Dispatches from Myanmar

Editor's Note: Following are edited dispatches from aid workers, residents and others in Myanmar. They are being sent to The Seattle Times by:

• Paula Bock, former staff writer for Pacific Northwest, The Seattle Times Sunday magazine, now helping to coordinate support and supplies for cyclone victims.

• Joy Hla Gyaw, Communications Manager, World Vision Myanmar.

• Jeff Hodson, former Seattle Times reporter now living in Thailand.

May 27, from Joy Hla Gyaw:

For us, the last three weeks have been exhausting, frightening and at times surreal.

World Vision Myanmar aid workers have been sent into some of the worst hit areas since May 6 — Pyapon, Daydeye, Kyaitlatt and Bogalay. We have had to walk in through knee-deep mud or ride boats into flooded and devastated villages.

We managed to find a building for an office and another for our warehouse in Pyapon, where we set up base. Our first priority was to make sure the rice and household goods got from the warehouse to the ferry boats without any incident.

The first week was the worst. The destruction was something none of us will ever forget. It was impossible to find transport vehicles in Pyapon. World Vision had one delivery truck, but if it went to carry goods to Daydeye, for instance, the rest of the goods could not be moved even to the ferry boat jetty.

By the second week, we had hired more vehicles and the rain had slowed down. We were very relieved that we could move more quickly.

We estimate we've reached around 220,000 people now. It was never easy and we wish we could have done more. Our target is to help 450,000 people in the next six months.

Always, the question is repeated: Whether people's families are still living or have died. Answering is terribly upsetting for the people affected, and for the aid workers who are asking.

To get through, our team has found it comforting to talk to each other about what we have seen, telling stories that are both tragic and uplifting.

One of the strangest stories we've heard came from one of our relief workers, Thu Ya Tha Yu, who met a father, Ko Htwe, and an 11-year-old boy, Tun, at a village in Pyapon. The two were inseparable — but they had never met before Cyclone Nargis.

Ko Htwe, a woodcutter who lives near the sea in the Delta, had taken his entire family out to look for driftwood. There were eleven of them total on three boats. The tide surge and strong winds capsized all of them and they were swept away into the sea.

Separated from all his family members, Ko Htwe swam when he could and floated when his strength was gone, until he washed up on an island far from shore.

When morning came, he saw that he was surrounded by many bodies, some dead, some living. He was eleven miles out into the sea.

The people still living found some boats and set out to row back to their villages and search for their families. For Ko Htwe, who had seen all members of his family disappear into the storm, maintaining hope was difficult.

When they passed a place called La-waing, they found two children frightened and alone. Ko Htwe pulled the children into his boat and kept going.

When they could go no further by boat, the small, bedraggled group joined survivors in Padegaw village. From 400 households [probably around 2000 people] there were only 300 people left in the village. They were surviving totally on coconuts..

After two days, private fishing boats reached Padegaw, sent by local fishery owners to rescue any survivors. They scrambled onto the big boats and were taken to Bogalay.

One of the children fished from the sea was reunited with his relatives, but the other, Tun, could find nobody he knew. He was from a different village, and he too had seen family members die.

On the night of May 2, Tun had been inside his family's hut with his older and younger sisters. His mother and father, as well as three other siblings, were not home yet.

The tidal surge came without warning, claiming his elder sister immediately. Tun managed to embrace his younger sister and climbed onto the roof with her. But the next wave destroyed their house altogether and his sister was swept away from him.

Tun was actually swept out even further than Ko Htwe had been. Miraculously he found strength to swim for miles until he reached La-waing where Ko Htwe found him.

Although his home village was in the opposite direction, Tun now told Ko Htwe, "I am coming with you."

Together Ko Htwe and Tun trudged back to Pyapon on foot, the journey taking nearly eight hours. Ko Htwe has not found any of his family. He has made a list of Tun's family members and circulated it as well. In the meantime, the two are looking after each other.

"Ko Htwe kept crying for two days after getting back home," says Thu Ya Tha Yu. "But Tun said, 'Dead people are dead and gone. Living people are still here living.'"

