Sunset at Ulee Lheue, Aceh, the 2004 Tsunami "Ground Zero" I found this, my my catharsis when I have just started working in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Unit, in my diary folder. At that time DRR was totally a new term in Aceh that even some NGO workers would laugh when they heard about it. Some even said that it didn't make sense, or ridiculous to be applied as the reconstruction and rehabilitation process in Aceh has been moving forward for almost three years. My advisor said that he had been living the stagnant state of zero support plus zero initiatives in the province, and as a new kid on the block (after living the old kids in other blocks :p), I felt the challenges (that some people called as hardship) were really visible on the way.
And here it is, my old writing from 11 March 2007, titled 'A Final Stagnancy'...
Time goes by so quickly. Apparently, one month is not as long as it is in the imagination. Lots of things have been done as the other lots are awaiting to be done. Nothing is completed yet except the number of people working in my team*. However I am happy enough to realize that I am not alone and I am no longer a lone walker.
I am a new man on the field. Say that term of man is gender biased, as I don’t mind to be a man for a while. I must be strong, I foresee that I will fight like a man sometimes. I must be able to be anything (not only 'anyone') necessary when it deals with the reaching to final destination. Creating strategy is indeed more complicated than just running a rule on whatever it takes. Strategies put my mind in a path. I must cut off the bushes and get rid of stony ground to move on more quickly later. And it’s exciting to see my new path is easy to walk on, until in some point I witness a destination.
I am learning and I move on. If stagnancy is a deal that I must take than I will choose to have a final stagnancy after all the things I need settled and understood. I am here as part of a team working on public awareness and policy. It is not impossible but it is not too simple.
How can we move it, is another question to ask and to challenge with all constrains ahead and happiness when constrains come to final end due to our fantastic strategy.
Nothing is ordinary here. And I guess, I am here because I am not an ordinary…
Now, fourteen months later, I am thankful that it is not the final stagnancy that we have. With my team, we have been nursing the birth of DRR activities, awareness and policies one by one, step by step. What I always believe is that when we start with good intention, all other good intentions in the universe will be generated around us, bringing helping hands and supports, as much as growing the good will in the heart of good people. There won't be a final stagnancy as long as the force of good intention lives. Insya Allah, NEVER. :-)
"The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river." -Ross Perrot- (I found this quote in a calendar laid on the desk of a government office in Banda Aceh; I love the spirit!)
