12 May, 2008

Everyone on our team sees an average of more than 200 patients a day and many people are in shock or are experiencing trauma. There are confused people still searching for their families, children who have lost their parents, parents who have watched their children drown. In the evenings, I sit with my colleagues and everyone tells what they’ve heard and seen during the day. It is difficult for everyone. We are all tired and we sleep poorly. “I can’t get the stench of the dead bodies out of my nose,” says one of the doctors. She spent a few hours sitting in a boat going through an area where there were many dead bodies and animal carcasses. The smells, the images and the people’s stories together form an overwhelming picture. I feel myself blocking it out. Tonight I went outside for a moment, I didn’t want to hear anything anymore.

10 May, 2008

The weather got worse last night. Our team tried to sleep in the supply tent we had set up in the village earlier in the day. But in the middle of the night, it was no longer possible. Soaked to the bone and cold from the storm and rain, we ran to a nearby house. The family that lived there had cooked for us earlier that evening. Everyone there was already awake: the father, mother, children and a little baby. They were frightened to death. Although it was the same sort of bad weather that happens a few times each year, now everyone was trembling with fear. “What will we do if the water comes back again, the panic, all those screaming people? We won’t flee again, this time we’re going to stay here and then we’ll just face dying.”

7 May, 2008

5:00 am. We are approaching Heyngyi, our destination in the Delta region. It is slowly getting light and along the banks we see looming skeletons. Tree skeletons. They are bent over and have broken branches that are shorn of any leaves. There are skeletons of buildings too, all lacking roofs and walls. As we dock in Heyngyi, I see the first people. I notice that many of them have a faraway look in their eyes. It seems as if they are looking right through me and don’t actually see me standing there.

A few people help us to unload and ask us why we are there. We explain that we are from Médecins Sans Frontières and that we’ve come to bring medical help and equipment. Together with the men we go to find a suitable place to start working. While 80% of the buildings are severely damaged, the population of Heyngyi has been lucky. People and animals were able to save themselves by getting to a section of the city built on higher ground when the water rushed in. That explains why there were so few deaths here. However, many people were injured in the storm and a large number have lost their homes. In a school without a roof we come across a few hundred homeless families. We can start working in a half-destroyed building owned by a women’s group. The local people help me to sweep all the mud out of the building and a few men repair the roof with plastic sheeting. As soon as that is done, the first patients start to arrive. Our first boat carrying food and plastic sheeting and other supplies arrives a few hours later. Today, our first day, I see more than 200 patients.

6 May, 2008

8:00 am. We are approaching Yangon and my mobile phone finally works again. My girlfriend, parents and children are all okay. I am extremely relieved. The house was destroyed, a tree fell on the roof and now it leaks, but no one was hurt. In Yangon, we see the destruction. Not one electricity pole or advertising sign still seems to be standing and almost all of the enormous, old, often 100 year old trees have been knocked down by the storm. Cars and buildings lie buried beneath branches and tree trunks. Our bus can’t go much farther so we walk the rest of the way. When I arrive home, I see my girlfriend. She also works for Médecins Sans Frontières. “We have to go to the office,” she says immediately, “it’s terrible in the Irrawaddy Delta.” Because of my concern for family and friends in Yangon, it hadn’t occurred to me that other parts of the country could be experiencing worse devastation. At the office, I hear more details. Whole villages have been wiped off the map by giant storm surges. Probably tens of thousands of people lack shelter and thousands have been killed. The medical coordinator and a doctor already left last night for the Delta region and are requesting more help. They need medical teams and material. As much as possible, as quickly as possible. A few hours later, I’m sitting in a car with two teams. We are met in Pathein by the medical coordinator. And then we get into a boat that will take us to the disaster area. We’ll arrive tomorrow morning.