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JOURNAL FROM THAILAND For some amazing Tsunami pictures from a photojournalist couple who were here during the Tsunami go to: www.tsunami-aftermath.com. Some are quite graphic so be aware of this as you start to look through them. They will blow your mind.
April 6, 2005 Koh Jum is an island populated by fishermen. Few of them depend on tourism for their income. These families, already under poverty level, lost most of their boats and their fishing tools during the tsunami. We have decided to not wait for the tourists to return to help them replace their fishing gear and boats. Ken, from Build a boat in Canmore Canada decided to join force with us to help them. Eeat, his brother Toon and myself estimated he needs of the three villages: Koh Jum, Timg Rai and Koh Pu. Most of the boats in Koh Jum village had already been fixed by a Christian organisation, all that was left to do was to finish fixing one boat, buy a few engines as well as one full boat (see picture). Mission accomplished! In Ting Rai nothing had been done except for the few boats that Phi Phi Releve Toi had already been able to donate to the villagers with the help of Ken from Build a Boat, Eddy from Koh Phi Phi Tsunami Ilfe and Christy from The Gonda Family Arts and Education Foundation. I decided to write a wish list for the island for Ken who had already received donations from various sources and mainly from a Canadian company Urban Systems from Calgary. Our goal is to collect enough money to replace all the boats, buy nets, build a couple of houses, help a boatman who was seriously injured on Phi Phi during the tsunami an who needs to follow a physical therapy, in fewer words, give these people the ability of sustaining themselves.. The budget has been sent to Ken's contacts and we are waiting for an answer. So here we are in Bangkok, Eeat, Toon and I searching for engines with the help of a young Thai woman Kwan wanting to participate in our effortsf or the tsunami victims, she drove us everywhere and did most of the negociating for us... After two days of frustration, we were finally able to buy 8 engines this afternoon. All the engines had already been sent to Koa Lak and Krabi. The cost of the engines being more advantageous here we were hoping to be able to make the money available go a little further... We are waiting for an othe delivery after the 20th of this month. We also ordered a few boats while we were on Koh Jum, not so easy to do either, because of a shortage of wood... All these little set backs are annoying but we are not letting ourselves be discouraged. We will informe you of the progress of the project. Cathy, Eeat and Toon. Thank you also to all the others who have helped us: Shanti Sosienski, Soren Pedersen and DAVAL-Danish youth hostels, Sam Lightner and Michelle Garbert from Rally for Railei, Jeanette Herting and Eric and all his friends. http://www.phiphi-releve-toi.com/en/actualites.php?nid=107
March 25, 2005 Yes....another album....this one shows a lot of the boat building process and fishing villages You're invited to view these photos online at Kodak Easyshare Gallery! Just click on View Photos to get started. http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=sig4xam.72ch2tm&x=0&y=-j0ivyk
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March 25, 2005
Hi All.... http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=sig4xam.adkgl3i&x=0&y=-9rpsqg http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=sig4xam.74phckq&x=0&y=t2hc6a
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March 25, 2005 Karsten and Soren, the guys from Denmark I met when in the fishing village ended up leaving $1000 US for me at the Narima to take to Phi Phi.this is exciting as thereÕs almost nowhere else that needs it as much (other than Khao Lak oh and then Sri Lanka and Indo!!!) The last few days in Koh Lanta were spent lounging, diving and meeting with Bill from Tsunamihealing.com. Bill came to Koh Lanta after the Tsunami to work on rebuilding the fishing boats in the area. He told us he had his faith tested as heÕs come across many swindlers and at times has simply felt like an ATM, but at the same time heÕs making progress that never would have happened on this Island had he not been there to help. There are over 100 boats in this area that were damaged and for many people no boat means no work because they are used for fishing. Unlike Ao Nang where there are lots of boat taxi drivers, Lanta is still fairly undeveloped so they count on the boat for fishing more than anything. We were able to give Bill 10,000 baht ($250) toward the fishing boats and although we wanted to give closer to $1000, after talking to Bill about the needs in Phi Phi we collectively decided that the money right now would be best spent looking after these people since so many lives were lost and businesses are gone. That means in total we should have about $1000 more to give to Cathy on top of the $1000 the Danish guys gave. Very excitingÉ.. Will be spending the next few days in Ao Nang, then head to Phuket to see Neil and Tik one last time before I head back to the US. Missing home and all of my friendsÉso looking forward to getting back. This has been an interesting journey where I have not only learned a lot about myself and how