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Paramedics for Children took
16 EMS and rescue specialists to Indonesia to provide Tsunami relief. They
staged the team in Charlotte, NC and were hosted by The Carolina Tailgate Party
along with help from Parrotheads. Tailgate listeners chipped in and the week was
a great logistical success, the team was well taken care of while they were
here. A HUGE thank you to the Tailgate listeners for helping out with this.
We will use this page to update you
on the team's progress and as a journal of what came
before. As we receive updates, we will post them here.
The entries are in chronological order.
Click Here to go to the latest
update.
Questions, email
Brian.
Monday January 10, 2005
From: Brian
The
team had flights secured on various airlines, however
they were all scheduled to arrive at roughly the same
time in Charlotte. An excellent job by Cathy at
World
Travelmates. The Charlotte support team had 4
vehicles on site as the first wave of the team arrived.
A 15-passenger van was picked up from U-Save Auto Rental
in Rock Hill at a discounted rate. The team checked into
rooms donated by two area hotels, Sleep Inn and Holiday
Inn Express, near Carowinds theme park. They had dinner,
which was donated by Hooters Restaurant in Rock Hill,
then returned to the hotel.
The
second wave of the team arrived around 11pm. We took
them back to the hotels, some of the team stayed up to
get to know each other, some went to bed.
Tuesday January 11, 2005
From: Brian
The
morning briefing, originally scheduled for 8am, was
moved to 10am. Not all members got the word of the
change, so it was decided 10am would be the time every
morning while in Charlotte. Today’s news was that
Paramedics for Children had covered the nearly $9k
expecting to be reimbursed by the Egyptian government
(who was funding the team’s travel expenses from their
relief fund). Rodger had been assured the money would
come, but until it did, they would not book the flights
from Charlotte. The remainder of Tuesday was spent
figuring out what supplies would need to be purchased
and things like that. Tuesday’s lunch was provided by
Mayflower restaurant in Rock Hill. Back at the hotel,
the first of a lot of news coverage occurred (organized
by Charlotte Support Team member, and PFC co-founder,
Roz Morton)
Tuesday evening, we threw an event for the public to
meet the team at Millirons in Charlotte. The Rum Punch
Bandits donated their time and played 2 sets. The
Carolina Tailgate Party recorded the show for a future
airing on Radio Margaritaville (airs week of Jan 31st).
The team had a great time and all expenses were paid by
donations from Carolina Tailgate listeners.
Wednesday January 12, 2005
From: Brian
At
the 10am briefing, there were still doubts about whether
the money would be coming from the Egyptian government
and the outgoing tickets had not been purchased. At this
point, the mood went from excitement and readiness to
concern over whether they would even go and a lot of
frustration. We ran some errands to pick up more
supplies. Lunch was provided by Stacy’s Bistro in Rock
Hill. Rodger received an e-mail from Stefan (the person
on the ground in Indonesia who was preparing their
arrival). It told them that there were supplies on the
ground, and a French team who were waiting to be
relieved. It was a promising email for the team as they
now knew the details were still set once they got to
Indonesia. Now the only problem was getting there. They
team also saw their first bit of press coverage.
Click here to see it.
As
the day wore on with little progress, the team decided
that they needed to remain in the hotel and begin coming
up with other options to go if they were going. Dinner
that night was provided by Pizza Hut at the hotel.
Thursday January 13, 2005
From: Brian
The
10am briefing was the low point of the week. The
Egyptian government had withdrawn their support of the
team. Now the charity was out 9 grand, and they needed
$40k to get to Indonesia. The group went into
brainstorming mode as they started looking for alternate
funding. Here we have a team of 16 medical/rescue
professionals, sitting in a hotel ready to go. There are
supplies, medicines, and organization on the ground in
Indonesia as well as a team there who were exhausted and
waiting to be relieved, but there was no way to get the
team over there.
As
the day wore on, the governments of Canada and the U.S.
were all contacted at various levels, all of the major
charities and relief organizations were contacted,
people contacted media back home, the breakfast nook at
Sleep Inn became a War Room with laptops and cell phones
constantly in use. Ron Wike, member of the Charlotte
Support Team, described it perfectly saying it looked
and sounded like a telemarketing firm or customer
support line with everyone talking. Dinner that night
was provided by Wild Wing Café in Charlotte. We worked
out rooms for the extra night with the hotels,
everything was still on hold.
Friday January 14, 2005
From: Brian
On
the way to the briefing that morning, we were notified
that the Holiday Inn Express corporate office wouldn’t
extend the donated rooms any longer. We shuffled some
folks around and team members paid for 3 rooms out of
their pockets to be able to stay in the room and work on
the immediate effort instead of packing. The staff at
the hotel, including Sanjay the GM, were great and even
tried to help us contact other hotels, however I
personally was very disappointed in the Holiday Inn
corporate office. The Sleep Inn extended the rooms for
one more night. On top of this, the van we had rented
needed to be back by 3pm as it had already been rented
to someone else. We contacted Karen Smith at Triangle
Rent-A-Car (who had contacted Brian, but after we had
already secured the van from U-Save). Triangle
graciously donated another van for us to use to get the
team around.
At
the 10am briefing, it was decided that they would draw
the line today. If there were no leads and no money to
get them overseas, they would call the effort off that
afternoon and plan flights home on Saturday. The mood
was grim at times and hopeful at other times. The stress
level among the team was high, tho many wouldn’t show
it. It would seem a shame to not go at this point. What
would happen to the team that was there already? What
would happen to the supplies? What would happen with the
PR fallout now that we had promoted this, danced in
front of the news, etc? The charity was out 9k from
their school supply fund in Honduras… There was a lot of
uncertainty.
