The people that make it happen

Building 109 houses, a school, clinic, mosque and training center is no easy task. Especially when you are racing to complete the village before the rainy season!

But the great work that Team Sunut has done in sourcing materials quickly and getting them delivered to the construction site has been a real success story.

On site it is the Sunut community and their families that are really making a big difference. All helping to build a new future for their community. 

With about 200 people working, progress has been rapid.

 

On our last visit to the island before the new year, we managed to catch up with the Village Head also working on the site. Here are just some of the men, women and kids all helping to do their part.

OBRI will be back in the new year with a new update. Until then, Happy New Year to all our readers and followers. 

New village takes shape at Teanjah Bay

Each week Ocean Blue Resorts visits the site for a progress update.

View of new village from Gili Sunut

When we restarted the construction seven weeks ago, all we had were the foundations in place. The 7 hectare site was just a couple of dirt tracks cut into the hill with only the promise of things to come.

Since then, progress has been rapid. The new village at Teanjah Bay looks 55/60% completed.  From Gili Sunut you have clearly see two distinct villages in the making. Followers of the blog will remember that we had to stop work on the first village at Teanjah Anjah due to one individual claiming the land belonged to him. And while he lost the court case in Lombok, he went to appeal in Jakarta in his bid to disrupt our progress. So there stood the community’s new village, 80% completed and unusable. As a result Ocean Blue Resorts Indonesia and the community started the whole process again of building a second village next to the first.

View from the road approaching the new village

For the last two weeks, a team of workers have been carefully removing all the terracotta roof tiles, door frames and window frames from the first site (Teanjah Anjah) and is reusing them at the new village (Teanjah Bay). This has saved a lot of time in sourcing materials and transportation costs. Not to mention being good for the environment. 

Here are some of last weeks photos. The transformation speaks for its self. 

Appeal for Shoes UPDATE

In a surprise visit to the island, Ocean Blue Resorts invited a special guest from Singapore to meet the community and tour the area. Arjan generously donate shoes and clothes for the kids.

An impromptu fashion show resulted, with two young girls showing the crowd that gathered their new dresses. Not sure they enjoyed all the attention, but they did love the new outfits.

Many thanks to Arjan and his family in Singapore for providing all the cloths.

Meanwhile back on the beach, the boys wanted to get their photo posted on the internet again! Here is Anafi with 4 friends..

Kids on Gili Sunut November 2012

Always there to welcome you with a smile, we are adding more photos of the children currently living on Gili Sunut.  Watch out for frequent updates. 

They are the changing face of the community. And they get to see the builders and their families working on the new village each day. With the new village at Teanjah Bay visible from the island they watch as their new homes and future takes shape.

This group of familiar faces met me on the beach and wanted to be on the internet!  They know about the blog site and so we try to show them on the laptop when we visit.

“Celebrity" they shout as a friends face appear on the web.

School's out for the day and this eager student couldn't wait to say hi and see what all the other kids where doing on the beach. Seeing Ocean Blue Resorts could mean footballs and candy. No time to loose.

There is no way this young boy was going to stand next to the girls. 

Teanjah takes shape in week one

Two weeks into our building schedule, real progress could be seen at the new village site.  

The first 6 houses were taking shape and lorry after lorry had delivered the supplies needed to keep the builders busy.  With the threat of the rainy seasons soon approaching, everyone at Team Sunut was focussed on buying materials and ensuring as much as possible was delivered before the 10km track to the project became impassable. 

On site were Pak Yasin and Pak Muhasim to check on progress.

With the full support of the community the excitement once again mounts. 

Progress on the new village

After months of delays, it was a great relief to finally bring good news to Gili Sunut.

While many investors are good at talking, few actual deliver what they so easily promise. After 3 years of struggle, it was therefore a celebration day when Pak Martin COO of Ocean Blue Resorts was able to confirm that construction for the mainland village would restart immediately. At the village meeting to discuss the news was Pak Yasin and Pak Muhasim.

But the news did not come without concerns from the community. The meeting on the island was attended by hundreds of eager villages, including village elders, community leaders, parents and kids. Given that there had been serious delays before, including a court case over the Teanjah Anjah land title, the first reaction to the news was not as enthusiastic as you would imagine.

Given the opportunity to speak at the public meeting, Pak Martin confirmed that the restart was real and that this time, no legal issues would stop the completion of the new village on the mainland. He personally apologised to everyone for the delays and genuinely understood the hardship it had caused. He went on to thank the community for working together to help make this a success and looked forward to developing the sustainable future the community deserved.  

With some families concerns openly discussed, the community could see that finally their new village would become a reality.  And, that they would be allowed to be part of the construction process by working (and getting paid) to build their house. All 109 of them.

With everyone united, the race is now on to complete the project before the rain season arrives. 

Appeal for shoes

Village life on Gili Sunut struggles on as it does every day. A recent visit to the island welcomed us with the familiar smiling faces even thought the problem of relocating to the mainland remains.

