INJURED UVI VOLUNTEER CARRIED 8 MILES TO SAFETY

Nias Field Team Report

UVI co-founder and field director Marshall Bailey has returned to the States after a five month stint with the teams on location in Indonesia. Bailey was the last to depart from the original team of four that first joined the relief efforts in early March. Unfortunately, Bailey’s departure was forced by a knee injury he received in a friendly soccer game with locals while on an overland assessment in West Nias. However, despite difficult circumstances that surrounded the injury and a pressing need for medical attention, Bailey and experienced ELM volunteers were able to effectively manage temporary treatment and transport.

In the weeks prior to his return to the states Bailey and ELM team members had been assessing sub-districts of West Nias. After a local villager from West Nias approached ELM staff describing present conditions in the area several volunteers agreed to form a team and travel overland to the areas on a walk through assessment to gather first hand information. The team arrived via ferry in Gunung Sitioli where they met with the Bupati’s (Mayor’s) staff before setting off over land to the West Coast of Nias. After meeting for several days with village and sub-district heads the team arrived on the Nias West Coast where they were warmly greeted by the children of a local village.

Bailey became a hit when he revealed a soccer ball and agreed to a game in the evening. After the team had conducted their assessments they joined the villagers in a game as promised and hospitality requires. It was not long after that an unsuspecting Bailey awkwardly collided with another while playing. Bailey recounts, “It was pouring rain, no one wears shoes their…no one has shoes for that matter. We were the first foreigners ever to have visited their village.” Unfortunately, the impact sustained was enough to injure Bailey’s knee and prevent him from walking without pain and assistance. Luckily, the team, equipped with emergency medical supplies, was able to cast, splint, and wrap his knee until he was seen by a local doctor.

After receiving local medical treatment and orthopedic consultation over the satellite phone with doctors stateside, Bailey decided to avoid further injury and with help from the team began arranging a medical evacuation from the remote village. The well seasoned team of volunteers knew that the logistics of transporting the injured 180 pound Bailey over 8 miles of footpaths to a road and then to Gunung Sitoli for air transport would be difficult but not impossible. After a few days of planning the volunteers departed with a group of 25 villagers carrying Bailey on a rigged bamboo and cotton stretcher wading through shallow rivers and across make-shift bridges to reach their destination.

Bailey recalls, “The people were the most beautiful and kind in nature that I had ever met. Four days they fed me food they didn’t have, gave me a bed, aid, and shelter when they had none. They took care of me when I should have been taking care of them. I will never forget the sight of the procession of several hundred villagers that followed as we took off down the path into the distance.

Their generosity breaks my heart. I will return there. I must.”

Taking shifts carrying the stretcher along the 8 mile trek the villagers safely and swiftly lead the team to the main road where a van was awaiting their arrival. A genuinely sad goodbye was exchanged after Bailey had paid the village porters who expected and demanded nothing of there time and energy. Bailey explains, “There are few times when such a situation permits you to empty your pockets to the deserving without indecision and yet if I had everything I owned right there to give, I would have done so and still not felt satisfied.” The villagers that had cared for and carried Bailey to safety did so without hesitation or anticipation of compensation.

Late in the evening after a long and bumpy van ride Bailey and the team arrived back at the United Nations base camp in Gunung Sitoli where arrangements were made for his departure off the island. Bailey was treated stateside for his fractured knee and is expected to recover within 1-2 months. The rest of the team remained behind in Nias to continue with assessments of the West coast which is now complete. Information pertaining to the assessments of West Nias will be posted shortly.

UVI would like to thank Marshall Bailey for his efforts and the ELM team that took care of him and got him home safely. Bailey has been truly indispensable to UVI’s volunteer work throughout the past 5 months and we commend him for his dedication, inspiration, and strong resolve.