By
Friday afternoon, the team had found the funds from
various places. Paramedics for Children had all but
drained their reserves, team members had contacted
churches, friends, and family back home and had money
donated. Independence Air helped the team out with
flights to Newark airport where Malaysian Airlines would
be waiting to take them to Indonesia. By 5pm, the team
was officially going. Will McElveen prepared a
home-cooked meal and brought that to the hotel that
night. A Local news station, NBC 6, arrived to cover the
story. A guy that worked in the hotel, Yefry (I hope I
spelled that right), had been there cleaning every
morning during the briefings. We had met him and found
he was from Indonesia. All week, he had been around, all
smiles, asking what we had been up to that day, all in
all a real nice guy. That night, he brought some friends
over who had lost loved ones in Indonesia. These folks
wanted to tell the team Thank You. The fact that they
arrived while the news was there was either coincidence
or miraculous, take your pick. The news interviewed
these folks and they told their stories of what they had
heard and lost in the Tsunamis. That story was a feature
story on the news that night.
After
the news folks had left, and the team had heard these
guys’ stories, it became very, very real what they were
about to do. Everyone was now very focused on the task
at hand. “Bags in the lobby by 7:30am” was the call, and
everyone went to pack.
Saturday January 15, 2005
From: Brian
We
picked up the team from the hotels to go to the airport.
It took a Yukon, an Explorer, and a mini-van to carry
just the gear. The team crowded into the 15-passenger
van donated by Triangle rent-a-car and headed for the
airport. Once there, we dropped off the team, got all of
the gear checked on Independence Air, said our
good-byes, and they were on their way.
Blair
Miller, a member of the team, is now the contact for
status reports after they left. Jennifer Van Wie is
stateside and compiles the reports from Blair. He will
be calling Jennifer only two times a day between 8:30 –
9:30 AM and 8:30 –9:30 PM eastern standard time. He
said that he will only speak maybe two minutes and will
be giving me a very brief update of what is going on
over there. They do have a satellite phone and
hopefully they will be able to give us some contact.
Because they are concerned about running down the
battery on the phones they ask that Jennifer be your
voice and ears as they can not man the phones except in
a very small window of time. We will post updates on the
Carolina Tailgate Party Web site as well.
Saturday January 15, 2005
8:27 PM Eastern Standard Time: 1st update
From: Jennifer
Blair Miller reports that, they arrived at Newark New
Jersey airport at approximately 3:00 PM. They were met
by an executive from the Malaysian airlines, who came in
from Washington DC. He hand delivered their airplane
tickets and made arrangements for them to stay in a
special section in the air Malaysian executive lounge.
They will depart 10:00PM eastern standard time and fly
to Stockholm, Sweden where they will have an hour lay
over and then they will fly on to Kuala Limpur, Malaysia
and then to Medan, Indonesia.
While
in the executive lounge the team had a command meeting
where they structured the team in readiness for when
they land in Medan. One half of the team will validate
their mission. The other half of the team will validate
their lodging to be sure that it is safe and secure and
they will also check with the US military to see if
lodging would be safer or more appropriate. They will
then rest and have their next briefing.
Blair
said that they would more than likely not be in contact
with us until they reach Medan and not to be worried.
They still have 12 hours to Stockholm and 21 hours from
there to Medan. Please, be patient and try not to worry
because once they get into Medan they are going to be in
what is called a black zone. That means that telephone
and Internet is not available. They must use their
satellite phone and if they have problems with charging
it then the regular check in times maybe extended.
I
will keep you up to date as soon as I get any
information. I feel really good about this team they
work really well together and are up for this mission.
Blair Miller, Rodger Harrison and Kirk Mahon all said
that everyone is in good spirits and are very excited
about going. They should have plenty of rest while they
are in route. They are ready to do what they are
trained to do . . .save lives.
Sunday January 16, 2005
10:00pm Eastern Standard Time
From Jennifer:
I
have not had an official up date from the team but I
heard from Rodger Harrison around 7:00 PM EST and they
had landed in Kaula Limpur Malaysia they were at the
airport and still had another two hours to travel to
Medan Indonesia. I had only about 1 minute to talk to
him so I don't know how long the lay over was there.
They are all fine and in good spirits. I have not had an
official update yet from Blair Miller yet but if they
have landed, they are probably getting to the hotel and
getting settled. Again I must emphasis that information
may be slow.
Sunday January 16 2005
11:35pm est
From: Jennifer
Blair
Miller called me at 11:35 PM EST. The team arrived in
Medan Indonesia about an hour ago. It is January 17th
and 11:42 AM there. They have not had a chance
yet to talk with anyone in the consulate but are getting
settled and organized. The worst thing that has happened
so far is that they are missing two bags and the airport
is looking for them. Blair will be calling me tomorrow
morning at 10:00 AM and will be giving me another
update. The satellite phone worked beautifully. He said
everyone is doing very well.
Monday January 17 2005
11:45am est
From: Jennifer
Good
morning, I just heard from Blair Miller and he reports
that They are all jet lagged and are preparing to rest.
They surprisingly had no issues getting through customs
with all of the medicines that they brought with them.
