th of October), informally referred to as Lebaran in Indonesia. So we had two days of national holiday and had to take an annual leave day on Monday. This left those of us who did not take the whole week off with a full two working days!!!

My fiancée – who, unfortunately, will be returning to the Netherlands coming Monday – and I spent the long weekend in Bukit Lawang, in North Sumatra. This is a three hour drive to the northwest of Medan and is located on the edge of the 9000 square kilometre Gunung Leuser National Park. We stayed at the Jungle Inn’s presidential suite, which came recommended by a number of colleagues. ‘Welcome to the jungle’ said our host, after we laughed about finding an orange-headed snake in our bed! The Inn is right opposite the Bohorok orang-utan viewing centre, which used to be a rehabilitation centre to help these primates reintegrate into the wild. Now, although they are still reintroducing a small number of orang-utans, it is less of a genuine rehabilitation centre and more of a place where they keep feeding these great apes for tourists. In any case, we had a great view from the Inn and regularly saw orang-utans making their way through the jungle and along the river. We also made an exciting two day trek through the jungle. We had a good workout, saw much wildlife and became more familiar with the sounds, smells and the damp feel of the jungle. We took the short way back: rafting in a bunch of lorry inner tubes tied together. It had rained the whole night so the river had swollen somewhat and made the ride all the more fun. It was a great experience!

Anyhow… this is beginning to sound more like a travel Blog than anything else! I really ought to be writing about work! But not this week, I am afraid!

These past two days have been eerily quiet at the office so I have taken this as an opportunity to round up a number of things and focus on what might lie ahead. I have finished updating the SPSS database and I worked on a document to provide feedback from analyses of the data collected so far to the teams. The latter, among other things, aims to make them appreciate the need for monitoring and evaluation and to stimulate them to analyse some of the information for themselves. Furthermore, I have worked on completing the instructions for the Spatial Information and Mapping Centre (SIM). And finally, I sat down with the CDR advisor to review my job description and the tasks that were ascribed to me at the beginning of my placement in mid-June. As will often be the case, what we agreed I would do and what I have ended up doing do not fully coincide. This is not a bad thing; however, some minor adjustments to bring everything back on track were warranted. We then worked out my schedule for November. Sadly, our CDR advisor will be leaving us to pursue her studies in Croatia. In fact, it will not be long before my six months in Aceh are over as well. Time really does fly!

This is likely my shortest log so far but then again, nothing much has happened this week! Next week I intend to write a short bit about the problems we have encountered with regards to corruption in our CDR communities and how these issues have been addressed and resolved. That should be interesting enough, right?

So I hope to see you all next week!

Take care,

Alex

October 20th - Back to work

Last week I joined my lovely fiancée in Bali for some much needed R&R. We had a wonderful time as we first spent a couple of days relaxing on the beach in an all-inclusive hotel in Sanur. We then stayed in Ubud before moving on to the Gili Islands on neighbouring Lombok. Ubud, with its scenic rice terraces, numerous temples and traditional dance performances, is an enchanting place that I would recommend to anyone. On the more remote Gili Islands, we enjoyed snorkelling and diving in the turquoise waters. We did our deep adventure dive there and had our first encounter with a white tip shark and later a small black tip. That was really exciting! Besides that, though much of the corals had died as a result of global warming, we saw copious amount of fish and many turtles. Finally, we spent our last day before returning to Banda Aceh in the touristy Kuta in Bali and barely had enough time to do some shopping and watch the sun set over the famous sea temple in Tanah Lot.

Being back in Banda Aceh meant going back to work and being thrown right back into the thick of it! With a new quarterly report due by the end of the week, time was pressing. To make matters worse, being knocked out for a day as a result of eating a bad pizza – it must have been the cheese – added to the pressure! I have nevertheless managed to update the information for my part of the report, including writing one and editing another case story, and to weave all parts into a coherent whole. But there is never but one thing to do at the office!

In addition to the report, I have been working on the final instructions for the Spatial Information and Mapping Centre (SIM). This should have been ready by now, but at the last minute the suggestion was put forward to combine CDR information with information from other departments such as health and Child Youth Protection and Development (CYPD) into a single map. This is a good idea since these programmes are also funded by Stichting Vluchteling (SV), the Netherlands Refugee Foundation. Unfortunately, however, this means the map will not be ready in time for this report.

