Sunday 28 January

Fighting 'flu

Two more shows today and that's it! We fly to Medan tomorrow, Monday, morning, then on to Singapore and Sydney. It's been a great tour, and we feel very satisfied. Unfortunately, this morning, we also feel very ill. Our cold-y flues have got worse - I am sneezing and coughing fit to burst, and Hags is aching in every pore - he feels worse than I do as he has not been drinking enough liquid, silly billy! Still, we will get through the day - not going to fall on the final fence whatever happens!

Tsunami took the children

The Australian Red Cross collect us at 8.30 and drive us to a temporary shelter base they built along the Lamnyong/Kreung riverside. As at Cot Cut, the venue we did for them on the 14th, there are very few children for the amount of families - 138 families and only 55 children (including babies and post-tsunami toddlers). I haven't managed to get proper breakdowns of deaths, but it does look as though a high percentage of those who died were children. How incredibly sad. The only thing that cheers us is how well the children seem to be bearing up on the whole, and what a large number of post-tsunami babies and toddlers there are.

A lovely bunch

They are a lovely bunch this morning and we run badge making in a small balai, and then Haggis takes some of them into the road to play parachute games (not a real road - just the lane between the two rows of temporary shelters. Then it's time for the show, and because I have been such a softy and like these children so much and have allowed them to make about 3 badges each, I have to keep badge-making after the show (cos I had to operate the ipod with the itrip in the Red Cross vehicle as the power has gone down in the balai). We stop in town to go to the ATM and get more cash and buy wonderful take-away sandwiches from Caswells (and a tub of Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia icecream to eat tonight in celebration of the end of the Tour.)

Feeling rough

Back to GP and Hags and I both fall asleep, as we are still feeling roughish. Saiful and Shufik arrive half an hour early at 2.45 while I am trying to get the diary up to date, but Shufik wants to learn to juggle, so Hags has a go at teaching him, and he picks it up really fast. Shufik (a Malaysian medical student studying in Aukland, who has joined Muslim Aid as a volunteer for a month) has been great fun to have with us on our Muslim Aid gigs the last couple of weeks.

Run down barracks

We drive off through town to the outer suburbs the other side, to Barrack Lamhasan, which is incredibly run down. The steps to the rooms that people are living in are rotten and dangerous and it is really outrageous that people are still having to live in these conditions more than two years after the tsunami!

Badge making goes on from the moment prayers finish at 4.30 till about 6.50 while parachute games and then the show happen, and for at least half an hour after the show. Indeed there is almost an unpleasant scene when Farid says I must stop at 6.30, as prayers are starting again. I state very clearly that I ain't budging till every child's badge has been completed. Farid has to leave about 10 minutes after this altercation, and I am pleased to say that we both said genuinely fond goodbyes and expressed hopes of working together again soon - it would have been horrid to end on a contretemps.

Brilliant show

Haggis's show was brilliant despite him feeling so very groggy. And in his final fire finale he was dancing wildly and hysterically. A good end to the Tour. There are about 30 badge components left from the 4,000 we had shipped out - my right arm has developed muscles I never had before!

Our next visit

Saiful drives us to Yayasan Lamjabat where we are going to leave the two speakers and all the cables and leads, the badge machine, the badge cutter, a ream of paper, a bag of facepaints that we never got round to using, the beanbags we made and the doings to make a lot more and a 9m and a 7m parachute. It's great that Linda can look after them for us till we come again - funding allowing Hags and I would like to return in November 07 or February 08, preferably with another performer in tow, and if possible, we would like to send Paddy and Charlie (Children's World's 2 Chief Workshop Leaders) out here from mid-June to mid-July 07. There is a real need here in Aceh for this sort of work - watching what had started as rather sullen faces this afternoon, melt and smile and laugh, I really saw how worthwhile it all is. Lots of people in the barracks don't necessarily get on well with their neighbours, and something like this, where they can all see their children having fun together and where they can all laugh together really can make a difference to things. We feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to spread a bit of fun and laughter and joy.

No more diary

We catch our flight to Medan tomorrow morning. So there will be no more diary. But in a week or two, when things have calmed down and I have had time to reflect, I will write a summary. See you then!

SORRY THERE ARE NO PIX FOR THE LAST 5 SHOWS AND SESSIONS - WE HAVE THEM ON THE CAMERA BUT SIMPLY HAVEN'T HAD TIME TO DOWNLOAD THEM YET AS (now writing on 9 Feb) HAGS HAS TYPHOID (despite our being fully innnoculated!) AND IS IN LAUNCESTON HOSPITAL (TASMANIA) BEING PUMPED WITH INTRAVENOUS ANTIBIOTICS FOR THE LAST 5 DAYS. THE ANTIBIOTICS HAVE EVENTUALLY KICKED IN, AND I HOPE TO BE ABLE TO LIBERATE HIM FROM HOSPITAL TOMORROW AND CARRY HIM OFF TO THE CIRCUS FESTIVAL (which is what he longs for more than anything, having had to miss the first 7 days!) PRECIS AND ACCOUNTS SOON - I RECKON WE HAVE PROVIDED SHOWS FOR JUST OVER 7,000 AT A COST OF ALMOST £5,000 - SO ABOUT 70P EACH - NOT A LOT TO BRING THE SMILES BACK! AND THAT DOESN'T INCLUDE THE 1,500 WHO ENJOYED PARACHUTE GAMES SESSIONS AND THE 3,980 WHO MADE THEIR OWN BADGES! A JOB WELL DONE - IT WAS EXHAUSTING BUT VERY SATISFYING.

PEOPLE HAVE LOVED IT AND IT HAS GIVEN A LOT OF FUN AND LAUGHTER TO CHILDREN, THEIR FAMILIES AND THEIR COMMUNITIES. WE HAVE BEEN INVITED BACK, AND MUSLIM AID WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE US TO VISIT JOGJAKARTA (which suffered a very bad earthquake in 2006 where 300,000 houses were lost and where people are also living in very difficult conditions) AS WELL AS ACEH NEXT TIME. SO REALLY, WE WANT TO START FUNDRAISING AGAIN AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!