New Era

Last week I finished my job! I was working with Austcare, an Australian NGO in Banda Aceh, as Program Development Manager for the last 16 months. My work was to develop new programs, which means finding out humanitarian needs in communities and writing proposals to donors and funding institutions. The part I loved in the work is traveling to new areas and meeting local partners and communities, understanding needs and problems, and discovering new cultures. The part I least enjoyed is sitting down and writing lengthy technical proposals in neutral technical english, with no poetry, no exclamation points, and definitely no reference to rasta songs!

My last day of work was Friday the 17 of January, which was perfect as it gave me 3 full days to prepare for the Obama Inauguration! And so from my living room in the little house where I live in Banda Aceh, I had ready all what I need: a TV with sattelite connection, my labtop, my djembe, nicely cooked food and freshly prepared coffee, and most importantly, a free heart willing to celebrate the New Era, and to believe!

And so for more than 3 days, from a little anonymous house in Banda Aceh, you could here frenetic djembe jamming, songs of freedom mixed with liberation speeches, and tears of emotions and joy.

And so it was. Obama is now President, and I am a free man!

...

More than 3,5 years have passed since I arrived to Aceh after the Tsunami. When i came here for the first time, i had in my mind to work for 6 months, or maximum one year, and then to move on.

But I fell in love. With Aceh, with Indonesia, with the tropics, the jungles, the rivers, the stars, the oceans, the green mountains, and the warm friendly people.

Each day when I drive my way to work, passing rivers and trees, little kids playing in the sun and men siting by their coffee shops reading newspapers in peace.. i wonder..

And each evening driving back to my house.. watching the colors of the sky change with the sunset, feeling the fresh evening breeze on my face .. i wonder..

And each night while taking a peaceful walk next to my house, under the stars and the bright moon.. i wonder too..

I wonder.. is this real? can life be so good, so peaceful and so beautiful? how do all these wonderful things happen every day, without a single human effort? and i wonder.. what else do we really need? what are we, humans, looking for?

And I feel grateful to life for having shown me a glimpse of this paradise, for I know that wherever I would go and whatever I would do, my heart will be always filled with pictures of sunny landscapes, bright skies and warm smiles.

...

And the story goes on.

For now I saved enough money to allow myself few months of rest in my beautiful Aceh. I don't know yet what I will be doing next, but I am not worried. I know that right now I am where I should be, and I accept my life as it is, and myself as I am. One thing I learned in this life is to surrender to what Is, and to trust and follow the guidance of life. I know what to do today, and even tomorow, and after tomorow will bring its answers.

Amen