Tsunami Recovery | Chennai, India

7/22. Today, we went to Stanley Medical College. We were trained for three hours on disaster effects by two psychiatrists, Drs. Thiru and Venkatesh, and their clinical psychology doctoral student intern Sangeetha Madhu. We learned about survivors’ unique responses to the three-minutes-tsunami in comparison to reactions to the Gujarat earthquake, another natural disaster that took place in India. Some of the tsunami survivors’ responses are specific to the Indian cultural context and to the tsunami phenomenon itself.  At the same time, we were pleased to find out that our manual’s information, which we complied at Antioch, is consistent with the knowledge and professional experiences of the two psychiatrists. We will now revise our manual with new knowledge that we are acquiring here. Drs. Thiru and Venkatesh have been training volunteers in Sri Lanka (an island nation to the South of India that was completely unprepared for post-tsunami) and relief workers in Andaman and Nickobar islands (an Indian territory).

Stanley Hospital, staffed by the teaching faculty of Stanley Medical College, is a General Hospital that is free for all people. When we arrived in the morning, there were hundreds of people, mostly the poor, who had come for care. At the emergency area, there was a sign that said Zero Time Wait. When we left in the afternoon, the hospital hallways looked strangely empty because service hours were over.

Sangeetha Madhu like our clinical psychology students is doing a lot of testing of children at the hospital and at a private practice. She showed us non-verbal tests of block design, like the Bhatia test, and the Indian TAT. Gargi hopes to obtain these tests to show Antioch students. There is a strong school of clinical psychology, VINHANS, in Bangalore, which has a large database on Indian assessment and testing norms. VINHANS has also begun a specialization on Indian neuropsychological assessment. Gargi would love to visit this school sometime in the future.

Sangeetha Madhu and Gargi attended the same undergraduate school, although 20 years apart. Neither believed that this connection was coincidental and concluded that there was some meaning to this. So a trip to Women’s Christian College was deemed necessary. Gargi discovered that her college has expanded beyond all imagination. What she experienced as a school of humanities has thriving departments of sciences, mathematics, computer science, and psychology. When Gargi went to college in India, psychology was not an academic discipline. Now Women’s Christian College has one of the finest departments of psychology in Southern India. So here’s where Gargi may want to come back and teach one day. But we doubt this because that she could not take the hot weather. The classrooms are not air-conditioned and neither is the library. The benches we sat on in the school courtyard were baking, while Gargi visited the college principal. Gargi found out that most of the professors she studied with were dead.

An internet wireless card would cost us $400.00. Not being able to afford that, we’ll need to go to internet cafes to send you our journal entries. Last night, Miko pirated an internet connection right within our air-conditioned office (by day)/bedroom (at night). That’s how we were able to send you our first journal entry. But we could not open the responses that some of you sent back immediately (thank you cheerleaders.). We also wanted to send you pictures, but the attachment got too heavy and Antioch’s FirstClass system refused our pirated entry. Our laptop, video camera, and international cell phone are working marvelously- to Linda, Kristen, and Miko’s electronic skills. Gargi says that all that she knows is the use of paper, pen, and pencil because that’s all she learned in school. So she writes at 2.00 a.m. (not being able to sleep due to jet lag). In school, Gargi probably also learned how to function with less sleep.

We got our train tickets to Nagapattinam, which is six hours to the south of Chennai, where tsunami relief efforts are in operation. Interestingly, our reservations don’t show our names, but instead our sex and respective ages. We went to a three-storied shop, called Nallis, which specializes in Southern Indian silks. Here Gargi bought a Kanjeeveram silk sari for the grandmother of our host family. We have also brought gifts from New England for all members of our host family. On Sunday we are invited to a special lunch at our host family’s home. The diet in Southern India is mostly vegetarian. Kristen thrives on hot vegetarian food, and we have become pretty good at eating with our fingers.  Coffee and tea, whether sold at street-side shops or in nice restaurants, are unbelievably rich, creamy, and sweet-putting Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts to shame. Since these beverages are sold in very small cups, we don’t seem to get enough. We have a late night snack of street-side Indian tea.

Gargi Roysircar, Linda Lee, Kristen Robinson, and Michiko Ishibashi Antiochians at Tamil Nadu

7/23. This Saturday afternoon NalandaWay trained eighteen volunteer mentors for children between the ages of 7 and 16 who come from impoverished circumstances, but are talented and gifted. NalandaWay held the workshop in the impressive office building of Rane (Madras) Limited on Velacherry Road. The volunteers were employees of Rane Madras, other private businesses, and the state government. NalandaWay’s mission is to bring big businesses and poor people together and to link corporations with local communities. Tamil Nadu business support for social justice causes of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) may become a rapid trend. We learned today that the largest number of NGOs are located in India, which mobilized into action minutes after the tsunami, and, therefore, India did not have to depend on massive foreign relief aid. Gargi is blown away seeing so many organized, community activities, involving large numbers of volunteers. There was no such thing when she grew up here as a young woman. At that time, the government ruled and one’s family took care of itself and the extended relatives.

There were more male volunteers than female volunteers who came for training, which again was quite impressive. Gargi made a presentation on the psychosocial development of children and adolescents, as well as gave feedback to mentors who role played potential difficult meetings with their mentees. Linda, Kristen, and Miko joined Gargi with their own comments. They also facilitated other role plays that took place in small groups. It was a four-hour session of much energy, enthusiasm, laughter, and charismatic leadership. Maybe Indians have a sense of the drama because the volunteers were fairly dramatic in their role plays as mentors and children. Rane Madras served us great snacks, beverages, coffee, and tea. So we skipped dinner. The volunteers talked of blogging and starting an internet support system so that they could stay in communication. They recommended that Gargi join them in their blogging. But Gargi does not know how to blog. However, she promised to send them explanations on various developmental theories as attachments and to be available to consult with them through e-mail over mentoring issues.

