..:: seize the day ::..

We finished the work in Bakornas by the end of August 2007. It meant that we should continue to Banda Aceh (Capital of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam Province) and Padang (Capital of West Sumatera Province). Banda Aceh call came first. It is the one of the outermost province in Indonesia, 2 hours and 50 minutes direct flight from Jakarta where I live, and 4 hours if we use the non direct flight. This province was hit by tsunami in 2004, at least 150,000 people died by that disaster (no one knows the exact number). In Banda Aceh city alone 60,000 people died. When tsunami happened almost a month we in Jakarta speechless every time we saw the news about it.  Everybody in Indonesia donate something for them. It was a great example of how citizen/people can joint together, doing good thing for humanity. It was very touching moment, many people went there as volunteer by their own money to help other fellow citizen, although at that time the situation in Aceh was not safe. There was a war there. Tsunami, in the positive side, cause every party to cease the war and finally signed a peace treaty. Now it is time to rebuild Aceh.

Indonesia is a country with a lot of natural disaster, living with disaster is the way we live. We are sitting on top of ring of fires. No other country in the world is like Indonesia. There are a lot of volcanoes here. This one a capture from the google earth.

As for the Crisis Center location it is reside on the part of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam Governor Office. The location is approximately on 5º34′15.68" N, 95º20′27.19" E with elevation 9m.

For you who never visit Banda Aceh after the 2004 tsunami here are some pictures during my visit at the end of August and beginning of September 2007.

Ibnu team (the civil/interior contractor) already two weeks before us in Banda Aceh. And he assured me with his phone called that the room would be ready in two weeks. I can understand if there were missing thing here and there, but at least the room has carpet, electricity, and air conditioner in server room and I will go to Banda Aceh. So I booked non refundable airline ticket. This time I brought Darma, my fellow worker in office. He is young and a big guy, so it would be a big help to have him lifting heavy server upstairs in Banda Aceh he..he..he.. Anyway, since he is much younger than me, it would be a great experience for him under my coached as an "old networker guy" during this project.

Then I emailed Hilarion (EADS Astrium) said that I will go to Banda Aceh in August 28, 2007. He returned the email and said he would be in Jakarta by the time I arrived in Aceh, then he will ask the situation whether he should go or not go to Banda Aceh based on my report. I thought he was unsured that the room would be finished on August 28. I sent all the goodies a week before August 28, then I went there. When I arrived in Banda Aceh what I’m affraid is happened, the room did not ready. No carpet, no air conditioner, and the biggest problem server room was not ready. Below are some picture at that time.

I quickly decided that I will stayed there not more than one week but Ibnu successed to hold me almost 2 weeks supervising his staff worked. When leaving Jakarta I was already on fire and ready to implement in this site because I knew everything better after implementation on DKI province and Bakornas. After saw the room status in Banda Aceh, I should change the plan. It would be giving some instruction to Ibnu and his member about electricity and grounding, position for tv satellite antenna, UHF radio antenna and the LAN cabling position. Also I should move all the goodies from the warehouse to crisis center location, considered that Ibnu team would be there to keep those goodies. I also reported to Hilarion that he did not need to come to Banda Aceh, better still in Jakarta and wait if the room can be finished in the next two week, which was actually did not.

One of the worst thing was that there are no internet connection in the room. The nearest switch was around 150 m away. So I decided to ask Aceh Governor IT staff to get an IP address and permission to put the cable from crisis center to that switch. Of course I should add one switch in the middle, simply for amplify the ethernet signal.

After 2 weeks in Banda Aceh I decided to go back to Jakarta on September 9, 2007. In Jakarta I discussed the situation with Hillarion which would be went back to Toulouse on the next day. I plan to visit Banda Aceh again by the end of September 2007. By that time Bruno Maestracci and his team from Civipol also conducted a training. They conducted it without the server because we behind the schedule caused by the late of room preparation. Ibnu and his team already put the furniture, desk and some temporary chair for the room. Karine de Ponteves, my colleague as part of implementation team, went to Banda Aceh also with Bruno as trainer. She unpacked all the PC and several printer, but without LAN and server. It was my duty and Darma to prepare all the LAN cable and configuring the server.

Then  I went again to Banda Aceh with Darma at the end of September 2007. I remember it was on Ramadhan (fasting month for Moslem people) last year. At that time I changed our work-rhythmic, start at 11.00 AM up until midnight because we were fasting at the day. This time we finish LAN installation, server configuration, VPN and VOIP installation to Jakarta and testing all RiskFrame application which was already installed in the PC and server by Surjanto and Ericjoe in Jakarta before it was sent to Banda Aceh, also configuring radio and satellite TV. This time we were here for 2 weeks again. Below are some pictures of our worked back then.

By October 8th, 2007 our worked in Aceh is considered finished. I knew that I should be here again after Padang implementation for Site Acceptance Test with Civipol and EADS Astrium team. It was not decide yet at that time, but it will be on December 13-15, 2007. On October 9, 2007, me and Darma went back to Jakarta. It was an exciting experience worked in Banda Aceh for this project.

That’s it for Aceh. In the next post I will tell the story of implementation in Padang, West Sumatera province.