Journey back home! Phuoc Huynh, Australia

The Australians left Banda Aceh on Sunday, so on Saturday we just did a bit of shopping and relaxing. I think we really needed it because the last few days were so jammed packed, we needed a day to collect our thoughts. I also needed to rest a bit because I was extremely tired from staying up until 4am the night before playing card games with my fellow students. But it was so worth it! I introduced the game 'Bloody Mary' to them and hope that they will bring it back to their home town and share it with their friends.

We left the airport at Banda Aceh at 1230pm on Sunday and arrived at Medan about an hour later. The trip from Medan to Jakarta was the worse! Throughout the trip we experience really bad turbulence, so bad that it shook the whole plane and I flew up, off my seat. During that moment, there were people screaming for their lives. What was a bit odd was that they made an announcement that we should fasten our seat belts because we were going to go through some turbulence, AFTER the plane shook. That must of been really reassuring for the passengers because some might think, during the turbulence, that there could be some engine failure or so. I saw that people were embracing the emergency position and holding each others hands because they thought it was going to be all over.

Eventually we arrived at Jakarta, where we had to stay there for another 4hours for our flight out to Sydney. Once we got the the international check-in, we waited in the line for over an hour and waited some more when we had to go through immigration. The flight home was ok, I slept almost right through it. We then landed in Sydney airport at 745am.

Now that I'm actually home I can reflect on my experiences when I'm telling my friends about my trip to Banda Aceh. The first thing they ask me is 'How was your trip?'. I respond by 'Where do I start?' This tour has been amazing! The whole trip has been very confronting and heart-warming. There was so much to see and do. Although I've met so many people their stories remains the same. When asked 'What do you remember most about the tour?', this is a very hard question as I don't have one single answer for it.

The basketball game against Methodist High School was one experience that I'd never forget. We were so unprepared for it because the game was scheduled on the day before and we didn't get a chance to get around to it. Eventually we got a team of 6 and had 2 10min rounds with a 3min break in between. At first we were really tired but once we started playing we were having loads of fun, which was what it was meant to be. Boy, did we get slaughtered?! I thought we would have the height advantage from Rob and Daniel, but we needed more than that! The score was 38 to 13.

Another great thing that came out of this trip was meeting all of the cool students that was apart of this tour. Everyone was so friendly, it made the trip so much more easier because we had pretty much the same expectations before the tour and we all were discovering and exploring new things together. It had been such a blast! Can't believe the tour has finished so soon!

This trip had made me appreciate more things. EI's vision was to provide an 'education for all' by 2015 and I believe that they are on their way of acheiving this vision. They have constructed the most number schools than any other organisation and are yet to open up another 3 within a period of 2 weeks (I think). They have provided student scholarships for those students that have loss both parents in the tsunami, and they've also provided truama counselling for those affected.

As silly as this sounds, I even also appreciate CLEAN drinking water. The water in Banda Aceh was of a murky yellow colour. Each morning and night, I'd brush my teeth and wash my face with bottled water! I felt like such a princess

Well that's all I can write up at the moment. I'll try to keep posted

Take care! Miss you all

(A changed) Phuoc

P.S Oh yeh, it feels great to have my fast internet connection back =)