Van and Erciş

Earthquake damaged building

Many of you may recall the huge 7.2 earthquake that took place in Turkey on October 23rd.  This past week I visited Van and Erciş– the two cities that were hardest hit.  It seemed to me that there is both good news and bad. 

Lake Van

Earthquake damage

On the one hand, the area has amazing natural beauty.  There is a huge lake (Lake Van) that is light blue in color (kind of like Lake Louise in Canada) set against mountains that still have snow on their peaks. 

Containers

About 160,000 displaced people are being housed in 34 orderly and neat “Kontaynir Kentler” (Container Cities) where each of 21,000 containers has a bathroom, kitchen, 2 bedrooms, heat, and a satellite dish.  The drinking water is tested daily to insure that it is clean, and there are nurses and doctors who staff the Container Cities. 

Container child

On the other hand, imagine the difficulties of 6 or more people living in a small container that has 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen.  (You can do the math with 160,000 people and 21,000 containers).  Definitely not where you’d want to stay for very long, yet with 60% unemployment, containers may be the only option for some.

While the health and security needs seem to be taken care of, there was less attention to the mental health needs.  The psychiatrists that we spoke with were clearly burned out (and who wouldn’t be seeing 40 patients a day!).  They are assigned to this area for a 2 year stint to fulfill their national service obligation, and they are counting the days until they can leave.  Nurses and psychologists are a bit more permanent, so there may be some hope there, but everyone is demoralized.

Van Cat

Armenian Church

In addition to going to the Container Cities and talking with medical professionals, we also took time to see the famous Van cats -- famous because they are all white, have one blue and one green eye, and are sometimes deaf.  Many years ago we had such a cat in the US!  We also saw the Van lake fish (Pearl Mullet) which are the only variety of fish in the lake (due to the unusual natural chemical content of the lake).  We saw them migrating from the lake up a stream for spawning (just like our salmon do!).   And last, there is a beautiful little Armenian church on an island in the lake.

One can only hope that the resilience of these people and the beauty of the area will help the reconstruction efforts to make this province even better than before the earthquake.