The tour until now - Rob Vink, The Netherlands

Hi everyone,

I'm sorry that I'm gonna have to keep this message a short one cause this is the 3rd time I'm rewriting it. Internet is really slow here and connections keep on getting interrupted.

First of all I want to thank EI for giving us this great opportunity. It's insane how many new impressions we have gotten in only so few days. Everything is taken care of for us, and all the people we have met are really really nice. So again thank you EI !

Ok back to the tour now then. This morning we got a briefing at the BRR(Badan Rehabilitasi dan Rekonstruksi) office. They explained to us how they are rebuilding the country and the many problems that arise with it. Ofcourse there is corruption but that really is not the only problem. There are many many more reasons. For example: The supporting countries fight each other for projects, or some projects are only half finished. ( a completely build house with no electricity, watersupply or drainage).

Also another thing that people tend to forget is that donating alot of money will help but that it surely takes time. At the moment they are building prefabhouses like madman. But you just can't build 125000 houses in a year. We have also made some arrangements with the people from EI Asia to supply us with some of their powerpoint presentations so we can show the people back home more about what we have learned. So don't worry your questions will be awnsered there is just not enough space on this blog ( and the internet connection here ain't helping either grrrr ;) )

We have also visited one of the schools EI build and that was really great to see. The children looked so incredibly happy with so little that they have compared to us. The people here in Indonesia are great anyways. They are pretty shy but at the same time extremely friendly. Always smiling and trying to help you its great. And the children... sigh ... so cute you just want to cuddle them for hours and take them back home. I wish we could do more for them than this. I would really like to get back here and do some volunteer work after I'm done with my school. I'm certainly gonna visit them next year.

Ok my time is up I'll try to write a few more updates this week.

Ciao!

Rob