Easter in Aceh
Posted by marshall Mon, 28 Mar 2005 04:00:00 GMT
Happy Easter! Today is Jeremy's last day in Banda Aceh, and he wanted to go to a pleasant beach (as in, not a disaster area) before his flight. Our driver arrived in the morning to take us, but it turned out that Jeremy had to spend a good bit of time reconciling finances, and by the time he was finished, there wasn't enough time to go to the beach. We ended up taking a long drive through various streets of Banda Aceh, many of which Jeremy and Phil hadn't seen before. It was quite beautiful. The lush green landscape sat against a mountain backdrop, and the skies were blue. It was a great ride, and the air conditioning of the car made it all the more pleasant. :-)
After dropping Jeremy off, Phil and I went to an Easter service (in English) organized by a group of people from other NGOs. It was excellent. The service was held in a church building that I think normally hosts Chinese services. I met a couple of nurses from Australia during the greeting time, and the sermon was very good. The speaker started with a verse in Ezra about him needing an "unlimited supply of salt" (when all the other ingredients were carefully measured), and went from that into a survey of various mentions of salt in the Bible, relating them to the call to love. We have specific amounts of money, technological supplies, medicines...but everything must be given with an unlimited supply of love.
Afterwards a group of people from the service was going to go to the beach. Phil and I returned home first to change clothes, but before we were ready to leave again, it began to rain. Hard. And the rain was extending far into the distance. So we figured the beach was probably in a similar state and people wouldn't be hanging out there. We gave some money to the guards (20,000 rupiah, or about $2.20) and they went to get a take-out meal for us. Phil and I wound up with a very satisfying amount of noodles, rice, chicken, fried bananas, and sweet bread for that $2.20. And it all tasted great.
