SUNDAY 21 JANUARY:

I wake up very early to try and catch up with the diary and English work, and then wake Hags at 6.30 as we are being collected by Youth of the Streets at 7.30. I am still seeing lots of black dots, but less than last night, and I seem in sound mind and don’t seem to have been stroke stricken, which was my major fear. The driver arrives and takes us about half an hour along the Sigli Road to the excellent Youth off the Streets orphanage and children’s centre.

Memories of April

I came here in April, and had a lovely afternoon with the children. Haggis was ill that day and was unable to come and do his show, so I had set off alone, determined that the children should at least get a badge-making session. I was really nervous, as I didn’t think it was an interesting enough activity on its own – but they loved it, and we sat in their balai for hours, with the children happily making 5 or 6 badges each and being very happy. When we knew we were coming to Aceh again this January, I emailed Andi , who runs the orphanage, and asked if he would like another visit – “Oh yes”, he said, “the children still remember you and talk about you. Please come!” So here we are – when I was here in April, there were about 30 children and they were all living in tents around a very muddy playground – now they are all sleeping in good quality steel framed Federation of Red Crosses’ temporary houses, 4 children per dormitory. And there’s even better news, the Head Office of Youth off the Streets in Australia is going to fund this excellent project further, so that instead of looking after 30 orphans as they currently are, they will be able to have more buildings erected and eventually look after up to 120 children. Andi who runs this project is such a lovely person – lots of energy and enthusiasm, good management skills – and best of all he is absolutely wonderful with the children who clearly love him a lot.

WELL, THIS MEMBER OF YOUTH OFF THE STREETS STAFF HAS MASTERED JUGGLING, EVEN IF THE BOYS HAVEN'T. WE LEAVE SOME BEANBAGS BEHIND SO THAT HE CAN TEACH THEM ALL HOW TO DO IT.

Just before we left Green Paradise this morning, we discovered that we had lost my wallet which has all our money and visa cards in it. I rang Linda from the car, and asked if we had left it in her car last night – thankfully we had, and we arrange to pick it up later in the day. But because we were feeling worried about this, Haggis forgot to pack his hats into the Youth of the Streets vehicle. He decides to go back to Green Paradise to get them with the driver, and at the same time picks up our rice, bank bags and balloons so that the Youth off the Street children can make their own beanbags. (Hopefully this is the end of the “leaving things behind” syndrome we seem to have slipped into over the last 2 days. 3 times is enough!)

Extremely enjoyable

The badge making goes really well, and then Haggis arrives back and sets up the beanbag making and runs a juggling workshops. We can’t do parachute games as the grass is soaked. Hags does a very good show, and we eventually leave at about noon, having spent an extremely enjoyable 3.5 hours there. We will definitely revisit this venue next time we are in Aceh!

Back to GP for a quick rest, a catch-up of the hotmails and make more peanut butter and banana sandwiches for lunch.

More than expected

THE GIRLS AT THE DAYA IN THEIR SPACE

Muslim Aid are very late collecting us for the gig at Daya Darul Aitam Seulimum, and we don’t get there (it’s an hour’s drive away) till about 5.00. We had been told there would be about 50 boys – but when we arrive there are about 90 boys – okey dokey – we are just on the verge of splitting them into two groups so that one group of boys can do badge-making and the other group of boys can do parachute games, and we can then swap them over, when at least 50 girls come into view, closely followed by about another 40. So it looks as though we have about 180 children and young people (they are all roughly between the ages of 7 and 16, we think), and as it is so very late we simply won’t have time for everyone to do everything. So we decide that the girls will make badges, and the boys will play parachute games. Not ideal, but the best we can do with the short time available.

THE BOYS IN THEIR SPACE AND THE GIRLS IN THEIR SPACE - HAGS TRYING VERY HARD TO MAKE THE SHOW WORK FOR BOTH GROUPS EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE AT LEAST 20 FOOT APART!

There is a long verandah, with a perfect balustrade for colouring on, and Shufik and I hand out the badge centres and coloured pens there. I find an empty classroom on the other side of the grassy field (where Haggis and the boys are having a very noisy and riotous game of parachute football) and closet myself in there to make the badges - Shufik brings me the badge designs in relays, as they are produced.

Absolute silence

I’m only about half-way through making up the badges when it is time to start the show, so we move the badge table outside to the left of the stage so that I can operate the sound system while finishing the girls’ badges. Haggis isn’t quite ready, so I don’t put the music on straight away. I just get on with making the badges. I suddenly realise that where before there had been a lot of noisy talking,, there was now absolute silence. I look up surprised, and find that every single child or youth is staring at me, as though I am a performance. I roar with laughter, and the children roar back with laughter – it was a lovely moment – it could have been embarrassing or difficult, but actually it felt great. (Haggis and I thought later that one could have a strange, futuristic sort of performance which does start with someone making badges, which they then throw into the audience with different confusing instructions written on them – could be an interesting piece of alternative theatre!)

Dayas are religious boarding schools, and the boys and girls are not meant to get too near each other, so the audience is made up of a group of girls and a group of boys sitting about 20’ apart, which is very strange and quite difficult for Haggis. Still, the show goes really well, and is very much enjoyed.

Horrid moment

There is a bit of a horrid moment after the show had ended, when I was just about to hand out the remaining badges I had been making up to the girls who had designed them – there was suddenly a clearly planned rush by boys on the badge table – they just grabbed the badges and ran with them – I roared, “Bring those back immediately”, and many did, but there were at least 15 sad-looking girls, who clearly didn’t get their badges. I would have liked to stay and make replacement badges with these girls, but it was now after 7 pm and we wouldn’t get home till after 8 as it was - and it would open the floodgates to encouraging the girls to lie about whether they had already had a badge or not, and it might encourage the boys to more unpleasantness, so we didn’t. It does double-convince me though that we really cannot do badge-making unless every single child or young person can receive one. It’s a great shame that we were brought here so late today, as I could have managed badges for 180 if I had had a bit more time. Hey ho! Despite the horrible assault on the badges (which was actually quite alarming) and being so late, it was still a very successful visit considering the age of the young people.

Too tired to go out to dinner once we get back to Green Paradise, so it’s more banana and peanut butter sandwiches for dinner. Must buy some vitamin pills! Sleep like logs!