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ABC News
ABC News
National
Indonesia correspondent Anne Barker 

ABC correspondent Anne Barker farewells Indonesia and the world's 'friendliest and most-cheerful' people

Anne Barker and cameraman Phil Hemingway with locals in Palu serving food and a smile despite the shock and suffering of the 2018 earthquake and tsunami. (ABC News: Ari Wu)

Some foreign postings are shaped by war or conflict, others by politics or elections or terrorism.

I can't remember what stories I expected to cover when I arrived in Jakarta as the ABC's Indonesia correspondent almost five years ago but as I packed my bags to fly home, I realised my posting here has been defined by an unrelenting string of disasters, both natural and man-made.

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