They did meet with the proper Indonesian and other
government officials and had their permit to enter the
country re-validated. All papers and permits are in
order. The Bureaucratic problems are challenging and the
members of the team that handles logistics spent the
entire day working on bureaucratic red tape and their
mission. There is still some confusion in the main
command post about who should do what and when: however
the logistics team members stayed at it all day until
they received all of the information and direction they
needed.
The Team met up with Stephan Templeton who is their
advance contact man and had an excellent briefing. He
gave them a detailed report of where they are going and
what they can expect. It is going to be a very hard
mission. Tomorrow part of the team will be picked up by
helicopter and at this time the team is not sure which
government will be doing the transport (Perhaps French
Military, Malaysian seal team, or US Military) Two
members of the team left with Stephan Templeton to go to
the main command center to try to put their choice in
for location.
They will be sending the team via helicopter to the south of Banda Aceh. It was
devastated by 7 Tsunami waves and the area was hardest
hit--even more than than Banda Aceh. This is a very
remote area. The weather in the area is hot, humid and
raining. The temperature is in the upper 90’s and they
have been told that they can expect temperatures between
100-105 degrees in the areas where they will be
transported. The Paramedics for Children team will be
relieving a French team and will be working out of a
hospital there.
Then a select advance group chosen from our team will be
picked up by helicopter and be flown into the remote
regions--primary objective is to vaccinate as many
people as they can for tetanus and of course to give
medical assistance where needed.
I will try to find out from Blair tonight who is the
logistic team members, the members that will be at the
hospital and which members will be on the advance
missions into the region.
I asked Blair if all of the team members had the proper
vaccinations and he said yes, plus they are taking pills
for malaria. So I feel like the team is very protected
from any diseases that are indigenous to the area and
situation.
The two missing bags are still missing and the Malaysian
airlines think they know where they are and are trying
to get back to them. I don’t know who’s they are but the
search goes on. Hopefully, they will get them to them
soon.
The up side is the Hotel is very comfortable and the
food is good. Everyone is healthy and well. I think
everyone is resting now so that they will be ready for
tomorrow’s challenges.
I also thought you might want to see a newscast by
channel 14 News. Click on this link and you will see the
interview prior to them leaving.
http://www.news14charlotte.com/content/local_news/?ArID=83987&SecID=2
I hope to get another report tonight at 10:00 PM EST.
Monday January 17 2005
10:00pm est
Good
evening Family and friends
It is 10:00 PM EST
Blair just checked in and he reports that:
They are in the process of moving out of the hotel and
traveling on. They are expected to stay at
or around the hospital there. They will assign a team
once on the ground to concentrate on shelter water and
food. Unicef is expected to provide some support for the
team while they are there. Even though the group is
focusing on logistics, it maybe nothing more than
checking in with Unicef and Unicef may say you can pitch
your tents right here. Blair is not sure if they will be
in a building or tents. The Singapore Armed Forces will
be flying them by helicopter. They will be leaving in
about two hours. They will be keeping their rooms so if you call and they say they
are not there and have not checked out. Please don’t
worry. I will let you know when they travel back there.
One thing that went wrong is the bags were not found and
one team member had to go buy clothes. Yes both bags
belonged to one person…
What has been going right? They have made multiple
points of contacts with the UN Joint logistic Center and
they have attended the combined NGO briefing meeting.
Jeff Wooden and Blair Miller are on their way over to
the US Consulate for a security briefing before leaving
for Meulaboh.
Tomorrow they are expecting a small detachment from
their team to travel further north. It is right on the coast. For those of
you that have maps there are two islands right off the
coast of Sumatra that was totally devastated and the
military isn’t there in much force yet much less aid.
The situation there is listed as very dire. However,
going there is not a definite--if they do go it will be
a contingent from their team, 5 or 6 people. Their
assignment is the Municipal Hospital so all may opt to
stay and work in the hospital and not
go further north.
The situation with the government has been very
positive. They have encountered no security problems.
The team has been received with the utmost graciousness.
The main concern that the team has been dealing with was
the logistics of getting stuff done and it’s happening
and that is really good news.
From the time that the team made the decision to no wait
on the Newmont Mining Company to make things happen and
to put it all together for themselves--they continued on
with that operating model and that has continued to
prove successful. Blair stated that they have a really
strong team and everybody is doing their part. He also
stated that everyone was feeling well and ready to
proceed.
Tuesday January 18 2005
10am est
Good
Morning family and friends I hope that you slept well.
I want you all to know that I am late getting this
information out to you use because I have so many calls
from people that are all over the country that have
found out about this relief team. These people are so
very proud of our family members and what they are
accomplishing. Paramedics for Children may be a small
relief team of 16 people there but their sacrifices and
hard work over there are greatly respected and
appreciated. This proves that we can all make a
difference even if it is one person at a time.
I am going typing what I recorded from Blair’s
conversation with me.
Blair Miller called at 9:30 AM EST
Blair Miller said
One half of the team deployed, the other half
of the team had to stay behind in Medan, Indonesia
because we were over weight for the helicopter and they
could only take eight of us. The other half of the team
will arrive at 8:30 tomorrow morning local time. On the
helicopter ride up here we got to see the devastation
and it is pretty amazing. It is hard to really describe
it over the telephone. People are in a world of hurt
here. We think that this will be a worthwhile mission
from everything that we have seen. The team that is up
here is involved in and has been briefed on doing
measles vaccines. The intent is to vaccinate 50,000
children for measles. They have it down to a science
–the children come in--we give them a vitamin A
tablet--they then come over and have a shot for measles.
