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Today is Sunday. Maybe it is because it is the holidays,
there are not enough translators. The volunteer coordinator,
Brother Chiu Chien-yi, asked a local volunteer to broadcast
this news, asking for more English speaking volunteers
to stay. As a result, one gentleman immediately came
forward and began participating in the reception work.
Before noon, a couple and their son arrived at the
free clinic area in a truck. They had heard about the
skillfulness of the doctors at this medical station
and so they had driven an hour to reach it. Dr. Ho of
TIMA (Tzu Chi International Medical Association) climbed
into the back of the truck to examine the son, but after
diagnosis, Dr. Ho was sorry to inform the couple that
their son's muscular dystrophy was irreversible.
Not wanting the family to have come all this way only
to receive bad tidings, he tried at least offering them
some powder milk and vitamins as an expression of his
care and affection. Volunteers were very sad to see
this family come with hope but leave with disappointment.
Introduced by a friend three days ago, Ms. Sagara had
also come to the free clinic for treatment. When volunteers
found out that she could speak some English, they asked
if she would be willing to be a volunteer to help with
the reception work. She responded that since Tzu Chi
volunteers came from far away to help, she should also
contribute. She came today as a volunteer with a smile
on her face, and from early in the morning, began to
greet her fellow countrymen, working with diligence
and never complaining of being tired. She said such
a volunteer experience was great and unforgettable.
This medical team this time is from Singapore and Malaysia.
Because they are good at English and had effective communication
with the local volunteers, they were efficient in treating
patients.
Dr. Raghbir is not a member of TIMA, but he accepted
the invitation from Tzu Chi to support and help out.
He was very impressed with the tremendous strength of
Tzu Chi's organizational ability and strong volunteer
resources to accomplish what others could not accomplish.
He said that this mission would not be his last; he
will continue to reach out to the victims because he
has already established good friendships with the residents
in Sri Lanka.
In the afternoon, a bus with 60 employees from Ranmalu
Fatiion factory arrived. They used their vacation time
to help us weed around the tent house area. We wanted
to ensure their safety and health, and so we specifically
arranged to give them tetanus shots.
For Malaysian Brother Hsu Tao-fang, Dec. 26, 2005 was
the saddest day because the South Asian tsunami took
away his beloved sister. "My younger sister had
hardly any time to spend with her children because of
her busy insurance business; thus, she took her entire
family to Thailand for vacation during the Christmas
holiday," said Brother Hsu.
At around 5 p.m. that day, he received the horrible
news about the fate of his sister's family. He was helpless
because he could not find anyone to accompany him to
the accident scene. After getting hold of Tzu Chi volunteers,
Brother Lee Wen-chieh of the Tzu Chi Kuala Lumpur Chapter
gathered members to drive him to Phuket Island to handle
his sister's tragedy. There, Brother Hsu found out that
his sister and her husband passed away during this tsunami,
but their four children survived.
Brother Hsu said slowly with tears in his eyes, "In
the past, I always said that life is impermanent. However,
one can't feel the shock without real experience."
Because of the painful experience, he didn't linger
in his sorrow but joined the disaster relief team for
Sri Lanka on Jan. 5, 2005, hoping he could use his own
experience to help victims. His mother insisted on not
letting him go at first because she was afraid of losing
another child. However, finally he was able to participate
with the team and fulfill his wish.
Although he is the owner of a print shop in Malaysia,
here Brother Hsu was in charge of cooking in this mission.
In the steaming hot kitchen, four people concentrated
on preparing each delicious dish with love, leaving
their daily busy work behind. Each dish was completely
consumed by the volunteers. "Although we only prepared
one lunch a day, we have to prepare it with extra care
and love," said Brother Chu Chi-san of Singapore.
When the tsunami hit the Hambantota coastline, Chaturani,
who lived by the seashore, was in English class at school.
She was sent to her aunt's mountain-site home by her
teacher after the tsunami seriously damaged the seashore
area. Her father later came to the aunt's house, hugged
her tightly and told her that her grandparents, mother
and two young brothers had been swept away by the tsunami.
Only one brother's body was found.
The 19-year-old girl burst into tears and could not
believe that her mother and brothers were gone. Three
weeks had passed but she still could not accept the
fact; her mind could not be at peace. Knowing that Tzu
Chi urgently needs translation volunteers, her friend
suggested her to become a volunteer in hopes that she
could recover from the pain.
