Aceh

I wish we could fly these little planes more often. Some thoughts: The area that my parents are in is now better off from an infrastructural standpoint than it were before the tsunami. The Red Cross/Crescent has now given permanent housing for around 15000 dollars per family. The houses are earthquake proof with solid construction. They have special filtering pits beside the house for water purification. People were often given starter moneys and so many have brand new motor scooters. The ~7billion plus aid has gone a long way toward reconstruction. Isn't it interesting that the large loss has led to this change in housing and lifestyle. Ninety thousand people lost to the tsunami is a high price to pay. Walking under the coconut trees that are the marker for the height of the waves is just hard to get over. On our trip we were in many airports so let me show you the variety.

MAF North of Teunom where luggage and passengers were weighed.

Meloboh [sic], Aceh; Singapore; Medan (taking pictures with a Chinese dance troop), respectively

Here are some trip photos from Medan and our trip to Aceh:

An appropriate sign for the developing world.

Let's land at Meloboh (the runway is at the top of the picture).

Even the water was warm, but we got to play a little (Elle got all wet).

The permanent housing is now in the front and the temporary housing has been moved to the back to be used as a kitchen. As you can see, they too are being corrupted by the 100+ channels as they buy their satellite dishes. The water filter system is to the right of the house on the left where the grass is growing.

My parents' open house for us where Hadiah is singing the Hokey Pokey with the 5^th/6^th graders. The girls did very well with the other kids.

Teammates Santy/Teddy/Jayden and Ferdinand/Feiny/Gabriella from Manado working with my parents

Lunch with Dad's foreman's (Pak Mustafa) family. Some of us liked it and some didn't-can you guess which ones?

We hope that relationships between neighbors which often start around children lead to faith.