Stories from the Cyclone Zone: Rice for Today, No Hope for TomorrowOM International“We travelled more than eight hours into the Delta Area by truck and boat to bring cooking utensils, food stuff, water and medicine to the people. It was wet and raining most of the time. We slept and ate in the boat,” said Paul. “We gave bags of rice to the farmers in the Delta area who survived the Nargis Cyclone. My heart really goes out to the farmers.”One old farmer man said to me, ‘There is nothing for us to do now, we can’t plant. We have to wait for the waters to recede or evaporate. We can’t bury the dead as there is no dry ground to dig and bury the bodies. We have the stench of death constantly with us as we eat, bathe and sleep. It is planting season now, but our buffalos are dead, our equipment has been destroyed, our houses flattened, our workers with the knowledge are dead… Our bags of rice for sale have been destroyed by the Nargis Cyclone, we have nothing to sell and we can’t plant for the next harvest. I have lost so many of my family members and friends.’ “The Delta area is the rice bowl of Myanmar. We eat the best rice when we plant the rice. Now people give us rice; we have never seen this kind of rice before in all our lives. Rice husks as rice, rice filled with weevils, broken rice. Next season, we may starve to death. What is there to hope for?” When we gave rice to a mother carrying a child she cried out, “I have rice today but no hope for tomorrow.” Tears just trickled down my face as we went from village to village hearing their stories.
Credit: OM International
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