04 August 2005

We kicked of our fourth project this week by sending a truck loaded with building materials off to Meulaboh on Tuesday. We're aiming to extend the communal toilets by adding two additional units. We also plan to drill a well to have a better water supply.

We didn't really have much to buy this time as we still had the following left over from the last trip:

• 2 WC units
• 2 doors
• 1 barrel of paint
• wooden planks for roof
• 1 jet pump
• pipes for wc and water
• ceramic tiles

Additionally, based on Pak Dadek's advice we've decided to buy as much as possible locally in Meulaboh so that we're also putting the money into the local economy. It's very easy to get bricks there so we'll buy those once we get there. Also this time we employing only local labourers from Meulaboh. Pak Dadek told us we could also buy cement in Meulaboh but we decided not to take this risk as we've heard stories about cement being available one day then scare the next and sometimes already a bit hard when available. So we bought the following in Jakarta:

• 1000 litre water tank
• steel reinforcing rods
• glass blocks for the windows
• 27 bags of cement
• 35 tin sheets for the roof
• water taps

We also bought ten mattresses as Pak Dadek said that there were a lot of people in the camp sleeping on wooden boards.

We arranged for a truck to come on Monday and leave in the evening. As was becoming very predictable the truck cancelled at the last minute. Novi and Dian drove round a few markets in Jakarta looking for a replacement until 4am Tuesday before they found one.

The truck loaded up and set of at noon on Tuesday:

Apart from extending the toilets we're also going to make a deeper well to pump water. The last time we didn't go anywhere near deep enough. We've been told that Meulaboh is very difficult for water as it's close to the sea. The well has to be around 100 metres deep before the water is fresh. We're employing people locally again to drill the well. Apart from the fact that we wanted to put the money into the local economy, we also thought that the locals would have better experience at doing this job as noone in Jakarta seems to have ever drilled beyond 30 metres.

Finally we also bought a second hand laptop for the Indonesian Red Cross. We've made a point of giving them something on each trip and they told us that they were desparately short of laptops. It's an Acer Pentium III 600MHz and a bargain at 3 million Rupiah.

We're setting off to fly to Medan on Friday evening and plan to drive to Meulaboh as soon as we get there. Dian is coming with us again this time. She will stay in Meulaboh again to keep an eye on the toilets and the well drilling.

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