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Field Reports
TEAM FIELD REPORT 1
February 1, 2005
Here in the lobby in the hotel near Phang Nga, the night staff
are wondering why the strange westerners are still awake.
We left Bangkok on Monday morning to fly South to Phuket…..the
flight as we were coming in was beautiful….strange statues
of stone jut out of the ocean and cliffs covered in velvety
green with a calm turquoise sea. The airport in Phuket was
full of photos and signs posted everywhere asking for information
on lost people just like 9-11. As we traveled up the coast,
at first there were no signs of the Tsunami….but as we went
north toward Phang Nga and it became worse and worse. The
first night we stayed in a hotel with little damage. The hotel
where we are now will be our home until we leave. It is partially
built at sea level (or shall we say was) and partially up
a hill. The lower half of the hotel complex was totally wiped
out with many killed and missing. Rubble is everywhere. We
are sharing the hotel with the Thai army who are delivering
food and still searching for and recovering bodies. There
are also several medical volunteer teams here from around
the world.
Our Thailand sponsor, Dr. Wanlop Piyamanotham of Srinakharinwriot
University, is a famous psychologist and Thai media celebrity.
We call him the "Dr. Phil" of Thailand as he knows everyone
in Thailand and they go out of their way to help his effort.
Our connection to him, through Dr. Peter Levine, has provided
us unbelievable access. Because of his generosity and his
belief in working somatically with trauma, we were invited
by Dr. Wanlop to accompany and work side by side with the
Thai Princess, Mahajakri Sirinthorn's special Mobile Medical
Unit that traveled from Bangkok to Phang Nga Province. This
unit includes physicians, nurses, physical therapists, psychologists,
dentists and the deans of several health care departments
at the Srinakharinwriot University. He also provided us with
exquisite interpreters with terrific senses of humor. They
have been instrumental in helping us in a thousand ways!
We spent the whole first HOT STICKY day at the Ban Bang Muong
Refugee Camp, the survivors of the Salty Water Village, in
the hardest hit area, a camp of tents and metal one-room dwellings….usually
about six people living in each. In a huge tent is a medical
operation which is amazing…dental chairs where people are
getting their teeth pulled and emergency repairs, physical
therapy, etc…lines of people waiting for care. There are probably
500 or more people here all from a village that had been at
the edge of the water….now mostly obliterated. Many children
in the village died as well as many elderly people who could
not run fast enough. The stories are horrendous! At the end
of the day, we went with the Medical team to see the destroyed
village. It is so tragic… Most of the villagers are afraid
to go back even to see their lost homes…they are afraid to
even look toward the sea….they are afraid another wave is
coming and they are afraid of the ghosts of the foreigners.
Many continue to search daily for the bodies of their loved
ones. Bodies are still being recovered.
Some of us spent the day going down one dusty path after another
with our interpreters. We went into the dwellings and sat
on the dusty floors of their makeshift homes, with no furniture,
and worked with people on traumatic memories, stomach aches,
survival guilt, fear and physical pain. They are so grateful
for our work. Many had not told their story of survival and
had not been able to cry until our work with them. We focused
on specific Somatic Experiencing principles of grounding and
resourcing.
Some of us stayed with the medical team in the tents and others
went to the Day Care Center. In the medical tent, the Thai
medical team brought us one person after another with somatic
and emotional complaints, including attempted suicides, nightmares,
severe insomnia, auditory and visual flashbacks. As we worked
side by side with the Thai medical team, we watched their
understanding of trauma and somatic treatment unfold. We watched
the Thai medical team connect the didactic information we
had provided on our first night with the symptoms they were
observing in the survivors. We are doing the work with these
resilient people whose language and culture we do not share,
yet the universal language of sensation connect us all.
Tomorrow, we will fill you in our work in the schools as well
as the networking we are doing with the community's leaders
and spiritual elders. We feel so honored to represent the
Foundation for Human Enrichment and to do this healing work
with the Thai people.
Love,
Geneie, Maggie, Laurie & the entire TOP team |
