flood update 3, 14 March

I'm heading to the beaches of Sri Lanka (OK, most ofmy time will be sitting in conferences, but will see the beaches too I hope!) so won't have much info fromthe flood zone for a while. Most of you have seennews now of the floods, and people do continue tosuffer. There are still many, many people living onthe sides of the roads in make shift houses, made moreunpleasant by ongoing rains. Not one prone to usinglittle sayings, I still have to say, "when life givesyou lemons, make lemonade" is one that Bengali's havecertainly taken to heart. The PARE program of MCC that I work with has been busydistributing relief supplies. For people who areliving in the makeshift house without cookingsupplies, they are receiving food that can be eaten asis as well as water treatment items. People able tocook food are receiving rice, oil, salt, lentils, oralrehydration salts and water treatment. There is always concern that the food gets to theright people, and this is always a challenge. Thereare always people who didn't receive it with obviousneed. At the same time, looking at the peoplecollecting the food, it's obviously they could haveused more food before the flood as well.

Riverfront property...written 30 July

Here's some photos of my riverfront property! I have ten people staying in my house right now -- 2 of whom are babies and think I'm the scariest thing they've ever seen.....get hysterical if I come within 10 feet. People are sleeping on the stairwell, on the roof, everywhere really, but many more are continueing to evacuate. Luckily have a stash of drinking water and a gas cannister to tide us over and the electricity is still working for the most part, as well as the phone line obviousely. In the next hours MCC will decide if we're doing some relief work or just need relief ourselves!

The River (written July 30th, 2007)

If you remember my first visit to my current home, I was pretty excited to be a couple miles from the beautiful Jamuna River. This river is now nearly waist deep at my house. I live on the second floor, and my office is a 3 storey building, so I am safe (able to wade between the two places at least for now) with water and food, but I am certainly an exception here. Please pray for my neighbors who are sufferring greatly right now. The rain has stopped, but this is water flowing from the floods in India and Nepal, so who knows how long it will continue. MCC is currently considering relief efforts, but there is a lot involved and it means suspension of other work for some time. The amazing thing is how good natured people are. A little girl started talking to me this morning. She greeted me, asked me where I was going. I asked her how her house was. With a big smile she said, "It has water, but we caught two fish." So there you go....the Bengali look on the bright side attitude. The longer people are marooned, and as water and food become more scarce, the situation will be more devestating.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers