Earthquake Relief

Dianti and Marlo carrying supplies of medicine, blankets and feminine pads brought from Jakarta. Location: Yogyakarta.

Today we’ve got an additional member to our team. Dianti arrived from Jakarta. She came bringing more supplies from Jakarta, mostly medicine. We picked her up at Adisucipto Airport in the morning. After we had some breakfast (soto at Kridosono Sport Stadium), we went to Keris Mas in Jalan Laksamana Adisucipto, Jogja, to meet Mas Dono.

Keris Mas is a handcrafts supplier company runned by Mas Dono. It supplies handcrafts made by craftsmen from all around Jogjakarta city, including Bantul. After the earthquake, Mas Dono went overdrive transforming his office into coordination post for relief workers in one day. He gathered many volunteers; most of them are university students. He used his network of business associates to gather logistics, with amazing results. His office looked like a warehouse, full of piles of boxes of instant food, sacks of used clotes, sheets, storm lamps, bottled water etc.

Mas Dono ran a very sleek operation delivering this logistics. Every morning his crew went hunting with motorcycles to survey places that haven’t been receiving any logistics. They ran rapid needs assessment there, and came back in the afternoon with list of things that really needed in their area of survey. In the evening, Mas Dono will send the logistics by pick up cars, trucks and his old faithful VW Combi Van. His armada of logistics usually ran until late at night, sometimes until pass midnight. The next day they will do the same cycle again. It was an impressive operation.

Mas Dono had all the hard-to-access spots written up on board, with schedule of survey teams and amount of logistics needed to be delivered on each area. Location: Yogyakarta.

When we met Mas Dono, he informed us that what his crew were really lack of were medicines and paramedics. Sheila immediately got an idea to combine the superb system of survey and delivery of Mas Dono’s team with the medical expertise of GKJ Wates medical team. So that afternoon we set up a meeting between mas Dono and Ibu Ninik and her medical team from Wates. The meeting took place at Keris Mas. It didn’t take too much time to arrive to an agreement that the next day they will try to join force. Medical team from Wates will come to Keris Mas in the afternoon and with Mas Dono’s team together they will go to the planned destination. Mas Dono’s team will deliver logistics there, while medical team from Wates will give medical treatment. We were quite satisfied to be able to combine these two potentials.

After the meeting, we went to Yayasan Air Putih office in Jl. Ampel, Papringan, Jogja. Air Putih is an NGO who provided free Internet access through WI-FI hotspot for relief workers and journalist. We spent the whole evening there, Sheila updated the website and created the blog.

We were supposed to pick up Inuy, another member of our team coming from Jakarta, from the airport that evening. Unfortunately, she missed her flight because she was late (she arrived 20 minutes before the take-off schedule), but also because the flight took off 30 minutes BEFORE schedule. The airline (Adam Air) explained to many angry passengers who also missed the flight that the decision to depart the plane earlier was because of the increasing activity of Mount Merapi. Adisucipto Airport will be closed that night from any take off and landing activity.

All of us were quite frustrated and upset to hear this news, but we tried to help Inuy to find alternative flight. Inuy also sought every ticket counter in Cengkareng to find any other alternative flight. Ideas came in every ways, suggesting Inuy to take flight to Solo or Semarang. Marlo gave a contact number of his friend Roni, a travel agent. He eventually became the savior of our day. He managed to get one ticket for Inuy for flight to Jogja the next morning. All of us were very relieved (viva Kaka Roni!)

We had dinner that night with quite a relieve. We ate at a restaurant in front of Air Putih. The restaurant name is B2 Bie. It served nothing but several types of dishes, prepared from the meat of “very fatty and hornless goat” according to Dianti. All of us fancy this place very much (including Dianti, hehehe…)

We arrived in Wates around 10.00 PM. Me, Sheila and Dianti had a meeting with Posko GKJ Wates coordinators that night, to discuss the arrangement for the teaming of Mas Dono’s group and GKJ Wates medical team the next day. We agreed in that meeting that Bemal will support GKJ Wates medical team fuel expenses, medical supplies and meals for the staffs and volunteers for the next three days. After the meeting, we went back to Mas Pras’ house. That night there were power failure in Wates. Some of us who tried to get some work done were forced to stop by it. It was actually fine because we need to get up early the next day to pick up Inuy from Jogja.

Mbak Ririn, Sheila and Dianti planning for teaming up with Mas Dono’s crew the next day. Location: Wates, Kulon Progo.