More notes from yesterday
Though I could write a lot, I know that most people lack the time to read, so I'll just post a few more scenes from my excursion with the convoy yesterday, to give you an idea of the progress taking place in some locations, and the ongoing need in those and other locations. For the record, Yuli just smsed me from the road that we brought aid yesterday to Manggung Timbul Harjo, Jongrangan, Ganjuran and Trihardono inPundong, and Donotirto and Tirtohargo in Kretek -- all in the Bantul region.
What a way to meet the family! This is a survey shot of Convoy Headquarters, also known as Yuli's family Kampung, situated just across the Jogja border in Bantul. I'd only met her sister Dewi before, so when we arrived, it was rapid-fire handshake-and-bow time, as the place was swarming with neighbors, cousins, aunts, uncles, and their offspring. You see mostly men here, as the women were inside assembling the packages. Though a little less "developed" than family homestead in my youth, many times in this preparatory hour I felt this must have been what my Uncle's home on Deer Hill must have felt like in the early 70ies with my cousins and their neighbors swarming the yard.
The convoy departs. Sunday we had fourteen motorcycles, carrying 29 people (one couple brought their toddler) and loads and loads of stuff.
This says it all about our first stop: formerly used to entertain or earn, now it sits in pieces by the narrow village access road where virtually no visitors ever come, still hoping to earn.
Just across the lane from the broken guitar, I saw generations of one family's women watching us. Grandmother, mother, daughter (with child), adolescent, younger sibling, and a sombre auntie. See this disadter through their eyes for a moment.
At our second stop, we passed this boy, who looked like he hadn't moved in the two weeks since the quake. His mother set him here, near the road and far from the danger of falling debris caused by aftershocks.
Yuli caught this mother and child out for a stroll through the hometown at our third stop.
While waiting for a lost or misplaced motorcycle unit, other members didn't rest, instead giving aid of another sort by the side of the road.
Getting towards evening, the convoy reste at its next-to-last stop. Some prayed with villagers. The mosque here was destroyed, so Yuli's sister puts on appropriate clothing she brought with her, borrows a sleeping mat, and prepares to kneel in the right direction, just outside someone's new shelter.
The white tent where Dewi prayed bordered this village road, where much of the village life now happens, as every residence and shop on either side of the road and extending back into the jungle was shaken to the ground. So here a girl reads and does her school work on the family bed, a group of young men eat behind her, while down the road a group of men team up to bring down the remaining walls of a destroyed house.
And just the other side of the road, the rubble of his home has become this child's playground, or wilderness.
And finally, after we'd gone out further than the southeast corner of the map posted below, and returned, and bums and backs and shoulders and heads were bumped ragged by the driving, it was time to eat, in near-total silence, and go home to bed.
What a way to meet the family! This is a survey shot of Convoy Headquarters, also known as Yuli's family Kampung, situated just across the Jogja border in Bantul. I'd only met her sister Dewi before, so when we arrived, it was rapid-fire handshake-and-bow time, as the place was swarming with neighbors, cousins, aunts, uncles, and their offspring. You see mostly men here, as the women were inside assembling the packages. Though a little less "developed" than family homestead in my youth, many times in this preparatory hour I felt this must have been what my Uncle's home on Deer Hill must have felt like in the early 70ies with my cousins and their neighbors swarming the yard.
The convoy departs. Sunday we had fourteen motorcycles, carrying 29 people (one couple brought their toddler) and loads and loads of stuff.
This says it all about our first stop: formerly used to entertain or earn, now it sits in pieces by the narrow village access road where virtually no visitors ever come, still hoping to earn.
Just across the lane from the broken guitar, I saw generations of one family's women watching us. Grandmother, mother, daughter (with child), adolescent, younger sibling, and a sombre auntie. See this disadter through their eyes for a moment.
At our second stop, we passed this boy, who looked like he hadn't moved in the two weeks since the quake. His mother set him here, near the road and far from the danger of falling debris caused by aftershocks.
Yuli caught this mother and child out for a stroll through the hometown at our third stop.
While waiting for a lost or misplaced motorcycle unit, other members didn't rest, instead giving aid of another sort by the side of the road.
Getting towards evening, the convoy reste at its next-to-last stop. Some prayed with villagers. The mosque here was destroyed, so Yuli's sister puts on appropriate clothing she brought with her, borrows a sleeping mat, and prepares to kneel in the right direction, just outside someone's new shelter.
The white tent where Dewi prayed bordered this village road, where much of the village life now happens, as every residence and shop on either side of the road and extending back into the jungle was shaken to the ground. So here a girl reads and does her school work on the family bed, a group of young men eat behind her, while down the road a group of men team up to bring down the remaining walls of a destroyed house.
And just the other side of the road, the rubble of his home has become this child's playground, or wilderness.
And finally, after we'd gone out further than the southeast corner of the map posted below, and returned, and bums and backs and shoulders and heads were bumped ragged by the driving, it was time to eat, in near-total silence, and go home to bed.
posted by Unknown at 2:09 PM
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