Instead of going to dinner, we debriefed about our reactions to the workshop. We talked about our views on public policy people and NGOs doing psychologically oriented workshops. We found strengths in as well as concerns about the popularization of psychology. We wondered how psychologists can influence the contents, skills, processes, and ethics of such training. Psychologists could be the trainers of local trainers, but, at the same time, stay away from controlling the cultural aspects of sharing, help-giving, and interpretation of local needs. Be that as it may, wide-spread societal action is needed because it has been predicted that in 2025 one of every five girls from poor Indian households will become a child prostitute and be at risk for AIDS.

Owing to their tenacity and persistence, Linda, Kristen, and Miko retrieved 100 Rupees from a restaurant that short-changed us. They spoke in English, and the waiters, cash register person, and manager spoke in Tamil. Despite language differences, the important points were understood and truth prevailed. What’s up with Kristen? She wants to eat off a banana leaf as a substitute for a plate. Gargi, born and brought in India, has never eaten off a banana leaf outside of Hindu religious festivals. Gargi has steered Kristin away from banana leaves. Linda is in charge of accounts and under her direction and scrutiny, we’re frequently paying each other colorful rupee notes and paisas (coins), which lead to a vigorous team economy. We are all checks and balances for each other and are participating in healthy group management.

Gargi Roysircar, Linda Lee, Kristen Robinson, and Michiko Ishibashi

7/24. Gargi began the day by sweeping our apartment (called a flat here) with an Indian broom. We bring in grit and sand from our comings and goings. Gargi was inspired by our neighbor lady, whose floors all cleaned up by 5:30 in the morning, and then she draws a design with rice powder at the entrance to her flat (in your imagination, replace a doormat with a hand-designed rice powder pattern).

We had lunch with our host family and their extended family of grandparents and a great grandmother. As is the cultural norm here, we took gifts for the family and candy and sweets. We had a traditional home-cooked, vegetarian meal, which we totally loved. The two little girls gave us a tour of their new bedroom and furniture. They showed us their artwork. In addition to regular school, the girls attend private classes on art and classical Indian music. We took lots of pictures with our host family.

Karthik, whose family we visited for lunch, drove us to Mahabalipuram, which is about 30 miles south of Chennai. There we saw areas of Mahabalipuram beach that were leveled off by the tsunami. Some of these spots are still strewn with trash left behind by the waves. Clusters of fishermen’s huts have been re-located to higher grounds, which governmental action the fishermen don’t like.

Karthik’s parents gave us South Indian munchies to take in the train from Tambaram to Nagapattinam. It was an eight-hour train journey. Among us, the two younger, thinner girls climbed on to the bunker seats, while the older, bigger women (guess who?) eased into the lower seats. Kristen slept like a baby to the swaying motion of the train, which kept Gargi wide awake.

Upon arriving at Nagapattinam, the taxi driver took us to Hotel Sea Gate, and then turned around, going back to the station and some more miles in the opposite direction to Hotel Sea Horse, where we had reservations.

7/25. Mr. Krishnamurthy Sankaran, the tsunami coordinator of Seva Bharathi Tamil Nadu, Nagapattinam, sent Gargi text messages on our international telephone, which Gargi did not know how to respond to. So she just telephoned him and announced our arrival.

From the get go, Mr. Sankaran let us know that Seva Bharathi is a Hindu NGO that functions under the auspices of RSS, a politically conservative, religious organization. He made sure that we would not do any counseling because in his view missionaries in the name of counseling are converting tsunami survivors to Christianity, telling them that the tsunami was God’s punishment. Mr. Sankaran was relieved that Gargi is a Hindu and reassured that we only intended to do what he wanted us to do. We repeatedly told him that we truly appreciated Seva Hearth’s rehabilitation work. Mr. Sankaran often remarked that the secular (non-religious) Indian government and Western-oriented NGOs overlooked the work of his Hindu organization. Given his meaning of counseling, we considered it best not to give Mr. Sankaran our Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder information and intervention manual and CD.

In a self-help group in Seva Bharathi, women were sorting leftover stainless steel and aluminum utensils and pots and pans into categories. All displaced fishermen and villagers had already been provided for, and some women had started kitchen stores with such donated utensils. The leftover utensils were now being prepared for storage and intended for distribution at another emergency.

In a nearby building, young women were learning to use sewing machines so that they can become tailors. An adjacent room was shared by both a doctor and a homeopathic practitioner. We were excited to find one roomed labeled as Neuro Therapy. Here aches, pains, and somatic complaints are cured with ayurvedic medicine and meditation. At a computer lab, young girls were learning Microsoft Word.

Water desalination was occurring in a tank donated by the private TATA industry. Huge containers all over the camp showed markings of UNICEF and US AID.

We went to a one-room elementary school. We distributed crayons and papers and, presto, all 30 children were drawing tsunami pictures (giant waves crashing on boats, people, and huts). We went to the Nagapattinam beech, where boats were being repaired and young boys were collecting boat debris. We saw overturned, grounded boats. We saw the Nagapattinam Bridge being repaired because two of its sections had been brought down.

