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Situation Report: American Samoa. Day 4.

by Tim Serban

Situation Report: American Samoa

American Red Cross volunteer Tim Serban was deployed to American Samoa Friday, October 2 as member of the National Red Cross Response Team. Tim is the Director of Mission Integration and Spiritual Care with Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, WA and has been a volunteer with Red Cross since 1999. His first volunteer training with the Red Cross was in Critical Incident Stress Debriefing. Tim is thumb-typing these reports and sending them home using his iPod mobile device--when connections are available.

Thanks to Tim's home Chapter in Washington State for sharing these reports with us here in Arizona.


Notes From: Tim Serban
American Red Cross Spiritual Care Response Team (SRT) Lead
Disaster Relief Operation (DRO) 560-Am. Samoa

DAY 3: Tuesday 10/6/09

Today began at LBJ Hospital in Fangatonga village toward the center of the Island.

The responsibility to assess the situation at the hospital mortuary which is clearly overwhelmed. We have a mental health person staffing two phones in a fairly large chapel space. All calls from the Island and "Off Island," as the locals call it, come through here.

We were invited to bring male support to key victims and families with adult males as there are no male support team caregivers on the island yet. We went to homes and supported strong Samoan families who had lost family members or those who had witnessed the deaths of many.

On our way down a devastated road in Pago Pago Village, a boy in his teens ran across a debris field to get our attention. When we stopped he asked, "can you come back and see my father, he needs to talk to us.”

We did and it was deeply moving, as (he told us how) his sister died in the tsunami and how she was found by her sister-in-law and cared for with the greatest dignity a person could receive.. To witness the tears of a strong Samoan man were just so deeply touching, as we will be seeking to reduce the fear of tears of our brothers on the Island.

Today, we were called "forever family of the Samoan people" and if today was the last it would have been so worth it.

After teaching the kids yesterday there's not a place we go where there's not someone waving thanks.

And as the day wound down in Pago Pago, I had received an email from home, with a request from the Mainland Washington (unlike) that I have never received before.

I did not know her, nor do I think we have ever met, but this unique request (came) after reading an article in the local paper about my trip…she called my home asking if I was ever in Pago Pago Village, would I check on the grave of her beloved brother who had died in the early 1960s and she had heard that the cemetery was destroyed in this Tsunami. So since we were already in Pango village we had just about an hour to get in and get out if the area. Having no idea where it was, we set off and located what appeared to be one of the only public cemeteries on island. We first observed devastation, headstones tossed by the tsunami and many were broken. I parked the car, said a brief prayer, and as I walked I was welcomed by the sight of the marker with his name on it. It was perfectly intact.

And as the sun shined brightly on this late afternoon sky between two massive jungle-like mountains, I made a call to the woman in her Everett area home, and after introducing myself I stated, “on behalf of the American Red Cross I am calling to inform you that I received your message and as we speak I am standing at the foot of your Brother's grave site…while the cemetery has sustained damage, your brother's resting place is safe and secure and has sustained no damage whatsoever.”

And as I heard the tears of gratitude, I let her know that we are honored to bring her this news and I have taken pictures of her brother’s grave which I will be able to share with her personally upon my return in a few weeks.

Today was clearly another one of those "deeply moving life-changing bookmark days."

A day that I will be unpacking for a lifetime.

Tomorrow, Wed. we will begin again with the children who lost their classmate, they will go with their teachers for a site visit to the location where their 11yr old classmate last lived. She was lost with her mother when the waves came through.

And the children will bring part of themselves to leave at the site. Then we will teach teachers about grief and the preschoolers and then my Mental Health colleague will go back to a high school to train teachers about Psychological First Aid. And I wrap up tomorrow with a few site visits to families and then work with leaders of Teen Challenge on Samoan TV at 6:30pm

All my best. Tim

 


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