Safe arrival!

Hi all,

As promised, this short posting is to notify all those that may be the worrying type, that I am fine... happy and healthy.

It has been three days since my arrival at Padang. Things here are not as dirty, busy, loud and crazy as I was expecting. People are very friendly, many speaking basic English and a few with a good command of English and a willingness to help a foreigner out. Watching world cup soccer at a local store has made me a friendly face around the neighbourhood that I am staying in. Sign language and a love of sport helps us communicate quite complex ideas and will be a good segue to practicing the Indonesian language. I begin formal classes tomorrow.

On Saturday, we travelled to a village that is starting a disaster risk reduction program and we are very impressed with the public participation, organization and level of professionalism of those taking part. With very limited resources, these community groups come up with substantial planning, organization and implementation of disaster risk reduction priorities. The setting of the village is pristine, valleys carpeted with rice paddies surrounded by steep forested slopes that dot the landscape. This type of geography has its pros and cons though as the hills are the sources of landslides, yet are the main protection from the threat of tsunami. I promise some pictures for the next posting.

Highlights so far include a monkey trained to pull coconuts from trees, fantastic fruit drinks, a Sumatran wedding procession and the many friendly faces of the very young and very old. If I ever get brave, I will try to take a few portrait shots some incredibly beautiful people.

As for work, we have many leads on sources of information for our analysis, but little idea of what we should actually pursuit for our purposes. Scope-creep is sure to become a factor as we try to adjust the amount we do in accordance with the time we have.

Ok, that's it for now. Until next time!

Teron