Meulaboh
Blog 3/5
It’s a little after 5am and the several mosques around our neighborhood are broadcasting their routine morning Arabic prayers over their loudspeaker systems. The cacophony of sound drifts through my open window and I can’t go back to sleep as my mind drifts through the adventures of yesterday.
I had the opportunity to take an AirServ flight from Banda Aceh to Meulaboh, a coastal town along the tsunami damaged western coast of Sumatra. One of my objectives was to visit our “sister” VSAT internet café serving the NGOs in that area, about hours drive from the Meulaboh airport. However, on arriving in Meulaboh I was able to go along on an MAF relief flight on a Cessna 206.
Shortly after take off we pass over the town of Meulaboh whose beautiful peninsula, reaching out into the sea, was a vulnerable tsunami victim. Remnant debris has the same tell tale signs I’ve seen in Banda Aceh – houses wiped clean to their foundations by overpowering rushing sea water. Much of the town, even now more than 2 months after the disaster, remains flooded.
The main road connecting many of the coastal town is destroyed in many places and numerous bridges are wiped out. Villages are cut off and isolated from normal supply lines of living necessities.
Our MAF flight is meeting this need by carrying tons of basic food supplies in packages put together by OBI (Operation Blessing Indonesia). After a 63 mile flight up the coast we land on a narrow useable and somewhat straight part of the main coastal road that has been cleared to become our runway.
Out of nowhere, eager villagers suddenly appear and help us unload the 9 pound boxes packed full of essential Indonesian food supplies and goodies.
Each box contains salt, sugar, noodles, canned food, soap, toothpaste, and of the course the most important, rice.
More in next blog …
It’s a little after 5am and the several mosques around our neighborhood are broadcasting their routine morning Arabic prayers over their loudspeaker systems. The cacophony of sound drifts through my open window and I can’t go back to sleep as my mind drifts through the adventures of yesterday.
I had the opportunity to take an AirServ flight from Banda Aceh to Meulaboh, a coastal town along the tsunami damaged western coast of Sumatra. One of my objectives was to visit our “sister” VSAT internet café serving the NGOs in that area, about hours drive from the Meulaboh airport. However, on arriving in Meulaboh I was able to go along on an MAF relief flight on a Cessna 206.
Shortly after take off we pass over the town of Meulaboh whose beautiful peninsula, reaching out into the sea, was a vulnerable tsunami victim. Remnant debris has the same tell tale signs I’ve seen in Banda Aceh – houses wiped clean to their foundations by overpowering rushing sea water. Much of the town, even now more than 2 months after the disaster, remains flooded.
The main road connecting many of the coastal town is destroyed in many places and numerous bridges are wiped out. Villages are cut off and isolated from normal supply lines of living necessities.
Our MAF flight is meeting this need by carrying tons of basic food supplies in packages put together by OBI (Operation Blessing Indonesia). After a 63 mile flight up the coast we land on a narrow useable and somewhat straight part of the main coastal road that has been cleared to become our runway.
Out of nowhere, eager villagers suddenly appear and help us unload the 9 pound boxes packed full of essential Indonesian food supplies and goodies.
Each box contains salt, sugar, noodles, canned food, soap, toothpaste, and of the course the most important, rice.
More in next blog …
posted by Dave Ketcham at 7:55 PM
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