Six Months...

Six months ago today a category four cyclone was laying waste to the delta region of Myanmar. Commonly known, and officially recognized by our government, as the country called Burma. Hundreds of thousand of people died in it's wake and countless people who survived lost everything they owned and most everyone they loved.

The map above shows where the country is in relation to Thailand and the region hardest hit by Cyclone Nargis is labeled the Ayerwaddy Division. The storm went directly through the delta and into Yangon or Rangoon. Below you can see a blown up version to help highlight the Ayerwaddy and Yangon Divisions.

The official number of people who died is wrong so I am not even going to mention it here. There were hundreds of thousands of people lost in this storm and it is probably not an exaggeration to say that it is closer to 500,000. These were simple poor people who lived in bamboo houses and farmed for their living. They were unprepared for this storm and had they known it was coming there was nothing they could do. Officially the government warned the people that rain showers with winds of 45 miles an hour were coming in from the Bay of Bengal. The cyclone had winds 3 times that strong.

This storm started in the late evening and went into the next day. Entire villages were wiped out. People who did not know how to swim were up against a 12 to 20 foot storm surge. Climbing up trees was the only way to survive, but you had to hold on with all of your strength because the wind, rain and surge fought against you the entire time.

Survivor after survivor repeats the same story of horror over and over again. The family started out together. They got out of the house if it fell or if the flood threatened to drown them inside it. They made their way outside and held on to the trees to keep from being swept away. The most common story left the father as the only survivor being the only one strong enough to keep holding on the whole night. He spent that night in agony, however, because his ability to protect his family was stripped from him by the violence of the storm. In most cases he held on for his life through darkest hours of the night while one by one his family members stopped screaming and he knew that they were gone. First the children, then his wife. He spent this day six months ago looking for any sign of them. Sometimes he is fortunate enough to find their bodies, sometimes he is not.

When the storm stopped there were dead bodies everywhere. Mothers were found tied to their children, both had drown. No one has any food, almost nobody has a home left. If you had a boat it is gone, your animals are dead. Being alive on this day six months ago today was not a blessing.

The shock, devastation and need were paralyzing. Everything seemed to be destroyed. Peoples emotions were in the same kind of rubble all the buildings were in. This was all so unlike anything I have ever experienced being a native of Florida where we can have several hurricanes a year. Six months have passed and I still can't find the words to describe what was left of the people who stood between the path of the storm and it's destruction.

There is no FEMA to complain about. No emergency services to come. No one official is going to send a helicopter to pick you up, and you have no expectation that it is even a possibility. Trees are down. Religious buildings that were made of cement could not withstand the storm any better than the bamboo home you lost, and worse they typically imploded down on a large group of people who ran there for refuge, killing them all. You are naked because the wind has ripped your clothes from your body, and your skin is nothing but raw open wounds from the pounding of salt water. If you were fortunate enough to find the bodies of your loved ones you are faced with the worst possible problem because you have no money to proceed with a proper burial. If you can find something to dig into the ground with, you will have to fight the sticky clay mud for hours on no food and water to bury those you love.

Here is an example of what the pounding salt water did to their bodies. This man held on to a tree and his wife and children for as long as he could. He managed to stay on the tree, but he lost his family.

Here are two different church buildings. These are usually the biggest strongest building in the village. They were no match for this storm. When the roofs blew off it caused the walls to fall in on the people that were inside trying to find protection from the storm raging outside.

The storm did major damage to Yangon or Rangoon as well. Collectively the people within the city and the military stationed there did a very good job of cleaning things up. This is the city where the countries major airport is and if you are going to tell the world you have things under control then you better make it look like you do. That being said there was a great deal of effort put into cleaning up the debris in Yangon. Don't get me wrong the government didn't help the people of Yangon with their losses, but the military did pick trees and debris up off of the roads.

The people in the city have little, but they have way more than the people down in the delta. The bad news is the situation was desperate and the government was not about to stop being paranoid for any reason. People clamored to get in and start helping. They wouldn't let them in. Relief organizations all over the globe started the process of gathering aide and getting to the door of the country only to find out that the door was firmly shut.