The child is told that they are going to get a piece of
candy. When the child gets their shot, the child starts
crying and then they quickly pop a piece of sour candy
in the child’s mouth which immediately stops the child
from coughing and then they paint the child’s pinky
finger nail with finger nail polish to let them know
which child has been vaccinated and which has not. It is
really fascinating how they have that working. The team
is involved in the vaccination program. The rest of the
team will arrive tomorrow morning 8:30(AM Local time)
when we hook up with them; we will have a briefing at
10:00 AM. The entire 16-member team, with the Indonesian
Military, will travel 40 kilometers north into the
seriously affected areas. We will be providing the
medical assistance-- probably the first medical
assistance--that the people have seen since the tsunami
came through. We did hear one amazing story –a mother at
the French hospital camp that we are at gave birth to
two children, a little boy and a little girl the day
after the Tsunami and she has named them. Tsunami
(little boy) and Tsunama (little girl). Apparently
Tsunami is a word for strength.
I asked Blair about the vaccines for tetanus and were
they going to do that too?
Blair said, we are just doing the measles. There is a
problem getting the tetanus in here because the
Indonesians recently passed a law that says only tetanus
vaccine that can be used are those that have been
manufactured in Indonesia. The USS Lincoln has 40,000
units of tetanus vaccine sitting on their deck waiting
for permission to bring it on site. The official death
toll here—the visual count in just Indonesia is
currently-- this morning--113,000 for Indonesia alone.
They strongly expect the death toll for Indonesia to go
to 200,000.
Things here are going well--logistics are always
difficult but we have an excellent logistic team and we
are getting over the hurdles. The team that is doing
forward deployment is in very good spirits. The names of
the Forward Team are: Blair Miller, Mike Geddes, Dr.Kirk
Mahon, Beth Burkhart, Bret and Brenda Davidson and Steve
Malone.
The rest of the crew will fly in via Chanukah(Please
forgive my spelling) helicopter tomorrow morning and is
meeting us at 8:30 AM Local time--Rodger Harrison, Pam
Cox, Rodney Patrick, Trudi Kayana, Jeffrey Wooden, Pui
Mung Wong, Michaela Pelescakova, James Garcia, and
Angela Fusaro.
I asked him how the lodging was for the team.
Blair said that the lodgings are here tonight and we are
staying at the Unicef headquarters. We have food and we
are actually having a cup tea in a local restaurant at
this very moment.
Blair said that if any of you guys have any questions he
can entertain 2 or three questions since he is sure that
family is curious about what is going on there.
So if you like, you can e-mail me a question and I will
ask him. Of course if you all have questions just know
that I will have to choose 2 or 3 from them and ask him
on his next call scheduled for tomorrow morning.
I asked what are you guys experiencing there?
Blair said –just realizing the incredible poverty in the
area. We are extremely safe and everyone in the forward
team can tell you that they are being received with open
arms.
I asked him, how did your meeting go with the US
Consulate go?
Wonderful meeting, basically, the security briefing was
that there are no problems there and has been no
problems. There are political issues at play and they
ask us to make sure that we spread the word that the
Unite States are not going to be here for an extended
period of time and that we are not going to try and take
orphaned children out of the country. Those are the two
greatest concerns of the locals here and they have been
getting some rather poor press about that topic . We are
trying to support them on that. The customs are not an
issue as everyone recognizes that we are westerns and
are fully embracing us. Nobody has any problems.
He said he had to run and I told him .
I want to tell him that all of your family and friends
are back here waiting for you guys to come home and they
following every single movement that you are making--so
take care of yourselves and watch each other’s back
He said would do that and that is the end of the phone
call.
There will not be an update tonight and he will contact
me between tomorrow morning 10:00 and 10:30 AM EST. I am
recording the conversation so please be patient as I am
not the fastest typist and certainly no the best
speller.....
Wednesday January 19 2005
11:00am
From: Jennifer
Good
morning family and friends I hope you slept well.
I will try to type in the conversation. Blair’s words
are in black my response is in Blue. Their mission has
changed somewhat as you will read.
Hello Blair good morning how are you all doing?
Were are doing great, we have the whole team up today so
the entire team is now back together again…a major mile
stone for us. Copy?
COPY
While the 2nd team was on their way from Medan, the
first team moved forward to a new town-
We have a clinic here in a camp that is in that town
that has about 1400 displaced families -- mostly
children that are orphaned. In this clinic that we have
set up--we have already treated a number of patients. I
don’t have a number to give you but we have seen
everything –mostly infections that we have been treating
by antibiotics. We have already had one case of
tuberculosis today. Copy?
COPY
We have water –we have food—we have shelter. Conditions
are very rugged. The water that we have is for drinking
only its difficult to get a shower and to feel clean at
the end of the shower. The most important thing is not
only have we been treating people, but also that we have
made a lot people feel good just by our presence here.
Everyone on the team is feeling very positive. Copy?
COPY
The things that have gone wrong--life here is extremely
rugged that has been the biggest issue-- I don’t want to
call that wrong but it is extremely hot here.
The humidity is 98 to 99 % humidity all day with the
temperature at or above100 degree fahrenheit. We do have
food and everything but again that is rugged. The food
that we are eating is MREs and just drinking bottled
water. There are no other resources that are available
–people are just making do. Copy?
COPY
Things--that are going right. We have electricity most
of the time at night and that was something that we were
not expecting. The other thing is all of the logistics.