One day, Tzu Chi volunteers went to visit her home,
discovering that this year she originally would have
attended college but was now unsure when she would be
able to fulfill this dream because the tsunami had left
her father jobless. However, the volunteer work that
she did joyfully every day comforted her broken heart
and gradually helped her to obtain peace. She endured
such a suffering at such a young age. During this catastrophe,
we wonder how many stories are there like hers!
After the tsunami, a lot of residents lost their families
and homes. Three weeks have passed and the victims have
started to leave churches or friends' homes and returned
to live in their "homes." However, where or
what are their homes? The homes have no windows or walls
but only a couple lonely poles left. Some "homes"
could only be identified through the remaining foundation
on the ground. They set up tents on their own lots.
They felt that they were "home" now.
A couple days ago, there were a small number of tents
by the Hambantota seashore. More and more tents appeared
in these two days. During daytime, they get together
in the tents to mourn their lost families and meet with
other surviving relatives or friends. They could even
pray in the neighborhood mosques. At night, due to lack
of restroom, showering, or kitchen facilities in the
tent area, some would return to homes of nearby relatives.
However, for those who could not depend on relatives,
they had no choice but to stay in the tents overnight.
"There are seven families in our tent." "Isn't
it crowded in a tent with seven family members?"
we asked dubiously. A woman with a chubby, round, little
face, Ms. Moulana, told us with a smile, "Yes,
there are seven families but only 10 people because
the rest are dead¡K" In other tents, similar
stories were heard as many families lost many members
as well as their houses in the tsunami.
Asked why they returned to the seashore to live in
a tent, the answer was that these are their homes, and
there are mosques in the neighborhood for spiritual
support. That's why they are willing to remain there
until they can rebuild their homes. Every afternoon,
churches would give out rice and groceries.
On the day of the tsunami, Hassim was, as usual, working
in an office along the seashore. Suddenly, without knowing
what happened, he was swept away by strong waves from
his office. During the chaos, he grabbed a tire before
losing consciousness. Luckily, he was spotted by two
residents who had clung to a bodhi tree (Ficus religiosa),
and they dragged him to the tree. Hassim was rescued,
but was hurt badly all over his body. His father-in-law,
Zahir, rushed him to Colombo for treatment. He had just
been discharged from the hospital the previous day before
we visited him.
Compared to others, Hassim was lucky because his wife
and children were not harmed. Seeing the smiles of his
family members, volunteers could not help but tell him,
"You are indeed a fortunate man!" Seeing the
free clinics and relief supplies offered by the Tzu
Chi Foundation, as well as the tents that were being
built for the local residents, he was grateful and touched.
Since both Hassim and his father-in-law speak English,
they accepted the offer to volunteer and happily joined
the team.
Tommy is a three-year-old dog that has been waiting
for its little master, Kasun, by lying at the door of
their house for almost a month. The 16-year-old Kasun
went to visit his grandfather on the day of the tsunami.
Unfortunately, his life was taken by the tsunami, along
with the lives of his grandparents and two uncles. His
father, Nishanka, described sadly that the entire house
didn't have anything, and he couldn't find any corpse.
It was truly sad.
Tommy had been raised by Kasun since he was a puppy.
Because Kasun had disappeared, Tommy is no longer as
energetic as before. He does not drink or eat but waits
numbly at the door for his young owner's return. The
48-year-old Nishanka was hit by sorrow whenever he saw
Tommy not eating. Hopefully, with a little comfort and
care, he can soon recover from his sorrow.
It has been three weeks, and Sitthy Fowziya Ahamed
still cannot accept the loss of her son. She has a constant
headache and cannot sleep at night. It was so sorrowful
to see her dull eyes and impassive face when Tzu Chi
volunteers visited her. The tsunami took away her oldest
son, daughter-in-law, two grandchildren, and the younger
sister of another daughter-in-law.
On that day, she had gone grocery shopping. Every relative
and friend at home was killed. Currently she is temporarily
staying with her daughter and son-in-law. The youngest
son also survived and had previously made a living by
catching lobsters and collecting corals and clams. After
this catastrophe though, the youngest son said he wouldn't
go back to the sea any longer. Now, he says he aspires
to help in the police force and hopes he can pass the
police exams.
Under Tzu Chi volunteer's inquiry, Sitthy said that
she hoped the government could provide them with a house,
no matter its location. Because she had told us that
she has trouble sleeping, one of our doctors gave her
tranquilizers and sleeping pills, advising her to take
them and encouraging her to eat because family members
wished her a quick recovery.
At last, Tzu Chi brothers and sisters offered her rice
cake to represent the blessings and gratitude from Dharma
Master Cheng Yen (founder of Tzu Chi) and all the Tzu
Chi volunteers. They wished her freedom from the nightmare
soon. The next day, Tzu Chi volunteers, on the way to
visit another case, coincidentally bumped into her.