On December 26, at about 8.20 a.m., the Director of Seva Bharathi at Chennai had called an outreach officer in Nagapattinam on his cell phone.  The outreach officer answered from the Nagapattinam Bridge. The director was told that one giant wave had hit the banks of Nagapattinam, and that the officer and some people had rushed to the bridge for safety. At that very moment, the second wave hit, that brought down a part of the bridge. Within half an hour Seva Bharathi and its volunteers were rescuing and helping victims.

We drove over a temporary bridge of sand bags located about 2.5 miles away from the sea shore-that’s how far the tsunami reached. Mr. Sankaran took us to Kancheepuram. Here at the beach, he showed us a spot where he, other relief workers, and volunteers buried six hundred bodies. To arrange for the burial site, an underground gas tank was first removed, which continues to remain above ground now. Seva Bharathi was the primary relief organization that pulled bodies from the debris and the only organization that was equipped with personnel (Brahmin priests) and knowledge to perform the last rites, according to Hindu traditions. Mr. Sankaran said that at least 50,000 people were killed at Kancheepuram, but that the government for whatever reason has not provided an accurate death toll. It was a crowded Sunday morning, the day of the tsunami, when children were playing cricket on the beach, and daughters and wives were buying fish to prepare for Sunday lunch, the best meal of the week. Along the beech at Kanjeepuram, little palm tress have been planted and named after the dead as memorials.

The Seva Bharathi orphanage is called the House of Love and Affection. Children at the House range between 5 years to 15 years. Their caretakers are just a few years older than the children, and were themselves orphaned.  Life at the House follows a strict daily routine. The children were clean, well-dressed, and healthy. They were wearing jewelry. Their hair was well-oiled and braided. We took for them a boxful of sweets, which they loved. We sat on the floor and did lots of drawings. The girls did patterned, geometric drawings, at which they appear to be well practiced. Miko showed how to make origami. In no time origami figures were popping out, more complex and finer than what Miko claimed she could do. While the children at the elementary school drew only tsunami waves, the girls at the House mainly drew flowery patterns and happy villages in which houses had no windows. However, one child drew her mother who died in the tsunami. She shyly gave this picture to Gargi. Linda played handclapping games, ring-around-the rosie, and the hokey pokey. The girls just loved the games, and sang and laughed aloud with Linda. Then, followed prayer time. The children washed up, sat on the floor, and facing a shrine, they sang hymns. Each song was often led by a little one and followed with a chorus. It was amazing to hear rich, powerful voices coming out of little bodies. Sitting on the floor cross-legged was tough for Gargi. While she fidgeted and shifted balance, Linda had fallen into an alpha trance.

At the Women’s Center, about twenty women reside, cook, and sew clothes for income. Some engage in outreach in the Seva Bharathi rehabilitation camps. There were more prayers in the Center led by the women. Gargi does not remember when she last prayed so hard.

Mr. Sankaran would be grieved if we did not inform you that Seva Bharathi has the best-built temporary shelters, with thatched roofs and corrugated sides that are sunk into the earth, keeping insects and vermin away. He showed disdain for the lesser shelters of other NGOs. We had a twelve-hour day at Seva Bharathi. We had lunch, tea, and dinner with them. Mr. Sankaran insisted that we drink Seva Bharathi’s desalinated water, which other NGOs do not have. We concurred with every wish of Mr. Sankaran and have a local friend and colleague here.  All said and done, Seva Bharathi was well-organized and maintained and the staff looked in pretty good shape because they awaken at 5.30 a.m. and join exercise drills led by an adolescent troop leader.

7/26. Public Concern International-India is a well-funded NGO-supported by USAID, UNICEF, Save the Children, United Way, etc. It’s a non-religious organization. The Nagapattinam coordinator, Mr. Malim has a degree in social work and so does the associate coordinator, Mr. John Henry. Mr. John was a social work college professor when he resigned to join PCI and to do relief work. PCI staff consists of psychological counselors, social mobilizers, etc. The local staff runs the re-location temporary camps in fishing villages that are several hours apart from each other. We went to two of these village camps. Mr. Malim and his team were doing AIDS work in another city at the time of the tsunami. They were re-assigned by PCI to do tsunami relief work, and they expect to remain in Nagapattinam for a long time to execute long-term recovery work. PCI’s emphasis is on psychosocial work, now that the immediate physical needs of shelter and safety caused by the tsunami have been met.

We met self-help women’s investment groups. These women are wives of fishermen who have lost much of their fishing equipment due to the tsunami. In the self-help groups, women contribute savings, open a bank account, evaluate applications for loans, and give out loans to group members to start small businesses.  The women have elected a group chair, secretary, and treasurer. At our meting with one such group, the women wanted PCI to help them open a ready-made garment shop. They also requested a computer center for their children. When Gargi asked the women how she might help them, they said they wanted to reduce their fear of another tsunami, be more hopeful, and learn to be prepared for another tsunami.

We visited a crèche for babies up to the age of four. Those who can speak, sang Tamil nursery rhymes. The children were happy and sang loudly, being led by a pair of two-year-olds. In a men’s self-help group, men were repairing fishing nets. We saw much strength and resilience in all men, women, and children. This has been amazing for us.

Our orientation to help matches the psychosocial approach used by PCI. However, regardless of their different approaches, PCI, Seva Bharathi, and NalandaWay are having positive effects. We hope to continue our collaboration with all.

