Yuli's Quake Relief Convoy

Week 4: Teach Your Children

2006-07-04T19:52:00.000+07:00

Editor's Note: This post was emailed to the weblog address on June 25th, but was never picked up by the blog services. I've been travelling for much of the past week, and have been unable to visit or update the site. I'm sorry I wasn't able to catch the problem sooner.

After June 25th, Yuli and the convoy continued to shop for children's educational and entertainment products right up to my departure from Jogjakarta on June 26th.

The convoy is officially closed now, and I cannot tell you how much your help has meant to the people of Jogjakarta, the convoy, and me. This morning I read an article publishing data from the UN, describing aid donation as $60 million of $80 million short, in particular in the area of tents and tarps, which will still be 30% off it's "one tent per family" target by then end of July. Your donations helped make a huge dent in this area in many parts of the hardest hit areas of Jogja. Children, moms, and the elderly at the end of ungle trails there will always remember the arrival of a string of motorcycles (you'd call them 'scooters') laden with tools, shelter, food, and children's games. You did that.

Here is the week 4 post:

We are winding down the convoy now, but what a wonderful week it has been! I'm afraid there is no time to upload pictures, but I will try to add them next week. On Monday, we called on a friend we had helped , who had access to a pickup truck. We loaded 20 wheelbarrows, 100 shovels, numerous crowbars, saws, hammers, and some cooking oil and other odds and ends into it, along with one brave Indonesian man to sit on it all, and headed out to 8 different villages who had requested clearing help on previous visits. With a few motorcycles following, the truck got as close as it could to each village before the bikers finished off the delivery with wheelbarrows on their thighs. Quite a site.

That evening, Yuli and I met with a team of young educators who had been picked by the Indonesian government to develop Children's centers in 21 government-chosen locations. The concept was for the educators to deliver fun educational activities to the children in these centers with material the government provided, and on Saturday (yesterday) to train local volunteers to carry on the "playgroup" type activities for these children, who otherwise would be left to play in the dust and rubble, sit by the side of the road, or be turned to begging by their parents and village elders. The problem was that in typical Indonesian government fashion, they delivered materials for only three of the centers, and no volunteers had turned up. We all suspect the lack of volunteers is due to protracted negotiations on the payment for "volunteering"...

To cut a long story a bit shorter, Yuli and I suggested that from the convoy's travels, we could find between 6 and 10 volunteers from villages heavy with children, and we could fund the books, games, and activities for all of them. Our associates jumped at the idea. During the week, Yuli and I lined up the volunteers. The four of us spent Friday shopping. We spent about $1500 on multiple copies of 50 children's books, children's knitting patterns, badminton sets, footballs, paints, crayons, pencils, canvas, reams of paper, puzzles, educational posters, plastic bowling sets, and so on.

Saturday the volunteers arrived, and while we weren't in attendance,Yuli's sister Dewi was, as one of the volunteers. Apparently an uproarious riot was had, and the volunteers stayed and trained for seven hours, trying out every game, song, activity and reading technique on offer! At the end of the day, volunteers from SEVENTEEN villages headed off with playgroup kits for their villages...averaging more than 100 children in each village. A little teary-eyed again, I am happy to inform you that at less than a dollar per child, you have delivered fun lifeskills games and activities to the children in remote and devestated areas of this region, AND the training to ensure they will be used well. Please understand that these opportunities didn't even exist for these kids before the earthquake. In one short, crazy week you and the convoy have fostered significant change that can effect generations of area families, because some of these kids will grow up having learned to think and problem-solve and cooperate and compete healthily... at the ideal age. Thank you again.

Tomorrow we will do another, smaller round of shopping for further children's centers with the remainder of the convoy money. That will bring the convoy's operations to an end, and all of us thank you. "Thank you" is not enough, but no words are adequate. Look for further pictures, and a final general accounting at the blog in the next fortnight.

On behalf of Yuli\'s convoy,

wishing everyone love and peace,

Thank you.

2nd week update....

2006-06-17T18:06:00.000+07:00

3rd week technically, but 2nd week funded by charity.

This week the convoy spent Rp. 14,000,000, pretty much finishing the initail contribution from St. paul's Episcopal Church in Brunswick, ME. However, Yuli and I and the rest of the convoy, not to mention the villagers in the areas circled in blue and orange, are floored, grateful, awed, and not-quite overwhelmed by the additional roughly $2700 pledged and mailed to St. Paul's from the congregation of St. Matthew's in Parker, CO, and friends and family from London, California, Colorado, Tennessee, Carolina, Virginia and probably other places I don't know about yet. I had no idea this would happen, but I'm proud and moved to be associated with such great people. I'm not naming names here because I don't want to publicize anyone without permission, but I know who you are, and we will not forget. Our goal is to get all of this money properly spent and its purchases disbursed by June 28, at which point we will wrap up convoy operations.

