Sungai Geringging – HODR

First Impressions

the crib

My £35 return flight with AirAsia from Kuala Lumpur – Padang was great, short & flying at a low altitude there was plenty of  amazing scenery.  I landed in Padang after the 2nd attempt of the short runway on the 31st October (the pilot missed the first time and had to pull up!).

I was on route to Sungai Geringing, two hours North of Padang, Indonesia, volunteering for a charity called Hands on Disaster Response (HODR.org) to help with the earthquake victims.  A big change to my usual self-indulgent travel and I was really looking forward to helping and giving something back.

Still in ‘backpacker beach mode’ I was speachless on the journey to Sungai Geringging – earthquake devastation everywhere.  I was completely unprepared for the sights, I didn’t see one house which had avoided the disaster.  I had never experienced anything like it – bone chilling stuff!  Countless homes were completely devasted and the family’s were living in tents in front of their homes.

I had a warm welcome from the HODR guys – having not done anything like it before I was anticipating a group of people (mainly Americans) doing things like singing ‘kum bai ah’ on an evening round a campfire with an old acousitc guitar – and evening prayer sessions holding hands in circles.  I was wrong, everyone was great.  On my introduction to the HODR home it was emphasised to me of the danger we would be living in with the prominent risk of earthquakes.  It was another thing that hadn’t crossed my mind.

Our work schedule looked like this;

Mon – Sat, 07.30 – 16.30 with a two hour lunch break.  Sunday was for a day of rest – maybe this was when the acoustic guitar would be pulled out.

Work for at least the first month would involve demolition of buildings and salvage of materials.  Buildings in the earthquake zone were tagged by the Indonesian government shortly after the disaster; green sticker for minor damage, yellow for moderate damage and red for demolition needed asap; our job.

I ventured into the town centre – a 20 minute walk from home.  It comprised of a market and a number of shops which like most places in Asia I’ve been to in the last couple months ALL sell the same shit.  Immediately I noticed how friendly the people were.  Everyone smiled and gave a shout, “Hello Mr.!”.  I imagine it was very unusual for the locals to see a tourist being such a remote village – I seemed to be quite the novelty with about 15 children following me around the market at one point, I think they were just fascinated with my big nose though.

sleeping quaters

And then there’s the Hands On Crib.. with constant work on the infrastructure the house is due to be more pimped as the days go by.  It’s green tagged so it’s a ‘safe’ building and one of the nicest houses I’ve seen in the area.  A great base for the Hands On team.  I’m looking forward to the coming weeks in Sungai Geringging and helping out with the HODR team.