Tsunami

Padang is a small city of about 900, 000 people. The capital of the province of West Sumatra, this city’s heartbeat lies in the government offices, small businesses, and universities that proliferate the area. The history of the city is vast, with traditional culture, early immigrants, Dutch traders and industrialization all playing major parts in making Padang what it is today. Despite significant natural resources including rice, cocoa, fish and palm oil, the area has a terminal climate of economic uncertainty, in no small part due to the threat of disaster.
Major earthquakes have occurred in 2009, 2007 and 2005 impacting the area. As well, the famous tsunami of 2004, which hit too close for comfort as much of Padang is actually below sea level. This risk steers business, tourism and workers to other areas. It is understandable when looking at the risks. Seismologists continually warn of a major ground shift along one of two ocean fault lines, causing severe shaking and tsunami. When, not if, this occurs, the tsunami wave will reach up to four kilometers inland, inundating the city’s narrow streets with the force of a tidal wave. Most people in the waves path will have little warning of the incoming threat and will crowd streets with motorbikes and cars, causing impenetrable traffic jams in the city’s core areas, as they try to make it to high ground. When the tsunami hits the coast, most of the city’s infrastructure will be paralyzed. Major hospitals, government buildings, electricity and water infrastructure and major roads will all be left inoperable. Potentially, the same fate will await the airport. Then begins the emergency response phase. With government and international agencies struggling to offer services under chaotic circumstances. The devastation will be extreme.
To try to avoid this destiny, the populace prays to Allah while the government uses meager resources to prepare its citizens and international agencies attempt to support this preparedness with funds, expertise and expectations. A mishmash of programs, strategic visions and ways forward ensues, with ideas of huge vertical evacuation towers built to withstand the force of the tsunami or of moving the entire city further inland. As grand as some visions may be, a strong force prepares communities with emergency training, disaster awareness campaigns, planning and networking relationships that will prove vital when the impact occurs. Disaster risk reduction, a combination of mitigation and preparedness, focuses on adaptation and readiness. The hope is that these programs will arm people with the best possible skills and knowledge to survive the inevitable.
Rest assured though, that human beings are a resilient species and will surely bounce back from the next disaster as they have from the previous disasters throughout history.

Boys in Indonesia and the World Cup!

The preparations for World cup finals are nothing to turn your nose at. The suspense has been gaining momentum for the past week with everyone talking about who they want to come out on top. The result of your answer can bring jeers or cheers depending on which side you find yourself, but everyone is friendly in the end. Tonight, the majority of people will cheer for Spain. This makes sense, as the Dutch have left a bad taste in the mouth of many Indonesians, as colonialism can do. Another major decision for the hockey-loving Canadian who could care less which team actually wins, is where to watch the game. I have been invited to watch it by half a dozen people, from the local grocery store owner to the trainer at the gym… everyone wants to have the token foreigner over to watch the game. Luckily, I have a good answer when I turn down their offers, as the staff of Mercy Corps will gather at our home to enjoy a potluck style dinner and a projector that has been requisitioned for the purpose. As the game begins at 1:30 in the morning, the convenience of having the game at our place is well worth the effort we’ve put into making food and arranging the living area.
In the last posting, I spoke about some of the challenges faced by woman in West Sumatra. This week however, I thought I would relate the trials of the opposite sex. While hiking in the hills behind Padang, we came across a young boy, maybe 4 or 5 years old, in a sarong held out like a tent in from of him. Curious about his behaviour I asked our local friend, guide, interpreter about it. Very thoroughly, he explained that this boy was at the age where Muslim boys get circumcised. Apparently, people are quite open about the whole ordeal and don’t mind sharing the entire procedure and recovery details. So life, for males is not all fun and games, just ask the boy with the tented sarong!
As for project progress, we have begun to identify potential indicators to quantify for our CBA. For example, the first aid training we will try to measure any change in the number of visits to the doctor, for the evacuation routes we will measure the value of the land that was given up to construct them. These ‘proxies’ will, hopefully, give us some sort of idea as to what the benefits in dollars are for the P3DM program. However, using these proxies means that we will need to make some major assumptions while analyzing the data and unfortunately, the greater the assumptions, the less valid are our results. But, we must work with what we have available to us! There are sure to be many challenges as we progress further.

