two friends

This picture is from an assessment trip in May to Nias (an island off the coast of Sumatra). I'm posting it here because the two women closest to me in the picture are two of my closest Acehnese friends/coworkers. Next to me (with a headscarf) is Ratna and next to her is Fithri (she's not wearing one because she's in Nias which is Christian and not very conservative). Both of them were our staple program staff from March-August as we planned projects and conducted assessments. Fithri and I had several fun trips all over Aceh and Nias together conducting general assessments to help decide where NWMT should focus our efforts here. I learned lots from her and she became a good friend. She's now moved on to work with another org, but I'm glad to have known her. Ratna is still working with us and will be working on one of our community health projects this next year. Both of these women have shown flexibility in learning a new field (Fithri is a chemical engineer and Ratna studied tourism) and are strong women who are thoughtful about how they live their lives. I will miss them and many others when we leave- which though it is still 6 1/2 weeks away feels much sooner since we'll be moving to Medan and only be visiting Banda Aceh starting next week.

I think the other thing about leaving is that we've been left by so many over the year- most of our original 70 coworkers are no longer with our organization- in fact of those that were here when John and I arrived last September there is only our accountant (a fabulous fabulous guy named Frits) and one driver and two guards. Our office staff (not including guards, drivers, and cleaners) at the moment is just 6- and though we'll be hiring many new people in the next 6 weeks, we won't have the deep connections with them that make a goodbye hard. I miss a lot of our old staff and friends that were here with other orgs who have moved on already, and when we leave, we'll just be two of many who are remembered in this constantly transient community of NGO workers.