The earthquake in Sumatra and how travel makes me a better person.
When I hear about natural disasters or wars in far-away countries, it doesn’t always feel very immediate and real. Sometimes a graphic piece of television footage or a moving first-person account will strike an emotional chord. Other times, I’ll know intellectually that people are suffering but I’ll have to use my imagination to feel empathy and compassion.
Travel is a great tool for developing that imagination. I have spent quite a bit of time in developing countries – working as a volunteer in Costa Rica and Guyana with Youth Challenge Australia (part of Youth Challenge International) in my early twenties and travelling to places like Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, China, Uganda, Tanzania, Tunisia, Syria and Turkey and for work and pleasure since then.
The variation between these places is huge – the landscape is different, the people and culture are different, the level of development is different. The similarities are also huge – in all of these places we have real people trying to live their lives as best they can, just as we do in rich countries. It’s just that in some places that’s harder than others.
I didn’t travel to these places to save the world or for self-improvement. I travelled because I was interested or because I was offered work that I found stimulating and engaging. I wanted to meet coffee growers in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, I wanted to see big game in the wild in Tanzania, and I wanted to look at colonial Spanish architecture in Nicaragua and Roman ruins in Tunisia, Syria and Turkey. But I do think that travel to these places has changed me as a person and made me more able to make that leap of imagination and empathise with people over terrible events, even if they happened thousands of miles away to people I don’t know. Maybe some people are born with it – in my case, the stamps in my passport helped me get there.
It is even more upsetting when disaster strikes a place where I have actually been. No imagination is needed then.
You may have heard about the massive earthquake in western Sumatra in Indonesia a few weeks ago. The quake struck near the city of Padang on 30 September. The death toll is at least 1,115 with another 1,214 people severely injured, according to official numbers. It is also estimated that the quake destroyed 135,000 homes and buildings, so the situation for survivors is also grim. This BBC report and video from earlier this month will give you some idea of the devastation.
I visited this part of the world in 2007 for work with photographer Peter Garmusch. We flew into Padang and then hired a driver to take us up to Bukittinggi, about 90km away in the hills. We were there to write about the Minangkabau tribe, a matrilineal, Islamic society. As it was a very people-focused story, I met a lot of people. I was only there for a few days but I was struck by the beauty of the landscape and the friendliness of the people. I keep thinking about the people I met and wondering how they are doing now, and how the quake affected their lives.
I’m sending money to the Australian Red Cross appeal. What about you? Medecins Sans Frontieres has also been doing great work.
Today I published the article I wrote from my trip. Please read it to get to know these people a little better.
I leave you with photographs of some of the people I met in this region. My thoughts are with them.
There seem to be a run of natural disasters recently – I heard about cyclones in the Philippines and a then a charitable contact I have in Andhra Pradesh in India contacted me about terrible flooding following unusual cyclonic rains in Kurnool.
.-= Heather Cowper´s last blog ..Review of Overcoming 7 major Obstacles to Traveling the World by Anil Polat =-.