The only reason we were allowed into the country was that we were tourists with no affiliation to any organization. We were simply two people too stupid to realize that showing up in a city that has just been walloped by a cyclone might not be the best plan. They let us in. People who wanted to help. People who were qualified to help, they were blacklisted. Interesting.

The most amazing thing that came out of all of this within the country itself was that although the government was constipated by all of the perceived threats clamoring to gain entry to their well guarded domain, the people themselves began to respond immediately. The whole of the body of Christ was crying out to God to allow response to occur and He was mobilizing the nationals. Regardless of religion people started their own grassroots relief efforts. No they did not have expertise, no they did not have the necessary knowledge people with vast experience did, but they got through.

The government managed to keep most foreigners out of the Delta region, but they were reduced to stopping the nationals and basically handing out a flyer that amounted to a notice which said "Do Not Feed The Cyclone Victims." The insanity of that was explained to be their desire not to see the victims becoming dependant on handouts, as if there were any other options. Criticism of that lead to a now infamous quote wherein an official of the government trying to argue that the people in the Delta were self sufficient said something along the lines of "let them eat frogs."

We arrived about 13 days after the cyclone hit. It took us a week to get our Visa to enter the country approved. We were introduced to a group of people who work inside Myanmar and are well known in the area. Myanmar Compassion Project is the name of the organization that we worked with. They specialize in orphan care, capacity building and community development. They were doing everything in their power not to be overwhelmed, and gratefully they were not unwilling to be open to a couple of know nothings like us.

Turned out we had a lot more to offer than we knew. We were there because another organization invited us to take this trip and offered to support us while we were there. Partners Relief & Development initially asked us to lend a hand to this group and in saying yes, we found ourselves in an amazing situation. When we got word of the storm we immediately wanted to do something to help, but we are so little and so underfunded that we had nothing to offer. So we thought. Partner's supported us and we gave what we did have to offer, ourselves. In the process, God allowed us to participate in the most amazing six months or our lives.

I am so grateful I do not have the words to express it with any clarity. Troy and I have fallen in love with the people of Burma and there is no question in his or my mind that we have been enjoying the benefits of a life lead by the divine. Our initial 4 week stay turned into 6, and then we were invited to return for 10 more weeks which ended up being 14 weeks. We would not have been able to do any of it if not for the support provided by Partners Relief & Development.

I want to share some more positive pictures with you so you can at least see glimpses of the great things that were done and are still being done in Myanmar today. Many organizations were wise enough to realize that they would be unable to accomplish their goals of helping the people unless they found local partners who could actually do the work. This meant that they poured their resources into Myanmar Compassion Project and then it made it's way out to those in need.

That was just the beginning, truck load after truck load after truck load headed to the Delta. From emergency food & water to clothing to living supplies to re-building materials to medical care to farming supplies to replacing boats. You name it and Myanmar Compassion Project was involved in providing it.

Five teams of young Burmese medical professionals were gathered, briefed, given some training, supplied and sent into the Delta. They were all Doctors and Nurses and ready to help the people who needed it most. Some of the team members had lost family themselves in the storm and each and every one is an amazing example of heroism.

Here's some of the stuff they were loaded up with. Life in a plastic box.




They also had to bring in their basic needs for accommodations. Here they are rolling up sleeping bags.

And off they went journeying in stages. The government blocked every foreigners they could from going into the Delta Region, and when they made exceptions to that rule it was for the UN and or some huge INGO. Even then they were escorted by military personnel, and they were very limited in what they could do. Our brave young men and women went into the area, having to travel by land and sea. Everywhere they went they found unclaimed bodies of men women and children. They had to travel by boat in water filled with floating bodies.

Not only did the medical teams provide free medical care to thousands of people they were one of the main conduits for all of the other things provided. We sent in food, clothes, beds, household items and where needed, money itself.

During this time other teams were also going into the Delta for different projects. There was more food distribution, rebuilding of homes, material distribution and eventually the purchasing of rice seeds, tractors and boats. I will share more on some of that later.

Thank you for checking in with us. I really appreciate that you have taken your time to find out what we have been up to. I have so much more to add to all of this. So keep checking back.