The second team was scrubbed from coming on time when
their helicopter was taken by the Prime Minister of
Singapore instead of our team to go on a sight seeing
tour of Sumatra. Our logistics specialist, Jeff Wooden
was able to get the team on a second flight that arrived
in town here at about 4:00 in the afternoon—so
everything worked out just fine. Tomorrow the team is
going to focus on medical assistance for the hundreds of
children here –it is going to be very grim--the most
difficulties that we are experiencing is the need for
interpreters--.we have a hand full of interpreters –and
we are finding that interpreters are only good for about
two hours—they are saying –that it is so mentally
draining that they have to take an extended break for
many hours so that will be our challenge there…The other
thing is we may break a smaller team out to go out into
other villages to vaccinate for measles and to do front
line medical care for broken bones and that sort of
thing--if they present themselves. Copy?
COPY
Two interesting notes the TNI which is the military here
have been extremely gracious to us and appreciate our
presence. We are actually on one of their military
bases. We have an excellent report so our security is
just fine. We are in concrete building. I don’t want
anyone to worry about our security. An interesting
antidote is the big buzz here from everyone on the team
is-- have you seen the bats???? The bats here have a
wingspan of a little more than three feet--they are
flipping Huge! ( Blair says with humor )So it is the big
thing they we all are talking about tonight is the
Bats—it has sort of caught us all off guard. We have
seen the goats—we have seen the oxen—we have seen the
monkeys -- but the bats are absolutely huge. They make
the eagles like we have in the United States look very
very small.
They are expecting some bad weather here but we are
prepared for it.
What time is it your time?
It is 10:24 in the evening. This location is where we
will be –this is our mission. We have made final
arrangement for the 21st or the 22nd—that’s how it works
here –you don’t get an exact time…so we will be sending
either all or a portion of the team out of here on the
21st
Did anyone have any question?
Actually I didn’t have anybody write back any
questions. I think you are pretty much covering
everything that is a concern for everyone here.
We are definitely in an incredible area where there is
major devastation –it is pretty amazing. I am going to
give you some statistics—it is sad statistics-- but it
will give everyone an idea of the area that we are in.
Meulaboh, was a town—I do not know the size of it but
there were 32,000 people killed here.. Here is a sad
statistic-- 45% percent of the people that lived in that
town were children from ages 0-15. Since the Tsunami
went through that percentage has now been estimated at
13% that are children that survived. It has also been
determined that any child under the age of six or seven
more than likely did not survive-- so there are very
very, few small children left…. they did not have the
ability to run away or gain higher ground…they couldn’t
run fast enough…. They are expecting the lost of life to
be a much as 200,000 in Indonesia alone. They are
finding thousands and thousands of new bodies
everyday…and we are definitely seeing that here copy?
COPY…Are the bodies still lying about?
No the bodies are not laying about –they have picked up
most of the bodies but the bodies that were underneath
rubble and that of thing have been marked with flags.
Slowly but surely they will come back with bulldozers
and removed the rubble and the bodies. As we drive down
the road and you will eventually see them in our
pictures--but as you drive down the road you see this
terrible devastation an these flags hanging--telling you
that there it a body under this and a body under that.
Copy?
Copy…how is the team doing Emotionally?
The team emotionally is doing very good today. There are
two reasons for that. First reason is our team is back
together. That was very tough for half of the team to
have to stay behind and the other team to move forward.
It has been an incredible journey to be able to now be
able to do the job that we were expecting to do back on
the 10th…the other reason is theses kids are just
neat—for those who have traveled to Honduras ( He is
talking about the children that paramedics for children
help)it has been described to me that these children are
identical to the children in Honduras—you take their
picture –they want to have their picture taken—they love
people with digital cameras-- who will then show them
the pictures through the digital camera and they crowd
around 10 to 20 children at a time to see their
picture…If you want get a huge cheer out of the crowd of
children then all we have to do is use a video camera
and video tape them for a few seconds and then show them
the video. That brings huge cheers of joy to the
children. So –how could the team not be in good spirits
when you see these children –they all want to say hello
to us—they all know the English word for hello and bye
and as you drive down the road everyone waves to you.
Children and adults alike--everyone…we really feel that
by merely being present here we are making everyone feel
better. Copy?
COPY. That is wonderful ..All of you are doing such
phenomenal work and our family and friends list is
growing. People have found out about your team. The
interest is growing like a grass fire….you have a lot of
proud followers that are waiting for each update…
While we were on the ground today we had a tremor or
after shock--it was just a tremor we are on the ground
in the bad area and you feel that sort of stuff.
DO you have a safe place that you can get to if you
have a major earthquake?
We are in an area that was not affected by the tsunami
at all so if there was a major earthquake, which would
be highly unlikely, then we are in a safe location.
Copy?
Copy.
We are just feeling the aftershocks and that is typical
after having a major earthquake. We have experience our
first one today and of course we are very close to the
epicenter so, apparently they have had them before but
we couldn’t feel them before …but where we are now, they
can be felt…. and we are expecting to feel more but the
likelihood of it being another 9.0 and causing an
tsunami is NOT scientifically probable…
We are very happy with what we have done today and we
are looking forward to a very emotional day tomorrow as
we start to see all of these children….
You guys are doing such fabulous work. I know that
everybody here is just in awe of what you all are
doing-- so impressed with the fact that you could get
these major missions and get your team in and aligned
with the government so that you get in there to do the
work that you all wanted to do…Very impressive …you guys
are a excellent team. We are all proud of you.
