From a resident of Northern Myanmar — May 18, 2008

Although we are not allowed to go to the areas most severely hit by the storm, friends returning are bringing back images of its aftermath that haunt my waking hours. Buildings in piles of rubble with body parts visible underneath, bodies caught in trees and bridges and on the bank of the river as the water recedes, parts of trashed homes rigged as temporary shelters with the few remaining clothes and blankets and mats hanging out to dry as the people sit stunned amidst the debris, massive wounds all over people’s bodies caused by abrading against trees, the hail that rained on their backs, or dangerous objects like boat propellers, pieces of metal roofing or machine parts.

And the stories are very hard to imagine. The sound of the storm was terrifying. When the 12-15 foot waves swept through, the people who could swim tried to keep their heads above water until they could find something to hold on to. Some grabbed the tail of a buffalo that could swim and held on for dear life. One lady about my age knew how to swim so when the wave hit her she swam and swam. She held onto a tree all night from 3 in the morning until 3 the next afternoon. Now she is paralyzed on her left side.

And now recovery and rebuilding begin. There are so many challenges to this massive puzzle of recovery. Some survivors were taken from their villages to camps in the main towns where now disease is beginning among them. Many of these people were separated from their families or may be the only survivor from their family. Many do not want to return to their villages. However, they are farmers with no other skills so helping them to find long-term work and housing will be tough. There are so many children without parents or separated from their parents. Lots of the children have already been moved to major cities in other places to orphanages. The task of finding any family members is enormous. Some of the children were taken to Yangon, the capitol. You might imagine they could keep a computer registry and more easily hook people up. But people in Myanmar don’t have family names. And often the spellings of a person’s name and their village name vary quite a bit. Younger children may speak only an ethnic language and not the national language, so they may not be able to communicate well.

Then there is the challenge of a supply of food and fresh water to those who stayed in their villages or who will return if they are allowed. In some areas the rice supplies were wet by the storm but people can dry them out and hopefully save some (although it’s raining steadily now so drying the rice is very hard). In some areas people lost everything, so to rebuild their village they will need a steady supply of food for the next 5 months until a new rice crop can come in. And that will be a big challenge too. The rainy season has already started, so people need to get their rice in the ground now. But machinery and buffaloes were all destroyed, so how do they plow? Buffalo cannot be replaced right now because there is no clean water for them to drink. So they will have to use cultivators that they are not familiar with and which will require fuel that is very expensive right now and not readily available. Rice seed was also destroyed and will have to be bought for people who cannot afford to buy it. Time is of the essence. The window of opportunity for a successful crop is fairly small. Can you imagine getting up the strength of will to plant crops when your family is dead and everything you had was destroyed? Perhaps, the psychological barrier is the biggest challenge of all.

As I wrote before, the water supplies are contaminated, so getting clean water to people involves a number of options. One group is experimenting with simple rain-water catchments made from plastic tarp in a frame for the areas where the water supply is now full of salt. Another is cranking out clay water filters with a colloidal silver lining that last for 2 years. Still others are trying to get people to use chemicals to clear the sediment (alum) and disinfect the water (chlorine). But many people want to use the alum because it clears the water and not the chlorine because it has a chemical taste that people then think is not clean water. But they need the chlorine to kill the diseases in the water.

And once villagers have clean water there is the rebuilding of houses. One of the big challenges right now is the people who are taking advantage of this situation to gouge prices. Trees and bamboo were destroyed by the storm so rebuilding requires the purchase of wood and building supplies in nearby towns and shipping it to the village areas. There you deal with very high prices and permission to transport the supplies. In the mean time survivors have put together temporary shelters as they can. As the water recedes, the massive cleanup needed will take incredible energy.

Many people are doing absolutely as much as they can to make sure people have food to eat, clean water, medicine and shelter right now. Organizing the rebuilding is a major task that needs lots of prayer. We hope things will continue to improve with permissions and relationships so that those who need to support can really get it.