Memories and departure

The first time that Indonesia really came into my consciousness was the early morning of December 26, 2004. Almost five years later, I'm a half-hour from boarding a series of flights that will — a day and a half from now — bring me to Jakarta, Indonesia's capital and largest city.

My home telephone rang at 5:30 a.m. that December 26 — the day after a comfortable and heartwarming Christmas spent with my wife and our two-month old son. I bolted from bed, found the phone and answered it. The hurried, breathless voice on the line belonged to Matthew De Galan, Mercy Corps’ Chief Development Officer.

“Roger, something’s happened in Indonesia. A massive wave slammed into villages along the coast. We don’t know the details yet, but it’s bad,” Matthew explained. “Find out what you can and let’s get something up on the website right away.”

Over the next half-hour, I found out everything I could about what was coming to be known as the Indian Ocean Tsunami. I scoured television and Internet news sources to glean tidbits of the still-developing story. Most online news sites — including CNN and The New York Times — were slammed with traffic and unreachable, so I ended up gathering details from smaller regional news sites. I found phone numbers and tried to contact my colleagues in Indonesia to get an on-the-ground perspective.

Finally, with scant but telling details scribbled on the back of an envelope, I posted an update to the Mercy Corps website: headline, story, appeal and a way to donate online. Shortly after 6:00 a.m., we received our first tsunami-specific donation. My team, which was scattered around the country for the holidays, sprang into action as never before: that day, Mercy Corps collected more than $42,000 in emergency funding online. The next day, that total rose to well over $500,000. Then, over the four days that followed, online giving didn’t dip below $1 million a day.

The stories that came out of Indonesia over the next few weeks were some of the most chilling, personal and inspiring pieces I’ve ever read. They spoke of unbelievable destruction — but also bore witness to new businesses taking shape, villages persevering and schools reopening.

There are many reasons I will never forget December 26, 2004. One of them is how the power of human kindness can rise up to meet unimaginable tragedy. Another is how a team can come together from all across the world to meet a challenge and serve survivors.

I am looking forward to seeing yet-unvisited places in Indonesia that became so much a part of my life almost five years ago, and meeting some of the people I was proud to call my colleagues in the tsunami's aftermath.

I am on my way.