Gargi Roysircar-keeper of keys, gatekeeper, watchdog, and chief spokesperson Linda Lee-accountant, alternative thinker, water carrier, telephone carrier, and photographer Kristen Robinsonexpert on all things electronic, scout of internet cafés, restaurants, and directions, menu reader and interpreter for Linda and Miko, and photographer Miko Ishibashisuper-expert on all things electronic, pirate of Internet connections, puppet maker, and video-camera operator.

7/27. Hurrah! We gave training from our manual, Information Resource: How Disasters Affect People, Children, and Communities: Health, Help, and Assessment. We did a four-hour workshop for Public Concern International (PCI) counselors, social workers, and social coordinators, who came from distant campsites in fishing villages. They had traveled a couple of hours in public transportation to come to the training. We did the workshop at the invitation of PCI Nagapattinam coordinators, Mr. Malim and Mr. John Henry. Since we did not bring our play activities to Nagapattinam, Mr. Mailm generously provided us supplies. He cut saris into quarters, which made better scarves than what we brought from the USA. Mr. Malim and Mr. John took turns in providing simultaneous translations as we presented in English.

Linda opened the workshop by leading the group of seven men and seven women in a community-building scarf dance/activity. Prior discussion regarding whether or not we ought to label the activity a dance determined that we would call it an activity. Miko’s and Gargi’s input indicated that dance may not be an appropriate term for the activity because of male participants. The scarf activity was lead without words, using only hand gestures and music to direct it. Participants engaged easily and with enthusiasm. Thanks go to Kristen for providing soothing backdrop music by Enya, which helped create a relaxed atmosphere.

Gargi provided information from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-IV-Text Revised (DSM-IV-TR, American Psychiatric Association, 2001) and from other literature about traumatic events and people’s responses to trauma. From the cross-cultural literature, Gargi discussed disasters and their effects. She discussed cultural presentations of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms in India. When Gargi presented methods to assess PTSD, the PCI personnel gave estimates of prevalence rates among the tsunami survivors that they serve. About 5 to 10% have experienced full PTSD effects (similar to the rates in the general population in the U.S.); about 75% have shown some PTSD symptoms; 95% have general life functioning problems, which have also been discussed in the cross-cultural literature on disasters; 45% have presented somatization disorder (significantly higher than the rate in the general population in the U.S.); and 60% have been showing affective disorders. The counselors referred to high alcoholism among the fishermen. Upon being asked by Gargi, the counselors went around explaining what the tsunami meant to them as relief workers.  Gargi will include their meaning-making statements in our forthcoming revised manual. The counselors further added that their clients were fearful particularly because of the recent earthquake around Chennai (which happened two days ago) and also owing to rumors and gossip. They wanted to know how to make the survivors more hopeful. This talk led smoothly to the next phase of our workshop, when we discussed interventions for children (Kristen, Miko, and Linda) and adults (Gargi).

Kristen presented the criteria and assessment of PTSD in children. Using a resiliency model, she gave hope to a camp leader, who wanted to know how to increase hopefulness among his people. The literature we have read confirms that the outreach programming being implemented by PCI really does help survivors return to more normal functioning after a disaster.  Kristen presented helpful counselor responses, as well as activities with children at different age levels.

Linda talked about complicated grief and its relationship to assessment and symptoms of PTSD in large disaster situations. In these situations, crisis interventions are focused on meeting survival needs-food, shelter, sanitation, etc.-and the grieving process is frequently held at bay. Grief related to lost family and friends is made more complex by the loss of lifestyle as it was previously known. Participants shared their grieving and religious community death rituals and Linda made connections between the need for individual as well as community-wide ceremonies. Beaded memory bracelets and individual shrines were suggested as ways for children to honor lost loved ones. Our information resource, which was provided to PCI in both print form and on CD, was referred to for various activities for children to remember and honor those who were lost or killed in the tsunami.

Miko showed play therapy through the use of puppets, this group activity was a total riot. Under Miko’s guidance, PCI folks made puppets out of socks. The socks were given faces; long, colorful hair of wool; and decorated with jewelry, fishing net, or shopping bags (all of small size). When the group interaction started, a father bereft of a daughter adopted an orphan girl (both depicted as talking socks), a drunk refused to turn around to console a child, a community grandmother was affirming and encouraging to all, etc. This activity was fun and, at the same time, powerful. After the intervention, Miko introduced some methods of play therapy that might be useful for child survivors of the tsunami.

Linda closed the workshop with the scarf activity, guiding the participants and their scarves back into the circle. The symbolism of the movement guided the workshop group back to the individual level as each prepared to return to their villages with new information.

At debriefing, the PCI folks gave us very positive feedback. They liked the diagnostic information, and the differentiation made between a traumatic event and a disaster which causes social disorder. They loved the interventions and said that they would practice these with the children in the camps. They found similarity between their experiences and the discussion on grief, loss, and restitution. A couple of counselors suggested that we translate our manual in Tamil. Gargi said that she will get in touch with her undergraduate college in Chennai, which has a major in psychology. She will invite psychology students from there to do the translation. Upon our return to Antioch, we will revise our manual on the basis of the additional information we have acquired about the effects of the tsunami. Subsequent to the revision, we’ll develop a Tamil translation. Two counselors/social workers, Mr. B. Elayaraja and Mr. K. N. Tamil Kumar, said that they will provide tsunami cases (vignettes) for our manual. We are excited about a potential New Hampshire-Tamil Nadu collaboration for our tsunami-based manual on PTSD.

