LATEST FROM CHRISTINA IN PADANG

(JANUARY 4TH UPDATE)

January 4, 3:30pm in Padang

Very successful day around here. Every single one of the volunteers deserves a medal. Most of them worked non-stop filling 300 large buckets with provisions. They opened every box they could and separated each one into supplies for individual families.

Each large bucket contains:
Betadine
1 small bucket with handle for scooping water
Sarongs
10 match boxes
1 box mosquito coils
1 cooking pot
1 toothpaste
1 sanitary napkins 8 pack
1 knife
2 packs cigarettes
1 pack cream detergent
1 spatula
4 spoons
1 bottle of shampoo
4 toothbrushes
20 meters rope
1 tarp
2 candles
1 towel

Each family gets one full bucket. There are many more tools and supplies as well that will be giving to villages to share. I thought we would have bought out Padang by now, but there doesn’t seem to be a shortage.

Today a cargo boat was secured and paid for by IDEP. It was loaded, and, at last report, was leaving tonight. Tomorrow the charter boat Barrenjoey will leave for the islands, and the next day the charter boat Nusa Dewata can hopefully leave. There are so many changes on an hour-to-hour basis that it’s hard to be sure of what’s actually happening. Many captains from our charter boat community are calling from their home countries saying they will be able to be in Padang in the next few days. I have never seen our surfing community and our local community ban together like this.

Our garage is full of supplies for these boats. We couldn’t possibly fit any more supplies in there, but we managed to get a warehouse space for all supplies arriving tomorrow. Surf Aid’s Dr. Dave Jenkins arrived today and held a meeting with all the people involved in the relief efforts. Please check www.surfaidinternational.org for more information. Dr. Dave is trying to organize the rental of a section of the Dipo Hotel here in Padang to call base camp. They have storage, and large trucks can move in and out. This has gotten too big for our hotel.

I just got a call from Chris (Scuzz): its 2:00 am, and he is in Teluk Dalam. He found out Ovi, our crewmember from Nias, was at home visiting his village when the tsunami hit. He is okay, although he has many stories about what happened, all of them surreal.

Chris unloaded almost everything he had at Sirombu, a fishing village half way up the west coast of Nias. This village was hit hard. It sits between the ocean and a bay on a peninsula so they got hit by tsunami on one side and by flooding on the other. They had nowhere to run. Before the tsunami hit the village had approximately 100 fishing boats and canoes; now they have 4. This village survives primarily on fishing, so it has lost its only income. The town is severely damaged and they need our help.

Chris then checked on a village called Mandehe, just next to Sirombu. There was heavy damage there as well, with town nearly destroyed and 116 confirmed dead. Another village nearby called Teteswa suffered a similar fate: virtually destroyed, 227 confirmed dead. Yet another village called Sisarahili Dua was hit hard with many, many dead. All these villages are very near Sirombu. Chris is certain it goes all the way up the west coast of Nias.

He was on Asu at 9:00pm, Jan 3rd, and said it’s like a ghost town. Everyone left. They survived, but left scared. The main island of Hinako is where all the villagers from the other islands in the Hinako Islands group ran to. Hinako is running out of food. Donations are coming into Teluk Dalam, but mostly rice and noodles so all the people are eating only that. They have no money and no way of earning it since their boats were destroyed, so they only eat what is free… and the noodles and rice are free. This is leading to malnutrition, and diarrhea, and the sanitation problems. Chris is speaking to the heads of villages and trying to organize them to dig pits so everyone can go in the same place, but the complete lack of organization and fear is making it nearly impossible. They need someone to go out there and organize things – they have just lost everything, it must be impossible to think logically.

All villages are asking for fruit and veggies, building materials, tarps, ropes, shovels, canoes, outboard motors, nails, etc. I am transferring Rp 30,000,000 to a bank in Teluk Dalam tomorrow so Chris can stock up and head back to the villages further north on the west coast. He is sure they will be worse than what he saw today. One man lost 6 brothers and sisters in his family. His wife and baby were washed from his arms during the tsunami as well. I cannot even imagine. Chris sounded exhausted. He normally goes to these places to enjoy the surf, sunsets, and beaches.

We got a late update from Chris that "Lagundri has about Rp 400,000,000 worth of damage. One main area is ruined, though they are back in the village and surfing again today. The main restaurant is totaled. The biggest wave was at 4:00pm Dec 26, and everywhere they are saying if it had happened at night it would have been way worse. We tried to get lunch but there isn’t much here."

Thank you for all your energy and support. Thanks to all the many volunteers and organizations. Many thanks to Bruce Raymond and especially Martin Daly (who sits all day at his computer and on both his phones pulling things together) for putting their full effort and financial support into what we are trying to accomplish. Thank you all for respecting Hotel Batang Arau, the staff, and our place of business. Petra from IDEP – you are truly amazing, and so unbelievably positive and uplifting.

We have never had to do anything like this before and it’s all a bit overwhelming. At any given moment there are 40 – 50 different people doing something in this hotel. Phones are ringing everywhere. We all know what everyone else’s phone ring sounds like and can yell for them personally - it’s wild. The energy level is intense, and it’s all positive. Everyone is so very positive.

Money is important. With the amount of stock going in and out, the local stores are willing to give credit, but not for long. It’s understandable. Boats need to leave here and get to these areas in Nias, and further up the island chains into the Banyaks and Simeulue. It cannot be good up there.

Once again. Terima Kasih,
Christina