Global Mobility Finland Volunteering in Indonesia, Earthquake Tragedy part 5

15/08/2018 Wednesday, Day 6. Sanur, Bali, Indonesia

Our team in Sanur: Aleksi, Tati and myself.

The whole day we were writing reports, updating all the channels of social media, different groups and pages. Sharing the information about the happenings, sharing pictures, videos and statistics. We searched for more suppliers for tarpaulins and found out that there are not many of them and the wholesalers didn’t want to share their contacts and suppliers with us, of course they wanted to have their own profit out of selling the goods.

More we were sharing and writing, more we received emails, messages and phone calls we needed to answer. 

We got the rights from Hämeen Sanomat to translate the article in English and the rights to use the material as we wish. You have probably seen the videos and pictures already in my previous posts. Very sad. Until now I had written my report in Finnish, which I realized was not the best choice, so I worked on translating my texts in English and lost a lot of time in that. Every day we have received more donations, small amounts but every cent is important! So, keep on donating! Today, from my network, I want to thank two companies Huivikauppa.com and Susanna’s who has generously donated money for people in Lombok. Thank you so much!

In the evening, we went for a dinner to a local restaurant, who had organized a concert with local bands, to collect money for Lombok. That was very touching, and we enjoyed the music and the atmosphere. It’s very nice to notice that there are plenty of people doing different things to help. It doesn’t need to be money, it can be anything.

https://www.facebook.com/511691525830236/photos/a.541335629532492/716366105362776/?type=3&theater

16/08/2018 Thursday, Day 7. Sanur, Bali, Indonesia, Donations: 2800€

There are not much to tell, the day went as yesterday. Communication. That is the best way we can help at the moment, to just use all the channels to spread out the word and share the information and ask people around us, in Facebook, in Linked In, in Instagram to share our posts and the link for donation. I want to thank in my private network Iurii Teslia for a donation <3. Today we met Mira, a local girl who used to work and live in Gili Air as well. She wants to help us to find suppliers and it’s useful to have help who speaks the local language. Aleksi worked on a video we received from Juni, he created a You Tube video with the subtitles with all the facts we have and added music that goes together with the atmosphere of the scene.

Check the video n Youtube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-VZWe2ek6Q

After shocks continue in Lombok and there is a feeling of frustration in the air. Even we do a lot, it feels that nothing is enough. To be here, where we are all the time involved and trying to create the awareness around us trying to do our best and be present, it’s not easy, psychologically it’s very difficult. What we find hard and what drives us nervous is the people around us in our network who does not share our posts, even sharing is caring. Donations are the most important, but even just sharing the posts and create awareness is so important. Of course, we do understand, that we are near, and all the tragedy is present, and we live it all the time, in comparison to people far away from all this, have their own problems and lives and worries, work, children and other important things in their lives. We compare and value our work and time spent by shares and donations, and that is somehow depressing, even though the amount of donations are all the time growing, day by day.

17/08/2018 Friday, Day 8. Sanur, Bali, Indonesia, Donations: 3500€

Early morning Tati left Sanur and headed back to Gili Air. Few days of “rest” practically just a rest of being on the island and sleeping in a real bed and have proper meals did good to her. She was anxious to get back to her home island to see how things are there.

I was affected by a very strong stomach flu on Thursday evening and I was out of the game for two days. Aleksi worked really hard on changing the contacting strategy, by writing private messages to people he knows. That took him all afternoon till late night.

When the 5thof August Earthquake hit in the early evening Tati was preparing herself to go out to a birthday party she was invited. Brushing her hair, when all happened, she run straight out of the door, which was really hard as the ground was moving so strongly. It was hard to reach out for the door, which was luckily open, as it felt that the whole wall was moving. She got out without any significant injuries. She heard her neighbor screaming next door and got a hold on her. It was black dark. All the electricity went off straight away and visibility was zero, before your eyes gets used to the darkness. The internet connection was gone and no network anywhere. They run towards the beach, where there were no trees, nor buildings. Panicked people everywhere. All the hotels, bungalows, guest houses, full of tourists and the local people and business owners trying to get everybody out of the buildings. Suddenly the network came back and the information about Tsunami warning arrived the people on the island. Gili Air is a flat island and there are no very high points. People gathered to a football field which was described as the highest point of the island. After that night there were three deaths on the Gili Air. If we can say, “luckily” this happened early evening, so most of the people were still out, dining and spending a nice evening outdoors and not sleeping in their beds in the middle of the night. In that case the death rate would have been several times bigger.

Donations in here: 

https://www.gofundme.com/ztkntc-lombok-earthquake

Take care!

-Jenny