Today is the first day that we gave ourselves high fives
and said and we are now actually doing what we set off
to do. It has been difficult…No single person did
this…it has definitely been a team effort across the
board--so we are very happy in that context and
impressed of what we have pulled off as well…one thing
that we found interesting is that there is so much
control and bureaucracy in Indonesia for us to move
about was harder then it was for us to come up with the
funding to come over here--that is interesting in its
own right…you have get permission from the TNI military
to get into a region,,,, then you have to go into a
county and then you have to get permission from that
county government to operate there—then when you go into
the town you have to get the permission from the people
in that area to get permission to operate. Each one of
these steps requires you to sit down and wait and talk
with people to make sure they know who we are and why we
are there and so forth—it has been an interesting
challenge…Copy?
Copy
Ok very good, I will be talking with you tonight….
OK wonderful
Take care
Will do
End of phone call. . .
Wednesday January 19 2005
Blair called at 10:00 PM EST
From: Jennifer
I will not give a blow by blow like this morning,
because the information is short.
First of all I want to tell you all that the team is
doing super!
They are so very happy to be treating the people there
and that has done so much to lift their spirits. As I
said before they are taking care of 1400 people in a
refugee camp in the county that I mentioned before.
First part of the team does a general health check like
taking their blood pressure and temperature and when the
teams see that someone needs medical care, then the
people are sent to the clinic where they are treated by
the doctors and nurses. The process is somewhat slow due
to the language barrier but they are expected to see one
thousand patients today and Blair said that with this
team, he thinks they will meet that goal. They hope to
get the balance of the people tomorrow. They are
treating the people for a lot of different things. They
prescribe medicine when necessary. Some people were very
dehydrated so they have to administer IVs before they
can actually be treated. Everyone is doing fine and
working really well together. Moral went from low to
high the minute they started treating the many people in
the camp. These warm and gracious people have affected
all the team members, but the ones that have children of
their own or have younger brothers and sister have been
deeply touched by the children there. Their hearts have
gone out to them and there have been some emotional
moments. They are so honored to help and everyone is so
appreciative. The team is physically well and they say a
big hello--we miss you back home to their families.
That is the phone call.
I think that our team will need to sleep for a week when
they get back. But even though they must be tired...I
can hear a real purpose and sense of accomplishment in
Blair's voice. They are doing what they set out to do
and because of them 1400 people will be helped there.
These people have had no medical help since December
26th when the tsunami when through. They were completely
cut off. I can’t imagine what they had to deal with. Our
little band of 16 relief workers are saving lives by
getting the people vaccinated and helping the people who
are sick and in need...I am just about as proud as a
person can be.... I know it has been hard for you all
waiting back home. I know you are worried, but what they
are doing is historically humbling--in fact all of the
relief workers from all of the counties are moving all
cultural and political barriers to help these people and
it is not because they are rich or because they are
influential, it is because they are hurt and in dire
need. Everyone has one mindset and that is to help. The
whole globe cares and I don't know about you, but I
think that humankind has finally awakened from a great
apathetic sleep...this speaks of such global growth for
humanity. You are doing your part to...by supporting
their efforts. Each team member knows that you are
here...waiting for each update and they know you care so
very much...Thanks for all of your kind e-mails...I am
honored to be your contact
Until tomorrow,
Rest well tonight…. All is well,
Jennifer
Hi family and friends!
Good evening this is this morning’s update, please
forgive me for getting this to you so late but I had a
major paper due for my graduate course work.
Also, I want to address one type-o-- that is when I
wrote that their moral went from low to high….Oops…I
meant that their Morale went from low to high….I saw it
an started laughing … and thought oh great Jennifer
that’s just great….that’s all I need is for someone to
think their morals went form low to high…..at any rate…I
am sorry. Please forgive this novice POC……Here goes the
update.
Update 8
Thursday January 20th 2005
10:00am
Good morning how are you
Very good
OK-- we have been working in the clinic all day and
treated many, many patients—I can’t give you the exact
amount but everyone on the team is real happy the way
things are going. Everything is very similar to the
information that I communicated to you last night. We
have sent two members of the team [out] to start on the
process of negotiating the process of a flight out of
here. We will not be able to do any transports tomorrow
because it is a muslin holiday. We have been ask by the
TNI to observe it. I then went to the NGO meeting that
we are regularly asked to attend. And at the request of
Unicef, we will also close the clinic until noon to
observe the holiday tomorrow. Of course with the
exception of emergency medical care. The reason is that
Unicef and World Health Organization has been banned
from this province of Indonesia for the past twenty
years. They want to make sure that everyone that is
providing humanitarian aid such as us is perceived as
respecting the customs of the local people. It is an
interesting holiday the town is lit up with candles. It
is a holiday that the people reflect on the previous
year and mend any problems that they have had with
members of their family over a course of a year. It is
interesting with all of that they have gone
through--they are still able to celebrate their
holidays. It’s neat. The town and everyone’s homes
remind me of the lights like we see at Christmas time.
Very pretty.
So we are honoring this holiday--Unicef is doing that
and the World Health Orgainization is doing that and I
have even met this evening with the CDC and they are
doing it as well. Because the humanitarian groups have
not been able to be in here for twenty some years there
is a great deal cross team collaboration and assistance
and support for one another. An example of that is the
desires from Unicef to have us assist them with
vaccinations. Unicef in light of the holiday and in
light of TNI’s request has postponed their vaccination
program until this Saturday. We were supposed to be
doing vaccinations for Unicef for tomorrow but that is
not going happen
Our biggest challenge is translators --they burn out
very quickly. It is very stressful them and we simply do
not have enough translators.