The new funds will go to a couple of new, more ambitious projects that I'll outline before sharing a couple more stories from the road this week.

With all the evidence of people digging themselves out and beginning to imagine a new life within brick walls again someday (remember that Yuli had been supplying shovels and chisels and pickaxes this week), the requests for wheelbarrows have picked up pace. These are items that the villagers cannot afford (roughly $30 each, three times the cost of the tarps/tents which they also cannot afford), but they also cannot be carried out to distant towns on the backs of motorcycles. So, Yuli and her team are spreading the word to the village leaders that if they organize a car, the wheelbarrows will be available for pick-up at her compound. I think this is a great idea, as it is the logical next step after all the clearing and demo work and as it puts a bit of responsibility on the villagers to take some positive action towards their own rebuilding.

The other project is still in process, but I hope something comes of it. You've seen the pics of forlorn kids, and they are crushing images, to me anyway. Through our British Embassy friends we've come into contact with a group of Indonesian teachers whose charity has consisted of driving to similar villages and conducting creative playtime sessions with the young kids wherever they can find a space. They've more recently been transitioning leadership of these sessions to local parents. Where your donations come in is in providing play kits (toys, books, etc.) for the villages.

Oh -- a 3rd item: down below you'll see a pic of a woman drinking ginger tea with a straw from a clear plastic bag... your money will also get a bunch of plastic cups and plates out to many of these villages this week.

Both the wheelbarrows and the playkits are relatively higher-end items, but now that food, water, tents, tools, and toiletries are in the flow, we can move to these items. It is true that villagers have been shifting rubble with their bare hands, and children have been playing with it for want of anything else. I'm excited about both of these new charity lines.

Just a couple of pictures here: This is what gave the convoy the bright idea to use your funds to distribute plastic cutlery in the next ten days.

Yuli found this man two days ago. He's nearly deaf and unable to take care of himself. Though his life probably began with more modest accommodations than these, Yuli learned that several youths in the village had assembled this structure for him so that he could move out of his animal pen...

You can see where he keeps his food on the ground in the bottom right foreground. He apparently has to fend for himself for his nourishment, which is only the locally wildly growing jackfruit. Yuli looked at his food, and saw that it was blackened. They returned to this village today with rice and other foodstuffs for him, as well as some toiletries and baby products for the younger villagers who built his shack.

All Along the Watchtower

2006-06-16T15:47:00.000+07:00

I've been finishing up my work obligations for this semester, and Yuli's been overseeing the convoy all week, so we haven't had much of a chance to update the blog, but we'll do a thorough update this weekend. In the meantime, I've culled some of the more interesting pictures from the last few days, and one or two small stories. I'm leaving some of the best for later, when Yuli and I have a chance to collaborate, because she's told me some wonderful stories about her visits this week.

For me, the brightest spot is a story I heard this morning. it seems one elderly villager who was on the road and missed the Convoy's visit, but not it's charity, a couple of days ago got himself all the way to Yuli's compound late yesterday afternoon (on a bicycle, perhaps) just to thank her (and you)! I haven't heard the details, but he tracked her down by word-of-mouth all the way from his village to her door, thanked her profusely, did not ask for more, and promised to make a thank you gift as soon as he had supplies again... that kind of recognition goes a long way.

One of the less wonderful but more interesting snippets was about a village she visited at the request of one of my colleagues from the University (an Islamic institution catering to the poorest segment of the community). Her motorcycle convoy, laden with relief supplies funded by the congregation of an American Episcopalian church, came to a stop in front of what used to be the town hall, next to what used to be the town mosque, to find a relief team from the Islamic Defenders Front on their way out of the area, and the area itself full of long-bearded men and heavily-clothed women. Some of the relief the town had already received bore the flags and logos of the IDF.

The IDF, for those of you for whom reading this blog constitutes most of your education about modern Indonesia, is the organization responsible for the annual pillaging of (and occasional violence at) restaurants and bars that serve alcohol during Idul Fitri, launching demonstrations and intimidation campaigns against "pornography" (a term which here encompasses both pictorial-less Playboy magazine and women exposing their navels (or lower arms or hair or... in public), and, most significantly, near-Taliban-like vigilante enforcement of Sharia law in destitute or recovering regions of the country, such as tsunami- and rebellion- -ravaged Aceh.

In short, the vibes were such that even Yuli's devoutly Islamic sister Dewi was shivering and scared, and wanted nothing more than to dump the supplies and turn around. Yuli, sadly, was too scared to take any photos, so a verbal anecdote is all we get. That said, the community WAS extremely grateful, and I like to think the convoy did its bit for religious tolerance.

