Reconstruction Akkaraipettai, India - May, 2005
Strangers in a strange land
Less than one month left to prepare for our visit to the tsunami area! We are gathering some donated supplies and completing our plans for travel. Our group that will leave in the early days of June includes Randy Smith, an instructor at Monterey Peninsula College, son Spenser and total of seven Occidental College students, and one student from Carnegie Mellon University.
Our friends at Tsunami Assistance Project India just opened their Future Friends Children Center in Akkaraipettai in the Velippalyam neighborhood. We look forward to visiting and helping in any way we can to help the members of the community enjoy this new resource.
Our community at Monterey and the College have really gotten behind us and are contributing to the cause with a garage sale and collection of living essentials donated to the cause of tsunami victims in southeast India. The students have not only prepared themselves for travel to the tropics in this hot, wet season, but are further developing their skills in construction, medical assistance and basic education. We look forward to the opportunity to meet these people and work with them as they put their lives back together.
I have been talking with volunteers who are working in the area, or have recently visited the tsunami region. In an effort to understand the needs and progress, I am following Websites and news releases coming from official and informal sources. As a group, we have much to look forward to in understanding the situation and future for this region. Progress is always slower than desired, but this task to return to normalcy is monumental. In anticipating how we can best help, I am trying to appreciate the realities of politics, the inevitable progress of technology, centuries old customs and vocations, desperate need of many, deceit, greed, pride and other human frailties, and the tough decisions that must be made in participating in the allocation of scarce resources.
- How can we best prepare a family to take care of its own?
- What is best for children left homeless?
- What is the best type of house and community that we can help to rebuild?
- Who is allocated the land or house or boat or nets?
- Can a fishing family survive relocated more than 500 meters away from the sea, and sometimes several kilometers from their livelihood?
- What future and how long before large fishing trawlers take over the best fishing spots, and with modern efficiency replace hundreds of families with a single large boat?
- Will the beaches be developed to accommodate more visitors to generate tourism in the manner of Goa and other high visibility areas of India?
- Will the people be forced to retrain for service industry or manufacturing in order to survive?
Our hope is to understand some of the concerns that affect the livelihood of millions of the working poor of India. We want to contribute, learn from a distant culture, share ideas, prepare in the rebuilding of a community, and even to inspire by example for those who have suffered calamities of resources and destruction, while retaining pride and hope.
Members of the Global Uplift team visiting in June
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