2nd week update....

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.