Feb 13, 2007 10:17 AM
Lynda Redwood-Campbell
Special to The Star
Two years after she spent several months in tsunami-ravaged Aceh province in Indonesia, Burlington physician Dr. Lynda Redwood-Campbell, who also teaches in the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University, has returned for a visit.
Arrival
Here, I am 25 months after the tsunami, back to the place that was so devastated.I wonder what has happened in terms of development. As we drive by the previous site for the International Red Cross tent hospital, I see that the fields have been replaced with temporary housing. Children laugh and splash in puddles as the rain continues to pound down.
Week One
Days 1-2: We passed by the site where only one house was left standing after the tsunami. It is now refurbished, beautifully painted. The area that was just debris is becoming a community again.
Run aground Before the tsunami hit, the ship seen in this story -- the PLT Dapung -- was moored off-shore and used as a power generating station. The waves carried the ship around five kilometres "inland" and dumped it in the middle of this village, where it obviously destroyed everything that had been located where the steel giant now sits. Dr. Lynda Redwood-Campbell reports that the tanker has been re-painted as a memorial. Dr. Redwood-Campbell's photos show the Dapung just after the December 2004 tsunami (at the top of the page) and two years later (middle of the page). |
The medical students [we are working with] are half women and men. All have been affected by the tsunami in one way or another. I was most impressed with the women. They were mature and asked good challenging questions. They were getting on with their lives.
The students are having a tutorial using problem-based learning. This is a new model of teaching in Indonesia. Eleven students in a small group, men and women.
The topic is Islam and abortion and contraception. The students have not yet seen a real patient, as they are in their pre-clinical years. The discussion is interesting, as they are only 17 years old.
Wouldn’t it be interesting if we could one day video conference and have students from Canada join them? Imagine the learning for both sides.
Days 3-4: Today we drove to one of the worst affected areas.I have a bitter feeling as I think about the devastation I saw soon after the tsunami.
It is pouring again. As we get closer to the shore, I see many new houses, many new developments. Men busy hammering and cutting wood in workshops set up every few kilometers.
My friend is driving and explaining the sights. We arrived at a bridge but could not go over it. The road was not good enough, worsened with all the recent rain. I wonder if this weather must be slowing down the building process. Through another direction, the newly build homes are still empty.
The December, 2004 tsunami drove this tanker five kilometres inland and deposited it in the middle of a village. Two years later it is now a memorial.
We pass along through busy neighborhoods, and then, we saw the ship. In the middle of the neighborhood, there stood an oil tanker, five kilometers inland from where it took before the wave engulfed it. It has been re-painted as a memorial.
Most of the destruction is gone, and it is actually very difficult to believe that the tsunami was as destructive as it really was. My Acehnese friend says that people cope by just moving on The shops around it are bustling and bright, the road that was once rubble is now busy.
Days 5-7: It poured again all night last night. The streets were flooded and many people were not able to leave their homes.
Last night we met a man who has been living in Indonesia for almost 30 years. He is an engineer and has been working on a housing project. He is frustrated because he believes that too many of the new homes are not earthquake proof and the next quake will bring them all down again.
I asked about the Canadian efforts. He said the Canadian Red Cross was constructing houses very well. I sighed great relief.
Perhaps the most impressive thing to me is the sense of hope that appears to be here.
Aceh has been an area of political conflict for many decades.
Since the tsunami, a peace accord has been signed. The first democratic election has been held and the new governor will take office in February.
My friend tells me that people are happy for a change. People just need to let him "do his job."
Week Two
Day 5-7: Reuniting is always special. I found a friend. Two years ago, she lost her husband, her parents, family and home. She was stuck on the roof of her house for more than 24 hours watching neighbours get washed up onto the roof and grieving others who didn’t make it. She is re-married and she is expecting her second child.
We visited her temporary home. Her own home is still in rubble: no front wall; debris on the floor; the kitchen is barely recognizable. Her 8-year-old son showed his room where he hopes to be again one day. It was just an empty shell – no bed, nothing. She hopes to have government compensation soon to rebuild her home. In the interim, the three of them live in a small room in a house. She does not know where the baby will be born. It is expensive to go to hospital. I quietly worry about her. Maternal mortality is high in Indonesia, something that we take for granted.
Day 8-9: Yesterday we visited the main general hospital. The fist time I saw it, it was full of debris and bodies 6 feet high. Over the next weeks and months, the hospital was cleaned and slowly started to function again. I see the hospital now. The bodies and mud outside have been replaced with green grass, fuchsia bougainvillea flowers, new gardens and fresh paint. The mosque in the centre of the hospital complex has been rebuilt. It is hard to believe that this is the same place where so many people died a sudden death. Progress is happening but the hospital still does not have the same capacity as before. The beds are there but too many nurses died and still have not been replaced.
The traffic is crazy and unsafe. It’s a problem in many developing countries. Families of three and four on one motorcycle, no helmets. A woman lay on the road, unconscious after she fell off her motorbike today. The tsunami and earthquakes are not preventable, but these injuries are. The public health students were with us today. I encouraged the students to seriously consider doing a project to try to reduce head injuries in their community. They smiled. I hope that they do think seriously about it.
Day 10: We visited a grandmother in her home in a village today. Her typical Achenese home is built on stilts, made of wood and is more than a century old. She was as old as her house, we were told. This lovely 100-year-old woman lay comfortably in her bed. Her’s is a simple life in the village. She never had a birth certificate so her age was estimated. Without a birth certificate you have no identity. Without identify one cannot access many services. Midwives now are being trained to try to get birth certificates completed for all the new babies born. Seemingly small things to us but a basic human right.
A thought that a colleague reflected on today is that the tsunami brought together all sorts of people who would not normally interact together. Doctors and store owners, teachers and villagers. I wonder if they will stay friends because of the experience that they had together or in time go back to interacting with their old ways. Time will tell.
Departure: As I reflect on Aceh two years after the tsunami, I do feel hopeful. I feel better than I did two years ago. I feel like progress is happening, albeit sometimes slower than expected. Life must move on. In many areas of the city there is little physical memory of the event. I still can not really begin to imagine what it was like when the tsunami wave roared through the city taking everything in its path. I still cannot imagine the pain of losing so much in just 15 minutes. The sea of mud and debris out my plane window in now replaced with green, lush areas and scatterings of new communities and houses. There is a sense of peace. Let’s hope and pray that this is the beginning of rebuilding of a province that has been rife with conflict and disaster for decades.
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