During the visit two boys, took a shine to my trainers. ‘I like your shoes Mister’ said Fauzi. He has become the team spoke person when we are on the island as he’s been learning English and his confident smile sells well.

In fact they all liked my beaten up old trainers.

We take for granted simple necessities like shoes so you are reminded how lucky you are when you see the kids on Sunut. Growing feet mean an endless need to replace the pair you have. If you are lucky enough to have a pair in the first place!

We have set up a local Shoes for Sunut Appeal. Please help.  If you are in Bali or Lombok, then get in touch and we will collect. (only trainers and flip flops please)

We will keep you posted with pictures. Thanks for helping.

Russia shows greater interest in Gili Sunut


Thanks to all our Russian visitors for looking at the blog. The number of page hits from Russia has steadily grown and we are please to see they are in second place after Indonesia. 


This month we have also seen great interest from the UAE, Romania and New Zealand. Please keep visiting us and add your name to our followers. 


Or send me your thoughts by email! We still need support for the football team and any help you can give to the community is very welcome. 

Village life on Gili Sunut

Gili Sunut is home to some of the friendliest people you could wish meet. 


My regular visits to the island are always met with the same big smiles and open arms. Here are just a few candid shots of everyday life. No words are needed here. The images speak for themselves.























Since Ocean Blue Resorts arrival four years ago to discuss its plans to build a community focussed tourist destination, many other individuals and travel writers have been to visit. They come to see this great location and to met the community. They come to see what our plans are for the future and they come to support the people. Hopefully they take away a better understanding of the islanders and what needs to be done to help them. 

We are looking forward to the big move to the new village and the development of the new Resort. It will bring a better standard of living of the villagers, the ability to be part of the Lombok community, and the prospect of job opportunities to create a sustainable future for the families.

Sunut football team 

Sometimes it’s the little things that matter.  Sunut football team had been practicing with a light weight ball and asked for a professional standard ball to use.

Having seen their talent for the game during our camping weekend, Jared Gow, son of Ocean Blue Resorts CEO was more than happy to help. With Jared is now back studying at University in England, it was over to Pak Muhasim and Mr Stephen Gow to present the ball to one of the players.

If anyone can help us buy the basics for the team, please write in.  T-shirts, boots, shin-pads  and balls all need funding!!

Gili Sunut smiles in the rain

While the rainy season is living up to its reputatin, the island is looking very tropical. The trees are heavy with foliage and the grass up on the hill, knee high.

It was a welcome scene for the visitors arriving from Jakarta and Singapore. Ocean Blue Resorts Indonesia  and Team Sunut invited some special guests for a tour of the island. And it didn’t disappoint.

We were able to show the guests that the new airport is up and running with 5 aircraft loading and loading visitors to Lombok. It was then the turn of the new road to impress them with the high speed road link to Mataram.

The visit was designed to show the great advances Lombok is making and the major investments designed to attract more tourist.  Hopefully the bank representatives can see that the region is all that it says it is and help investors create jobs and security for the communities.

Martin Gow, CEO of OBRI said,  ‘this area is no longer a green field site. We have the backing from Jakarta and Lombok Government to build the new tourism zone, we have the specialists to do the job and the business plan independently audited to ensure that the investors succeed.’  

Bupati meeting to resolve problems

Ocean Blue Resorts Indonesia (OBRI) invited the head of their parent company to a meeting with the Bupati on the 6^th January. The reason was to discuss the delays to the relocation and resolve some of the issues Team Sunut has faced with the authorities in Jakarta.

P. Sukiman with Martin and Stephen Gow 

The breakfast meeting was taken very seriously with 20 government officials including head of police, military, legal, judges and department heads working to help ensure that the OBRI’s overseas investment would not be derailed by Jakarta’s poor management of the legal process.

Attending the meeting were the founders of Ocean Blue Resorts, Martin Gow and Stephen Gow.  Both were keen to remind the Government of their commitment and financial support to the relocation and the building of the 6 star resort. 

Lombok BIL airport opened by SBY

CEO Martin Gow from OBR

The new international airport in Lombok opened in October and Ocean Blue Resorts Indonesia was invited to the grand opening with the President of Indonesia.

Pak Yasin celebrates at BIL 

Joining the officials at the party was CEO Mr Martin Gow. “It was a great honour to be invited and to hear the President’s support for Lombok. 

While congratulating the Governor on building a new tourist gateway, he reminded everyone that Lombok now needed investors to build the tourism industry and create jobs.  He made it very clear that the process needs to be more transparent for foreign investors like OBRI to feel confident to invest.”

What has this got to do with the community on Sunut? A lot.  As OBRI needs key documents from Jakarta, his speech was a clear signal to the various departments including BPN not hold up the process.

The community on Sunut and OBRI are waiting Jakarta.