Speaking to her brother in Java the day after the earthquake struck killing more than 6,200 people, Indonesian maid Nining Winarsih at first felt relief. Although every building in Bantul, the district south of Yogyakarta where her family lived, was gone along with all their possessions, her teenage son had walked away from the disaster. Her mother and father were in hospital, hurt but alive.
Then the scarcely comprehensible. Twenty relatives were dead - uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces, nephews. Some might be alive, she has no way to know. Communications into the area remain sporadic. Every time she gets through to her brother, the line cuts out after a few minutes.
Around a third of the 97,000 Indonesian domestic helpers in Hong Kong come from central Java, where the quake hit just over a week ago.
'I am still crying. I felt so bad and I cried so much that I wasn't able to eat or drink,' the 39-year-old said. 'But I know that I should stop because I need to help my family.'
Her first indication her home town was struck came from a text message sent from Indonesia soon after the quake hit. She thought her family were safe and the quake had killed only a few Indonesians.
Then the television reports came in and the number of casualties climbed, first into the hundreds then the thousands. Panic set in. She found an internet cafe, and tried to call home but the phone lines in Java were down. Her friends were weeping, unable to reach their families.
Throughout that first night, she kept trying to dial home, believing her entire family had perished.
