Power of positive thinking
After emergency work was done to open roads linking Jialan to the outside world, tribespeople who had moved away from home (including the well-known singers Kimbo Hu and Panai) came rushing back to their homeland. In addition, friends from many local organizations and neighboring communities came forward to help.
Ulung Lupiliyan, a young person from the Lalaolan tribal community in Xianglan Village, returned home on Day 9. He heard a lot of stories from members of the Jialan young men's tribal organization, such as how a self-help organization and a common kitchen were formed the first day, and how some people went into the mountains to pick wild vegetables to supplement the food supply, others visited homes to catalogue various people's needs, and still others paid morale-lifting visits to the injured or elderly people living alone.
In an article published online, Ulung Lupiliyan wrote: "The young men there also told me that every day the whole community would have dinner together by candlelight. Also, it was very quiet because not a single car passed on the provincial highway between the South Taimali Bridge and Jinlun Village. The starry skies were beautiful, and they even watched a meteor shower all together. Yet, despite this romantic description, I know that when the village was cut off from the outside, it was an unnerving time for everybody."
Romance and laughter in the face of disaster? Oddly enough, this is without doubt one of the ways that indigenous peoples use to recover from traumas.
Jennifer Chen, the associate administrator of St. Mary's Hospital in Taitung, who organized a group on Day 2 to provide medical treatment and psychological nurturing, says that it is very difficult, albeit essential, to create a mood of "positive thinking" in a disaster area, yet the indigenous people she encountered were already acting on their own to give solace to one another and even to find things to be relieved about: "Everyone is still alive, that's great!" "It's a good thing this happened in the mountains, where so few people live; if this had happened in Taipei, what a catastrophe!" And even jests: "I guess it's better that the flooding happened in Aboriginal areas, we're better runners than the Han Chinese!" At meetings and masses organized by the St. Mary's team, the volunteers cited these positive thoughts as models "to encourage the victims and also to express our admiration for them."
However, beneath the facade of optimism, this was no doubt a tragic event that traumatized the villagers to an extent hard for them to fully express. Chen Shih-shien, chief executive officer of St. Mary's Hospital, has an especially strong memory of a scene he witnessed at the shelter on Day 3: An old hunter, who had come down from the mountains alone, and who was soaked to the skin, only muttered the words "so hungry" after rushing desperately into the shelter. He seemed not to even hear the words of concern and questions of those around him, and after getting his bowl of instant noodles just huddled in a corner and ate. After he had eaten about half, someone offered him a betelnut, and then later the same person silently gave him a glass of millet wine; then someone else sent over a bowl of noodles with all the fixings, and talked to him a bit. Perhaps it was the sincere concern for his well-being that helped him relax, or the stimulus of hot food, but as soon as the old man lit up a cigarette and drew a few puffs, he began to weep without stopping.
"There are a lot of people like this who can't really find emotional release, especially among people who were hit by Typhoon Haitang and for whom Morakot is a second disaster. Also, medical personnel, who make helping others their priority, often are the ones who most need emotional support." Chen Shih-shien, who also participated in reconstruction work after the earthquake of September 21, 1999, says that this is why when outside groups come into disaster areas with psychological rehabilitation programs, they first to simply hang out with the victims and win their trust, and moreover have to proceed step by step and work continuously for a long period of time.
The women of the "Mountain Redoubt" all take a hand in preparing meals; the fresh food is donated and shipped by charitable groups.