Day 3 In the Field - Yogyakarta, Indonesia (July 4th ,2006)

Day 3 (On-Site in Earthquake Zone, Bantul Indonesia) -

Well up early again and off to the village where "A" and his family are. I forgot to mention that yesterday we had promised to help an elderly gentleman and his wife clear away a large area of rubble and start helping him reset his foundational walls for where his home used to be. He is well over 60 years and there is a ton of broken bricks and rubble to clear -- it will be a full day today. I have been very thankful to God today for the cloud cover as it is roughly 92-98 degrees everyday and approx 80-90% humidity all day long. You can;t see it here in this photo but I was drenched from head to toe with sweat and I imagine lost a few pounds of water weught today as well.

During intermissions of the clean up effort today we kept being invited back to Pak "J"'s house for tea and local food (wonderful potatoe like food called sincon/ Kasava here in America, coconuts, goat meat, rice, vegetables, and local tropical oranges). Their hospitality overwhelmed us and we gladly accepted as it would have been rude otherwise. Pak "J" and his family put out quite the spread for us and if it were not for the work left to be done I imagine we would have fallen asleep on the bench they had for us to sit on inside their shelter. Great food and conversation we had as we learned more about Pak "J" and how he had grown up in this village and used to sell grass to the owners of the cows at a local factory nearby to make money for the family. He also remembered the Japanese occupation during the younger years of his life. His daughter was wondering if when we came back we could bring more westerners who were un-married so she could marry one to blend the "white" into her family bloodline. This was very comical to all around but I think she was very serious. On the way back to "Pak"'s house we stopped to eat at a local Javanese restuarant and "WOW" what a culinary delight -- Rice, Javanese meatballs, hot peppers and loads of vegetables to boot....truly a wonderful meal of local cuisine all done in a buffet style at a roadside establishment that is very popular. I think the meal cost about $4 U.S. for all three of us to eat and drink. Too much food today..but wonderful getting to know these villagers like we have...the bonds are unmistakable.