We had a wonderful time at the PCI workshop. We felt welcomed and appreciated. Linda’s heart was soaring, as she was touched by the receptive and generous spirit of our colleagues at PCI.

Kristen is turning into an indefatigable walker, wanting to soak up as much of Tamil Nadu as she can in these quickly passing days. Gargi fears she may fall into a fugue, and we’ll need to go into Chennai’s streets and alleys looking for her. Miko’s stomach condition has been cured with hot curry.

Gargi, Linda, Kristen, and Miko

7/31. We had a delicious Sunday brunch with our host family. While we have eaten similar vegetarian dishes in restaurants and street-side stalls, the host family’s food was fresher and less spicy, oily, and fried. We loved a grated carrots-and-cream dessert. As you can guess, we’re missing home-cooked meals. Some members of our host family will shortly be leaving for the United States to return to work (they live in the U.S.) or to visit with relatives in the U.S. We heard about current and forthcoming family events, such as a great grandson’s first birthday celebration that was accompanied with a head-shaving ceremony, planning for a son’s sixtieth birthday that will involve temple ceremonies and the renewal of marriage vows, and a granddaughter’s upcoming wedding.

In the afternoon, we did a play activity workshop for a slum neighborhood in Rotary Nagar, Chennai. Sriram Ayer, the founding director of NalandaWay, met us at a street corner and led us through a crowded dirt path, flanked with mud huts, street-side taps for public water supply, and mounds of garbage separated from other mounds of recycling materials. We reached the Rotary International Hall, which is a community center for the slum children’s education. As we waited outside the hall, excited children milled around us. A young woman who is in charge of the hall and is a tutor for the children unlocked the hall. Sriram had told us that twenty-five to thirty children would be attending our event. Fifty or more showed up. But we were not fazed by the very active kids and their numbers. We had come prepared with many items of three play activities and extra hard candies. The children settled down as the activities began.

Miko, Kristen, and Linda did the play activities, while Gargi was the observer and photographer. Sometimes she worked individually with two very active boys. Gargi was also the scribe when she was requested by the children to write under their pictures. These children did not know how to write.

As we had done in our workshop with Project Concern International in Nagapattinam, we began with the scarf activity/dance. Although the room was crowded, the children and adults found enough room to move around with swirls of colorful scarves afloat. At the end of the scarf movement, the children tied their scarves around their wrist.

While waiting for the volunteers to set up the activities, Linda tossed a huge yellow, happy face ball into the circle of children who were sitting on the floor and their voices erupted in giggles and screams. The children passed the ball around the room and reached forward or up to touch the ball while trying not to stand up.

The children were separated into smaller groups and directed to one of three activities. Linda had a Polaroid camera, along with drawing paper, crayons, and colored pencils. The camera was unfamiliar to the children, but after the first demonstration, all hands were clamoring to see the instant photos, and the line-up for photos grew. We only had film for twenty pictures, so children were grouped in pairs with siblings or friends, mostly through their own process of self-selection. Then the children were shown to draw pictures illustrating who they wanted to be when they grew up. Many wanted to be doctors, police-women, and teachers. All had great dreams for their futures. After about thirty minutes, the groups were rotated.

Miko started the puppet making activity by showing all the materials to the children. Children, who were screaming and jumping, suddenly became quiet and watched what Miko was showing them. After a volunteer explained in Tamil that the children could make socks puppets in free style, the children slowly started picking up some materials for the puppets. Most of the children worked on their puppets very quietly. After they finished, they asked Miko what they should do with their puppets. When Miko told the children that they could take their puppets home, the children’s faces lit up. Miko asked the children to name their puppets. The children named their puppets after their mentors and us. There were not enough socks to go around. Those who didn’t receive a sock created faces out of white paper and puppet-making materials. There were no complaints.

Kristen had a bag full of beads and several balls of yarn. To begin, she found a woven mat and she used this to sprinkle the beads on. She also found a big aluminum bowl in which she poured more glass beads. The children’s faces lit up when they saw all of the different colors and shapes. The most amazing thing was the children’s patience; they all waited to watch Kristen demonstrate the activity. Then without hesitation they began creating the most beautiful jewelry: necklaces, bracelets, anklets, and hair ornaments. There was no gender difference; boys were as interested in beading as the girls. Older children helped younger children, one-year-olds with runny noses queued up for Kirsten, friends helped friends, and if a child still needed help she called out, “Aunty, Aunty,” which was the name Miko, Linda, Gargi, and Kristen were given.

We let the children keep their beaded bracelets, necklaces, and anklets, their pictures, and their puppets. Each child left with a bright scarf tied to his or her wrist. Many more children turned up from nowhere and wanted Gargi to tie a scarf on their wrist. Our big bundle of about 100 neon-colored (pink, orange, green) nylon scarves that the Department of Clinical Psychology had purchased has now become a small ball. The candy distribution and the last round of scarf tying were making the children rowdy. It was time to close. Gargi was all smiles and satisfied and at great peace in the midst of much noise. As we left, we got a last glimpse of a totally naked little girl with a bright pink scarf tied around her head.

We had a great Sunday.

