Out in Lubuklaweh, there was a wedding party being held at the time and when the earthquake struck, over 400 people were instantly killed.

Having heard of the great devastation in the neighbouring rural areas, we decided to spend the day venturing out into the close-by rural areas who have been equally affected by the quake. Our first stop was to a village called Lubuklaweh just outside of Padanag.

As you leave Padang, there are hills on either side with a single track road which runs onto the hills and passes through villages. For the most part, this is a tarmac road but closer to Lubuklaweh it becomes a simple path with valley hills on either side. There was a wedding party being held at the time and when the earthquake struck, over 400 people were instantly killed.

Many places in Lubuklaweh were not damaged directly by the earthquake, but were killed by the landslides. Many of the residents of the village were poor, relying on subsistence farming with coconut and rice fields. The relief teams have gone to Lubuklaweh on foot with no trucks or machinery to remove corpses from collapsed buildings.

Many of the paddy fields which are the farmer’s livelihoods have been completely destroyed meaning it will be even harder for people to get their lives back on track after surviving the initial earthquake.

The second place on our visits was to a place called Kapalo Koto in Paraman district. Army diggers were working to clear the rubble of a school which had been buried under a landslide. Because the earthquake struck shortly after school had ended for the day, students were harmed, however the school’s caretaker and his family lived on site and were tragically killed as the quake struck.

The school itself had been rebuilt after the earlier Indonesian earthquake of 2007 when it had also been buried under a landslide. The people of the area used to drink water straight from the river, but this has since become dangerous as the water is muddy from landslides and unsafe with corpses in the water. Villagers are now collecting rain water and rely on two water wells in the village. We arranged for two additional water wells to be put in place and a water purification unit to operate in the area.

Our first job was to go out and look at the sites of damage in Padang. Every other building had been affected to some extent by the earthquake, either by having large parts of the structure missing or damaged or being completely levelled to the ground.

Our first stop was to Lembaga Indonesia America College which was once a 4-storey building which had been completely destroyed. The college had 90 students, of which 4 died and 6 were seriously injured. As we arrived, a fellow aid agency was removing corpses from the rubble.

Nearby lay the remains of Bii Bank which had 60 employees. As their work day was drawing to a close, the earthquake struck leaving all the employees in panic mode. As the manager of the bank worked to make sure all his staff were evacuated safely, he was tragically killed as he was the last one in the building- all his employees were alive and safe.

The worst of all cases our team came across was that of Ambacanga Hotel. There were three business seminars taking place in the hotel rooms at the time when the earthquake hit leaving over 250 dead. Though it had been days since the quake, rescue teams were still clearing bodies.

The hotel was hit in such a way that you could see half a bathroom open amongst the rubble. The air was thick with the smell of rotting flesh and you knew there were many bodies yet undiscovered.

The houses of Padang have a very particular style roof- it is completely flat and in many unfortunate cases; this has meant it has literally fallen straight down on top of buildings. This is another reason why there are so many casualties.

We have just touched down in Jakarta and I have a further 2 hour journey ahead to get into Padang, the worst affected earthquake zone. Despite warnings and many news reports, there are no problems with the roads in Padang and much of the international aid effort had been focused on the needs of survivors there.

I’m introduced to the rest of the MH Indonesia team, they were Khairul Rahim (Indonesia country manager), Ihsan Satrya (projects manager), Marwan Dono (projects manager), volunteers including Taufik Widjaja, our drivers Rinaldi and Japmiko.

Both Rinaldi and Japmiko are locals to the area so have a strong working knowledge of the area, the local dialect, where to source equipment and resources from and how to approach and help best in accordance with local customs and etiquettes. We discuss the situation on the ground and plan the itinerary of activities to commence over the next few days.

Having already organised and mobilised our MH staff in Indonesia, I have decided to also join them in their aid and report directly what is happening. We need to keep everyone informed on Indonesia's dire situations and help them as much as we can. Please visit this page often so we can update you on what is happening live in the field.