While the world focuses on Haiti,
relief workers are still salvaging materials and building shelters
for the survivors of West Sumatra's back to back 7.9 and 7.0 earthquakes
of last fall, which affected 1,250,000 people, and killed or injured
several thousand. Two hospitals and many schools crumbled, and
279,000 homes were damaged. Hands On Disaster Relief has extended
Project Sungai Geringging until April, and I'm on my way there to
help.
Why Sumatra, and why now? Well, as you
may know, I spent the last part of 2009 pushing to finish the 4th
and final draft of Ordinary Stories of Magic, Adventure, and
Chocolate. Three days before the New Year, I finished the 3-year+
long project and now I'm free to refocus my energy in other places.
Humanitarian work, activism, travel, and writing (and my friends!)
are generally what inspire me to get out of bed in the morning, and
having lost my own home in the 1993 Northridge quake, I feel
especially moved when I see the photos of people in front of the
remains of their homes. I remember the huge difference that community
support and aid made in my life when I was the one left homeless. So,
since I definitely want to get out from behind this computer for a
bit, and since there's a glut of people itching to go to Haiti, I
decided on Project Sungai Geringging.
It's not a glamorous project. The media
are long gone, the initial adrenaline of a post-disaster landscape
has fizzled into simple days of hard work, and in the humid evening
volunteers shower with buckets and cold water. But the group has
built more than 58 earthquake-resistant transitional shelters out of
timber frames, plastered concrete walls, and galvanized iron roofs.
The team works with community members to take down buildings deemed
too dangerous to inhabit or rebuild—salvaging reusable windows,
doors, wood, bricks and stone—to create clean slabs to rebuild on.
They can can put up a shelter in less than a week at a cost of about
$1000, and it'll last for years.
In their spare time they've developed a
‘Safe Deconstruction’ community awareness poster; created
earthquake safety procedures, evacuation plans and drills, and
disaster education activities for children; built 30 meters of
concrete footpath at a remote water catchment/pumping facility; and
hand-scrubbed the water plant storage tanks.
Honestly, I'm a bit nervous. I'm not
accustomed to the intense heat and humidity, and it was only last
September that the latest recurrence of my vertebrae and shoulder
injuries left me largely incapacitated for three days. I hope I can
keep up with long days of construction work. We'll be in a very rural
area, and Sumatra continues to have major aftershocks, including a
5.1 just a few days ago. But I'm going to give it a try. When I get
back I'll start putting together outlines of my new book ideas. Til
then, it'll be good to get my hands dirty. Wish me luck.
| 
