Perspective From Indonesia

As several of you may remember, I am in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, acting as relief coordinator for my company, a world-wide medical supplies provider. It was with great trepidation I embarked upon this endeavor. I knew from reports of the print and electronic media and from personal accounts of company reps of the horror that awaited me. Nothing could have prepared me for what I have witnessed the past few weeks. I cannot adequately describe, with my limited vocabulary, what it is truly like here in Banda Aceh. This was the hardest hit area. As my friend, BamaGator, stated previously, I am in a very hostile area due to Tamil Tiger insurgents. Thankfully, they appear to be willing to maintain this fragile truce with the government until things get back, at least, to the way they were here about three centuries ago. I will attempt to expound on that now.

There are visions that you may have seen of previous disasters, such as what hit Central America under Hurricane Mitch, earthquakes in Japan, California, etc, bombed out cites during WWII. Conjur up all those scenes in your mind for the moment. Roll them all up into one. And it still doesn't do justice to what happened to this area due to the tsunami. There are piles of concrete, trees, cars and, perhaps, human beings two stories high. There is vitually nothing left that would make one think this was a civilized society at one time. Widespread swath of destruction that I simply am unable to describe to you. There is disease and death stalking us at every corner, at every avenue one can imagine. Imagine concrete, reinforced with steel, twisted around like aluminum foil. Imagine cars flattened and twisted the way a child does with playdough. Imagine land without trees, shrubbery. Imagine smells of the worst seafood processing plant you have ever had the misfortune of going by in your life. Imagine living with this 24/7.

This is something that has got me to the point of a physical and mental exhausion. I cannot sleep more than an a couple of hours a night due to the images of pleading eyes of children, some no more than two years of age. They and the surviving adults are not getting the medical attention they need. I cannot stress this enough. There is one four year old child that died of gangrene Wednesday morning because we didn't have the proper medicine she needed. Doctors came in and amputated her left leg. But, it was too little, too late. This child had no one left alive in her family to grieve for her. She was all alone, save two doctors, a nurse and myself and a colleague. And I continue to grieve for her and all the pleading eyes that I see in my dreams and while I work. Many will not survive, I am sorry to say. It seems that despite a world-wide effort to send relief supplies, it still is not enough. There is only so much the world can do in response to a disaster of biblical proportions. That is hard for me to type. I realize now that we can only save less than half of these people. Disease is now taking hold of the children and elderly who survived the tsunami. This may become a nation of people between 20-40 years old and no children and no elderly. Malnourishment is taking it's toll upon the historically weakest of society; the elderly and children. Two of my colleagues could no longer take the sight of children without any living relatives around. They left due to mental and physical exhausion. Theese are children without a purpose in life, without a future to hold out hope.

I had contemplated not mentioning this. I had to hear it for myself before I would even acknowledge the possibility. I'm sure you have heard about people hearing voices calling for help at the beaches of Thailand, Sri Lanka and here in Indonesia. I thought it was simply the mental state that people were in due to the tsunami. Sunday night past, an Indonesian relief worker spoke to me about this phenomenon. He said it's something you have to hear for yourself. We were at a former resort area, not far from Banda Aceh, doing some supply coordination details. He invited me to accompany him to the beach nearby about 9PM local. We went there and for the longest time I heard nothing but the surf. But, I then heard something that raises the hair on the back of my neck. Let me put it this way...think of what it sounds like from the crowd in Bryant-Denny Stadium when the Tide makes a long drive to an opponents one-yard line...and fumbles the ball over. Think of that collective moan you hear. Magnify that by about two and that is what you can imagine I heard. A collective sigh, a moan of thousands. I know that is hard to comprehend. I am not one given to superstition or the supernatural. But, I know what I heard Sunday night. I have no scientific explanation for it. It frightened me to the bone. No one will ever know the exact number of people killed. But, a population statistician from Austria told me that from studies he has made of the region hit by the Tsunami, it most likely is over one million people killed. And he said that he is the type of makes conservative estamates in his reports.

To the moderators; I realize this is off topic. If it is your wish, I will make no more reports. This is more for my mental therapy than anything else. To those of you reading this, if you have not done so, please make a gift to a relief agency today. Even if you already have make a gift, please consider doing it again. You may be saving the life of a four year old girl, with no parents, grand-parents or living relatives. You may spare her of dying with only strangers around her, who frighten her, as she gives her last gasp.

I have no doubt about this guy's sincerity and his descriptions are heart-wrenching- and on the money.

But, he is about 1200 miles across the Indian Ocean from the nearest "Tamil Tiger", who are in Sri Lanka, an entirely different nation. What is he thinking of?

Amazing to hit the link and read the responses. Now they've got me crying.

3 posted on 01/29/2005 4:24:28 PM PST by jocon307 (Ann Coulter was right)

I thought the Tamil Tiger's were in Sri Lanka?

4 posted on 01/29/2005 8:41:39 PM PST by Valin (Sometimes you're the bug, and sometimes you're the windshield)

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