After Tsunami, Intentions to Build but No Road Yet

A $245 million stretch of blacktop intended to be the signature good-will gesture from the American people to the Indonesian survivors of the 2004 tsunami has instead become a parable of the problems of Aceh Province’s recovery.

Construction of the 150-mile road along the devastated coast has yet to start, stalled by a host of obstacles like acquiring right of way through residential and farm land, and, particularly, through several hundred graves of mystical and religious significance.

Though villagers welcome the idea, some have reservations about an American-style thoroughfare with a wide shoulder on either side that will replace the existing ribbon of mostly churned dirt and mud. Villagers say they fear speeding traffic — they have thrown rocks at fast-traveling cars of foreign aid workers — and want to be able to sell snacks and tea from stalls snug by the roadside, as they have always done.

from the NY Times