Anyway -- on to the pictures, which paint a thousand words each, so I'll try to refrain.

Dinner preparations underway for a tented community. Most of the extremely rural communities are relying on the indigenous "jackfruit" for sustenance. When the convoy gets there, there's better nutrition for a couple of days.

Yuli is seeing more and more communities dragging themselves out of the shock, using more than a thousand years of training to fashion an existence of what remains around them and what comes to them from people like you.

This family has gotten washed and dressed for the evening meal at the relief shelter quite a bike ride down the road...

...while this father and son make the long desolate trek for a bucket of water. Even so, they must also perceive the small signs of progress around them...

...like this infant, who, with his elders, will finally have shelter at night, and escape from the sun in the day...

...and these brothers who, with their father nearby, assist in the demolition of their old home, which the quake left incomplete, so that they may also assist in the construction of their new one...

...and a community pitches in to raze the larger structures ...

...while others practice traditional healthcare on a village elder, and prepare to settle in for the night...

I can't even begin to imagine what it must feel like for a)earthquake victims to see Merapi blow and feel the earth tremble in response, two weeks after everything around them is destroyed; or b) Yuli and her convoy to be heading home after hours of driving and succouring, and look out across the countryside as they hear and feel the erruption through their vehicles... when will it end? This is the blast that trapped two and may have buried six others where I stood about a month ago and took pictures of sandbags lugged up the lava slopes.

Well, it's a long hard road wherever we live. I know it's less hard when we enlarge our communities to seize opportunities to aid and love when they appear before us. Thank you again.

The Circle Game

2006-06-14T13:27:00.000+07:00

I'm not in Gaza. I'm not in Israel. I'm certainly not in Iraq. Or New Orleans. But I was in DC on 9/11, and I watched the Pentagon burn for several nights, though I didn't know anyone who died. I only saw their families' and Government's reactions. And now I am in Jogjakarta, and I've finally seen the altered states we enter into when inexplicable pain transforms our relationship with our environment. Not to say I've never grieved or been close to grievers, but so many -- that's different and informative. Yuli tracked down a friend of hers from university, and found she'd lost her mother. An old woman wanted to take us to the spot where they buried her daughter-in-law carrying her first grandchild six months along. We begged out, but her son was nearby, asking someone, more than two weeks after the fact, "Where's Nia? When does she come back?" In the days after the quake he had seemed the most together of that area's victims. Another resident shows us where the earth opened up, swallowed a river, and ruined any hope their generations-old kampung now has of surviving on their homeland.

The convoy drives daily, and they see hundreds of victims everyday. The majority still smile, trying to shake off their personal disaster and 'soldier' on. They take the shovels and clear the homestead. They team with others and tear down walls anticipating rebuilding. They may complain about their invisible government, or how little their children now have, but they smile, and somehow I know their families will recover.

A significant percentage remain visibly stunned, but still functioning. They walk their children through the rubble, they sit on salvaged couches, beds and balays by the side of the road a few meters from their tents and uncleared land. They eat, they stare off into the distance, but they are there. They, too, may still find a path to recovery.

But the others. Grief and shock turning to rage and madness. In Allah and God a possible answer, and this can only be explained as an act of Allah and God. There is nothing acceptable on which to vent the grief and rage, of which there is so much. So I have to wonder what any humans think they can gain from committing acts that fuel such emotions? I used to hear modern poetry about ending the cycles of hatred and war… once in awhile a politician would actually make it into office having talked about these cycles. But it's been a long time since that happened anywhere. Instead we only hear reports of humans creating situations like the one I'm living now, and threats to make more of them. So much ignorance, all over the world.

More notes from yesterday

2006-06-12T14:09:00.000+07:00

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.

They took me along

2006-06-11T21:08:00.000+07:00

THE CAST OF YULI'S CONVOY

The Leader

The Record-Keeper
(noseless, she likes to add)

The Leader and Record-Keeper with her brother,
tireless neighborhood charity collector Joko,
and a recipient of convoy donations

The Leader and Record-Keeper's sister, Dewi

The Convoy (Today's Version)
Leader waving left of center (next to brother), Leader's sister Dewi waving back right

The Middle-Person
(coerced into being pictured donating these shovels)

24 hours later, and we're back at the Dixie Diner for another update. I joined the convoy today, and confirmed with my own eyes what Yuli has been describing in words and visuals since the day after the quake.

I've received more than one comment about the absence of photos of the Convoy's Leader. Therefore, in order of importance, the pics of the project participants above. Remember to click to enlarge.

