Antara Anyir dan Jakarta...

... or to be more accurate, KL and Banda Acheh.

Hubby decided to play the good Samaritan and join Mercy as a non-medic volunteer. He took 2 weeks off work and left me in charge at the office (literally!). It was supposed to be a journey of discovery for him, away from schedule reviews, meetings, progress reports to ... a different set of meetings, progress reporting and scheduling.

As this was a Re-Construction mission, Mercy specifically wanted technical professionals to assist them. Hubby qualified on the basis of being an Engineer. But when they started asking him about drilling wells, they found out too late that he's not exactly the kind of engineer they had in mind, despite working for an Oil & Gas multinational. No matter, he could still be of some use to them somehow.

And so he has been. So much so that they've extended his two week stint for an additional seven days. And it has opened him up to so many enriching experiences.

One of our SMS exchanges went like this:

Hubby: I visited an orphanage today. One of the kids even looked like Nuaim (our son).

Me: Give them lots of hugs and kisses from me.

Hubby: I touched their heads. Now I know why it is sunat to usap kepala anak yatim. I bought them a football, they played like anak ayam.

Another time, he was in Lampulo, where they'd only received rice after 6 whole months of waiting.

On a lighter note, Siti's popularity in Indonesia is undisputed, as evidenced at a kenduri he attended. But Hubby is now an Indo-pop rock convert. I'm looking forward to our reunion with Gigi, Padi, Dewa and SO7 playing in the background.

Oh shoot, have to get the CD player fixed first.