*** the following is a report from a member of an Austrailian Activist Collective (sorry, I do'n't know their name.. out of Sydney, also doing work with Taring Padi)
Hello all,
So I arrived on Sunday evening, and had a quick jalan2 with Deni
before I totally crashed out, too exhausted to try and meet up with
the gang.
Monday, with more energy we went for a ride down to Sewon to see who
was at TP. We found it rather quiet, but with the three new dogs
melon, hitam and jessica alba running bout the place to greet us.
Djuadi and Sangki told us that Budi and others were out looking at
prospective land to rent.
With what was still standing of the TP house soon to be demolished,
and after 2 weeks of helping distribute supplies to other smaller
posko's or kampung RT's, the TP posko is empty. Everyone now is busy
eyeing off possible new places for TP to be located, mostly in the
cheaper area's south west of ISI, such as in Sembungan.
The kampung ngijo has been badly affected. Tarps run between the
kelapa trees that line the gang from jl Paris with possessions in
piles and makeshift kitchens. As expected, the TP tent is very
colourful with salvaged banners previously from exhibitions and demo's
now being used as walls, protecting the small living area from the
dust. It's now 2 and a half weeks since the earthquake so a lot of
houses have already been demolished ready for re-building and the
piles of bricks line most roads waiting for the old and creaky heavy
lifting machinery to pick them up and take it away. There's dust
everywhere.
I went with Deni for a ride further south, through Bantul and across
to Jetis where I've seen the highest % of houses lost though I'm told
this is not by far the worst. Tents, blue, red, pink, green and silver
are dotting the piles of grey rubble and green rice padi's. As can be
understood due to the threat of thieves, most kampungs are weary of
strangers and I've never liked to stare at car crashes on the highway
anyway, so we only took a few photo's in perhaps recognizable places.
Tuesday there was more of a crowd at TP - Acong, Dodi, Latip, Yoyok
and the expecting Ponil.
We swapped stories and everyone it seems are still happy to retell
their own personal experiences of the quake and laugh at each other
and poke fun at one's "trauma" over another's. Acong was in fine
story-telling form explaining how when he and David and Leli got out
the back door he found Latip holding onto a banana tree. Latip was
sleeping beside the first wall of TP to fall and was hit by bricks as
he forced open to the back door so was in shock. Acong once outside,
was left gripping Latips shirt as the only way to try and stay
standing, while the ground changed from shaking horizontally from side
to side to jumping vertically up and down.
After the quake, fear of aftershocks meant everyone stayed outdoors
for days. Fitri explained today how the first night they all huddled
under one sheet of corregated iron roofing, without electricity and
despite the rain- nothing like the comfy home that has since been
constructed out front.
It seems everyone has similar stories told with the same typical
laughter. The one that I've heard most often and with the most
laughter is how people expected a tsunami. In the early morning.
people were running north by foot shouting 'water, water, water', with
many following in panic. And later in the day, people were still
piling in trucks headed north. I've seen photo's of Fitri's of the
petrol stations packed with people filling their bikes before fleeing
the city.
Fitri's other photo's show them loading trucks and delivering rice and
foodstuffs to other areas. Although the photo's show everyone working
together and all smiles riding tucks and playing with kampung kids,
this masks how tiring the passed two weeks have been for them.
Today is the 4th day I think that the TP posko has been down to not
much so they have decided as I mentioned before to concentrate on
finding a new home. While they do this the old TP house is being
slowly taken down by the owners. The next week I suspect will see a
meeting called to discuss all the possible places and while those I
met up with today were excited by the idea of a new space for TP
speaking of building a community art school or library, there was also
skepticism regarding whether they could find what they want and need
for a price they can afford.
Just this evening with Acong, Fitri and Budi I told them about Rock
Against Rubble and they all wished they could have been there. Fitri
didn't believe we had that many people in Lanfranchis and they fought
over the one T-shirt I brought over with me.
Oh, and yeah, when I did my best to translate Rock against Rubble they
all laughed in appreciation of the funny side of things..

ammo arrives on saturday and we'll get everyone together for a
discussion I'm assuming. This week there was an exhibition and people
are as i said having a bit of a rest but things will get moving again
soon i reckon!

Wish you all could be here!!!!
Hope sydney's not too cold and horrible-

Stay great!

Lauren
sorry no photos yet in emailable size...