Firstly, I have to say that until we got into the deep deep jungle/rice-farming areas, it was inspiring to see that so much really has been done in these past two weeks by everybody involved in the relief efforts. The great majority of the masses ARE sheltered and fed. Yet even in those more accessible areas, Yuli was thrilled to be able to point out a shovel in use here, a sleeping mat there, cleaned clothes hung out to dry all around, and say "that's thanks to you!" At which point I would say, "no, that's thanks to you and mom's church." More accurately, it's thanks to all of us, because none of us could do any of this if we weren't working together.

However, what I saw after we got off the main roads and onto the little tracks, defies verbal description. Here, it's the elderly, the very young, the mothers with multiple children (some, sadly, recently inherited), the injured, and the transportless that need, and get, the convoy's help.

I can't begin to explain how exhausting this work is. I can't imagine how the convoy does this every day. That said, the Leader's dozing off next to me and wants to go to bed, so I have to log off now. Some more notes and action pics tomorrow. I suppose the last thing to say tonight is about how much virtually disbelieving thanks I got from convoy riders and the helpless. I always pased the thanks off to you all, and back to the convoy -- you have no idea how much impact your contributions are making.

X Marks the Spot

2006-06-10T22:18:00.000+07:00

For anyone who wants to play along at home, here's a map (remember to click if you want a big ledgible vedrsion). The convoy has dropped off goods at all the circled names, and sadly, they are all pretty flattended. More importantly, I've drawn "X"es in two of the unnamed areas they've been instrumental in aiding. These are areas where the towns don't even get put on a map, and directions to them are of the "go over the hill, turn left at the gap in bamboo, turn right at the 15th tree, go over two more hills, then make a slight left for a kilometer" sort. They've done more than these two areas, but these are the only ones Yuli was sure of tonight.

Activity Saturday, June 10

2006-06-10T21:38:00.000+07:00

The convoy split in two to cover more ground. One team went to the Bantul and Imogiri towns of Mredo Kulon, Kiyaran, and Gondonli Saluran Sriharjo, bringing tents, shovels, toolkits, toiletry packets, sleeping mats, and cooking oil to each. The other did a shorter run to Ngepos and Depok. They met later to share their notes and observations, and have supper.

Tomorrow I carry the camera. I have intentionally not travelled with the convoy, for both convoy safety and economic reasons. An Indonesian motorcycle convoy won't be harrasssed too much, but add a white guy and all bets are off. Also, prices tend to increase when "colonials" are present, and even though the funding is foreign, I want the convoy to be what it is: a locally managed and inspired organization. That said, I'm missing all the action, and Yuli thinks an appearance by me would make it more "real" for the team... so, I'll dress quietly and walk softly. Pics sure to follow.

Week 1 Summary and Thoughts

2006-06-10T15:41:00.000+07:00

Technically this was Week 2 of the convoy, but for the purposes of our donors, it was week 1.

Donations: $3025, all from the congregation of St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Brunswick, Maine. Words of thanks cannot suffice, and special commendation to my mother, Leslie Brancart-Randolph for well and truly galloping with a ball to make the donations accessible in Indonesia nearly overnight!

Converted to Indonesian Rupiah: $1372 (RI.12,550,000 + $35 bank fees), of which approximately RI. 11,000,000 had been spent as of 11:00 AM today, Saturday.

Towns/Districts visited, surveyed, and aided: Tues: Kepek Kidul, Gunung Pujuh, Nembangan, Bogok, Pentung; Wed: Kepek, Paker, Watus, G. Pujuh, Muntuk, Nembangan, Yahya; Thurs: Delinggo, Patuk, Gunung Kidul, Piyungan; Friday: Mredo, Sewan, Canden, Paker, Jaranan.

Supplies: Yuli's accounting book has detailed figures, but in general most of the aid is in the form of what you see in the pictures below: tents, blankets, hardware tools, baby milk, toiletries, cleaners, lanterns and blankets. A few specialty items stand out: eye drops, frying oil, plastic wrapping.

Yesterday and today, productive ideas have arisen from responses from victims, and from neighbors. Yesterday morning a 20-year olf neighbor of mine on my largely undamaged development died from fever carried by a mosquito. Now I know why I pay Rentokill to bomb my home every three months. Yesterday the convoy began supplying mosquito coils (this morning my sole job while helping Yuli shop was to count out 107 BOXES of mosquito coil.... Yuli was busy counting 137 tubes of toothpaste..as I watched the shopping cart fill up with toothepaste, I kept seeing legions of clean teeth in the countryside). One recipient complained that they should be given the liquid-pumpspray kind rather than the burning coil kind. Yuli was taken aback -- they shold be grateful at least, one assumes. The recipient is asking too much: the cost of outfitting fvillages with the aerosol or pumpspray varieties is beyond the reach of the convoy's funding, and we here ALL know that it is not unfair to say that Javanese NEVER use the stuff responsibly or safely -- overspraying and within the vicinity of children and food.

