the latest from Aceh

So a few words on my latest posting, as a way of contextualization for posts yet to come--

I am newly based out of Banda Aceh (the northern tip of both Sumatra Island and Aceh province) working with an NGO on their programming in the province. This idea began to germinate while in Yogyakarta, where my first day of Indonesian school coicided with the last day of Mark, the head of this organization . We kept in touch, and we eventually put together what I see as a mutual beneficial job description to get me out to Aceh (a place on my list since before I arrived in Indonesia).

Basically, the idea is for me to spend a good amount of my time around the organization's various field projects (the NGO's banner programming areas are health, education, livelihoods, and child protection, all with an eye on at-risk children and their mothers) in a sort of research/strategy capacity. For one, I will be working my way around the programming as a sort of journalist for the organization, covering various human interest stories and chronicling the stories of our beneficiaries. What I end up putting together will end up on the organization's website and included as color in Donor Reports and brochures. In additon, I will likely spend a few weeks on Simeulue (where the earthquake last week was, though the news ticker says there was another one in the Mentawis a few hours ago, nobody worry) working on a strategy paper for the scale-up and sustainability of what has been a long neglected and geographically isolated corner of the Aceh operation. Simeulue, both physically remote and the poorest subdistrict in Indonesia, is a place where the organization already has a foothold and, with some guidance, has the opportunity to make serious contributions to the welfare of the children there. I am excited about the opportunity to contribute to this.

This new relationship is something that I am really excited about, largely because it gives me an opportunity to have an exciting, meaty, and supported project that I can feel really good about contributing to. After all, who can say no to cute kids? Moreover, it gives me a chance (and a purpose) to get to know the province of Aceh, a location with an interesting and unclear place in the Indonesian constellation--devoutly Islamic, partially autonomous, post-conflict, post-disaster, grass loving, natural resource wealthy--that makes this country so diverse and so difficult to tackle.