people react in situations where there is money involved and donating money, but I have had to learn how to let go of so muchÉ.and adapt to situations. I canÕt say exactly what I expected coming to Thailand with this money and this desire to see if we could get it directly to people who need it. This did happen, but one thing I learned was that is some cases where I wanted to help many, helping a few really well was better than spreading myself too thin, spreading the money too thin. There were definitely situations where I had to think long and hard about how to give money and who to give tooÉand in the end the interesting thing is that the two original families who I most wanted to help in the beginning whose businesses were severely damaged, Sun and Elizabeth with Krabi-island-tours.com and Pron out on Phi Phi ended up being two recipients of new boat engines, both families who really needed it and now they are turning around and helping others with the help they received. Elizabeth and Sun were able to donate a ruined engine to a boat shop who can now fix it up, get some profit and good luck and then help others. Elizabeth and Sun are also purchasing a new used engine for Pron and helping get it ready and out to Phi Phi. And Pron will be able to lend her boat we are hoping to Cathy and Sanan when they need to take tourists around the Island. ItÕs all a lesson on paying it forwardÉ.so all in all the mission felt good here in Thailand and while we may not have saved the world, we did help a number of families and I am hoping once I post more information on the groups I met, the places I went, the organizations that are out there you will all want to continue to support these groups through money and tourism. Where are you headed to on your next vacation? May I suggest Thailand?
Total money spent: Total $10340 There are some more funds I have just heard about so I am leaving a bank card with Elizabeth to the account I have open for Thailand. As the money comes in she will be able to pull and pay out to people to help continue the process! Cathy also has a bank account in America so we will be able to easily deposit funds to Releve-Toi If you haven't checked out their website go there....
www.phiphi-releve-toi.com
Namaste and love to you all
March 23, 2005 Journey to Koh Lanta The ferry between Ao Nang and Koh Lanta leaves at 11am. Shilpa and I arrived at the ferry a little early and wait to board the boat. The stories of Koh Lanta come pouring out. There was that time when my sister and Lyndy and I went riding around on motorbikes and Mom went off on her own to the little nearby town near a place called Nice Beach. As we headed in the direction of the town we see our Mother blasting past us on a the back of a motorbike, a Thai Muslim man complete with beard and little cap driving her. I canÕt help but laugh when I think of that image of my Mother because she is a Mom, not some traveling woman who hops on the back of motorbikes to hitch a ride back to the hotel after lunch. ÒI found the best Indian restaurant,Ó she gushes, ÒAnd the boys who worked there É..Ó Her obvious appreciation of the Thai men makes the whole situation even more amusing. Now as I relay this story to my friend Shilpa and tell her about this cute Thai guy named Man, I am laughing all over again. I was so worried about traveling to Thailand with my Mother. So worried she would get sick, she would hate it, she would hate the people, the dirty dishes and questionable lodging. She didnÕt hate it. She loved it and fit in as perfectly as any other farang in Thailand does. Memories of such a good time in December is what brought me back to Thailand this time.... Thailand is such a gentle country on us bumbling Westerners. The culture is polite and filled with smiles. With the exception of the very crowded, highly touristy zones, most everyone is kind and would never wish harm or be corrupt toward usÉ.no matter how rude, idiotic or embarrassing we are toward them. They laugh when we get all nervous about our passports and money and hide it away in locked bags buried deep in our armoires. The last time I stayed at the Narima I left the equivalent of $.40 in my pocket when I turned some clothes in for a wash. Not only did I get perfectly folded and IRONED clothing back including my undies, but the money was put in an envelope and placed on the top of my laundry in my room. This didnÕt happen once, but 3 times when I was at the Narima! My second trip to Koh Lanta is proving to be equally if not more refreshing, enlightening and wonderful as my trip here in December. The hotel we are staying at is a lovely eco-bungalow owned by a former engineer and his wife, Yodachai and Nopowan Jotiban. He was an engineer and she was a sociology professor and they retired to Koh Lanta, but neither knew they would be much good at just sitting by the sea with nothing to do, so they built a beautiful resort called the Narima. While staying here is a pretty penny by backpacker standards ($40 a night vs. the $10-20 I have been staying in) itÕs worth it completely. The bungalows all sit discreetly in a jungle and blend into the landscape. Yodachai told me this morning the natural thatched roofs were woven by locals, which is why they put a thatched roof on instead of metal or tiles. They only last maybe 5-6 