Item Nine.

Vocabulary. towering, perish, Sumatra, Aceh.

More than 160,000 people died or disappeared in northern Sumatra on December 26th 2004, when towering waves battered the coast.

Tens of thousands more perished in a dozen countries surrounding the Indian Ocean.

WIth the help of international donors and aid organizations, Indonesia has built more than 100,000 houses to replace those destroyed in the disaster.

That puts housing reconstruction three months ahead of schedule.

Teams are on target to finish 20,000 more by next April.

Other new construction includes 2,000 kilometers of roads and about 800 schools.

International donors have spent 4.6 billion dollars to rebuild Aceh.

The multi-donor fund was scheduled to finish its activities in 2010, but now plans to extend work until 2012 to help with the transition.