Chapter 7

July 2009, Sudan

When the sun started going down, Karen understood what I meant with waiting with the pictures. She did not see the actual sunset but once the shadows grew longer, the shapes in the ravine became more visible. She probably would have continued taking pictures all evening, but felt the pressure to move on.

"Karen, I have a series of pictures of the ravine, both in the morning and at the sunset. I can show you those, and you'll be free to use them if you find something you can use."

She reluctantly agreed, and we were soon on our way. She was still in her thoughts when I pressed on.

"Why don't you pick up your computer from the hotel, so that you can immediately transfer all the pictures before you come to have dinner with my family?"

That got her attention, and even without looking at the rear mirror I could feel her eyes drilling my neck.

"Greg, I'm not sure that's a good idea."

"Nonsense, I have already informed them that you'll be coming. Just pick up your laptop and some extra clothes. You can take a shower at our home to wash away the sand."

Okay, so I was a bad person and enjoyed seeing her uncomfortable. However, I wasn't going to give her any choice in that. After a bit more pressing she agreed, but I could feel that this wasn't going the way she had planned. I stopped outside her hotel and waited inside the car as she went in to pick up her laptop, and get some extra clothes.

I guess her curiosity was greater than her discomfort, since it didn't take her long to collect her stuff. I closed my eyes for a moment, and did some exercises in order to calm myself down before she re-entered the car.

I had a feeling that there would be some dark times ahead. I had faced darkness before. I just refused to let it control my life. Or I had to at least try.

End of year 2004, Khao Lak, Thailand

With a few little bribes, I was able to legally – sigh – adopt Pam. For the first time in a long time, I was really, really happy with my life. The small hospital we were building was progressing nicely; and even if the logistics failed ... as usual ... I was able to calm Mac down, as we got some of the hospital's stuff delivered months before anything was really ready. I managed to borrow a lift, and it was stored securely on the third floor.

At home I had my own projects in making our house better. We now had some nice glass doors in the living room, opening to the beach that was there behind some trees. Toey's pregnancy was progressing without any big problems. I didn't consider it a problem that she was occasionally quite horny! Pam sometimes rolled her eyes in the mornings, but I could see that she was happy for her mother, and I couldn't really complain about the way she had accepted me as her new father.

By this time it was already quite obvious that Toey was pregnant, and even if she tried to protest it, she loved the fact that I pampered her occasionally. We decided to use of all the nice features of Christmas, and we combined them into one good family party. Toey and I continued the celebration until late in the night and we both fell asleep with smiles on our faces.

Toey was a sound sleeper. I left her sleeping when I woke up, to find Pam already awake and once again rolling her eyes at me. When I looked at her I suddenly got an idea.

"Pam, why don't you come with me and we'll surprise your mother with some fresh stuff. The local market probably doesn't have much, but if we take the scooter and drive a bit further, we should be able to get something nice."

Soon we were on our way, after leaving a short note for Toey, riding our recently purchased scooter. At first I had considered getting a car, but after looking at the traffic here for a few months, I decided that a scooter would do. If we were all going some place together, we could have a taxi. I just had to admit that I loved driving the two-wheeler on those narrow roads.

We were on our way back to our house when something out at sea caught my eye.Or it was the lack of the sea that caught my eye! Suddenly things started clicking inside my head. There had been an earthquake, check. Now the sea was retreating away from the beach, check. I stopped abruptly and gave my phone to Pam.

"Call home and alert your mother. There is a tsunami coming!"

She called and called but there was no response. I should have guessed, since Toey wasn't a big fan of mobile phones and she had hers on silent mode most of the time and always on weekends. Pam just shook her head when I started the scooter again.

"Keep on trying. I hope we'll get there in time."

Our drive down to the coast was something terrifying. I drove as fast as I could and yet I tried to warn all the people I saw. I think most of them did not get it but just cursed the crazy driver with his scooter. However, some people seemed to take a look at the sea. I had no time to check.

We almost made it. There must have been a smaller wave that came earlier since when I glimpsed the beach there was some rubbish all over it. At one point I saw the wall of water approaching, but I just kept on driving up to the point where we were facing it. The feeling of failure was something terrible and totally devastating. I had stopped the scooter and looked at the water for a moment. It felt like the time had stopped, but the moment couldn't have lasted any longer than a second or two since then I felt Pam's hand around my waist I knew that I had to do what I could, just to save her.

I turned the scooter and we started another crazy drive back in the direction we had come. Once again we almost made it, but in front of me I could see that a part of the winding road was already under a mass of water. For a second I considered going off-road but with our scooter that was not really an option. That left only one possibility. I stopped the scooter next to a big utility pole. As soon as the scooter stopped I hugged Pam and lifted her on my shoulders and together we started climbing up the pole.