She greeted Tzu Chi members enthusiastically and with
a smile on her face. They were very happy to see that!
Today, specific medicine that patients were waiting
for arrived, and the volunteers who regularly go to
visit the locals distributed the medication. One of
the recipients was Amithapiyantha. She suffered from
hormone imbalance and abnormal milk discharge due to
a brain tumor. Dr. Lin Shinn-rong (president of Buddhist
Tzu Chi Medical Center and leader of the third Tzu Chi
medical team to Sri Lanka) previously came to examine
her in person and discovered that her condition could
be controlled through medication.
In order to make the visits more pleasant, our volunteers
practiced simple sign language songs on the bus and
asked translators to translate them into the Sri Lankan
language. Arriving at Amithapiyantha's home, we saw
her and her 10-year-old daughter sadly standing outside.
Her husband, P.L. Vimalasiri, felt alienated to our
presence so our volunteers introduced themselves and
their purpose for the visit, and performed the sign
language song as a form of group entertainment to shorten
the distance between each other. Although the lyrics
were simple, they were very effective, and the atmosphere
instantly lightened up.
From detailed inquiry, we understood that Vimalasiri
lost his lifetime business to the tsunami, undoubtedly
a severe blow to him. His wife's illness worsened, resulting
in psychological worry and economical burden, further
submerging the family in sadness. Vimalasiri became
suicidal. Concerned, the volunteers comforted him and
gave him counseling until Vimalasiri realized that the
situation was not as serious as he imagined. With the
anxiety removed, a smile broke out on his face. Under
the volunteers' encouragement, he decided to stand up
and was determined to get his life back on track.
Besides comforting adults, volunteers did not forget
to motivate the surrounding lovable children. The culinary
volunteers joined us for the house visits this time.
They are not only good in the kitchen but also energetically
motivated children very well. They were very well received
by the children.
A truck loaded with 23.5 tons of rice arrived in the
morning. Tzu Chi volunteers drove to Ambalantota to
survey the distribution location and arrange the activity
plan. They went to Ambalantota M.V. School, the original
first distribution location on Jan. 29, 2005, and soon
met with the Ambalantota Divisional Secretary, across
from the school, to discuss distribution principles
and details.
Through the translation of Brother Kang-ju and Ashita,
Brother Chen Chin-fa explained Tzu Chi's distribution
principles. In order to show respect to the residents
coming to pick up the rice, there will be a dignified
and warm ceremony scheduled for 9 a.m. that day. Due
to the absence of the school principal, they were unsure
if they could borrow the location for storing rice;
thus Brother Chen Chin-fa and other volunteers headed
immediately for another location, Hungama Vizayaba National
School, the prearranged distribution point.
After arriving at the location, Brother Chen indicated
that this is the best distribution location. Finally,
they are certain that all the Ambalantota distributions
will take place at this school; the 60 tons of rice
will be shipped there.
While waiting for the rice's arrival, a few students
practicing volleyball invited the volunteers to play
with them. The two parties had a "friendship game,"
which was a lot of fun for both sides. During recess,
students very respectfully presented tea to each volunteer,
showing the well-mannered way in which the Sri Lankan
people were brought up. At around 3 p.m., 23.5 tons
of rice arrived. In addition to the laborers and Tzu
Chi volunteers, the high school students used their
recess time to join in unloading the rice. The joining
of these 14 students inspired everyone.
At around 7 a.m., a 16-member team left for Sri Lanka's
east coastal province of Ampara to inspect the devastation
situation. Team members included Brother Hsieh Ching-kuei,
Brother Wu Cheng-hsien, Mr. Anil de Silva, Mr. Sirosha
Prithiviraj Gunatilake, Dr. Tsai Ting-cheng (TIMA-Malaysia),
Dr. Ku Mei-lien (TIMA-Singapore), Da Ai TV reporters
Yang Chang-chieh and Chiu Yi-ching, four coordination
persons and Mr. Anil de Silva's two sons. They carried
with them food, water, and medical supplies.
To this date, Jan. 23, it has been almost a month since
the tsunami hit but this was still a "Trip of Walking
on the Painful Land" since the deserted fishing
boats and debris were scattered all over the fishing
villages along the seashore. Just in this province,
about 13,000 people passed away from the tsunami, which
constitutes one third of the entire Sri Lankan victims
in the disaster. For this area, which is lacking in
aid from governmental and non-government organizations,
we are still in the stages of evaluating their needs
in order to provide appropriate assistance.
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