Reporters on the Job

• Rebuilding After the Tsunami: Staff writer Scott Baldauf found the couple rebuilding their home in Banda Aceh, Indonesia (page 1), with a highly sophisticated and finely honed journalistic technique: "I drove around the neighborhoods and talked to people," he says.

Scott knew there were people striking out on their own, but he expected them to be can-do entrepreneurial types, brimming with optimism, impatient with other people's charity.

"The thing that struck me most about Alamsyah and Juriah was their attitude. They seemed desperate, like they simply had no choice but to rebuild on their own, because they didn't think the government would help. They actually moved closer to the sea, to be closer to the fishermen. He delivered and sold fish at the market," says Scott.

"Also, they believed that if God has decided their time of death, it really didn't matter where they lived - up in the hills or down by the sea, in a shelter, or under the sky. They weren't depressed - just determined to live and make the most of their lot in life."

David Clark Scott
World editor