it's a hard life

hi there!
hope you are all well! thanks to the three people who wondered if i was okay following the latest tsunami here in indonesia:-) it actually hit a different island and was no where near us. not that there are not other dangers, but i am fine.
i am back in banda aceh now until we leave on friday morning (tues evening now). the last week of work was fine. more digging, hammering, cement mixing. we had to revise some of the post holes dug before as they were measured wrong. we finished up setting up wooden forms for 2 stilt houses and some local workers should have cement poured in them now. i think the families living there are pretty excited as they are living in extremely threadbare conditions right now. 2 people (with children) are living in ramshackle stilt houses (one room) covered with pieces of tarp and plastic. several communities south down the coast are still living in mildewy, moldy tents however...
i have been learning more about the challenges of rebuilding communities and what kinds of logistical nightmares it involves. i have a bit more understanding for the larger NGO's and how they must follow protocols etc.
one of the "working highlights" this week was very random. we were waiting for mike outside the office/lunch place/living quarters in lhoong when a guy came up and introduced himself as an NGO worker from bangladesh. he is working for the indonesian government as a rehabilitation specialist. he was driving by and saw the "genassist/crwrc" sign and wanted to come say hello. he said he was quite familiar with the development work that crwrc (christian reformed world relief committee - the development agency of the church denomination i attend) in bangladesh. he said " i am muslim but i am very impressed with the work that crwrc does and hold it in high regard. " he went on to tell mona (genassist program manager) that they are well known for absolutely no corruption, and for excellent work. it was really cool, and again, i can say that i am proud to be involved with an NGO with an excellent reputation around the world. (way to go crwrc!)

after our work days this past week we "cooled" down again at the waterfall, and on thursday spent 45 minutes spelunking in a huge cave with dan, the intepreter. he is a rock climber, caver, rescue worker. he knows all kinds of cool caves and took us a few hundred meters into one. we were up to our necks in water in one place, and i banged my head on some stagaltites (spelling? you know what i mean?) a couple of times. it must have been pretty hard, because i don't remember it but the others do! anyway, another experience that no tour agency could ever arrange!! then again, there are no tour agencies in the province of aceh because before the tsunami even hit, there was 30 years of dangerous conflicts and no tourists were allowed in the area. even in the first few months following the tsunami, the rebels were still controlling the place. hence the "don't shoot us" stickers on the NGO vehicles i mentioned in the first email.

i will split up a couple of other stories into separate entries as this computer is taking forever to load things and i don't want to lose everything!