However, it IS true that the other stuff is effective against cockroaches and actually kills the bugs and remains effective for several days, if not longer. So, Yuli and I decided to equip one convoy rider with the sole responsibility of spraying camp areas that the convoy visits. This way we control the amount used and protect the food and children. And we're doing it with your contributions, thank you very much!

Please know that as an educator and teacher trainer I am thrilled with the opportunities your contributions are giving Yuli and her convoy members. It can't be emphasized enough how many life and professional skills Yuli and the convoy riders have been able to learn in this week alone simply due to the challenges of acting responsibly and quickly with sizable amounts of money that they now have access to. With additional funding arriving from several other sources in the next two weeks, it might be possible for the convoy to survive well into July on donations from our donations.

In particular, riders are learning the convoy's start-time cannot be "elastic" as so much of Indonesian timesense is. Elastic relief time means unnecessarily prolonging the suffering or disease risk of needy victims, and overburdening other convoy vehicles, such that all the day's aid cannot get out to where it needs to go without significant delays. The riders are also learning the value of action, and the power of their own individuality. A sub-team of the convoy will begin it's own mosque-rebuilding task, aiding villagers in the clearing and cleaning up of destroyed mosques, as in many towns they have come across villagers still praying amid the rubble of their religious sites, which is dangerous and unsanitary.

Yuli herself is learning a great deal. I hope she'll write her own comments here eventually for you, but I don't want to push her in that area. She's slowly realizing how much she's being given to spend, and quickly learning to delegate so that it can be spent. She's learned that this needs planning, and the planning comes from information gathered in surveys during previous days, and everyday as they ride out. As she was confronted with the inevitable return to regular jobs of many of the convoy's original early volunteers, she realized she would have to develop a contact list of potential riders, and convince them to ride for nothing more than lunch and gas money... This kind of personal aggression is not a highly respected Javanese trait, but it IS a trait of successful businesspeople here and elsewhere. After reminding Yuli that everytime we go somewhere in town, we spend half our time greeting people she knows -- she may be the most popular common citizen in Jogja, and I had no doubt in her ability to keep the convoy's numbers up on a volunteer basis. I was thrilled to not only see Yuli working the phone successfully over the past couple of nights, but also to hear her delegating the convoy-building job to others: creating a network.

She's also come across some villages that are actively trying to clean, clear, and recover their land, and others (most) that are doing almost nothing on their own. The sight of the former inspires her to chastise the latter and encourage them to empower themselves, as well as to give the convoys' donations conditionally: telling recipients that the convoy will be back around in a few days and expects to see the items used and visible progress.

In short -- I did not expect to see my own personal "critical thinking" agenda addressed so significantly, but I now realize that your donations are permanently expanding the futures of these convoy riders. What they pick up in this month or six weeks is simply priceles when applied to the rest of their lives and their families.

Again, and again, and again... thank you

Tom

The day's silly fact: We also filled a cart with laundry soap... the uses of the soap, as illustrated on the back, are for both laundry and dishes and kitchen counters. That was quite a surprise to me. Is that normal? Is there an entire line of redundant, superfluous cleansing supplies in the US and the West?

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Wed-Thurs June 7-8: VOLCANO

2006-06-08T22:29:00.000+07:00

Blogmaster at work. In another couple of days this pic will be down the blog and mostly out of site, but Yuli wanted it here, as she took it. As Indonesian residents go, it seems I'm relatively hirsute (I think that's the word).

This is, in all likelihood, the last day for awhile which will be documented with many pictures. I'll switch to basic reports to save time.

This morning began with a massive burst from the volcano, which is probably the portent of much worse to come. We are not out of the woods yet, and your donations are hugely appreciated and still needed.

Wednesday, Yuli and her colleagues spent approximately $500 on blankets (50), tents (50), sleeping mats (25), baby products and toiletries, among other things. Notes on how this was accomplished, and what happened to them, follow with the pictures.

Some beautiful things are happening on the road now. The convoy drives by sites they have aided and sees their (and your) contributions in use, and looks of optimism in victims' eyes. One village, upon receipt of their supplies, was so grateful they wanted to fashion some kind of receipt! I'll bring it to St. Paul's in July.

Change is happening. Thank you. Even I feel an urge to shout HALLELUJAH!

PS -- Don't forget to click on these pictures; if you click on them, you'll get much bigger, more detailed images. On the other hand, you probably don't want to click on the one above, unless you want to exam the blogmaster's nose...

2006-06-08T22:23:00.000+07:00

If anyone has wondered HOW a grassroots relief effort gets its $500 worth of supplies from the shops to the load-up site... it's becaks. Man-powered transport, $2 each. This load included mats, tents, and blankets.