In addition, we are now working on bringing back the number of databases from two back to one. I have developed and used my own database in SPSS and have gathered information using my own forms. This was necessary for immediate monitoring and evaluation purposes as the design of the main database, which runs in MySQL, was still being elaborated. Now, the trick is to incorporate all the information we have collected thus far into a single database without loosing anything. Obviously, both databases have their specific advantages. The main database is great for generating reports and makes it easy to update information from the field. SPSS, on the other hand, allows for a multitude of statistical tests and can produce a myriad of graphs and charts. Luckily, both databases can import and export data into Excel, so the task at hand ‘simply’ consists of adding fields to the MySQL database and matching the presentation of the data in Excel so that is can be transferred from one programme to the other and still make sense. This also makes it possible to take advantage of the strengths of both programmes.

Finally, though I had no part in this, there was bit of a panic about the financial aspects of the CDR programme. Some concern arose with regards to the low amounts of money that are actually being spent. The truth of the matter is that the run up to the implementation of the community projects was indeed very long. Much time was spent on sensitisation, Community Participatory Assessment Workshops (CPAWs), forming Community Development Boards (CDBs) and developing community proposals. Only in the past couple of months have significant sums been spent as communities received the first instalments to commence with the implementation of their projects and they are only now requesting second payments. So good progress is being made which, regrettably, could not yet be reflected in the previous report. But there has therefore been somewhat of a rush to verify and approve community financial reports to boost the amount spent with the next round of transactions. For the rest, for some time now, the CDR teams have been busy searching for additional communities in which to start projects in order to spend the entire available budget (not all funds have been committed yet). As was mentioned in my last log, the CDR teams have already come as far as establishing CDBs in new communities.

That is it for this post folks; I hope you visit my Blog again next week!

Take care,

Alex

October 5th - Back to home base

I have spent last weekend and the beginning of this week in Meulaboh. I have travelled around a lot on Monday and Tuesday, visiting all nine Integrated Community Programs (ICPs) in the districts of Aceh Barat and Nagan Raya. Fortunately, the ICPs in the two districts are all located reasonably close to one another. Once again, I have carried on gathering information for our database; made inquiries in a number of communities about school committees for our Child Youth Protection and Development (CYPD) department; and have collected GPS coordinates for all the sub-villages we work in. In addition, I have tested our radio by calling in to the Oxfam base in Meulaboh from a number of different locations. This is important in case there is an emergency but I think something was wrong with the radio because I could hear them while they could not hear me!

The teams I accompanied into the field have, among other things, assisted the Community Development Boards (CDBs) in Lueng Mane with a closed tender process and have helped them compile their first financial report in Damai, Seunebok Lhong and Seureumpoh. As it stands, too many mistakes are being made concerning the latter. Not that money is going missing, they keep all receipts carefully, but in the sense that calculations do not add up or that the financial books are not filled correctly, if at all. The capacities of the CDB treasurers clearly still need to be strengthened. One of the problems is that many communities have allocated the CDB functions to the candidates on the basis of the number of votes they received. In this system, the persons with the most, second most and third most votes automatically become coordinator, secretary and treasurer, respectively. The CDB treasurer in Seureumpoh, for instance, was illiterate, which, of course, is not very practical!

In the meantime, two new ICPs have been set up in Meulaboh; in Kuala Teripa and in Suak Geudeubang. In these communities, the CDR process is taking place at a swift pace. Within a few weeks, the communities have been informed about the CDR programme, have signed a partnership agreement and have undergone a comprehensive Community Participatory Assessment Workshop (CPAW) during which a number of participative exercises are carried out with the beneficiaries, culminating in an action plan. At present, the CDB members are being elected and will soon begin developing project proposals. The CDR teams now have much experience with the process and clearly have more confidence than they had a few months ago. The only downside to this accelerated process is that there is a limited amount of time to build up trust between the ICR and the community. Signing the partnership agreement, however, provides a great deal of security and Kuala Teripa and Suak Geudeubang have good relations with other communities we already have been working in for some time.

Finally, yesterday, I got to fly back to Banda Aceh from Meulaboh with a small plane from the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF). I have flown with small planes before but never in a plane this size (six seats). I sat in the copilot’s seat, which was great! The view was fantastic, especially the bit from Meulaboh to Calang, along the coast. You can clearly see how the coast has been altered by the Tsunami and you get a good overview of all the infrastructure activities that have/are taken/taking place.

For your information, I am off to Bali and Lombok tomorrow morning so I will not be posting a log next week. I will publish some pictures if I get a chance but I am not making any promises.

Take care and see you next time,

Alex