Cooperation and Survival

On Boxing Day 2004 I received a phone call from my business peak body at the time, asking me to fly to Banda Aceh, a zone devastated just hours before by a Tsunami of unimaginable magnitude. It would be leaving from an airport 2 hours from my home in just 4 hours’ time, the area was Muslim and that they needed a woman on the first responders’ team. Would I attend?

Of course, people were in need, but I was also a single mother with two dependent sons and other responsibilities, which begged the question how?

What I discovered, was that with a simple word like yes, profound support and serendipitous good luck would walk with me from that moment until I touched down again in Melbourne weeks later.

It was cooperation, and it was the only way the region began again, the only way I got home, and the only way we could work on what became an enormous scale.

Two of us arrived in Indonesia, but after just 24 hours we had grown in number to a group of about 10 and we were on the move heading north through the country to get to the northern most tip of Banda Aceh. I should add here that we grew to a team 500 strong from 6 nations running 2 weekly turnarounds but that is another story, the point is cooperation was our how.

By the end of another 24 hours, we had established a team with an organisation called Aceh Sepekat, which we needed to help us enter the troubled zone, hindered even further because it was a war zone of sorts, in a viscous fight for independence from Indonesia.

Teaming with the political organisation was initiated by the local Rotary club, who I met because they offered me and the two other women in our unit a bed for the night, more cooperation and a most successful team, and the Rotary club got us into the region.

So, with teams and agreements, we arrived in the disaster zone within 48 hours of arriving in Indonesia with support, connections, and methods in place.

On a side note, I led the second team of 5 through the rainforest at night to enter Banda Aceh, but we were stopped and our passports taken by distressed gun-toting youths who had lost their leadership and were trying to take back control in a careless way.

It was a dangerous situation, but we negotiated our freedom in return for money, and a team member had plenty. Cooperation and generosity within our team, plus an unexpected bonus as those angry youths then took up the idea of becoming a private protection team, and all the unrest side of things was handled leaving us free to help as we so wished to do.

But to continue.

When in Banda Aceh, a world of devastation, loss, trauma, pain and lack, we found the human spirit alive and strong.

At first women started by making space for those left in their care, traditionally their role and one that needed to kick start before anyone settled.

From there the men acted, happy that the emotions were less confronting and the logical and practical could begin.

They collected and transported lost souls to places of support, brought screaming children to us for help and began the process of building structures more weatherproof and secure for their people.

The political networks started talks about how to relocate people and where, the armies from Australia and America built walkways, and ran water cleaning systems, brought in food and supplies, and setup places from which to distribute them.

At this point I feel it important to note that of course my time in Banda Aceh is a long story, but the events I am sharing are quite profoundly indicators as to why we ought to make cooperation a motivator and a chosen pathway to support success and expansion.

So, to another excerpt about cooperation, but this time involving the most magical of support for success and happiness, a blue butterfly.

After several weeks I needed to get home. Easier said than done. First my return ticket was now out-of-date, all my possessions were stolen or lost, except that most precious of items, my passport, and I was in a disaster zone with no commercial flights out. So how was I to get home?

Cooperation of course!

First, I asked my divine team for help, and they sent a dinner-plate sized blue butterfly that I took to mean “we’re on it” and I followed all butterflies from then on and when the next one appeared, I decided to trust and act and, without answers as to how, I announced my decision to leave.

First, I asked our transport operative to get me back to Medan, which he did, on an American Hercules Aircraft returning for more supplies that day. I was on that flight, taped into the rigging that held the cargo in place, unable to hear anything due to the intense roar of the engines, I might add, but within a few hours, through cooperation with the American Airforce and my team, I made it to Medan. One issue handled.

Second, my out-of-date ticket. There I was back to Medan, in a teaming airport of thousands refugees, and more, with no money, no ticket and no answers. When out of the throng walked a man, he just walked straight up to me and asked if I needed help, that was it. He was not an employee, he just saw I was lost and offered.

He took the ticket to a window and yelled and debated, then returned with an up-to-date ticket and change, which of course meant I had some money … wow!

He then showed me where to sit, which flight to take, how to navigate Jakarta airport at night, and after another 24 hours I was sitting on a commercial plane headed for Sydney.

My believe my entire experience only worked because of cooperation, it brought 6 nations together to help a devasted region, it brought political organisations together to sort and support, it linked me with my divine allies and it meant I could help and be helped to do so without expending worry on how, and it meant I was never alone even in a hostile and alien environment riddled with fear and loss and anger. Cooperation is AWESOME!

By El the White Witch
www.elenterprises.com.au