2006-06-08T22:17:00.000+07:00

As for administrative overhead -- this is lunch for the convoy. Delicious rich soup. yesterday, 14 portions for $4.00... TOTAL!

2006-06-08T22:13:00.000+07:00

If you're doubting the homespun grassroots nature of this operation, have a look at this neighborhood Vespa which hitched itself to some of your donations yesterday...

2006-06-08T22:06:00.000+07:00

This is what it's all about! Grateful smiles from two mothers (and a lady in a Lakers shirt...) who just got a healthy supply of soaps, powdered baby milk, toiletries, and baby clothes. YOU did this!

2006-06-08T22:03:00.000+07:00

Grateful recipients of tent, toiletries, and a building toolkit... smiles say it all.

2006-06-08T21:57:00.000+07:00

The convoy provided tool packeges to this man and seeral others on Wednesday -- he can at last rest his fingers and much more efficiently clear the rubble, salvage the salvageable, and and make order in his home.

Today, Yuli placed an order for 100 more tool sets for pickup tomorrow and distribution over the weekend. Not possible but for you.

2006-06-08T21:53:00.000+07:00

The convoy Wednesday, 11 motorcycles... can you count them?

2006-06-08T21:45:00.000+07:00

Yes, this is Indonesia, where bird flu has yet to be contained, and where it is likely to have jumped between faamily members on at least two occasions. And yes, these folks lost their home but not their coop, and now they live with their chickens. Tomorrow, they will be sleeping moving into tents that you have funded.

2006-06-08T21:33:00.000+07:00

Not pictured: two children swimmin in this ditch to the right of where this man is bathing and doing laundry. At least he's got cleaning supplies now.

2006-06-08T21:24:00.000+07:00

The goods delivered, the convoy takes a break before calling it a well-spent day. Meanwhile...

2006-06-08T21:16:00.000+07:00

It may not look like much, but these two youngsters aren't sleeping on the hard ground anymore, and that's progress, thanks to you.

Day 2: First Deliveries from Donations

2006-06-08T19:37:00.000+07:00

Tuesday was a second survey day, though the survey team dropped off many of the supplies they bought Monday. Examples below.

2006-06-08T19:29:00.000+07:00

Before heading out for a second day of reconnaisance, the convoy survey-team assembled the results of their first, small, shopping trip. Today they would provide several towns with a little... salvage reconstruction hardware...

2006-06-08T19:26:00.000+07:00

...light...

2006-06-08T19:23:00.000+07:00

...health (toiletry/laundry kits)...

2006-06-08T19:18:00.000+07:00

...and warmth. Then she and a few others headed out to deliver these supplies and continue the survey.

2006-06-08T19:12:00.000+07:00

This woman received the white blanket, the smudges came from her when she received it, rubbing her face, crying into it. Though very traumatized, she is not as isolated as she looks; this encampent extends to the right and includes many other familes, who assured Yuli that they take care of her.

2006-06-08T19:04:00.000+07:00

Tonight this family, sheltering everything that survived the quake under their "tent", adds a little light.

2006-06-06T20:45:00.000+07:00

This giant shelter was built after the quake as an emergency hospital in the area. The patients have been treated and returned to their "homes". The doctors are not in evidence. The building is empty. The homeless, however, are not allowed to seek shelter there. Why?

Day 1 -- Preliminary Survey

2006-06-06T19:30:00.000+07:00

Knowing that substantial donations from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Brunswick, Maine were imminent, and determined to use the funds efficiently, yesterday Yuli took three motorcycles to begin a comprehensive survey of the environs. They used a map and oral directions to traverse the countryside, visiting towns and assessing needs. On their way back to town, they used $60 of the first promised $100. She put deposits on orders for tents and lanterns, and cleaned out a depleted hardware store of its remaining clearing tools to fulfill requests the convoy had picked up. When she got to my "office" in the Dixie Diner, she was overjoyed to learn that somewhere near $2000 would soon be available to her convoy.

Sites Visited
I'll get a map up here soon, but if anyone is playing at home, they visited Kepek Kidul Timbulharja Sewon, Gunung Puyuh, Nambangan, Bobok, and Pentung, all in the Bantul area. Pics follow.

2006-06-06T19:23:00.000+07:00

Yesterday's shopping from your donations consisted of $60 dollars worth of tools many villagers had asked for to ease the task of salvaging belongings from their ruined homes, and clearing their land for the eventual rebuilding. The convoy cleaned this shop out of their remaining shovels, crowbars, chisels, and hammers.

