Out of Mongolia

                                           

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www.pulauweh.com.zip (3848 KB)

Pulau Weh is a fantastic place to dive. It's a squiggly island about one hour north, by ferry, from Banda Aceh. The best sites are in Gapang Bay, which is a protected area on the north side of the island. It is full of life. And it's staggeringly beautiful.

I've spent a lot of time in cold places, and diving had never crossed my mind. But you can't live in a place with such fabulous underwater beauty and NOT take advantage of it. Luckily, I had a good friend, an expert diver, who hooked me up with a great dive shop:  Lumba Lumba (which means "dolphins" in Indonesian). So I learned to dive. Definitely one of the better decisions I've made in my life.

I took several courses and am now a certified rescue diver. When I started the rescue course, I had no idea I would be moving to Mongolia. I actually studied some of it in Ulaanbaatar, during a pre-assignment visit, in subzero temperatures.

After finishing the course, I went on a 50-meter dive to see a sunken German ship, the Sophie Rickmers,  from World War II. On my last dive in Aceh, I took photos. It was a bit awkward, but I managed to get some good shots. One of them, of an anenome fish, has become my thumbnail for Facebook, Twitter, Posterous, and other networking sites.

Shortly after I finished the rescue course (which, by the way, is NOT easy), I found myself in Ulaanbaatar. I cannot dive here. But there is incredible natural beauty in Mongolia, and I am learning to enjoy it.

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I used to think the word "shrimp" meant some little pink and white thing you'd see in a cocktail glass. So imagine the shock of seeing this gigantic breeder at a model hatchery in Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra. We called her Big Momma. A breeder like this can produce a million eggs. Big Momma Aceh is a producer of Penaeus Monodon, or Black Tiger shrimp. The Acehnese shrimp sector has seen hard times: it was slammed by disease in the 1990s, crippled by decades of civil conflict, and in 2004, ravaged by the Tsunami. One of my organization's projects was to rebuild the Acehnese shrimp sector, which employs about 100,000 people. It was a great project, and played an important role in the recovery of the sector. You can read about it in the World Bank's East Asia & Pacific Blog. Black Tiger shrimp is big and incredibly delicious, especially on a grill. It's not easy to find in the West, so if you see it, try it. If there were such a thing as designer shrimp, this would be it.

There's more about shrimp farming in Aceh in this photo journal:

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PEPAN in pictures.pdf (2285 KB)

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Four years ago today, an earthquake triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean which devastated Aceh. Other places, including Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India, were also badly hit, but Aceh suffered the most. Of the 225,000 people killed, about 165,000 were in Aceh alone. It lasted about 30-minutes on a Sunday morning, leaving wreckage and corpses everywhere. The devastation is still hard to comprehend.



The Tsunami put an end to the 30-year conflict in Aceh, and led to the biggest reconstruction effort in history. I came in mid-2006, and remained for almost two years working on private sector development projects. It was one of the best times of my life.

Aceh is peaceful now, and is reintegrating with the world. But the holiday season will always be a little sad for me, in part because of the tragedy, and in part because I miss Aceh so much.

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Remembering Aceh II.wmv (8089 KB)

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When I lived in Aceh, which suffered the greatest losses in the 2004 Tsunami, I contributed to the World Bank's Private Sector Development blog. There was a category called Aceh Diary, started by my friend Shaela Rahman, who helped set up our office there. After I left there was nobody to take over, and I started writing for A Mongolian Tale. The Aceh Diary category no longer exists, but the posts are still in cyberspace. I've collected them here, mainly for my own ease of access, but also for anyone else who is interested.

My Posts:

Aceh Diary 2.0  ♦  An Indonesian Esperanto  ♦  Ramadan   ♦  A Visit to Nias Island  ♦  Shrimp Day at IFC   ♦  Risky Business: Bringing Seaweed to Nias  ♦  Shoes (not) Optional  ♦  Happiness is a full Bak Mandi  ♦  Fighting Poverty at 25m   ♦  I Left my Belly on Mount Seulawah   ♦  An Acehnese Biker Chick   ♦  Goodbye Aceh  

Shaela's Posts:

First Impressions  ♦   Photos   ♦  Coordination   ♦  Photos   ♦  A Bisa State of Mind   ♦  Aceh Diary on BBC Radio   ♦  Commemoration     ♦ Price Distortions   ♦  Dining Out   ♦  Banda's Beehive   ♦  The Housing Hole   ♦  Wolfowitz Visit   ♦  Hazards and Risks   ♦  On the Weekend, Work or...?   ♦  The Staffing Challenge   ♦  Handing Over the Torch   ♦  An Aceh Veteran Speaks Out

Aceh has changed completely since Shaela went there in 2005. You can get an update of Aceh's economy and reconstruction efforts at the World Bank's Tsunami and Earthquake Reconstruction  site. There is also an interesting article in the online publication Inside Indonesia about the return of the founder of GAM, the Free Aceh Movement.

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