It’s 6am, Bali, coffee pot steaming, laying in bed watching the brewing steam rising from Mt Agung. Roosters cackle, jets of steam shoot hundreds of meters high from the summit just 14 miles away from our home. Tremors within the massive volcano, sometimes hundreds a day as magma forces its way through hard rock. Balinese coffee spooned into a mug, Turkish style, grown from the incredibly fertile soil of past eruptions on these slopes where my home sits. A hundred thousand refugees in September moved from their homes on the volcanic slopes to friends homes and encampments as activity increased. Fifty thousand moved back to their homes last week as the important Balinese Hindu holidays began. It’s all a balance no one knows if and when the volcano will erupt. One day the tremors subside, the next they increase. Activity waxes and wanes. The tourist board says it’s safe. The geologists hedge their bets. 40,000 refugees remain off the slopes. The coffee thick and hot like the thickening steamy tropical day. Time to get to work… Look closely at the photo, a steam jet arises right of center at the summit.
