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one more report on the tsunami

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I am just now beginning to read some of the comments sent to me on and

off list about my small part in helping the people effected by the

Tsunami.

Thank you all for the support both monetary and emotional, and for the

kind encouragment.

 

FYI for my friends on this list;

Yes I am taking care of myself. Jim MacRitchie LAc. is treating me for

PTSD and I am getting lots of massage.

Doc

 

NAM KEM VILLAGE, PHANG NGA PROVINCE, in southern

Thailand - is the area in Thailand, hardest hit by the

Dec. 26 tsunami.

 

 

''The people here are devastated. Homes gone. Boats

gone. Children dead, sisters, brothers, mothers,

fathers, grandchildren, all dead,'' said Doc

Rosen,Hunka Lakota medic with the Emergency Air and

Ground Lift and Evacuation Service (EAGLES) team.

EAGLES is an American Indian-organized relief team

that came to provide Medical aid and brought smiles

and magic as well.

 

 

 

''The people here are still afraid of the sea. "

Conversations with Graeme Killen, an Australian ex-pat

and sole surviving farang (foriegner) in Nam Keam

revealed the pre-tsunami population of this fishing

village conservatively estimated at around 7,000

including undocumented Burmese workers. Of those

7,000, in mid-February 2,400 were confirmed

dead and at least 2,000 missing. It will never be

known exactly how many are missing since entire

families disappeared and among the undocumented

workers and their families there is no paper trail. It

is as if they never existed.

 

 

Rosen said the EAGLES team planned to go to Bandeh

Aceh, but was kept out of the region by the Indonesian

military. Instead, the team went to Nam Kem in Phang

Nga. Rosen found his magic and sleight-of-hand tricks

for the children offered much-needed healing.

 

''The kids flock around asking for magic tricks, as do

the adults. The other aid workers say some have not

smiled in weeks, but they are laughing as I do my

sleight-of-hand,'' Rosen said in an e-mail from

Thailand.

 

''Today an old man who lost his entire family, 16

people, smiled at me and then he asked me to 'do the

rabbit trick.'''

 

The Thai counselor said they thought they would lose

him because he was not responding before this, just

sitting and staring but now he is talking again and

eating. He kept the photo of my newly born

granddaughter. He no longer even has photos of his

children….

 

 

 

''They are so sweet and gentle. Many have lost

everyone. Brothers dead, sisters dead, mother and

father dead, it is the constant litany. I cry at

night, but only when alone.

 

 

 

My Thai is returning in full force while doing exams;

*Khun mi dek dek?* (Do you have children?) *Tao rai

dek dek?* (How many children?) Some of the families no

longer have kids...

 

''A little girl started calling me 'uncle;' her

favorite is the magic coloring book ... the kids who

clung to my hands, pants, arms, while wandering

through the village.

 

 

 

''The Thai counseling people say that the magic tricks

are the biggest step the kids have taken towards

normalization.''

 

Rosen also helped briefly with the recovery of bodies,

and toured refugee camps and orphanages while

performing magic and providing medical aid. A group of

orphans in a temple were among those he entertained.

Meanwhile, the team handed out toothbrushes, performed

medical exams. Doc treated other aid workers as well.

 

Rosen is a longtime activist and medical trainer in

the Civil Rights Movement and American Indian

Movement. Doc worked with Dr. ML King. He was the

first medic in Wounded Knee, S.D. in 1973 and

continues to serve as a medic for the AIM.

 

Rosen spends part of the year on the Rosebud and Pine

Ridge reservations in South Dakota and Big Mountain

Reservation on the Navajo Nation. He is one of the

founders of the Guatemala Acupuncture and Medical Aid

Project and travels regularly to the Guatemalan

rainforest where he works with the Maya survivors of

La Impunidad - massacres of over 240,000 Maya people.

He also works in Chiapas and was a volunteer during

hurricane Mitch.

 

While living with the EAGLES team at a local refugee

camp and eating local food, Rosen said, ''We also

build temporary housing. The men cannot work, they

cannot feed their families, they do not feel alive and

their entire culture is in danger of dying. The

government does nothing for the poor family fishermen.

