Beside the sea

Sat 28 Oct

8 o’clock and the trip has been finalised. Thomas takes me, along with brolly, executive hat and tropical suit to Pak Ajikusumo’s house in the south west suburbs of the city ( this is Pak Biwa’s favoured candidate for the Presidency). T returns to collect Biwa while I talk to Ibu (Mrs) and others in the house. The house is a fair size and is in this largely single storied, high density neighbourhood. The streets are a single car width and, except for m’bikes the right angled corners require a three point turn to navigate so no need for the speed humps That I am now familiar with elsewhere, and providing a reasonably quiet and pedestrian friendly area. The many fruit trees in front courtyards add to the quality (sorry no photos). ‘A’ himself seems friendly and personable and he thinks before speaking without appearing aloof. Thomas assures me that he is a multi millionaire and has a luxury villa out in the countryside but presumably the town house affords him a closer touch with his prospective electorate.

Of to the south coast in a large air-conditioned car passing a big UN food relief base and many of the Rotary Club’s small family tents in this the hardest hit area of the earthquake. 20km at the coast we reach the experimental farm which for several years has been developing farming techniques to grow things in this unpromising looking ‘soil’ which is just plain grey sand clearly originating from the pumice of the past volcanoes. It is burning hot sand, even with my sandals on but apparently so rich in nutrients that plants can grow with no fertilizers or sprays (insects are killed with hurricane lamps alongside each little plot). The only essential is the fresh water pumped up from the many small wells, and a plastic screen to protect plants from the sea fret. Some crops and further screening shrubs planted in the dunes had suffered badly in the tsunami two or three months ago but things were apparently now back to normal. Back to Ajikusumo’s place for a drink and attractive lunch served by his staff (one of whom looked uncanningly like Clement Freud), and to meet his three young daughters before returning to the hostel where Thomas and one of the candidate’s team sort through and download all the pictures taken by T today – wait for my supporting role behind Ajikusumo in his next publicity film?