years, but they are beautiful, allow the air to pass through them so you donÕt need A/C in the rooms. ÒI think itÕs better to make the bungalows from using local supplies like the thatched roof instead of buying metal that has to be shipped from Phuket ot Bangkok,Ó he explains to me. This is the kind of thing I really appreciate about the Narima and the JotibanÕs. They have built every inch of their resort with love and thoughtfulness of Thai culture and nature. For more details go to www.narima-lanta.com When I arrived Nopowan, Shilpa and I sat down for about an hour and she tells us all of the Tsunami stories and what happened that day-- what areas were most affected. They were working to help rebuild some of the boats on the Island and to help the Chaolay (spelling is wrong on this I am sure), a group of sea gypsies who are dependent on fishing. The Chaolay all lived on or very close to the water, so when the Tsunami came, while it wasnÕt necessarily a direct hit to that side of the Island, all of the land was wiped clean in a flood-like fashion and especially the rickety wooden shacks these people used as houses for their fishing operations. These people have a small shack away from the water and then one on the water so that when the fish are as plentiful as tourists they can live in the shacks and fish 24 hours a day. The shacks perch right on the river banks in a lagoonish area with rooty mangrove covered banks. There is thick red and brown mud everywhere. The nets for each family cost about $1000, which is saved up after many many years since they only get about 10baht a fish ($.25). When the Tsunami came many families lost their homes on these rivers and the government was supposed to help them and they tried to, but unfortunately a very bad man came into the community shortly after the Tsunami posing as a government worker and told the Chaolay he needed their ID cards to collect their funds from the government. They are a simple community and have little contact with the outside world, so suspicion is not in their vocabulary. Of course the man and the IDs and the money never arrived. Since then the Chaolay have been left to fend for themselves. Finally about a month ago two men, Otto (OttoÕs bar on Nice Beach) and a westerner named Duane went to the Chaolay and started to find out what they needed in order to get fishing again. Six families in this one village were left without a business and boats and nets, so they began appealing to Westerners to help them. I came across them through Nopowan who had paid to have one of the longtail boats rebuilt. She called Duane, who was on his way to Bangkok, but he sent me to Otto who would take me up the river the following day to meet the families. Duane also managed to somehow connect with two men from Denmark, Soren and Karten who were also handing out funds around Koh Lanta and this area of Thailand that they raised in their local pubÉ.their experience was much like mine in that they had just hoped to raise maybe a grand and it turned into $10,000 US! Like me they also said they were pretty unsure at first how to hand it out and then they realized case by caseÉ.you canÕt save Thailand but you can help families get back on their feet and let them save Thailand from the economic Tsunami that has hit the areaÉ.. I was lucky enough to receive an additional $1200 from some people in Salt Lake City (Kristin Ulmer and Tom Price) who held a fundraiser concert and were looking for a place to put the funds that would have a direct effect on Thailand or Sri LankaÉ.so it was easy for me to pass the money to the Chawlea since this was such a worthy project! Thank you Salt Lake CityÉ.you have rebuilt a whole village and if you ever want to see it go to Koh Lanta and find OttoÕs place on the south end of the Island and he will take you there. I will post pictures of the families we met and the fishing huts as soon as I get back to high speed internet. Just returned from an amazing dinner of tamarind fish at OttoÕs place. Met Duane who is working with the Chawlea (spelling?) in Koh LantaÉ.very cool Canadian guy. Meeting him keeps reminding me about what a process in trust this is. I am leaving money with Nopowan of the Narima for this man Duane who I have never metÉ..but talked to on the phone and he is working with Otto who I did meet but thought I wouldn't have the chance to meet....but basically my point of all of this is that I have learned through this whole process how important trust is between people. If you donÕt have trust you have nothingÉ.so many people have trusted me with money and I am trusting these other people to do good with the money and so far it has been amazingly impressive what has come from trust and general human kindness toward one another. Thanks for giving me this opportunity you all! Anyway just a parting thought. Have much more to tell about Koh Lanta and I head on to Phi Phi in a few days, but for now IÕll have to sign out. Ahhhh thereÕs a gecko crying out in the nightÉ.they make a sound that is exactly like ÒUh Oh.Ó Very coolÉÉ I am excited because I still have a fair bit of baht left to take back up and contribute to Cathy from Phi Phi who really needs the funds to help the 105 families who are living in shacks in KrabiÉ..in hopes of returning back to Phi Phi within a year or so.
