Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Brown Skin, Blue Passport: Reflections on a Trip to Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

2006; Peter Lang; Volume: 4; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

1946-7109

Anita Chikkatur,

Asian Studies and History

My first impression of Banda Aceh is that it reminds me of India, particularly Kerala, and of Taiwan, particularly Green Island -the coconut trees, the mix of cars, scooters, and motorbikes on the streets, the green rice fields, and the brown faces whizzing by. On the ride from the airport to the hotel, I smile at the pleasant memories of these other places until a woman in the car points out a mass grave – a flat piece of land where the only sign that bodies are buried there is the row of Indonesian flags planted on one side. It is a stark reminder of the primary reason we are in Banda Aceh: the December 26, 2004 earthquake and tsunami that killed over 100,000 people in the region.