I asked him if they were having bad weather?
I am standing here
watching the clouds roll by. There has been lightening
at night but no rain. One of the things that may affect
our transport home because we are going to have fly by
helicopter out of here is the weather. The Singapore
Military has been providing all of our air support. They
have a lot of stuff scheduled so when we have bad
weather is messes everything up.
Any stories?
Because we are such large
Anglo-Saxons and the people are so small we are seen as
a curiosity and we are viewed as large zoo animals.
I had an interesting experience …when I walked in a
store to buy materials for the clinic, it was a good two
minutes before I was able to talk to the store clerk
about what I wanted to buy because he did nothing but
laugh hysterically at how large I was in contrast to the
very small size of his store. ( Blair is 6’5”) So
we are all great novelties here…we are walking
around--feeling like zoo animals…and the kids….we, are
having a lot of fun with the kids because they see us as
a novelty and they are curious. They need our help and
because we appear so different from them we can put a
big smile on their faces.
That’s wonderful
Everyone is eating MREs
trying to make sure that we are self reliant as
possible. But, after about two days of eating MREs, I
expect that they team will probably start wanting to
look for something else…we have found that we have other
food available if we want to cook it. It has just been
easier to do the MREs.
Finally, I can not stress enough that it
Hot—Hot—Hot—Hot—here, it is hotter than anyone has ever
experienced before.
You guys are no getting dehydrated are you?
No we are not getting
dehydrated, we are being very careful with that. When we
need more water it easy to get into town and purchase
more. We have had to treat multiple patients with IV
solutions due to dehydration. But our team is fine.
Are most of your patient’s children?
Most of our patients are
children. Another interesting piece of information that
has been provided to us is that there is a Norwegian
Church Aid group (NCA) that is onsite trying to set up
water purification system. We are working with all the
other NGO and they have been discussing this with Unicef
and Unicef is concerned with actually doing too much
water purification for this area…. which could actually
be of harm to the area--because the people here know
that the water is bad and has been bad for many hundreds
of years and they boil their when they cook things and
they are drinking tea where the water is boiled. Unicef
is worried about them bringing in desalination equipment
getting a portion of the country use to drinking water
that does not require pretreatment and that may create
greater problems at a later date
The NCA is installing a reverse osmosis machine here.
One much larger than the camp really needs and that will
be interesting to see how that works out. I think it
will be a great benefit here because mostly there are
children here and their water needs are very different.
Any patients that you have seen and treated--do you
feel that because of this medical care your team has
saved their lives?
Yes, we are providing them with antibiotics and if we
were not giving them the antibiotics their survival
ability would be in jeopardy. Many, many of our patients
are being given life saving treatment even if that
treatment is as simple as antibiotics.
That is good. Absolutely wonderful
The most touching thing that has happened to us is all
of the children here that we are treating…for those of
us who have children it really…really can be gut
wrenching at times.
Have you seen any tetanus there?
No, we have heard a lot of
talk about that –originally there was an awful lot of
unfounded information or information that never turns
out to be what you expected. Tetanus is one of those.
The people that were in these areas that were affected
were either killed or have been relocated to refugee
camps. In refugee camps you don’t have tetanus because
there is nothing to get tetanus from. The other portion
of the population is dead. There are however people
going through rubble and they are susceptible to tetanus
but statistically speaking it is not significant.
This is all part of how we are working with the other
NGO groups…I had dinner this evening with a man with the
World Health Organization and the Center for Disease
Control. They are studying all of the issues and the
things that they are most concerned about right now is
measles which Unicef--with our support, is trying to get
50,000 children over the course of the next couple of
days…the next concern is cholera at this time there is
not an out break of cholera but they are watching it
very closely. The third concern was tetanus and that
does not appear to be a problem right now.
Have you had any more cases of tuberculosis?
Yes but tuberculosis was
in the country prior to the tsunami and when we identify
them we are isolating them and they are started on the
proper medications. But tuberculosis here is not a
result of the tsunami.
We are not expecting any problem leaving. We plan to use
the Singapore military to transport us back to Medan…but
we do have contingency plans.
The US marines have stated that they could fly us out.
We have also talked to the US consulate and they have
promised us transportation for all members of our team
no matter if they Canadians or from New Zealand.
Our Canadian team members have talked to their
government officials (I think he said with Canadian
Parliament but the transmission had a lot of static so
forgive me if I got that wrong)and the Canadian
officials have said that they will also provide
transportation for all team members regardless of
nationality….so, we have a lot of back up plans if the
Singapore air force has problems with their
schedules….We naturally want to fly with the Singapore
military unless we have to make other plans. So I feel
very confident that we will not have any problems when
we deploy out of here to Medan.
Again I want to stress that we are safe.
What is the time there?
It is January the 20th at 10:30 in the evening.
Ok that is all for now,
Very good…everyone misses all of you guys…we are
proud of you all and take care of each other
Will do
End of phone conversation
Thursday January 20 2005
10:05 pm
10:05 PM EST
Approx. 10:05AM January 21st, 2005 local time
Good day Blair How are you?
We are great!
First of all the entire team is assembled back (in
town). We thought were going to be slowed down as you
may recall when we last spoke because of the holiday,
but due to the resourcefulness of the team we were able
to get the TNI to take us in two trucks back to (town).
We are now waiting (here) for a helicopter –however, we
do not expect to fly until 2:00 pm this afternoon.