Gargi Roysircar, Linda Lee, Kristen Robinson, Michiko Ishibashi

8/5. On Saturday July 30th, we attended the afternoon sessions of the International Conference on Tsunami, Disaster Management, and Coastal Development. It was a two-day conference held at Taj Coromandel Hotel, Chennai, by the Madras Development Society, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). The organizers allowed us in without requiring registration, which was very generous of them. The main theme of the conference was how to reduce the impact of natural disasters (tsunami, earthquakes, cyclones, droughts, extreme rainfall) with disaster preparedness and management. We attended sessions on warning systems, surface-level water control, coastal management, meteorological observations, building codes, etc. Gargi liked the scientific information. She was nostalgic about meeting meteorologists from the India Meteorological Department, where her father had served as the director when she and her parents lived in Chennai. The meteorologists remembered her father or had heard about him. The conference information, however, did not increase our knowledge about post-disaster mental health. We found our need fulfilled, however, in our meetings with Professor Thiru, M.D., the chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Stanley Medical College; Mr. Uli, a German psychotherapist in Auroville (near Pondicherry) who works in an interdisciplinary team of help providers, Mr. S. Ramachandran, the director of social welfare in the State of Tamil Nadu; and Mr. S. Thomas, the UNICEF project manager for child protection. Dr. Thiru’s lectures on tsunami-related stress presentations, mental health, and mental health promotion will be included in our revised PTSD prevention manual.

Our meeting on August 6th with Mr. S. Ramachandran and Mr. S. Thomas was arranged by government contacts. Gargi wanted to find out about the government’s tsunami relief work since we had become familiar with the efforts of NGOs (e.g., Seva Bharathi Tamil Nadu, Project Concern International, Auroville). The host family introduced us to Mr. K. Gnanydesican, the Secretary of Finance, one of the highest-ranking government officials in Tamil Nadu. Mr. Gnanydescian and the Under Secretary Mr. Ashish Vachhani made a few phone calls at our August 4th meeting with them, and lo and behold we had appointments the next two days (August 5th and 6th) with government officials involved in tsunami relief. An interesting, happy discovery was that the government has a stronger psychological approach than the NGOs. The government is working with the World Health Organization and UNICEF to develop and implement psychosocial outreach programs in fishing villages and workshops on training of trainers who are local community stakeholders. Mr. Ramachandran, Professor Thiru, and Mr. Thomas attended a recent WHO conference in Chennia (the day we were at Auroville visiting relief efforts there) which assessed current community outreach activities, as well as proposed objectives and goals for long-term mental healthcare for children and women tsunami survivors. The WHO/UNICEF/Government conference on human services was quite different from the scientific Disaster Management Conference of the Madras Development Society. The good thing is that various effects of a natural disaster (geographic, infrastructure, and human suffering) are being addressed by different organizations with different expertise.

Mr. S. Ramachandran, the director of social service, spoke about the government’s goals for long-term care by using local community workers/collaborators, NGOs, and UNICEF, and by providing workshops and refresher courses on the training of trainers. Mr. S. Thomas of UNICEF described after school programming involving games, art, puppet shows, and drama. The UNICEF child protection activities come close to our line of thinking about play activities, activism, and providing access to the underserved and less privileged. Mr. Ramachandran gave us the WHO training manual, the government’s goal statements and objectives, and various other documents. The WHO document complements our own manual, copies of which, including CDs, we gave Mr. Ramachandran and Mr. Thomas. Mr. Ramachandran inquired about the concept of somatization disorder, which he found in our manual. Gargi was happy to explain how people could present somatic symptom in response to a traumatic event or other stresses. Mr. Ramachandran sent a staff member with us to locate a copy center, so that we could copy his original materials. We’ll read the government, WHO, and UNICEF materials and integrate these into our revised PTSD prevention manual.

Tomorrow (August 6th), we are going to Cuddalore to see the government’s physical and psychosocial relief work.

Gargi Roysircar, Linda Lee, Kristen Robinson, and Michiko Ishibashi Antiochians in Chennai

8/7. On Saturday August 6, we left at 5.00 a.m. for Cuddalore, which is four hours away from Chennai. Cuddalore was the second-worst hit area after Nagapattinam. About 600 people died in the tsunami and 50,000 were left destitute.  Mr. Gagandeep Bedi Singh, the District Collector of Cuddalore, had arranged for his relief team leaders to meet us. These were Ms. H. Grace Annabai, the District Social Welfare Officer, Mr. Mani, the District Youth Coordinator of the Nehru Yuva Kendra from the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Mr. Paul D. Patric, Project Coordinator for the Academy for Disaster Management, Education, Panning & Training (ADEPT) of the National Lutheran Health & Medical Board, and Mr. A Martin Mangala Raj, Coordinator of UELCI/ACT Tsunami Relief Operation. A woman medical doctor, who is in charge of the district’s health care, also joined us. She told us that only a small number of people (about 5%) needed psychiatric care after the tsunami. Mr. Singh’s team members were govt. officials as well as officers from a Lutheran Church organization. Three of these individuals joined us in our Toyota van and two rode on a motor cycle. We visited various sites in Cuddalore where their respective projects are located.

