Peter in Padang

On September 30th last year, a major earthquake hit the west coast of Sumatra here in Indonesia. Over a thousand people were killed, mostly around the city of Padang. I've spent the past four days in Padang working for UNICEF on a video showcasing their work here since the disaster.

From Peter in Padang

I got the job through some parents at the Green School who are freelancers. This week I've been traveling with one of them, Josh the photographer (that's his picture above), as well as with a writer from Jakarta and a media person from UNICEF. Because Josh was shooting stills, I didn't bring my still camera. So the only pictures I have from this week are the ones Josh took, both from a year ago when the quake happened, and from this week. Click on any of pics here go to a small gallery.

From Peter in Padang

Padang is half-way up Sumatra on the west coat. It takes about an hour and a half to from there from Jakarta (Bali is another hour and a half flight from Jakarta). Padang is known throughout Indonesia for it's food. It's spicy, and piled in bowls, usually in the window of the restaurant. You go in, they put the food on the table, and you only pay for what you eat. Very smart. We had some good seafood while here, at a restaurant right next to the beach.

Anyway it was great to see another part of this vast country (remember 18 000 islands!). So much more to see...

From Peter in Padang