We were behind the pole when the water hit us. Luckily I was able to use the buoyancy of the water in getting higher on the pole, and I was able to keep my head above the water most of the time. My hands and legs were hit several times by some stuff that was coming with the water. The only time Pam screamed was when a dead body hit the pole where we were hanging. All I could see was that it was a male body. Somehow it felt better than if it had been a woman.

At some point I lost the sense of time. I just noticed that instead of pulling me away from the pole the water started pushing me towards the pole. When we finally were able to stand on the ground - or in the mess that used to be the ground - I was almost too weak to stand on my own. Again, it was the presence of Pam that forced me to gather myself. She was still holding my cell phone in her hand and she had managed to keep it from getting wet. However, it didn't matter a whole lot right now since there was no signal. When she looked around, all the devastation suddenly overwhelmed her, and she started crying and hugging me. Feeling a young girl hanging onto me gave me the strength I didn't know I still had.

The human mind does amazing things. When the devastation around you is something too big to understand, your mind keeps you occupied with little things. I checked Pam and her only injuries were some bruises on her legs and some scratches and splinters in her hands. I checked my phone again but there was no signal. I turned it off to save the battery. Only then I noticed that Pam was looking at me.

"Dad, you're bleeding."

When I looked at myself I found some wounds and several bruises but there was no way that I could use anything that I had been wearing for the wounds I had. Pam did not hesitate. She took off the shirt she had been wearing, and tore it into strips. She used them to bandage the biggest wounds on my legs and arms. I took off my T-shirt, squeezed it as dry as I could, and then I gave it to her. There was no sign of our scooter, so we started walking towards our home.

What should have been a half an hour walk took us several hours. First there were bodies lying all around. I just couldn't walk past them with without checking. Once I was sure that the person was dead I closed his or her eyes and if possible also covered the head. Suddenly we also found that there were other people who had survived. There were all kinds of people and people of all ages and all of them seemed to be hurt or in shock. I was sure that I was in shock, too, but still I tried to get the people organized and helping each other. Part of my training in the construction site had included first aid and that was something Pam and I started giving to those other people.

There was a nearby shop that was devastated, but inside the non-functioning fridges were several unopened bottles of water. The building also offered some shade from the sun, and I gave instructions to those in better shape to gather all the injured people into the shade and make sure that all those who could drink stay hydrated. There were also some swimming mattresses that had remained inside the shop, and I managed to get a young man filling them with air, and giving them to those who were hurt most.

When I finally saw that our house was still standing, I got the silly idea that there was still some hope. However, before rushing in I came to my senses and stopped Pam in front of the house as I noticed that most probably the whole house had been under water.

Toey was still inside the house and in her nightgown. It seemed that the glass doors had given in and some big piece of glass had hit her and then she had gotten stuck with the furniture. Her eyes were closed and the look on her face showed merely wonder instead of pain or horror. I hoped that it really had been like that. I found a bed sheet and I put it over her before carrying her out of the house. It was only after I had positioned her in the shadow in front of the house when we both lost it.

It was quite a lot later when we entered the house, together. We searched for some clothes, since only the windows had broken. The walls were basically intact and the furniture was still inside. The clothes were soaked, but were in better condition than the ones we had been wearing. We changed clothes and I put some of our soaked clothes and sheets out to dry on the patio. Then I disconnected all the electrical devices from their sockets. I took all the bottles of water I could find, and a can opener. I forced Pam to eat some canned fruits. Then we left the house and started searching for people to help.

The next few days were chaotic and the smell was terrible. At some point the first helpers came and I instructed them to drive me and some other people to the construction site. All the things that had been delivered here too early were still there on the third floor. More importantly, they were clean and dry. There were folding beds, clean sheets and mattresses, and even some medical stuff like bandages and splints.

Note from the author: I hope that nobody will find the preceding text disrespectful to the tsunami victims. I lost some friends there myself.

Gradually things started getting better, but the only way to notice it was that we were able to sleep a little bit more. All the time I had been there Pam was there with me, assisting and helping with the other kids. At some point there were enough professionals to take over, and Pam and I decided to return to our home. During our absence our house had been raided and anything that looked slightly useful had been looted. I had suspected that it could happen and we had some air-filled mattresses and some linen with me. Pam wanted to sleep next to me and some of the nights she still cried for a while before falling to sleep.

During the following months I could only watch and wonder about the unbelievable strength the people showed. Many of the people I knew had died. Mac and his wife were gone. May, her mother and sister were all gone. Many of our neighbors were gone. It was more than a week after the tsunami when I managed to send a message to my lawyer that he should not yet start spending my savings. After that it took almost two weeks before I had my phone charged and the connections were working again.