THURSDAY 18 JANUARY:

I really am going to have to write shorter diary entries - there is just too much to do! We have 2 shows, workshop sessions and games sessions per day now for the coming few days, I am way behind with the diary, and there is still lots of English grant application work I have to do - so, unfamiliar as I am with precise, concise writing, that's what I am going to try to achieve. We'll see!

Visiting our next door neighbours

This morning we are going to the orphanage bang next door to Green Paradise which was founded and is run by the wonderful Yulfritak who built and runs the Green Paradise Hotel where we are staying. So easy to get to the venue! One of the porters arrives with a trolley, and at 8.55 am we stroll through the hotel and through a green gate and there we are in the orphanage, which is really lovely. 40 boys between the ages of 5 and 15 live here. They are all tsunami orphans, but have found a very happy home here. It is cosy and delightful.

HAPPY PHOTOS AT YULFRITA'S ORPHANAGE

I make badges with half the boys while Hags plays parachute games with the other half, and then we swap children. Then Hags does his show, which goes down incredibly well.

A VERY ORDERLY PARACHUTE GAME IN THE ORPHANAGE COMPOUND

We like them so much that we stay until 12.00. We have a rest in our room and are delighted when an amazing Acehnese lunch arrives courtesy of Yulfrita. Really yummy! Catch up with the hotmails, and try to catch up with the diary.

To Lampageer

Then at 2.15 Linda North of Yayasan Lambjabat comes to collect us to take us to the village of Lampageer, which is about a 45 minute drive westwards, on the very northern tip of Sumatra. The road is unpaved and appallingly bumpy for the last few miles. Just about every house was lost in the tsunami and many thousands died along this stretch of coast. I know what happened here - but it is still incredibly hard to really understand what it must have been like.

Ecological centre

We arrive at the village and as we are a touch early (afternoon prayers not yet having taken place) we drive on around the corner about a mile and Linda shows us the land that she and Adi have recently bought to create an Ecological Centre. It is such a beautiful area, and yet there are such huge ecological problems - people are just burning off the vegetation on the mountainsides so that they can plant and harvest chilli - this will have a devastating effect on erosion. The mangroves were destroyed in the tsunami, and the replanting of mangroves that has been going on has been almost completely unsuccessful. Huge amounts of rubbish and pollution are being washed up on these westerly beaches from Banda Aceh. Linda has such energy and such oomph - if anyone can do anything about the general litter and ecological problems here, it will be she.

LINDA NORTH OF YAYASAN LAMJABAT TO THE LEFT AND SEVERAL YOUNG MEN WATCHING HAGGIS'S SHOW FROM AFAR

She is a great woman who we met here in April. Linda is English but has lived out here in Aceh for more than 12 years with her Acehnese husband Adi. She used to work for some of the big NGO's, but for the last few years has been running the wonderful Yayasan Lamjabat - a children's centre that we visited and worked at in April last year, where 200 children from Barracks were bussed in each day for fun and frolics with huge success. Now she is moving to this northernmost tip of Sumatra and has made strong links with the villages in this area. GAM is very strong in these villages, but now that GAM and the Government have made peace, and GAM is so involved in the legal running of the country, indeed in high office since the recent elections, everything is very different. On the whole people round here seem to think that GAM doing so well in the elections is a very good thing. The next couple of years will certainly be interesting.

Performing to the car radio

There is very little space in the village that is suitable, so eventually I run badge making (with the help of some excellent Yayasan volunteers) in a tiny, tall balai and Haggis runs parachute games on a very small area of grass. We actually run the show in the tiny playground that Yayasan Lamjabat built here.

A LOVELY ORGANISED BADGE SESSION IN THE TINY BALAI TO THE RIGHT

PARACHUTE FOOTBALL BELOW LEFT

There is no nearby power, so I have to operate the itrip on the ipod through the car radio - actually the car's stereo speakers are stronger than ours, so it works pretty well. The audience of about 200 fit inside and around the fence of the playground and really love the show - the whole afternoon is a great success.

Linda drives us home - we are too tired to go out and instead eat banana and peanut butter sandwiches again. Must eat well again one of these days!