Again, they have asked the helicopters not to fly until
after 12:00 pm to honor the holiday. Having just been
said that—interestingly enough, I just watched a
helicopter land next to five water buffalos. Apparently
the buffalos are not bothered by it-- so we are seeing
some helicopters fly. We just don’t know if we are going
to fly soon or not.
So you are finished with your mission?
We are all finished. The team is in good spirits. The
team is very dirty and very smelly. We are very happy
because we have accomplished a lot.
I am hoping that the next time I talk to you, I will be
able to tell you we are in Medan and from that point we
feel like our logistics will be very easy.
I will have answers to all that we did today tomorrow
when we next talk and hopefully we will be in Medan.
I hope so too. Remind everyone when everyone gets
into Medan, to call home and check with their families.
I will do that. When we get into Medan, we will confirm
our travel arrangements with Malaysian Air and I will
pass what you said on to the team.
OK and I will talk to you tomorrow then?
You will talk to me tomorrow morning.
OK, Come home safe.
Will do.
Friday January 21 2005
8:30am
A diplomatic mission
bumped 12 members of the team, so they are still in (the
same town). Four are in (major city). They are back at
the hotel. All the rest of the members of the team are
still here with me. There are limited flights today,
because of the holiday. We are hoping to travel 1st
thing tomorrow morning to (major city) and hook up with
the balance of the team and join up with the four that
left today.
We are here at the base--We are actually sleeping with
the United States Marines Corp—so we have hooked up with
them—some of the guys went into town to get something to
eat. Some team members stayed back and ate MREs with the
Marines. All of the team members in both locations are
fine. Everything is good—we have a place to sleep—we’ve
got shelter—we’ve got water—we’ve got food and we’ve got
hopes to travel, first thing tomorrow morning.
What time is it there 8:24 at night?
That ‘s correct.
You know we go from flight to flight to flight and we
can’t really make any more plans than that, but we
always have back up plans. No need to worry. That’s
really all that I have to report at this time.
You all get some rest tonight. Are you going to call
me tonight?
That’s correct--I will call. If you don’t get a call
from me tonight at 10pm it may mean that we are airborne
and if that is the case—I will call you just to let you
know that we have all gotten to (the next city). So if I
wake you up in the middle of the night I will only be
waking you up for a few brief minutes.
That’s fine don’t worry about waking me up. I will be
standing by
OK
You take care and tell the Group that everybody is
wishing them safe passage and hurry home.
Will do
End of phone call.
Friday January 21 2005
11:24pm
I have good news--6 additional members have joined the
other four members of the team in (The next city).
The Balance of the team is scheduled to travel by
helicopter via the Singapore Military at 3:00 or 4:00pm
today (local) time, which is, 3:00am or 4:00am EST here.
The reason for this delay is due to the fact that there
are limited helicopters and they can only transport so
many people at a time. The balance of the team will
stand by the airport until they leave this afternoon.
They have about three or possibly four hours wait time
in (next city). I think the flight time is about 1 to 1
1/2 hours. I know this is frustrating for you all
waiting at home, but remember, they are getting rides
with the Singapore Military and they have to travel when
the military can transport. There is no need to worry,
as everyone is safe. I want to assure all of you, that
the entire team will be together very soon.
I hope to have more information for you this morning. I
may not get an update until 10:00am EST so please be
patient. As soon as I know anything I will forward the
information on to all of you.
Saturday January 22 2005
6:00am
I am so happy to report
that the balance of the team arrived around 5:00 am,
(local) time. They traveled via helicopter to (the
larger city). We are all going to get cleaned up and
have dinner as a team tonight; we have a little down
time tomorrow before heading out to Malaysia. From there
I can not give you individual travel plans depending on
the east coast team and the west coast team as they have
different travel plans. So this evening, I am going to
ask the family members to communicate back to their
families before they depart tomorrow to let them know
what their travel agendas are.
We are done. We did a very short exit briefing from our
point person on the ground here in Indonesia, and he was
extremely appreciative of our work and that’s about all
I have to report.
Well, I am really happy that everyone is safe and
back together…. I am just extremely, extremely happy….
Please tell the team that mother hen (that’s me) is now
happy and will probably sleep for a while. Blair starts
laughing. Everybody here is so very proud of all of you.
I can not emphasize that enough…you will not believe the
e-mails that have come in from all over saying –how
proud of you they are and what phenomenal work that you
are all doing and that sort of thing.
We are sitting here now toasting each other saying
mission accomplished because from (here) getting home is
a cakewalk compared to what we have been through.
I can appreciate that. I feel good about that too.
I don’t know when I will talk to you next—I will talk to
you during day light hours your time over the course of
our travels as I can. Sometime today or tomorrow after
we get to Malaysia, I will more than likely cut off
communications because at that point the team members
will be coming home on their individual travel agendas.
Ok, if there is anything that I can do for you guys
just let me know. I will keep my cell phone on at all
times—and you don’t know what time you will contact me?
No I don’t have any of that handy
OK… Will you call me tomorrow before you leave?
I anticipate that I will, yes.
OK! Good. Well, like I said, mother hen is very happy
now…I am so glad that everyone is safe and
together--give everyone my best regards and it is
certainly is a very good morning for me as I know it
will be for the all of your family and friends….
OK, good--talk with you later.
OK. Take care
End of phone call…
Sunday
January 23
From: Brian
Mission
accomplished. The team is back in touch with thier
families and taking separate travel arrangements to get
back home in the next few days. Photos have been posted
on the
Paramedics For Children Web site.
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