| 5 February Continued: Eddie Left is Eric atop a 4-story building, fixing the Turkey flag their national relief team had draped the building with. It is right across the street from us and being the rope, repel, rigging and rescue expert that he is, Eric could not resist offering to fix their flag after a couple of heavy rain falls began to bring it down. Needless to say, they were very appreciative! We are well, fighting depression and homesickness at times, but generally hanging in there. There is so much need that you wonder how anything you do could possibly make a difference. This place was first hit with a 9.0 magnitude earthquake that leveled many buildings around the city - Ache Province was but 90 miles from the epicenter of that earthquake. Then the area was hit by the tsunami. Together they caused massive destruction to the infrastructure, including housing, local administration and public services. The livelihood of thousands was lost in a matter of hour’s time. Schools, for example, recently began to reopen in some areas, but only 1/3 of the students returned and on average half of the teachers are gone. Assessments to date by local authorities suggest that over 650,000 people have been displaced and as many as 800,000 have lost their livelihoods in Aceh Province. These figures will likely rise when more detailed surveys of the west cost have been completed. When put up against such large scale disaster figures, our efforts seem miniscule at best. But we have to believe that they are nonetheless contributing one piece, one family, one single smile at a time. Tomorrow, Eric is off to fix a well; I will meet with provincial government staff re: identification of village sea commanders in, the Paglima Luats in Krung Raya, who we hope to eventually deliver fishing boats to. Aaron, still in Jakarta, sent up business cards with our newly formed organization, the Austin International Rescue & Relief Organization, AIRO, to give us more legitimacy in the trenches here with the many other government, faith based and NGOs. You should have received the web site that friends in Austin put up for us - check it out at www.austin-international-rescue.org. Just had the power go out for a good 30 minutes... must have been the have rains that come and go as we are at the tail end of their monsoon season. We have not been out to the make-shift camps in the night, nor in the rain yet. Either, and most certainly both, surely make conditions there fairly miserable. Stay in touch - one on one. Love & Hope in Aceh, Eddie |
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