They are talking about rebuilding boats but only for

the big boat fisheries, not the long tails. They need

to have their fishing boats rebuilt or repaired.''

 

Rosen said the Tsunami Fishermen's Relief Fund –the

long tail boat project - is trying to do exactly that,

with local people and resident foreigners working

together. They need to raise $45,000 to repair or

replace all of the boats of the surviving fishermen.

Only about 6 of the 300 longtail boats were left. With

just a few hundred dollars they have already gotten

boats back in the water fishing.

 

''Right now I am putting a lot of my efforts - outside

of clinic hours and doing magic shows - into helping

with construction of the dry dock. It is mostly just

lifting, carrying, and hammering. This project can

give the people the tools to help themselves. "

 

As he departed from Nam Kaem, Rosen wrote, '' said

goodbye to all of the kids, lots of grownups too, and

did some last slight of hand for them. It makes me sad

to have left them. Every Thai person I meet, and lots

of Westerners as well, thank me. I have done next to

nothing, and the need is so incredible; the outpouring

of help is also incredible. I am honored to have been

working with these folks.''

" There are memories of Nam Kem I will always carry:

The kids!

The wonderful spicy Thai home cooking for two meals a

day - once I got the idea across that I eat no pork or shell fish....

-Alena and other volunteers pulling staples out of

used coffins whose wood was intended for the building

of furniture for the World Vision camp that we built and stayed

in.

The man who keeps repeating, " Why did the waves take

all my family and leave only me behind? "

All of the volunteers who cry only when they think no

one is looking.

The man who will not stop searching the rubble for his

wife and children even though workers have already

scraped his former home clear.

The smell of death

The sweltering heat and humidity,

the smiles of the survivors and

the lingering beauty of the land, still visible

despite total destruction.

The volunteers – Aussies, Brits, Kiwis, French,

Canadians, Quebecoise, Yanks, Israelis, Palestinians…

young people from Nederlands, Germany, Italy, Spain,

Finland, Sweden, all of the world was there along with

the many volunteers from all over Thailand.

Many put up their rent money or next semesters tuition

to get here… " (NB;Rosen himself paid for his trip with

his rent money)

Never seeing most of the big charities like Red Cross

that are making money from this misery (UNICEF was

there-as usual)

Joining Rosen was physicians assistant Alex Bertelsen.

Bertelsen volunteered for the team and, like Rosen,

and many others paid his own way here to serve

Bertelsen described the smashed buildings and the

devastation that remained after the sea water crashed

through buildings, sweeping the people and debris

inland and carrying them out to sea. In Nam Kaem, no

medical relief arrived for two weeks and people with

broken arms and legs and treatable injuries died from

infections while waiting for help.

Alex provided a medical assessment for the EAGLES team

and helped construct the plywood one-room box homes

being constructed by World Vision, UNICEF, and other

international aid groups. he also helped with the

sports and recreation projects to bring joy to

children and youth.

Bertelson, who speaks some Thai, once served as a U.S.

Army Special Forces medic in Asia. ''I have a

connection with the Thai people and wanted to help.''

He said he was wondering how he could help when he ran

into Dr. Robert Lame Bull McDonald, Blackfeet, an

organizer of the EAGLES team, and McDonald asked him

if he would like to join the team to Thailand.

There is a great need for post-traumatic stress work

in Thailand; however, the greatest need for medical

teams remains in Sri Lanka and Sumatra, where the lack

of roads and infrastructure hinders aid to tsunami

victims.

McDonald organized the team with American Indian

activist Robert Free Galvan (WK'73 vet) in Seattle.

Galvan, in Seattle, is organizing a clean water

project for villagers hit by the tsunami. Stephen

Johnson, Chippewa from Ann Arbor, Mich. who is working

in finance and lives in Singapore, is assisting him.

Johnson serves as a contact to identify villages to

receive the forthcoming water supply systems.

''We are still hoping to have a Native organization or

tribe sponsor the water project for at least one or

two villages,'' Galvan said.

For more information on the Fishermans Boat project,

http://www.tfrf.net. or http://www.tfrf.org.

Donations to help Doc with his ongoing work can be

sent to;

https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=drdrdoc%40 & item_name=Medical+Com\

mittee+for+Human+Rights

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