For us, the last three weeks have been exhausting, frightening and at times surreal.

World Vision Myanmar aid workers have been sent into some of the worst hit areas since May 6 -  Pyapon, Daydeye, Kyaitlatt and Bogalay. We have had to walk in through knee-deep mud or ride boats into flooded and devastated villages.

We managed to find a building for an office and another for our warehouse in Pyapon, where we set up base.  

Our first priority was to make sure the rice and household goods got from the warehouse to the ferry boats without any incident. It was very important to us that the distributions reached the waiting hands of parents, families and children separated or orphaned by the disaster.

The first week was the worst. The destruction was something none of us will ever forget. As well, we struggled with heavy rains which hindered our progress.

In the first week, it was impossible to find transport vehicles in Pyapon. No vehicles were available in the whole town. World Vision had one delivery truck, but if it went to carry goods to Daydeye, for instance, the rest of the goods could not be moved even to the ferry boat jetty.

By the second week, we had hired more vehicles and the rain had slowed down. We were very relieved that we could move more quickly to reduce the suffering of thousands of people affected by Cyclone Nargis.

We estimate we've reached around 220,000 people now. It was never easy and we wish we could have done more.  Our target is to help 450,000 people in the next six months with short-term relief, assistance and support to rebuild houses and livelihoods.

Stories helped to get us through

Many families have lost their loved ones.  Parents have lost their children and thousands of children have lost one or both parents.  Always, the question is repeated: whether people's families are still living or have died. Answering is terribly upsetting for the people affected, and for the aid workers who are asking.

To get through, our team has found it comforting to talk to each other about what we have seen, telling stories that are both tragic and uplifting.

One of the strangest stories we've heard came from one of our relief workers, Thu Ya Tha Yu, who has been staying in the Delta since May 11.

Thu Ya Tha Yu, who was already working with World Vision in the area when the disaster struck, says he was stunned at first by the heart-wrenching stories he was hearing. But now he admires the will and the strength of the people to keep going in the face of this anguish.

"It makes me determined to do more with them and for them," he says.

Thu Ya Tha Yu met a father, Ko Htwe, and an 11 year old  boy, Tun, at a village in Pyapon. The two were inseparable - but they had never met before Cyclone Nargis.

Childless father, lost son

Ko Htwe, a woodcutter who lives near the sea in the Delta, had taken his entire family out to look for driftwood. There were eleven of them in total -  his mother, his wife, his two sons, his sister, his sister-in-law and her husband - on three boats waiting near the shore. The tide surge and strong winds capsized all of them and they were swept away into the sea.

Separated from all his family members, Ko Htwe kept his head. He swam when he could and floated when his strength was gone, until he was washed up on an island far from shore.

When morning came, he saw that he was surrounded by many bodies, some dead, some living like himself. He was eleven miles out into the sea!

The people still living found some boats which were still useable. They set out to row back to their villages and search for their families. For Ko Htwe, who had seen all members of his family disappear into the storm, maintaining hope was difficult.  

When they passed a place called La-waing, they found two children frightened and alone on a small piece of dry land. Ko Htwe pulled the children into his boat and kept going.  

When they could go no further by boat, the small, bedraggled group joined survivors in Padegaw village. From 400 households (probably around 2000 people) there were only 300 people left in the village. They were surviving totally on coconuts - the juice instead of water, and the coconut to eat in lieu of rice.

After two days, five private fishing boats reached Padegaw, sent by local fishery owners to rescue any survivors they could find in this devastated coastal area. They scrambled onto the big boats from their small boats and were taken to Bogalay.

One of the children fished from the sea was reunited with his relatives among the survivors, but the other, Tun, could find nobody he knew. He was from a different village in Bogalay, and he too had seen family members die.

On the night of May 2, Tun had been inside his family's hut with his older sister and younger sister. His mother and father, as well as three other siblings, were not home yet.

The tidal surge came without warning, claiming his elder sister immediately. Tun managed to embrace his younger sister and climbed onto the beam of the roof with her. But the next wave destroyed their house altogether and his sister was swept away from him.

Tun was actually swept out even further than Ko Htwe had been. Miraculously he found strength to swim for miles until he reached La-waing where Ko Htwe found him.

Although his home village was in the opposite direction, Tun now told Ko Htwe, "I am coming with you."

Together Ko Htwe and Tun trudged back to Pyapon on foot, the journey taking nearly eight hours. Ko Htwe gave Tun's details to the village chief but Tun refused to leave. "I'll stay with Ko Htwe now," he said.

Ko Htwe has not found any of his family. He has made a list of Tun's family members and circulated it as well as keeping a list with Tun in case he needs it. In the meantime, the two are looking after each other.

"Ko Htwe kept crying for 2 days after getting back home," says Thu Ya Tha Yu. "But Tun said, 'Dead people are dead and gone. Living people are still here living.'."

"It's just amazing," he continued, "to hear the child."  

"I am full of praise for the people I meet, for their ability to cope and their strong will to be back on their feet and getting on with life."