2006-06-06T18:54:00.000+07:00

This is a tame example of what the convoy comes up against in the roads -- a family has gathered what they could salvage from their home, and it now sits blocking half the road. This is why 4-wheeled aid has such a difficult time reaching the remote areas.

2006-06-06T18:47:00.000+07:00

Homeless rice farmers sheltered roadside, now living in the bags intended for their crop. Tents are coming.

2006-06-06T18:43:00.000+07:00

His wife is just out of view, but this man has just finished bathing himself and his clothes in the water that irrigates his ricefield. He told the convoy that in his area tents and food were not a problem, but they had no soap and washing supplies, making the spread of disease a concern. Then he told them that the town of Muntok needed more help than they did.

2006-06-06T18:37:00.000+07:00

The first of two just "home" from the "hospital" pictures, this child's community asked for lanterns, stoves, and kerosene to power them. The convoy decided against the stoves, because they would consume to much keresone. It's a tough world, nut more efficient to use wood for cooking in the short-term.

2006-06-06T18:32:00.000+07:00

At this relief stop, Yuli found this child, just returned home from a hospital. Her injury is visible in the next pic, near her right temple. Here, she props herself up on the left with the bamboo pole of her new temporary home, and on the right with her permanent new mother, formerly her Aunt.

2006-06-06T18:09:00.000+07:00

Perhaps we can hope that her age, her aunt, and aid from folks like you, Yuli and her convoy drivers, will render the consequences of last Saturday's disaster a non-existent memory before too long.

Convoy: Morning 'til Night

2006-06-04T21:11:00.000+07:00

Friday, June 4, was a typical day in the life of Yuli's convoy. It started in the morning in her Grandmother's damaged main living room, where family and friends gathered on the floor to wrap food packages in banana leaves and paper. Outside in the courtyard, many of the young men were preparing the bikes.

2006-06-04T21:03:00.000+07:00

The cooked food was packed, donated and purchased goods were dropped off in Grandmother's courtyard, and all was organized and assembled to be loaded onto the motorcycles.

Come on an' join our convoy

2006-06-04T20:53:00.000+07:00

Neighbors came from all around to help the bikers load up...

Yeah we gotta little ol' convoy, ain't she a beautiful sight?

2006-06-04T20:44:00.000+07:00

And off they went.

2006-06-04T20:33:00.000+07:00

A little more than 20 km (12 miles) south of her grandmother's home, Yuli's convoy stopped at the bottom of a hill where a large group of destitute earthquake victims sat around what was left of their lives. The convoy left them a tent, some vegetables, lanterns, tampons, salt, and noodles (water was accessible to them). As they were unpacking, the local in the white shirt made sure the convoy kept much of what they offered, because it was needed even more by a nearly-inaccessible village further up the hill.

2006-06-04T20:21:00.000+07:00

Heading in to the hills, the convoy passed a few "lucky" places where their help was not needed. This is a community already located and cared for by Korean aid agencies. On they went.

2006-06-04T20:12:00.000+07:00

Here the convoy reached the neglected hill of which they'd been told, where they intended to leave the rest of their supplies. However, more unselfish victims told them of another hill even more remote than theirs. So, keeping some rice and their three last tents, they headed off again.

2006-06-04T19:59:00.000+07:00

Following the directions of the previous hill's villagers, they drove on until they found these children, the tallest with a quake injury to her right eye that had not received treatment after five days...

2006-06-04T18:52:00.000+07:00

...who live in this camp, the only shelter these "tents" stitched together from bags intended for their rice harvest.

Incredibly, these villagers made the convoy keep one of the tents, and pointed them on to yet one more village down the road... Now add poor weather and altitude, and you'll get a sense of why Yuli's Convoy has to be kept running.

A Brief History of the Convoy

2006-06-04T18:19:00.000+07:00

Please visit my personal blog to read an account with photos of the quake and the first days of its aftermath. You may need to skim down a bit, as it IS a blog and the quake occurred a week ago.

A good place to start talking about this grassroots guerilla-style charity convoy might be from the following two articles I found on Thursday. These are the inevitable stories about aid not arriving soon enough from the big guns, despite Yuli's optimistic report yesterday that she had seen a lot more foreign charities out and about than in previous days, when she saw none.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/01/news/indo.php

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060601/ap_on_re_as/indonesia_earthquake_142

I know from daily interaction with many of the agencies that they are still in the process of locating and setting up offices and translators, stumbling over their own bureaucracies (translators I supplied to USAID Wednesday morning to work with US military doctors had tyo wait two days to start working for lack of proper contracts, this when patients are dying at a rate of 400/day -- see the articles above). Eventually, these agencies will realize that their four-wheel drive vehicles can't reach the places most in need (one of which was written about in the articles above).

