Hi all,,, just wanted to check-in & let you know that i'm back in Jakarta... i'm safe & sound... and the city that we're all reading about in the papers (with regards to the massive flooding) is indeed getting a lot better.

i jumped on my favorite ojek driver's scooter & rode around the city today to see the flood damage for myself.

firstly, and perhaps selfishly,,, my house in Cipete Selatan (South Jakarta) wasn't affected at all. we're on somewhat of a hill, so no high waters here.

secondly,, i walked over to Eli's house, to make sure my pembantu (maid) was allright. sure enough, she & her family are fine. their building wasn't built with the best craftmanship, however, and they had several leaks during the heavy rains... the entire back wall is still wet, and she had to get up through-out the night to place t-shirts by the wall to soak up / sop up the water,, then wring them out outside. flood waters outside built up just a little (few inches) but not enough to spill through the door into their home. she's ok.

thirdly,,, i have to say, most of the streets in the city are dry today. Thanks largely to no rain yesterday and today (last night being an exception... it rained hard last night). it's a blessing. allready a lot of recovery work is underway, and most people can move back to their homes. the difficult part is for the poor to move back to their single-room homes, where everything they owned got wet. i visited a bunch of homes like that today,,, i'll get the video together & caught up with the end of my Vietnam trip in the next couple days.

i have to crank out my official trip report first. but i wanted to let you all know that i'm safe, and that Jakarta is allready on the road to recovery.
Apparently i missed the worst parts of everything.

i'll show you more details later. (=

jonathan