May 20, from Paula Bock:

Here's another email from friends in Yangon. No foreigners are allowed in the delta right now, so some of the most effective aid is being delivered, quietly, covertly, by Burmese citizens at great personal risk of retaliation.

May 19, from C:

There is a doctor in Myanmar who has spent $30,000 of his and his families' money [borrowed much of it] to purchase supplies and put together teams that bring the supplies to the victims. Remember — fuel is being rationed and has tripled in price.

Yesterday, he got permission to send in a team of medical professionals into three villages [400,000 people] to bring in medical supplies [basic first aid and basic medical stuff] and training. The team has 24 hours to accomplish its mission. This amazing man has teams that are also working on water, sanitation and delivering personal hygiene kits that include soap, toothpaste, Aquatabs and a cup.

There is a Burmese businessman who remembered Full Moon Day was coming up and contacted a group of senior monks and offered to transport them and a lorry [big truck] of supplies. He filled it with kits [plate, cup, bowl, soap and a longyi], 100 water filter units, 100,000 Aquatabs, tarps and a ton of rice that his employees worked overtime to measure and put into 1 kilo bags.

There is a young Burmese man who has shut down his entire business and he and his partners and employees have borrowed and begged for supplies to fill a large boat every four days. They take medical personnel and supplies as well as tarps, blankets, nets, etc. and follow the canals in search of survivors.

There is another Burmese business owner that has convinced his family and staff into adopting a village.They started by providing everyone with Aquatabs, and then water filters, food blankets, roofing and worked their way to re-building this village.

There is an organization of retired Burmese health professionals that have also adopted several villages and are starting with providing safe water while working on medical needs.

And did I mention women? Their organization has also distributed 150 filter units as well as blankets, first aid kits.

And the list goes on and on and on. None of these people sleep, they rarely eat, we meet on Sundays and late at night because we're too busy procuring supplies, finding funding, finding transport, finding fuel and getting permission or not to meet in the day.

And there are the neighbors. Entire apartment complexes, schools and churches are conducting used clothing and blanket drives as they're not allowed to donate anything new, but are allowed to bring used supplies to the camps. These clever do-gooders are stashing kyet (small money) into the pockets of the trousers and shirts.

We're working on a plan to secretly unite the small groups but as what they're doing is forbidden we must work quietly. We're trying to figure out how to give them a big enough voice so the large organizations will help them procure supplies, but it has to be quiet, it has to be subtle. The road blocks are many, as there are so many forms to fill out that are required by the large NGO's, so much red tape, so many doors and so many rules, so many agendas, all threatening to slow down what's already going way too slowly.

So for now we all work quietly saving a few lives at a time and knowing that at least we're able to do that much.

May 15, from Paula Bock:

As many large relief organizations and western governments await go-ahead from the Myanmar government to deliver major aid, a few non-profits working inside Myanmar before the cyclone already have multiple-entry visas, local Burmese staff, stable distribution networks and good relations with public heath officials — all key to distributing supplies to the neediest cyclone victims without military intervention.

Here are edited email dispatches from friends and relief workers inside Myanmar:

May 14, from T:

Can you imagine how these people are living with bodies that have decomposed after 11 days and in the water that is surrounding them? And then the government is not allowing any substantial outside assistance into the areas affected even from the Burmese people in the country.... But the people as always are amazing, determined, talented and still spirited, amidst it all....

May 12, name withheld by request:

Things are getting crazy over there.... Trying to get money to buy longyis [a fabric wrap skirt worn by both men and women] as people are walking around naked, besides all of the other true needs. And the government is hassling citizens who attempt to give aid so there are drive by donors, people just throw donations out of their cars near destroyed neighborhoods.

May 12, name withheld by request:

Just got off the phone with [name withheld]; things are much worse than being reported. They just shut down the people collecting the names of the dead as the death toll is so much greater than being reported. He also saw the rice the Myanmar Red Cross is giving to the victims [green, old, moldy] while the shipment that IRCS got in goes to the military. [Name withheld] couldn't talk as he tried to describe the conditions.

May 12, name withheld by request:

What we desperately need is the right size bucket!!!! An opening of 14.5 inches, with a cover.

