A new university built straight on to rice fields, houses for lecturers built alongside faculty buildings, and all of this about eight kilometres from the nearest shops, offices, places of worship, doctors. A tiny post office was included in the ‘Mess’ and a small market providing dried fish, some fruit and vegetables, a barber, and a weekly market for cattle, was a kilometre away.
One of the houses was ours – a nice-looking concrete building with three bedrooms, one of which was used as a study, an open living area, a bathroom and a toilet. Outside the back door was the kitchen and three small rooms, designed to house our non-existent helpers. They led to the well.
The province was Aceh, right at the northern end of Sumatra. The capital was Kutaraja, now called Banda Aceh, and the university area was Darussalam (City of Peace). It was twelve years since the Dutch officially left and the new Republic of Indonesia was determined to concentrate on educating its citizens.
Our Indonesian language was very basic. We had to learn fast. There were no other native English speakers around, although the next-door neighbour’s wife, Kerrie, who originated from Surinam in South America, spoke excellent English.
The university owned two cars and at least one of these was driven to Kutaraja on most days. You could accompany the driver if you needed to go but this would take up a good proportion of the day. Our option was to leave a basket with a small list and money, hanging on a hook for the driver to collect. He was quite capable of walking past and ignoring it!
The first essential was food. After a few days of rice, tomato and an egg we knew we had to do some speedy learning. Four or five recipes were added to our repertoire. Every recipe contained spices, and these had to be ground between a flat stone and one shaped like a rolling pin. Most recipes also contained coconut milk, so coconuts had to be split, the contents grated out and squeezed in water.
We had a small kerosene stove but electricity only between six and ten p.m. so no refrigerator. Fortunately, the spices kept the meat from deteriorating overnight, considering how long it took to make each dish. We had the same meal midday and evening two days running. Rice, however, an essential to each meal, would not keep and had to be cooked each day. To save a considerable time each morning, we made bread every few days and had it for breakfast.
Outside the house was our well, our only water supply. There was a pump on the well to fill the tank of water in the bathroom. However, it turned out that this leaked through the wall into the kitchen, so we decided to bathe at the well. Fortunately, there was a partial wall around it, as the only fences shielding us from the neighbour’s gaze were made of barbed wire. Buckets of water had to be carried to the kitchen and toilet and stored there. Washing was in a bucket by the well.
So many stories in the next two years, including the birth of our first child, but that’s where it all began.
One of the houses was ours – a nice-looking concrete building with three bedrooms, one of which was used as a study, an open living area, a bathroom and a toilet. Outside the back door was the kitchen and three small rooms, designed to house our non-existent helpers. They led to the well.
The province was Aceh, right at the northern end of Sumatra. The capital was Kutaraja, now called Banda Aceh, and the university area was Darussalam (City of Peace). It was twelve years since the Dutch officially left and the new Republic of Indonesia was determined to concentrate on educating its citizens.
Our Indonesian language was very basic. We had to learn fast. There were no other native English speakers around, although the next-door neighbour’s wife, Kerrie, who originated from Surinam in South America, spoke excellent English.
The university owned two cars and at least one of these was driven to Kutaraja on most days. You could accompany the driver if you needed to go but this would take up a good proportion of the day. Our option was to leave a basket with a small list and money, hanging on a hook for the driver to collect. He was quite capable of walking past and ignoring it!
The first essential was food. After a few days of rice, tomato and an egg we knew we had to do some speedy learning. Four or five recipes were added to our repertoire. Every recipe contained spices, and these had to be ground between a flat stone and one shaped like a rolling pin. Most recipes also contained coconut milk, so coconuts had to be split, the contents grated out and squeezed in water.
We had a small kerosene stove but electricity only between six and ten p.m. so no refrigerator. Fortunately, the spices kept the meat from deteriorating overnight, considering how long it took to make each dish. We had the same meal midday and evening two days running. Rice, however, an essential to each meal, would not keep and had to be cooked each day. To save a considerable time each morning, we made bread every few days and had it for breakfast.
Outside the house was our well, our only water supply. There was a pump on the well to fill the tank of water in the bathroom. However, it turned out that this leaked through the wall into the kitchen, so we decided to bathe at the well. Fortunately, there was a partial wall around it, as the only fences shielding us from the neighbour’s gaze were made of barbed wire. Buckets of water had to be carried to the kitchen and toilet and stored there. Washing was in a bucket by the well.
So many stories in the next two years, including the birth of our first child, but that’s where it all began.
Carmyl Winkler
August 2024
Carmyl Winkler
August 2024
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