Reporters on the Job

• Dinner and TV: Monitor photographer Andy Nelson wasn't too surprised, given Acehnese hospitality, to be invited to stay the night by one of the families in this installment of our series, "New Foundations: Two Indonesian Families Rebuild."

What he didn't anticipate were the evening's activities. Despite having traveled thousands of miles, and having documented the struggles of two families, he found himself whiling away the evening just as many Americans would.

"I arrived at 6.30 p.m., we watched the news, had dinner, then congregated to watch the equivalent of 'Idonesian Idol,' except with traditional songs," says Andy. "Then we went to sleep."

But, he adds, "there's no escaping noise. When I woke up, I thought Zuhra, the wife, was cooking. But it was the people next door - and it sounded as if it were happening in my room."

Amelia Newcomb
Deputy world editor