Tuesday, 2 Jan07

Highlights: UGM visit, blankets for the Bari family

Telkomsel (the biggest national phone company) has been acting up lately. Maybe the volume of calls overwhelmed them in the days leading up to the new year or something- but there have been inconvenient blocks of time, sometimes a whole day, when sending SMS text messages is just not possible.
Makes it hard to coordinate across town. Oh well. Plenty of time to eat spaghetti with carbonarra sauce for breakfast (=

Nina picked me up around noon, and we dropped by UGM to say hello to some of my old teachers & tutors (= Always a lot of smiles & friendly new faces there.

Today’s project was to visit pak Bari and his family in Bantul (Parangtritis area). I called to make sure someone was home, then Nina and I went over to the foreign languages library to visit Pak Bari at his office. We missed him by 10 minutes.
As soon as he heard I was in town & was planning to come to his home, he asked permission to go home early (= ha ha.

I had 2 photo albums with all the pictures I had taken with them over the last 7 months, but wanted to pick up a little something extra for them on the way down to their home. Nina and I visited a few stores along Jalan Malioboro and found the best blankets available.
Bamboo homes are head and shoulders better than living in tents, but there remain significant shortcomings. At night, the wind comes right through the holes & gaps in the walls, and everyone sleeps cold.
In the weeks and months following the earthquake, pak Bari and his family wrapped themselves up at night in the straw-bamboo mat that is usually used as a carpet for sitting. To this day all 15 family and neighbors sleeping at the house have thin, flimsy blankets to wrap themselves up in at night.

I can fix that.
I was looking for something like a comforter,,, but couldn’t find one. Nina’s explanation: Few could afford it, so most stores don’t carry it. Makes sense.
We found close enough substitutes ($110 for both) and proceeded down to the Bari house.