Indo, Day 10: Rest

The power stayed on all night! It's funny the things you start to get excited about when you have nothing to start with. What's more, it rained quite a bit throughout the night, cooling the air even more. But it was no less humid. It's a bizarre feeling when there's cool air, but it's still incredibly humid. It is neither refreshing nor annoying, but it is also both.

Walking to the office in the morning, I pass groups of kids walking to school. They always stop and greet me with "good morning, sir." I think they're proud of their English. The older kids, and some adults, on motorcycles just stare. But I smile and keep on my way. The early morning fog is beautiful in the valleys. Makes for a nice walk.

The plan was to eat breakfast then head into the main town, Gunung Sitoli (GS), for the night. It's an early morning flight, and with our village being a couple hours away, this made more sense. But, of course, as I'm getting ready to leave, people start coming forward with problems for me to look at. So we got a late start.

Esther and ended up leaving late in the morning for GS. Along the way she pointed out some of the projects they have going in the community. Distributing vats for collecting rain water and health education for mothers and babies are the two big ones. They're going to be starting up a child survival project that will include some actual clinics for children under 5. That's Esther's specialty.

GS feels like a huge city compared to where we were in the interior of Nias, but it's still that same tiny town made up of shacks I flew into four days ago. The particular hotel they arranged for me is really quite nice. I think it was a popular stop for the surfing crowd (Nias had world-renown surfing before the tsunami) as it has a lot of that feel. The grounds have little grass huts scattered around for eating or whatever. There's a dock that goes out into the ocean - oh yeah, GS is on the coast. It was so refreshing to walk out there and smell the salty ocean air.

The room itself is the nicest thing I've seen in Nias. The tile floor has a large crack, a reminder of the earthquake that devastated the island. The bed has one of those roll pillows down the middle which I've seen a lot of here. I don't think they like bed-mates touching. There's actual windows...well, plastic wrap over the holes...keeping the room (mostly) insect free. My only disappointment was not seeing a ceiling fan. But, given where I'd been, this was still going to be amazing. Then I saw it. High on the 12' wall was my very own AIR CONDITIONER! It doesn't get very cold, but it does just enough to get some of the humidity out.

The bathroom is in standard form for Nias (and elsewhere in Indonesia, I think), but much cleaner than what we had in the village. It's a tiled room with a drain that is literally a bath room. Although there is a showerhead on the wall, it doesn't work (no running water, remember?). There's a sink and a western style toilet (no more squatting!). The corner contains the all important giant plastic garbage can filled with rain water and a small pot. The principle is simple: wherever you need water, use the pot to get it there. Flushing the toilet? Dump lots of water in the bowl. Taking a shower? Use the pot to throw water on yourself. Yep, just standing right there in the room. The drain and temperature take care of the excess water. And since UNICEF decided the rain water here is potable, it's also used for drinking. But I'm avoiding that step.

The shower/bath thing was amazing. Bathing before was somewhat fruitless because the humidity almost immediately undid whatever you accomplished. But here, with the lower humidity and AC in the room, it felt wonderful. It's rather remarkable how a clean head can make you feel a million times better. New clothes that aren't bathed in permethrin and DEET both smell and feel great! Simple things, I know, but they make a difference.

I decided to take full advantage of the situation and do something I haven't done yet in Indonesia: don a t-shirt and shorts and lounge. Time to be a tourist. I went out to one of the little grass huts over the water (see pictures) to spend some time reading and talking to God. It was incredible. The weather is perfect. The humidity is low, but it's still warm. There are far fewer insects, so I don't need repellent. The sound of the waves crashing into the support posts, the smell of the ocean, the serenity of the whole place was incredible. It brought me such inexpressible joy to be sitting there, enjoying this beautiful retreat. It's funny how at any other time I would have thought of this setting as rustic, but now it feels like the lap of luxury. I would totally vacation here and spend the whole time sitting out on that little platform over the water. So peaceful. I stayed there until dark.

Is the water warm? For being on the equator...yeah...it doesn't get any warmer than this!

I've been a little wary of ordering food on my own again, after my last attempt got me nowhere close what I was trying to order. But I was hungry (turns out I accidently skipped lunch), so I gave it a shot. The people here are great. The waiter was a college kid and talked with me a little about why I was here. A couple Frenchies from another NGO sat down a table away and greeted me. The menu was very easy to understand, and I wound up with the most wonderful Indonesian fried rice I have run into yet. Maybe I was starving, but it was exceptional. And the fruit juice the kid recommended, I don't remember what it was, but it was right. And it's all so cheap! The room is 200,000 rupiah and dinner was like 27,000. If it wasn't so hard/expensive to get here, I would be all over this place. Forget Bali. It's cheaper than a hostel.

Except, you know, all the death and destruction everywhere outside this little pocket....

But this pocket has refreshed me and brough termendous joy. And for that, I am immensley thankful. My ride to the airport just got bumped up another hour, so I best be getting to bed.