That's where Yuli's convoy comes in. After a despairing solo exploration on Sunday, the day after the quake, and a follow-up on Monday when Yuli drove a British Embassy representative even further, the convoy formed almost spontaneously on Tuesday, when she and 19 of her family and friends pooled their meager funds and supplies, loaded up ten motorcycles with rice, noodles, water, and powdered baby milk, and headed south. They dropped packages with stranded villagers until they ran out, then returned home determined to do more.

Wednesday morning that gang and more assembled at her grandmother's relatively stable compound (some wall damage and a ruined roof, but some shelter) just over the Jogja borders in the heavily-hit Bantul region. They had each stopped at the destroyed but functioning central market to spend most of what was left of their funds on fresh vegetables. They cooked all morning, wrapping food packages in banana leaves and scraps of paper, and added this fresh food to another collection of boxed food. They found the size of their convoy had doubled, to more than 20 motorcycles. Off they went again, even deeper, and not returning until well after sunset.

Thursday I took Yuli away from her convoy to show a USAID photographer around some of the places she had been visiting. She reported that near the main roads in the disaster area she finally saw some signs of the relief agencies we have been meeting daily in the hotel near my house, but they had yet to get into the many places where villagers have no homes, transport or young members.

Friday the convoy, still at 20 vehicles, returned late in the evening. They had gone even further this time, with 17 donated tents and other materials that had been dropped in Yuli's grandmother's courtyard. They reached a point at the base of some hills where four-wheel vehicles had always been stopped by homeless villagers who had set up camp in the middle of the road. Most of the supplies of such transport had had to be left there.

The convoy learned of neglected villages up the hill, and set off to find them. Not only were they found, but these villagers pointed them still further off to more towns thus far off the big-guns' radars.

Saturday the convoy went to Klaten, not much in the news, but worse-hit by the quake than Jogja. They brought the remainder of their tents, rice, salt, and vegetables to the Cawas sub-district, and returned home.

Sunday, today, the supplies began to decline noticeably, as their own resources and those of their neighbors are nearly exhausted. However, they loaded everything they had into an old pickup, which they escorted with two motorcycles (to conserve gas, but slowing down the journey) to the base of Thursday's hills, and did several motorcycle runs up the hills with the rest of their supplies.

Your donations come in the nick of time. Yuli's convoyers, Yuli, and I are more deeply appreciative of your support than we can express here. Please read on to understand the significance of your gifts. I will try to update this blog every day while the convoy operates.

NEEDS
The aid agencies seem to be a delivering a preponderance of food and water, but very little in the way of hygiene and health. Reduced to bathing in rivers and wells, where there are any, they lack soap, toothbrushes, feminine hygeine supplies, and the like. With everyone sleeping under the stars, under makeshift tarps if they are lucky, a stolen hotel towel was received gratefully as a baby's blanket, her means of survival through another rainy night. Yuli just left my side where we have been composing this narrative because her sister called to say her grandmother's community had dropped off 17 donated tents for distribution by the convoy. Please understand that these donations come from neighbors who are largely vegetable sellers and rice farmers with almost nothing left to give.

COSTS
$3 dollars per day per bike for gas. $2.50 for 5 kilos (apr. 11 lbs) of rice. While the toiletries, tents, sheets and blankets that are dearly needed are relatively more expensive, these supplies are much less expensive than we are used to in the US and Europe. Even a donation of $5 dollars can enable a baby or child to make it through the rainy nights in the weeks to come until formal help reaches him/her. $10 to $50 can keep a whole community clean and ward off the epidemic of disease that threatens to follow in the coming days. Donations of $50 to $100 (more than the average monthly salary here) will enable the convoy to find and deliver longer-term shelter to areas inaccessable to the trucks used by the relief agencies.

The Convoy
Java, and in particular the Jogjakarta region, is blessed with a tremendous sense of family and community. On the one hand, it was this togetherness that spread the Tsunami-panic on Saturday, but on the other hand, it means the convoy's size and reach is virtually limitless. It's ability to explore the area, locate and assist remote areas, and keep lists of needs accurate and current, is probably unmatched by the large, established, and entrenched relief agencies, with which, nonetheless, I am in a good position to coordinate as needed. These agencies (Red Cross, Save the Children, WFP, USAID, UN, UNICEF, World Bank, Relief International, etc.), wonderful though they are, must confirm and reconfirm disaster reports from agents and agencies, here, in Jakarta, and in the US and Europe with their own agendas, pre-approve grants and funding, write contracts before working, and coordinate from Geneva, Switzerland. Yuli's Convoy will be able to act immediately with your donations, supplying what is needed wherever it is needed, without getting in the way of the efforts of these much larger agencies. Donors will be allowing local victims to help their people survive this traumatic disaster until longer-term aid reaches them.