Upon receiving us in his office, Mr. Singh tried to locate Keene on a googled map of the United States. Though he could not find Keene, he learned from us that Keene is in southern New Hampshire, close to Boston, and that it’s a college town that may not find a spot in international maps. When Gargi asked Mr. Singh what the tsunami meant to him personally, Mr. Singh, shy at first to give a personal narrative, told us that on the morning of the tsunami, he was at a beachside hotel in Mahabalipuram (we visited this beach our first week in Chennai) to spend the Christmas weekend. Mr. Singh, his wife, and their two little girls were having breakfast in the hotel’s dining area on the ground floor (i.e., the first floor). A waiter rushed in and told them that huge waves were coming to the shore. By the time Mr. Singh picked up his girls to flee, the water rushed in and rose to his chin level, approximately 5 feet and five inches high. Mr. Singh said that he and his family barely made it to safety, which was possible only because of the building structure. Had Mr. Singh and his family been on the beach like many were on a Sunday of that Christmas weekend, they would have been washed away by the tsunami. Mr. Singh’s own trauma with the tsunami made him realize what might have happened to his seaside district of Cuddalore. He promptly returned to discover death and destruction in Cuddalore and took charge of managing the disaster. We found that Mr. Singh’s tsunami disaster management has received considerable press coverage in The Hindu and The Indian Express, two daily English newspapers of Tamil Nadu. Mr. Singh’s staff has taken hundreds of pictures of their training sessions for post-disaster management, relief activities with survivors, and Mr. Singh’s inauguration of and/or participation in these events. These pictures are provided as outcome documentation. Mr. Singh gave us a recently published book called, Disaster Psychosocial Response: A Handbook for Community Counselor Trainers. The book has been published by the Academy for Disaster Management, Education Planning & Training (ADEPT). Gargi found the book to be well-written, well-informed, and concise. It’s a self-help psychology book without professional words or style of writing that can be used by a lay person who wants information prior to helping disaster victims and survivors. Interestingly our own manual, Information Resource: How Disasters Affect People, Children, and Communities: Health, Help, and Assessment, parallels the ADEPT book with a more of a psychological and professional orientation. We are happy to find validity and confirmation for our own line of thinking in the psychosocial literature endorsed by the Tamil Nadu government.

At Cuddalore, we went to an orphanage for girls and boys who were between a few months old to about 14 years. There were about 40 of these children, who had lost at least one parent in the tsunami. The children were waiting for us in the front hall. They were sitting on the floor cross-legged in rows, from the smallest to the tallest. A baby in the arms of an attendant was crying because she had a fever and had just returned from the hospital. Her four-year-old brother drew lots of pictures and gave these to Gargi.  Ms. Grace Annabai told Gargi that the children’s mother had died in the tsunami. The father had left the children at the orphanage. Since then he has remarried. When the father comes to visit his children at the orphanage, the little girl refuses to go to him because she does not know her stepmother; her brother, however, is happy to meet the father. The government has given each tsunami orphaned child up to the age of 18, a compensation of Rupees 1 Lakh (that is, one hundred thousand rupees), which has been put into investments by the govt. until the child reaches adulthood and can use the money for higher education or for starting an occupation.

The children in the orphanage welcomed us with songs. Then, they naturally broke into small groups of boys and girls of similar ages and started drawing and coloring. The older girls and boys included the little ones in their groups and got them involved. Each group shared one piece of paper and some crayons. They took turns in completing a picture, or they took one corner of a page to do their own drawing. We were struck by the children’s group sharing and cohesion. There was no fighting over crayons or paper. We saw no jealousy or competition. When Gargi asked the children what type of sweets they would like to eat, the children, shy at first, said that they would like to eat cake. From a local bakery, we bought cup cakes and sliced cake and distributed these among the children, orphanage staff, and the officials that had come with us. The children took one piece of cake each and refused another, so that there would be enough to go around. We were seeing before our eyes what cross-cultural psychology writings theorize about collectivistic cultures. Perhaps also, shared grief and loss bring societies together and arouse altruism.

The children presented us with their drawings.  Gargi is taking home to Keene a large collection of drawings by tsunami orphans. Kristen has suggested that we make greeting cards with these drawings. Gargi thinks that Kristen’s suggestion is great one. She hopes to send the children’s drawings as cards to friends and donors of the Antioch Tsunami Shakti-Empowerment Project (ATSP), as well as sell sets of cards to raise money for the continuity of ATSP. Maybe the Antioch bookstore will display and sell the tsunami children’s cards.

We visited ADEPT. ADEPT is a Lutheran organization that provides services to older girls between the ages of 14-20 years, who attend secondary schools. About 50 girls were sitting in chairs in a circle under a huge banyan tree to meet us. At ADEPT, the girls receive education on environmental hygiene and sustainability, career choice, and vocational training. The girls are trained by young community counselors, who have been trained to run self-help groups by NGOs and govt. social service officers, who were themselves trained in psychosocial workshops on training the trainers,  conducted by WHO, UNICEF, and resource people. Boys belong to youth groups. It appears, however, that there are less boys than girls in orphanages and self-help groups. We learned that boys are more frequently adopted by relatives or they find employment more easily than girls. In the ADEPT program, the community counselors initially made home visits to reach the girls. As the parents began to believe in the good intentions of ADEPT, their daughters started to come to the ADEPT facilities after school hours. Four young women who like athletics have been enrolled for training in sports. These girls want to be runners or play volleyball. When Gargi learned that they did not have shoes for athletics, she asked them to draw outlines of their feet on paper. Gargi said that she would send the ADEPT office sneakers for the girls after she returned to the United States.

Mr. Paul D. Patric, ADEPT’s Project Coordinator, gave us a case history of a 26-year-old mason. After the tsunami retreated, the mason found bodies on the beach that looked like people who were asleep. The bodies showed no injuries or wounds. The mason lifted each body and carried it to a higher ground. He did this without a pause and continued pick up bodies in a mechanical trance-like manner. Day after day, as bodies washed up, he carried these away. He became psychotic and was hospitalized. Upon release from the hospital, he continued to be sleepless, to make loud startle responses, and scream that a tsunami was coming. He walked extensively. Mr. Patric would walk with him and calm him down. Mr. Patric’s companionship helped. Mr. Patric approached the District Collector and with the help of a local newspaper story on the mason’s condition and society’s lack of recognition of his service to the dead, Mr. Patric was able to procure governmental financial assistance. The mason now owns a small provisions store in his village and appears to be doing better. We praised Mr. Patric for his activism for tsunami survivors and for his counselor helping skills. Mr. Patric showed us lots of pictures and newspaper clippings of ADEPT’s tsunami relief work.

