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Meulaboh – the capital of the West Aceh Regency – was one of the hardest hit areas by the tsunami, being just 150 km from the epicentre of the earthquake. One afternoon, we were sitting by the vast beautiful sandy beach in Meulaboh, enjoying the sunset and sipping our coffee “tubruk”.

Indonesia: A West Side Story
February 10, 2009 · 5:42 pm

Meulaboh – the capital of the West Aceh Regency – was one of the hardest hit areas by the tsunami, being just 150 km from the epicentre of the earthquake. One afternoon, we were sitting by the vast beautiful sandy beach in Meulaboh, enjoying the sunset and sipping our coffee “tubruk”.

Abdul Djalil, from our partner GSF, told me this beach was once the main road connecting Meulaboh in West Aceh and Banda Aceh, the provincial capital.

The two cities are now linked up by two other routes, but these roads are often disconnected due to landslides and flooding. When this happens, apparently all delivery of equipment and staple food to West Aceh and the surrounding area is completely cut off.

“Pak” Djalil also took me to visit three primary schools whose teachers had been trained through a special programme with him.

I grabbed the chance to chat with the teachers - and headmistresses – as I really wanted to ask them about the challenges they face.

They told me there are many major problems to face! Notably, the high costs of maintaining new school buildings, a lack of books (and other teaching materials), low numbers of teachers, and an ineffective education authority.

In one of the schools I visited, these stark problems seemed to be perfectly illustrated by the fact the building was not even finished.

Nevertheless I was so impressed by the sheer dedication of the teachers. Despite all the shortcomings, they have clearly managed to create an atmosphere that exudes creativity and is a really happy place for kids to learn.

One of them told me: “It is sometimes difficult to implement all the teaching methods that we learned in the GSF training, but we are doing all we can.

“We make the most of the limited resources that we have, and we can already see how the students are happier in the class.”

Having now seen this resilience for myself, I feel proud to agree with such sentiments!

Posted by DiniW
http://blog.cafod.org.uk/tag/gsf/
http://blog.cafod.org.uk/2009/02/10/indonesia-a-west-side-story/