How’s that umbrella workin out for ya buddy?

Well, I’d love to come out with some dramatic story about our struggles to survive through the floods this year, but I’d be fibbing more than a little. After my previous post, (as I was watching the canal in front of my work flood over its banks) we were safely ‘evacuated’ to the Kristal Hotel (three bedroom full suite). I spent the weekend swimming in chlorine, not sewage. We decided things were dry enough to return home today, but as I type this, it’s pouring rain once again. But now the ground is saturated, and since Jakarta has 7% green space in the entire city, it’s not likely to drain away quickly. (yes they concrete over every single mound of nature) Check out Henrique’s photos for more from this year’s drenching.

However, I do feel I paid my dues last year: wading in waste-water waist high, slicing my leg on a fence that I climbed to get a life raft to rescue Novita (and getting that toxic sludge in the wound), hearing tales of my friends’ drivers brother stepping on a generator cable and getting electrocuted to death – as I waded past a submerged transformer (see the pics), hearing of a number of people seeing snakes in the water we were in, watching as my friend slipped into a pothole right in front of me, and ultimately being evacuated in a massive truck at 11pm in pouring rain.

I’ll keep you posted if things take a turn for the worse. I’m still laughin remembering as I cruised past that dude on the bike – priceless wouldn’t you say?