It is time that I come back to the blog, I have taken far too long to update. Rather than babble endlessly about what has happened lately I will drop a group of bullets:

• I took a bone rattling little boat to the island of Pulo Aceh, it caught fire twice and the ride took just over two and a half hours—on the return trip the British let us use their speed boat (life vests and all), the trip took 30 minutes.
• Wrote my first story and it is up on my organizations website (at least for the time being it is on the main page but here is a link directly to the story: Ice Cream Man). It was great doing the story but it was a bit hard for me to soften it for the website. The guy I interviewed had a tragic story and broke down crying while talking with me. Once he started to cry many of the men in the village started to cry with him (my translator nearly broke down as well).
• I just did two interviews for Omaha media, KPTM and KFAB. The KFAB interview was the better of the two; I got word that KPTM wanted to talk an hour before the interview at 7am. I had just had a long night and was so tired that I don’t exactly remember all that I said, but it was a lot of fun doing both of them.
• I now have an assistant. She is adorable and I have already become addicted to having someone take care of me. She serves as both my assistant and translator.
• I just got back from a trip to the capital, Jakarta, while their I had a ton of meetings that will of course lead to more meetings—but the highlight of the trip was an aroma therapy massage followed by a body scrub and herbal bath…sometimes life is just too hard.
• I am looking forward to taking my first break soon. I was hoping to get away for the New Year but that is now looking in doubt, we will see.
• As part of a measles vaccination program, with our partners, we are targeting more than 13 million children, I will be going to the island of Java in late February to help promote the program—I am very excited, seeing kids receive essential aid is the best part of the job.
• Pictures are on the way…