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Cheryl and Louise, the
Australian midwives we sent to Aceh on team II
have just returned. They are
carrying something we have come to call "The
Aceh Light". They worked so
hard, day and late into the nights. In the
most primitive conditions,
i.e. sharing a pit toilet with 9 people, often
running out of water,
sweltering in intense heat. (remember the tsunami
took most of the trees away
making it triple hot). These women did
patient care, trauma
counseling and worked as liasons between large
international NGOs
(non-government organizations like UNICEF, UN,
Red
Cross, Catholic Relief
Services, etc) After a month of that they come
back
looking ten years younger!
They cry easily, bursting into tears when they
were reunited with my sons,
who were on the team with them and returned a
few days earlier. They cry
for missing the people. They ask outloud "What
are we doing here, when we
are more needed in Aceh? They are wearing their
hearts on the outside of
their bodies. This has been true of every
individual who has worked
with us in Aceh. My young sons are transformed,
everything good and beautiful
about them has been strengthened. The
attitudeš that characterizes
youth has been washed away. I would say that
the lesson of Aceh is "More
love less attitude." The people of Aceh have
lost absolutely everything,
some have lost everyone they love, indeed, every
person there is grieving, no
one was left unharmed. To live among them is
to be converted to the
religion of gratitude. None of us will ever take
a
single moment with a friend
or lover, or child, or family for granted. Aceh
is the most broken place on
earth today, and the most healing.
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