Samuel At Ground Zero

The following is an email I recieved from Samuel Lippke on January 4th. It gives an alarming picture of the extent of devistation. -Bob
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I just arrived home last nigth from the worst place on earth...Ira, Scott, Rolly (Indonesian translator) and myself were in Banda Aceh for 5 days.
As you probably know by now, Banda Aceh is the hot spot for the tsunami and the earth quake that caused the 10 meter tidal wave to crash on hundreds of cities around the world. Banda Aceh has also been in a civil war, a lot of rebels are trying to take over Aceh as a whole and make it a communist state/country, so for many years the rebels fight hard with no regard for human life...for example, the night before we left to come back to Bali, a bunch of police we're shot and killed and some of the main rescue workers (EMTs) were almost taken hotage by these ghams (the rebels) so even in disasater these rebels are still at it.

So we arrived in Banda Aceh after a long hard night of sleeping in the filthyest place on the planet (outside of the airport on the ground) talking to a guy at the UN building abouty getting credentials, working stuff out with the governor of Sumatra and then finally climbing on a militery hurcules airplane and buckling down for a flight to a real nightmare. We quickly became heros for going to Banda Aceh, as soon as we got the go ahead from the governor (He gave us the go ahead because we had some needed supplies, medical gear and top of the line water purifier, plus expereince) so as soon as we finished with the governor, the TV crews were all over us, although the crews were all from Indonesia, we had Rolly do some translating and we soon developed a trail of reporters wherever we went.

We arrived in Banda Aceh at about 10:30am and got shipped out to the town on a passenger carrying army vehicle...we were the only Americans these Banda people had actually seen in person, we stuck out like healthy people in a very sick area. I am very thankful for all of your prayers, we could definitly feel the power of all of the people praying, we had no clue what we were doing, but God was always on it, he directed us whereever we needed to go, he directed us to a hospital about 2 KM from where we were dropped off.

The Hospital was nothing like you could imagine...we walked in looking for the person in charge and couldn't find him...the building was packed with sick dying bleeding patients in rooms filled with needles on the floor, more trash than you could pile up on purpose in a 3 week span and enough disease in the air to take out the entire American army. It was not a good sight or feel, infact I wanted to throw up! I didn't know what to do, I was overwhelmed and nervous. We soon found the supply room and converted it to something acceptable, we started by organizing and cleaning just that room...it was soon ready to be used. we operated/cleaned/fed and did everything possible to make the place somewhat sterile, while we helped at least 35 patients with deep wounds and arms that needed amputations. The whole time I was there I was just praying that I wouldn't die like the others.

I was becoming numb to death, especially after I carried 4 dead bodies from the hospital and layed them in the parking lot to be collected. I figure I carried about 85 dead bodies in my 3 work days, some of the bodies were taken from ground zero (the place where nothing in site was standing and there was a dead bloated body every 10 feet.

I was cleaning a very deep wound at about 7:30pm and it was getting really dark, so I had an assitant a (random brave girl just willing to help) hold a flash light while I cleaned the wound (gash) that went all the way to the bone, I soon found that this patient was in such bad condition. I needed help getting this cleaned up and then moving her to a warm location before she died, so I grabbed Scott (who had just finished cleaning a man with gange green in the male genital area) and told him to help me out...soon after I was draining all the puss and I looked around and started feeling quezy...I dropped down to the ground unconscience...I came to a couple minutes later to Ira yelling "Samuel ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" I looked up and said "what happened?" He didn't really know except there were 3 people pulling me off the ground and yelling that Samuel fell. So I passed out. I hadn't eaten all day, plus I hadn't had a break in over 8 hours. It was a rough day...especially for Ira and Scott, they were operating (cutting flesh off of people) until 1am.

Alright, I don't want to gross you out much longer, which means I will need to stop writing, because everything I have to write is for the people that have strong stomaches and can take just about anything.

So the first day was insane, no organization, people weren't getting treated correctly, there weren't enough workers and the ones that were there to work ( a couple of military men) were the lazyist people ever!

The 2nd day was a little better, except that was the day I had to pull a dead blouted women out of a yard with a foot of sewer surrounding her (2 people, cuz everyone else refused to do it)...I hope to never see anything of that sort again and if I ever have a scent that reminds me of that, I may just scream...the worst site or smell you could ever imagine! I will stop there, because I'm starting to feel sick...

We slept in a better area the next night (the first night we slept on a floor in the dirty hospital, showering in a blood infested bathroom and breathing in scents of death) we stayed in dormatories with the newly arrived "help" ( I use quotations, because these people were more of a pain themselves than any help to anyone, they were from a part of the island that are known for not being good workers, they were the lazyist people I have ever seen!)
We slept in bunk beds that the nurses that died from the quake and tsunami had once slept in...it was eery to be sleeping next to a stuffed animal that once belonged to a nurse that is now dead.
So anyway, we kept working hard and trying to stay inside the hospital as much as possible, because that's where the military could protect us (I have never seen so many M16s) the Ghams (rebels) knew where we were and we heard rumors that they wanted to get the 3 Americans for political reasons (to kill us and make a big statement) they had found out about us because of all the interviews we did and also all the footage of us working in the hospital, we became well known faces.

We came home after 3 1/2 days of hard core work, we left really quick without telling people, so that everyone remained safe (we were escorted out by the military) we flew home last night and now I'm back in heaven...which is Bali at this point.

I will be taking these next few days that I have left in Bali to go to a resort and just relax, I need time to process all the disturbing stuff I saw so I don't go crazy like a lot of people I worked with (most all the people that were on the body clean up all went psycho and not mentally there, I was on that crew a couple of days with them). So I will proabably not be writing until I get into Tokyo which is on the 7th.

I miss you and can't wait to talk to you in person.

Samuel

P.S There was around 3-4 earth quakes a day there, ranging from 3-5 on the rictor...Also, we're famous as the "3 Americans" here in Bali, everyone has seen us on the news and on commercials from Aceh footage, its pretty wild.
P.S.S the death toll in Aceh Alone is expected to be around 80,000...very very sad.