. .. i was travelling with oxfam colleague Eka.. we were on airport about to board the helli .... eka asked me to take her pict with helli ... i clicked the pict and on the background i saw a familiar face.. i tried to remember that gentle man.. .. could not stretch memory longer...
[from left--> Berry and Eka]
boarded the helli .. that gentle man was sitting across me .. i greeted him.. he too.. it seems he was also trying to remember where has he seen me????
the helli was too noisy ... we could not hear anything other then the noise of big 4-bled rotating over head....
the gentle man wrote on a piece of paper... "are you from RedR?"... the moment I got the paper... my memory set alive .. i remember his name.. he is berry darling.. close friend of pradeep and prasad.. worked with them in afghanistan ... ..
berry and myself were participants in RedR "environmental health in emergency" course during oct 2003....
we greeted each other..
-------
helli was flying low... it was really exciting to see the landscape and sea-scape around... beautiful aceh from top.. it was never-the less then heavenly experience to feel and fill the voids in me...
after monocolor afganistan and huge monocolor bare mountains... it was too cool to see nice greenery and sea shore... i felt too lucky to experience this beauty..
however we could see the Tsunami devastation on the shore.... the land was grabbed by sea... the houses were collapsed... trees were up rooted.. ..
sea was looking calm but one can imagine what it has done to shore on 26th dec 2004.....
it must have been a giant monster waves which took hundreds thousand lives...
---
the time came for landing... i hardly could see airport or helli pad to land.... bit surprised... ... finally i could see that we will be lending on football ground.. a lush green ground... ...
we landed.. i could see all NGOs car lined up to pick us up... i could see oxfam car there....
i set in car... arraived to oxfam office [500 meter away from helli pad] .... i could see cluster of nice wooden huts arranged in blocks painted oxfam green plus white... and a fenced compound with gate....
i brought my luggage in main hall... a big wooden hall with 6 tables arranges in two rows..
i was invited by PM Mr. peter strujif to meet him.. he warmly welcomed me .. he talked thru about some arrangements and handed me over the induction schedule....
i was touched by his approach.. he is a nice gentle man.
i came back.. met Mr. Gaurave prateek [indian] livelihood advisor..... very interesting person to talk with.. very sensitive , sincere and philosophical.
[Standing from left: Gaurav, Peter, Liz, Jim, Andy, Prasad sitting: Me, Myron]
i met my shelter team... Mr. aarif PO who will be my guy for rest of time ...
i was setting slowly.... ...
i met another team member Ms. putri [PA].... so construction team was comprises of 3 people Aarif, putri and architect who was on leave at the moment.
log and putri took me to the place where i will be staying for the rest of my assignment.... i can put my luggage ....... it was a wooden bunglow on beach... i was put in bunglow no 10.
there were 10 bungalows in two rows of 5 each.. i was on the back row.. the last one...
behind Mr. peter's bunglow..
.....[We called this bunglow!!]
No comments:
Post a Comment