After leaving the USINDO school project, we drove toward the coast with Tanwir to see some of the effects of the tsunami, and how the region is recovering.

There were floors visible in many places where homes once stood. Such a stark contrast with Bantul, where there are bricks laying everywhere.

Here is an interesting note of comparison between Aceh & Bantul that Barbara told us from the Red Cross office this morning: 140,000 + people died in the tsunami, compared to 6,000 + after the earthquake,,, but more people lost their homes as a result of the earthquake in Bantul than in Aceh.

The result is that world aid for tsunami victims is measured in the billions, whereas aid for earthquake victims is significantly less… and in terms of housing needs, the earthquake victims need just as much help. The Red Cross got more money ear-marked for Aceh than it was looking for, and got a black eye in the press when it made common sense decisions to re-route excess funds to other projects… so they won’t do that again, even to help Bantul victims.

There has been a lot of reconstruction in Aceh over the last 18 months… mostly of the “temporary”, cookie-cutter mold that the Red Cross was showing us this morning. It’s encouraging to see people well on their way to putting their lives & homes back together again.

We still saw a few things we weren’t expecting: