14 November 2005

Thanks for your Email and yes, things have moved on and at the moment (fingers crossed) are looking good. I've managed to work my way into most of the NGO's and currently have enquiries coming out our ears. 2,000 houses, 85 community halls, hospital, school, fruit and vegetable market but no casino so far. I'm working on plan B which tries to get them all to work together but that one is an uphill battle. I pop in and see Hugh's project (Hugh Crawford of the Aceh Disabled Rehabilitation Centre:  www.p3c-aceh.org) when I have time and visit the widows at Lhoknga every two weeks. We have 8 on board at the moment and a couple of Australian friends want to support two more.

We are getting the hash (a fund-raising cross-country race) up and running again hopefully in Feb/March next year with the help of locals, two men in Germany, one in the Philippines and an ex-Mobil man in Medan. Bit of a mixture but all hashers and a great bunch of blokes. I visit and stay in the tent at weekends and then live in a proper house during the week with the chairman of the Acehnese Contractors Association. Big man in Banda Aceh and his family are more than good to me. I have an office, a computer, an ashtray and a waste bin plus AC and someone brings me coffee from time to time – what more could a man want?

I am also writing again but more on this Islamic angle as that seems to be the big thing now. It is a question of whether people are willing enough to open their minds to a fairly complex situation that was born centuries ago and yet still lingers on. Part of the answer lies in education but a lot needs to be done elsewhere on 'both' sides before we can start going forward. In the meantime we are bolting the hatches down and await the next explosion. Aceh is fairly safe in this respect as the militants are not wanted up here and the Acehnese have their own ways of weeding them out. The rest of Indonesia is on full alert and quite rightly so. But of course you have your own problems in the UK so best you stay alert especially with Christmas looming.