Sungai Geringging

Last Sunday night after two flights on yet another shady Indonesian airline (I’m lookin at you, Lion Air) and a 2 hr cab ride through the country – during which the lost driver stopped to ask for directions not once, not twice, but thrice – I finally got to the Hands On Disaster Relief base in the country outside Sungai Gerringing.

Note: to date I have taken 4 flights within Indonesia on 3 different airlines. I have yet to take a flight that has taken off less than an hour late… Just sayin.

So to back the disaster train up a little: at the end of September two crazy earthquakes – 7.0+ monsters on the Richter scale – struck this part of Sumatra and wreaked some havoc. People died, houses got ravaged and consequently, mad quantities of NGOs rolled in to help with much-needed cleanup and rebuilding. While I was in Yogya, I found out about HODR and a combination of the following led me to believe I should probably go… 1. No plans for the rest of my time in Indonesia/no plans on how to get to Manila from Yogya, and 2. Feeling like I should maybe actually do something for someone in need after engaging in pretty much wholly unbridled hedonism for the last month and a half (heck, maybe the last 23 years?)

Plus, how often am I in Indo – or anywhere for that matter – where I have a free few days to help with disaster cleanup? Game time.

The work mostly consisted of demolishing houses that were made unsafe by the earthquakes having shifted walls and cracked girders and such. Do I know what a girder is? No… but I’ve always wanted to say that. After demolition (or “deconstruction” as we were supposed to refer to it since it sounds less like young kids just going to town tearing houses apart… even though that’s basically what it is) we’d salvage and sort through rubble for bricks, wood, and other good stuff to use for rebuilding.

A day in the life consisted of rollin out stacked 10 deep in the back of a pickup to work from 7:30-11:30 AM and again from 1:30-4:30 PM in some crazy heat and humidity. Let’s just say I got my sweat on reeeeeeal good and I can confidently say I’ve never been so dirty in all my life. Felt good though. I tried at all costs to avoid a sweet farmer tan complete with glove lines but I’m not sure how successful that was….

At the base there were about 30 volunteers between about ages 19 and 35 all living in this converted local house. Cold bucket showers, 2 squat pot toilets between the lot of us and the same exact meal every meal for 3.5 days. ‘Nuff said. It served as a poignant reminder of why I have a strong hatred for the North American version of that experience: camping. Except people camp for “fun”.

I kid. It was all good. Plus, anything more than the basics in that kind of situation just wouldn’t feel right.

The people I had the opportunity to work with were cool and there was a sprinkling of people from all over the world though it seemed most cats were from the UK, Australia and the States. A dude from Ontario, another from Quebec, and I held it down for the Canadian club.

Over the course of my short few days there I saw some interesting stuff, not limited to: 3” giant scorpions, the first Asian woman I have seen smoke a cigarette (that doesn’t sound too exciting but ALL the men smoke and I’ve never seen a woman light up in almost 2 months here) and a couple trained monkeys on really long leashes shimmy up suuuuper tall palm trees and throw the coconuts down to the owners. I need to get me one of those.

It was interesting working at some of the houses that were closer to town because people would constantly stop by to watch what was going on… not help, but watch about 99.9% of the time. That was a bit strange. The local kids would also come watch, usually help til they got bored/tired and inevitably share whatever English they knew. This was always “What is your name, where are you from?” and counting 1-10. They also waved and yelled hello like it was the first time they had seen foreigners every single time the truck passed going to/from sites. That never got old. (That was actually genuine. The fact that I have to point that out is probably indicative of a cynicism problem…).

For sleeping, I scored the coveted bottom bunk right next to the open window. Though ridiculous mosquito bites were an unfortunate side effect, I felt like I was in another world when I could fall asleep under the brightest stars mine eyes have ever beheld and then be woken up at dawn by the haunting melody of call to prayer coming from the neighborhood mosque. Moments like that make this whole travel thing worthwhile…

To sum it up – my time there was short but really worthwhile and I was super glad I got the chance to be a part of the whole operation if only for a few days. If anybody ever wants to volunteer to work on any relief efforts, HODR pretty much sets up wherever help is needed and takes volunteers for as long/short as they can come out. Good deal. Check it out: http://www.hodr.org.

I left yesterday from Padang to get to the Philippines (I’m on a bus now, about to get on a boat to Boracay and it’s been 21 hrs since I left. I have yet to see a bed…). I got 5 days left in Asia. Sad truths right there.

Before I end this, a couple comments/questions I need to throw out there in the world:

Who is buying $1350 shark fin at the airport? While I’m walking to my gate in Jakarta, I pass a “Marine Products Store” selling, among other things, 2 foot by 1 foot size giant dried shark fin. Bear in mind this store is located past security so whoever is buying fin is doing so solely on impulse. What. The. Plus, if that fin tip isn’t a weapon, I don’t know what is. At the same airport I also watched NHL highlights and got a massage while I waited for my connecting flight… so it was a bit of a mixed bag.

Also in the airport was a HUGE sign over baggage claim that read “Drugs: cost is not worth such satisfaction”. For some reason it seemed funny at the time. Satisfaction?

Add this to the list of things that have been yelled my direction by locals: “Hello, thank you!”. Just get all the English you know out there in one go.