Email from Aceh
By Eileen Stelmach
Murdoch University
Read Eileen's field study
report
See her photos of Java
Eileen Stelmach is a nurse from Western Australia who studied with
ACICIS in 2004, and wrote a field work report on disaster management
in a small village in East Java. In early 2005 she responded to
an email from ACICIS suggesting past students consider volunteering
with Father Chris Riley's Youth Off The
Streets group in Aceh.
 Email
from Aceh
I have been out to ground Zero here. It is unbelievable to look
at, everything destroyed. One or two houses have semi-survived;
only one that I could see was being lived in. People have returned
to the area to live in tents because they need to establish ownership
of the land. They have about 6 evacuee camps in the area.
We went out on outreach to the area and it was a bit overpowering
to stand less than a kilometre away from the ocean amidst all the
destruction and not feel totally awed. We walked around a massive
ferry in the middle of town, 13 km from the sea. Saw elephants come
in on trucks to pull down the wrecked buildings. Massive creatures,
their handlers sitting on top of them in the back of the truck.
We picked up a young man on the way who kept brushing the tears
from his eyes on the side that was away from me. I gave him some
money on the quiet to buy himself some smokes. Whole families, whole
generations have been wiped out.
There haven't been any major quakes since I have been here, very
little ones in fact. Many of the historical buildings have been
destroyed so the people must feel pretty sad about that. Health
water and sewage is well in hand.
We have been lucky because it hasn't rained. Our camp is all tents
for living quarters and hot as hades in the day time. But the group
before us dug all the drainage channels around each tent. We do
all sorts of things here, clean multiple bush toilets, and play
with kids, everything in fact.
I diagnosed 2 cases of malaria very quickly and got them treated
- they were the adult local staff (not the kids fortunately). We
had the camp sprayed and it's killed off most of the mosquitos.
The malaria was the less dangerous type, although that one is rife
in some areas here. Many of the kids come down with fevers and colds.
I am doing a real nurse practitioner role here, after I worked out
that going to see medicos after hours was almost impossible.
The kids get up for morning prayer at 5am and I get up then also
so that if anyone is sick they can come before school starts at
7am. I live in hope that those I have put on an antibiotic will
consider it important to return for their morning dose also. They
usually come down for the next dose when they feel sick again. Thank
goodness there is no resistant strains here yet. I have noticed
the Indonesian doctors give a 3 day course of antibiotics so if
I can get that much in I am happy. I took one girl down to the hospital
with a 39.5 temperature. I had given her Panadol and a fan while
I sorted out the other kids who had turned up. We then went to the
hospital in an air conditioned car. The Indonesian doctor told me
she would see the kid because I had taken the trouble to learn Indonesian.
I don't go to bed before the last kid goes because I don't want
to get called out. There are many kids with rashes here, they come
in screeching, Calamine lotion is great stuff and I hope I can find
another bottle. One girl told me it was rash pakaian (clothes).
At the time she was wearing a pair of jeans, thick blouse, jilbab,
and prayer clothes. I have put several kids in the sick bay, instead
of school, put the fan on them and let them sleep the day away.
They have bounced back by nightfall. Some of the staff have needed
the same treatment. Coughs and colds and feeling generally run down.
Some kind person sent some medical supplies from Australia and in
them was one carton of Vicks inhalers. Well these are the drug of
choice at the moment. I might add the camp has since come down with
cough, I tell them they are not ill enough to have an inhaler, they
must have the sniffles. And of course the next day they have the
sniffles. Since I have run out of the over the counter cough syrup
these inhalers have been a boon. Other rashes are considered as
fish allergy - we have fish every day and no one refuses it. I have
a different view and think it is more a dermatitis from the nylon
clothing because it covers the shirt line. I did wonder about the
soap but it is only the shirt line.
The people are unbelievable, just get on with life. The way the
camp is arranged, we look after the activities , health, activities
and supplies. The Muhammadiyah staff join with us in the activities.
The kids have very long busy days, up for early prayer, school in
the morning, lunch, activities, sport. Then they learn Arabic and
we do the English lessons. The kids have total privacy in their
tents, non of us can go in, however the tents are like ovens in
the middle of the day, so if the kids get a fever I have put them
in the clinic with the fans on. Muhammadiyah University has a team
of psychologists who visit the kids weekly or sometimes twice weekly.
The kids also drew a chalk wall. All the drawings were full of sunshine
and the houses were tents, very well drawn tents at that. We are
arranging for a little village for the kids to be built, houses
with a number of kids and a career in each house, a school and playing
area etc.
I get hugs from the girls, they are not used to seeing wrinkles
and the girls and the young boys come up and feel my skin all the
time. One child has scars all along one side of the chest wall from
the injuries she got in the tsunami. Some of these kids have lost
the entire 3 generations in their family.
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