We're also going to need taps!!! So people don't have to dip and recontaminate the water.

May 11, name withheld by request:

C called. Cholera outbreak in town of 100,000. PSI [Population Services International] has run dry of waterguard [water purification drops]; is producing as fast as they can. UNICEF cannot get a hold of their Aquatabs. We are only people who can bring it in now. C talked to global medics — they will give us more. S is willing to make trips as well. C bought 1000 buckets, needs 4 thousand and so more. Our wires have not arrived yet.

May 10, name withheld by request:

Nearly midnight here [Bangkok]. Just got off the phone with B, our employee still in Myanmar. He had just met with UNICEF and told them of Aquatab [water purification tablets] donation — they said this was wonderful and they would make sure to have all of their resources available for distribution....

Also got word that the plastics manufacturer that produces the only plastic buckets made in Myanmar lost most of his machinery in the storm. B is working with another manufacturer to have the mold transferred there — I told him we could probably get funds to help make this happen. Of course if we have no plastic buckets we cannot store water to treat it with the Aquatabs.

May 9, from Bryan Berenguer, Myanmar Field Director, Thirst-Aid:

It is very unclear how many are affected but we can put them in three categories: Homeless, injured or ill, and dead....

Currently, there is an estimated amount of food and water for some areas for only two more days. Hundreds of thousands are without shelter and are taking cover in any places they can to avoid the monsoon rains that are beginning. Food stores of rice are now soaked and fermenting and wells and ponds are now salt infused or contaminated from decomposing bodies — human and animal.

So what is needed: Buckets, plastic tanks — anything that can hold water! Right now people have nothing to collect rainwater or to hold the water to treat it or to store it. ...

We may be flesh and bone like every other living thing, but humanity makes us different and binds us, regardless of race, border or government.

P.S. Please also send some anti-stress medicine for the author of this email.

May 7 [before getting into Yangon], from C:

Just a note from past experience. This is starting to look a lot like the tsunami situation [in Indonesia] where tons of funding flooded in but the true needs of the survivors were not really recognized and addressed until the panic wore off. ... Let's remember that there were 15 million people without access to clean drinking water before the cyclone — this isn't a problem that's going to go away.

May 14, from Jeff Hodson:Phone lines were cut and the Internet was down after Cyclone Nargis hit Yangon, the former capital of Myanmar. But as communications were restored, many Yangon residents inside took time to share their stories and observations. These are edited excerpts from some of their messages in the days following the cyclone.

From Y:

It was the longest night. Thunderous wind and rains destroyed the whole city and I saw roofs flying across the sky.

My son didn't cry. Poor boy bit his lips and tried to put his face in the pillow. The building was shaking and I thought our building could be swept away at any time. The next morning, we saw a city totally different from ours in the past.

We lost most of the big trees in our city. In the delta, hundreds of thousands people died.

I lost many of my relatives who lived in two twin villages in Dae Da Ye Township. Storm and tide swept the whole villages. Those villages I used to visit every year.

From A:

I am still alive. It was so terrible. I've never seen it before. At first, we didn't think it was too strong of a storm.

But about 12 midnight, it was windy and then violent. We could hear the sound of wind, the roofs [being destroyed], the broken glass.

It is a bad dream for Myanmar people. I went to my sister's house on the top floor, but she's OK except for the roof and satellite.

At 2 p.m. the next day, I went out and saw everything was damaged. I couldn't recognize all the places. The big trees blocked the roads. There were no buses, no taxis, so I walked. I thought it was a war.

My neighbor's relatives live in Laputta township [in the Irrawaddy Delta] and all of them, 20 families, are dead. Some are missing. Many villages are destroyed.

From N:

I was deported by the police for taking pix of them burying dead bodies in the grave. They did not put the dead systematically; the liquid leaks everywhere. Imagine how unpleasant it is!

From K:

The notorious military government has a lack of knowledge on how to manage the disaster. That's why most aid sent from China, Thailand and Bangladesh is still in the warehouse.

According to a reporter who came back this morning from the delta region, thousands of dead bodies are still floating in rivers and lying in the fields. Most victims who were still alive after the storm were ignored.