First week in Indo

Hi there,

After the first full week in Indonesia, things feel like they are starting to make sense. The main goal for the project this week was to get a full understanding of the program, which we are to evaluate. This means field visits, interviews and lots of documents to read. Basically, this program has various goals around disaster preparedness and mitigation of risk. In 8 villages near the city of Padang, community members, local government and the private sector stakeholders get together to discuss the risks they face. Obviously, earthquake is a looming threat, however these villages also face flood, landslide, forest fire and volcanic eruption! After prioritizing the risks, the villagers, school children, government officials and local businesses are offered training in everything from first aid and disaster preparedness to facilitating community participation. They are then asked what small infrastructure project would be most helpful to the village. Most villages chose to construct a tsunami evacuation route, while another built a community relocation building built to withstand earthquakes.

So the next two weeks are to figure out, just how we will be able to quantify the benefits of the program, in financial terms, using the earthquake of 2009 as a basis for the potential impacts of hazards faced by these villages. If any of you have any bright ideas… please let me know!

As for more personal news, we have managed to meet some great people in the past week. From university students to NGO workers, security guards, storeowners and really chatty taxi drivers, people here are all very friendly. We’ve been watching a lot of world cup soccer, had an inaugural karaoke night and made a day trip to a nearby mountain village. I have also started a language course three days a week and should be starting a membership at a local gym… although I don’t know how I will manage a good workout in the oppressive heat.

The first field visit was to a village named Salido, which is right in the path of any tsunami, has landslide potential and frequent flooding. The small village has built an evacuation route to the hills in the event of a tsunami. They say that villagers would have about 12 minutes to get to high ground after an earthquake and unfortunately, most will not be warned of an impending tsunami as the ‘early warning’ system takes about half an hour on average to disseminate tsunami information, hence the imperative on awareness, preparedness and self-survival.

Along the way, we passed by a wedding ceremony with a beautifully dressed bride, with her 5lb headpiece and tiny wooden shoes, walking the streets to inform the village of her impending ceremony. Following the bride is a pushcart filled with her dowry of bolts of fancy material, jewelry and other possessions, and a plethora of family, friends and a band belting out traditional Indonesian wedding music. Many people are getting married these days as Ramadan, the month of fasting, begins on August 12^th, not the time to have a celebration… unless you really want to save on the catering bill!

OK, another week ahead. I hope that everyone is happy and healthy! Also, I am unable to check my blog from work, so please email me if you have any comments teron.3moore@gmail.com. I love hearing from everyone!

Until next time,

Teron

Safe arrival!

Hi all,

As promised, this short posting is to notify all those that may be the worrying type, that I am fine... happy and healthy.

It has been three days since my arrival at Padang. Things here are not as dirty, busy, loud and crazy as I was expecting. People are very friendly, many speaking basic English and a few with a good command of English and a willingness to help a foreigner out. Watching world cup soccer at a local store has made me a friendly face around the neighbourhood that I am staying in. Sign language and a love of sport helps us communicate quite complex ideas and will be a good segue to practicing the Indonesian language. I begin formal classes tomorrow.

On Saturday, we travelled to a village that is starting a disaster risk reduction program and we are very impressed with the public participation, organization and level of professionalism of those taking part. With very limited resources, these community groups come up with substantial planning, organization and implementation of disaster risk reduction priorities. The setting of the village is pristine, valleys carpeted with rice paddies surrounded by steep forested slopes that dot the landscape. This type of geography has its pros and cons though as the hills are the sources of landslides, yet are the main protection from the threat of tsunami. I promise some pictures for the next posting.

Highlights so far include a monkey trained to pull coconuts from trees, fantastic fruit drinks, a Sumatran wedding procession and the many friendly faces of the very young and very old. If I ever get brave, I will try to take a few portrait shots some incredibly beautiful people.

As for work, we have many leads on sources of information for our analysis, but little idea of what we should actually pursuit for our purposes. Scope-creep is sure to become a factor as we try to adjust the amount we do in accordance with the time we have.

Ok, that's it for now. Until next time!

Teron

It begins

Sitting in the airport in Vancouver, awaiting an overnight flight to Hong Kong and I realize that I have almost no idea what I am going to be doing on arrival. I have read all the books I can on cost/benefit analysis, disaster risk reduction, GIS, computer hazard modeling, natural hazards analysis and earthquakes in Indonesia as well as articles on statistical analysis. My pack is about half full of the selected printed works from this research and the computer hard drive is about half full of the electronic versions. To be honest though, all the background reading in the world will hardly prepare me for this upcoming internship project/cultural adventure.

Here are the briefing notes:

Cost/benefit analysis (CBA) is done for projects, usually before they are begun, to see if they are financially efficient (i.e., the financial benefits are greater than the financial costs). However, in this internship, the purpose is to analyze the efficiency of projects that have already been put in place and add a segment of qualitative (aka non-financial) costs and benefits to these projects. We can then learn from this analysis which programs to pursue in the future and go back to major donors to show how well their money was spent.

Disaster risk reduction (DRR) is a fancy catch-all phrase covering just about all things that people can do to lessen the impacts of a disaster before the disaster hits. These actions can be behavioral (preparedness, training, moving out of high risk areas, etc.) or physical (structure strengthening, levees, berms, etc.). As DRR is a major focus of an international attempt, headed by the UN, to reduce disaster impacts worldwide, the breadth of what is considered DRR is continually widening.

Hazard, in this case, refers mainly to earthquakes, as has been shown by the history of damaging earthquakes in Indonesia (most notably the tsunami triggering quake of 2004, but also in 2005, 2007 and 2009, see

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/historical_country.php#indonesia

for more details). Risks of major earthquake events are high and with poor building conditions, increasing population pressures, extreme poverty, poor environmental standards and low social security, there is a large vulnerable population. Think Haiti compared to Chile this past winter.

Keep in mind, that the 'benefits' of these projects are measured by the damage that didn't happen as a result of these projects having been put into place. Hence, there will be a reliance on trying to measure the unknown by using probability analysis based on historical measurements of the impact of past disasters. All in all, a challenging process.

For more concrete information, I am working (for free) on behalf of a US-based NGO that specializes in disaster relief and humanitarian aid and have been partnered up with a Phd economist student named Jose. We will be arriving in Padang together in about 20 hours and will be staying at a guest house next to the office. According to the net, there is a surf spot a short bus ride away will some slow rollers and a few good places to hike in the hills heading inland. Weather is hot and humid, but its the dry season so, besides sweat, we should stay relatively dry. Tropical fruit is abundant and the local food is world renowned. 90% of the locals are Muslim, so pork and alcohol are difficult to find, which suits me just fine. People are poor but friendly and curious of foreigners. There is very little violence in the area, not close to any of the areas that were bombed a few years back or to any of the separatist movements that have plagued different parts of the country. Democracy is young in Indonesia, being instated in 1999, as a result of a student-led Islamic movement. Indonesia is the 4th largest country (in terms of population) in the world and has the world's largest population of Muslims. There are about a billion little islands that make up the country (6 thousand populated), each with its own history, culture and flavor. The island of Sumatra is 10 times the size of Vancouver Island and the population is about 100 times greater. Padang has about a million inhabitants. All in all, an exciting place to be!

So, you are now just about as informed as I am. Surely this upcoming week will be full of new information and realizations of incorrect assumptions.

Until next time,

Teron