Unstable Things

I got a couple emails this morning asking if we'd felt the Indonesian earthquake up here in KL. No, this time around we did not. It was actually a much smaller earthquake than the one last year in March. Unfortunately, because Java is so densely populated, and many many of the houses and structures are not well built, the death toll was considerably higher than the one on Nais last year. It also did an enormous amount of damage, as you can probably see from the news.

I am actually headed to Indonesia this week, though to Jakarta, Lombok, and Bali. I was in Yogyakarta in December, if you remember and was possibly going to return this trip to do some further research at the University there. But now, I definitely will not be.

The other instability is of course East Timor. Oddly, this week I had two friends who were to start work there, one actually did, the other got as far as Bali before her co-workers were evacuated out of Timor amidst alot of violence. Before all of the unrest started a couple of months ago, I had also planned to visit my friend there, but obviously, now that too is out of the question. My evacuated friend is now coming to KL for a few days while she figures out what her next move is.

Anyway, I'm supposed to head for Indonesia on Wednesday but may push it back a couple of days. Will let you all know as soon as I get it all figured out.