Mr. Mani, the District Youth Coordinator of the Nehru Yuva Kendra, the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, took us to his office. There, teachers, who were both men and women, were having their regular consultation meeting. The teachers had undergraduate degrees, understood our questions in English, and some answered us in English. They are paid a small stipend to meet some basic expenses. The teachers hold after-school extra-curricular programs in their respective fishing villages. These programs include play and art activities, as well as tutoring. The teacerhs showed us games, puzzles, and art supplies that UNICEF has provided them. These supplies were similar to the play activities that we had taken with us and distributed among the tsunami camp children. The parents also visit the after-school programs. The teachers said that the most difficult part of their job was communicating with the parents and the most fun part was being with the children. The teachers believed that most of the children had recovered from the immediate trauma of the tsunami and were returning to normal lives.

We haven’t yet mentioned our visit to the Auroville on August 2 and 3rd. Heidi Watts, a faculty member in Antioch’s Environmental Studies Program, has been connected with Auroville for many years. She goes to Auroville yearly to train teachers in expressive and creative ways of education, which augment the more didactic teaching methods employed by schools in India. Heidi connected Gargi via e-mail with Bhavana, an American woman from New York who has taken an Indian name and who has a senior management position at Auroville. Aroville, which is about 30 miles from Pondicherry, is a center of spirituality, international peace and philosophy, environmental preservation and greening, indigenous arts and crafts, and natural healing practices, which include massage therapy that is provided in a beautiful, peaceful building called The Quiet Center. In Southern India, where people are dark-skinned, we were surprised to see, as we entered Auroville, many light-skinned individuals in Western summer clothes, who were zipping around in motorcycles. These were French, Germans, and Americans who are attracted to Auroville’s philosophy of a natural, spiritual, and balanced state of being and consciousness. There is a French bakery in Auroville! Bhavana provided us the best rooms in the Auroville guest house, which is surrounded by tall shady trees, large brilliantly blossoming orchids, and potted tropical plants, a veritable place for respite, meditation, and healing. Bhavana and two relief coordinators took us to Auroville’s tsunami relief center. In this center, we found Indian staff and Western volunteers doing active fund-raising and management at desktop computer stations. Tsunami card drawings and a female doll named, Tsunamika, are being sent all over the world with requests for donations. Among all NGO’s and government activities that we visited, Auroville was unique in its use of the internet and creative methods to appeal to supporters for their tsunami relief work. On the Auroville beach, we found a unique device built to help fisherman produce dried fish.’  Again, this fairly simple contraption of screened sloping shelves pointed to Aurovilles inventiveness.

A woman with her two children was collecting water from a water pump on the beach at Auroville. Through a translator, Gargi asked her what she was doing on the morning of 26th December 2004. The woman said that she was sitting on the beach when she saw the waves coming. Screaming she ran up the beach. Talking to Gargi and the Auroville relief coordinator, the woman looked at the heavens and thanked God that her children were away that morning, visiting relatives. She said that she would not have been able to escape carrying and pulling both her children. When Gargi asked what she thinks about the tsunami now, she said that she has nightmares of the tsunami waves and wishes that these would go away and that she would not continue to have fears for her children’s safety. She said she wanted to know how to be prepared for another tsunami. When Gargi asked her whether she would like to talk to a counselor about her fears and about being personally prepared for a disaster, she said that she would like that very much. At the Auroville guest house, a German psychotherapist, Doctor Uli, who lives in Auroville, described a case of tsunami family counseling, which he did in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami. An interesting point he made about the case was that pre-tsunami tensions and needs in the family surfaced and exacerbated after the shock of the tsunami. It was the tsunami experience that made a husband, wife, and child open up and express their wants to each other. The tsunami experience has also reinforced negative behaviors in fishermen, such as alcoholism and gambling.

We walked on the beaches of Auroville and Cuddalore. New, brightly colored fishing boats donated by international charities and foreign countries line the beaches, awaiting government inspection, processing of papers, and motor fitting.  We saw at Cuddalore large fishing speed-boats, participating in commercial catches. We were told that the fishermen have more boats now than they did previously. With Western equipment, they may use less the traditional catamarans that are planks of wood tied together and taken to sea. The fishermen do not know how to swim. In stormy seas, they can hold on to an overturned catamaran and float to safety. The large, bottom-heavy fiberglass Western boats may not be easy to overturn and cling to. As we walked on the beaches in the afternoon, our sandaled feet burned in the sand, which was hot enough to bake cake, fry eggs, and grill meat. The fisherman and villagers walked bare-footed in the sand quite comfortably.

Our three-week trip to tsunami-affected Tamil Nadu is over. Every office and agency welcomed us with tea, coffee, cold drinks, and snacks. We have fulfilled every goal that we had envisioned and return home to the United States with much appreciation, gratitude, and wisdom.

Gargi Roysircar, Linda Lee, Kristen Robinson, and Michiko Ishibashi Antiochians in Chennai, Cuddalore, Pondicherry, and Auroville