Visiting professor of anthropology Robert Welsch will return to Papua New Guinea on Sept. 7 to assess the progress of several small, coastal committees in the wake of a tsunami which has claimed the lives of at least 2,100 people.
More than two weeks have passed since a massive tidal wave -- caused initially by an earthquake at sea -- ripped through the islands where Welsch has studied for more than four years over the course of his career.
Welsch will return for two weeks with the aim of setting up a series of interviews with the villagers he has formed tight bonds with over his repeated visits over the last eight years.
"What I am expecting to do is collect personal narratives of people's lives before the tsunami," Welsch said.
Afterwards, Welsch said he will compare their lives before and after the tragedy.
Most of the citizens who perished in the tsunami were those people who could not swim, which meant many of the victims were the elderly or children, Welsch said.
In addition, many of these families and communities have not had the chance to bury their dead due to the disappearance of the bodies in the ensuing floods, he said.
"These people haven't had the mourning rituals that normally occur with such loss," Welsch said.
On this trip to Papua New Guinea, however, Welsch said he is less interested in the anthropological research and more interested in reaching out to a community he has grown attached to over the years.
In the three villages severely hit by the tidal wave, Welsch said he "doubts that there is anyone in these areas who don't know who I am."
Welsch also pointed out that "anthropologists do not usually study catastrophic events ... but this is what friends do for each other."
Welsch's relationship with Papua New Guinea began as an undergraduate at Northwestern University. Welsch had a teacher with ties to the island who helped cultivate his interest.
Beginning in the 1990s, however, he and colleague John Terrell, curator of the Field Museum of Chicago, regularly traveled to the islands in order to further research started by the museum at the beginning of the century.
Today, Welsch is supporting one young man to pay his school fees and feels a part of the "extensive friendship network" of the communities.
Eventually, Welsch hopes to publish the conversations he will have with survivors as an aid to them in dealing with this tragedy -- which he estimates will claim 3,000 lives when the count is final.
The communities along the water's edge of the lagoon were the worst hit by the tsunami, but the wave managed to inflict damage further inland to a town called Ramo, which Welsch estimates is an hour's walk from the shore.
The rush to aid the victims has been immense, Welsch said, as "everyone and their cousin's brother are wanting to get involved."
Over $55,000 has been collected by Welsch and associates -- some from the Hanover area, including several local churches.
Welsch's main concern is seeing the money spent appropriately.
"One hundred percent [of the donations] goes to the relief effort," he said.
The United States has also secured a $1 million aid package to the region, according to Welsch.
Much of the disaster area remains under quarantine due to diseases being spread by the many uncollected corpses throughout the region.
"It's just a messy scene any way you look at it," Welsch said.
But his primary concern will not be exploring the disaster area itself but rather finding his friends and contacts throughout the island communities.
"There are the friends that we have to visit first," Welsch said.