Some photos of my life here so far...

Beautiful friends showing their pearly whites.
Worker’s helper at the site of a relocation building in Durian Duan. The multipurpose building will be used as reception/information/organization centre in the event of another disaster.
Damaged house, 10 months after the earthquake.
Sardines drying in the sun, look like drawers of silver jewelry.
Building a boat, this skilled boat builder uses an adze to fine-tune the bulk-head, takes three months to finish a boat.
Another cute kid, trying hard give the peace sign… keep trying!
Making a fishing net.
Cute kid, giving the universal sign for “take my picture”.
World famous Padang food and a gratuitous shot for all the metal-heads out there.
Pasir Brau, in Padang Pariaman district is another village at high sick of tsunami. All inhabitants are dependant on the ocean for their livelihoods.
Monkey, used to humans feeding them, these guys can get aggressive fighting over peanuts.
Waterfall along the way to Bukkitinggi. For 30 cents you pass the makeshift fence and brave the cool water.
A beautiful bride, with her five-pound headpiece and ornate outfit. This woman was teary, some said because of wedding others said it was on account of her uncomfortable shoes…
After a major earthquake, experts say that people have about 12 minutes to get to high ground. Right this way everyone!
Salido, in Pesisir Selatan district is one of the villages that is at high risk of tsunami, landslide and flood to name a few. A new tsunami evacuation route tracks its way from the center of town to the hills in behind.
Tropical beauty.
Rice paddies are a blur at high speeds, but are still beautiful.


Wedding carriage waiting to take the bride and groom to the house of the mother-in-law. Hope the little one isn’t the driver, but out here, I wouldn’t be surprised!

Gender in West Sumatra

Hi all,

As I learn more and more about Indonesia, West Sumatra and the specific disaster risk reduction program that we are to study, I begin to realize the depth of knowledge that is needed to understand the way of life for the beneficiaries of the program. One of the most fascinating areas is around the traditional and contemporary roles of women in society. The Minangkabau people, who make up the majority in West Sumatra, are one of the largest matriarchal societies in the world. Women take lead roles in decision-making, own titles to land and are heads of their households allowing the new husbands of their daughters to join their family home after marriage. Contrast this traditional culture with modern Islam, considered generally to be a patriarchal society and, depending on the denomination, can be repressive toward women. In West Sumatra, 98% of people identify themselves as Muslim.

So how do these seemingly conflicting points of view play out? At the village level, it seems that women have a very strong voice in community decisions. They’re opinions are spoken with confidence and conviction, and are heard by all at the table. However, women generally act demure on the street and are not typically seen alone after dark. At the regional level, most government posts seem to be held by men, especially senior posts. During regional elections last week, all ten members of the five parties were men and all are based heavily on Islamic ideals. Men control religious matters which seem to have limitless boundaries, from marriages and education to disaster management policy, religious leaders must be involved to be effective.

For our purposes, the challenge is to identify how these distinct ideals parallel each other to form contemporary society and to work within the system to develop community driven programs that will sustained by the community after we leave. This means making them representative of the society within the community. Added to this challenge are the complexities that come when international agencies bring in tonnes of money for aid after a disaster, the inefficiencies of a young democracy and the gap in understanding between the ‘international community’ and an Indonesian society that is not focused on the western style of advancement. In this context it becomes clear why it is so important to have quality local staff driving activities on the ground and experienced aid workers acting as liaison between the expectations of donor countries and the realities of the local society.

For a Coles notes of this past weeks activities, Tuesday we went on a field visit to Padang Pariaman, one of the areas most damaged by the Sept 2009 earthquake, Wednesday was election day and was spent at a nearby beach, the other days were spent in the office perusing though relevant documents and trying to plan out the project. World cup fever is still crazy and brings together so many people, I bought a Batik shirt to wear to a wedding this Saturday of a friend of a friend, and found a good gym to exercise in where the trainers all want to practice speaking English in between sets. All in all, life is good! So sorry for not posting pictures, as it takes too long to upload them, will have to organize a group slideshow night when I get home!! FUN!

That’s it for now! Talk to you next week.

Teron