after running around town for over an hour and locating the ONE WORKING ATM IN ALL OF INDONESIA, i was finally able to jet on over to the Konica Digital store where a very nice Chinese man sold me a working memory card, 1G for $16. no kidding. in this remote archipelago, in this land of silent sleeping hours, technology ought to fetch a high price, no? instead, my meager checking account balance is a fortune, unless i go looking for black market spirits.

we've finished the newsletter after logging almost 40 hours each in 3 days. it is a thing of aching beauty, this five page spread of constricted news reporting. every word carries the agony of hour-long debates over language, semantics, comma splice. freaking oxford comma. what the hell is that anyway?

i've come by this memory card in due time today. the Governor of Aceh is flying to Lhokseumawe for the inauguration of Aceh Utara's recovery forum and has just enough extra seats on his plane so that we get to go along.

Last night, over a few sips of bintang and baileys, we (silvain, luca and i) played backgammon while queen blared in the background. banda is a bit spare in evening entertainment, but we make do.