March 19, 2005 Hello all, In Ao Nang....went out to Koh Phi Phi today. I thought this would be sad and difficult like Khao Lak but it was quite the opposite. Th destruction here was similar (sorry if I am missing ltters this kyboard is crap) but unlike Khao Lak the island of Phi Phi is FILLED with tourists...from curious day tourists to hard working volunteer tourists to local farang and Thai. The energy on Phi Phi is lively and everyone is incredibly enthusiastic. Farang sit at tables hocking jewelery, shirts, CDs, etc....found in the water or in the Tsunami wreckage. "100% goes charity" thy tell me. "Come on then buy something....you can't just walk away without helpng Phi Phi." I chuckle and keep walkng. Today I briefly met john who is curently in charge of Hi Phi Phi. Thy have T-shirts on everyone on the Island and they send groups out to clean up beaches and shops It seems like even though the cleaning has been going on for 3 months it's still very crazy....lots of itBut everyone here is smiling and laughing and having a good time in spite of all that has happend. Th story is that 3 huge waves hit Phi Phi. Two from one side and one from the other....flattened th middle flat part of the Island....many of the placs on the hill survivd and interestingly a new street with new stronger construction survivd. This is where Cathy's climbing shop from Releve Toi was. She is headed there on Tuesday to start cleaning it up so I may join her....
Here's her website by the way Arrived at Phi Phi at 12:30 and had to catch a 3:30 ferry back to Ao Nang so had very little time. Tried to get to Pon's place on the far side of th Island, but the lngtail boat driver started to tak me and when we left the Phi Phi bay the waves were big and he got scared. Everyon is afraid of the ocean right now....so the only way to get to Pon was boat and that wasn't happening. Cruised around the Island with two Canadian kids met instead. Kurk and luke and we found them an awsm bungalow through this English girl we met named Sarah. She was a rock climber who cam to Phi phi to clean. room was this amazing bamboo bungalow for 300 baht a night ($8) and probably cost 2000-3000 baht bfore the Tsunami. We all went wandering around town over the backside of this little hill and came to a hug clearing where the hotel my mom stayed at used to sit. Now thre is only the pool and NOTHING ELSE! Totally wild. There is the smell of Khao Lak here...but not strng....just slight. And it doesn't have the haunted feeling of Khao Lak. As we walkd into the big clearning there was this gutted out building and a little shop built into it. Th woman sittng and taking mony showd us her leg (the E key sucks on this comp) and told us how she usd to hav a BIG store in this spot and this was all that was left. Her leg has a pretty severe wound that is healing. She told us how her husband dragged her from the store up the mountainside when she was injured. She smiled huge at her husband....and at us. She laughed as she told us about her big store and that she would mak a big store again. She was a lucky one and she knows it. After we wandered through th sand field realizd I was about to miss my ferry so I had to dash off and fnd John from Hi Phi Phi quickly. Unloaded 10,000 baht which they were estatic about. Got a great pic of them which I will post soon. Had a little memory stick malfuncton tonight so will have to get another one before I can load photos again. All financial efforts that have gone to Phi Phi so far feel completly right on! There is so much work to be done there and it's a beautiful Island. Hopefully it will be rebuilt with awareness....and not just greed.... Got back tonght and went to Sun's families house. They live a very simpl and fairly poor Thai life...but thy live all together. Grandpa and Ma, kids, their kids. It's hard to not feel how wealthy you are when you go into a tiny one room shack home and see a whole family living thre. They were a lovely famly though....all smiles and kind. It's nice to go to people's homes here because they give love, smiles and kind words whether thy have a dime to their name or not. And the best thing....they have no TV!!!! That means lots of family time.... OK....rambling here. Off to bed and then heading to Koh Lanta tomorrow...then back to Ao Nang....
Namaste
March 18, 2005 Hello all We went to Krabi today and met with Cathy and Sanan from Phi Phi. They are this awesome climbing couple who lost everything in their climbing shop Tsunami. Ropes, climbing gear, computers, cameraas etc....if any of the outdoors insutry wants to donate goods...this is a very worthy couple!!! Sanan managed to live by going into the second story of their dive shop and the water destroyed the bottom and swept everything away in the shop...but he and a customer made it through the 3 big waves that hit Ton Sai bay. Cathy was in France at the time and didn't know about sanan for 3 days. We gave her $530 and will probably give more to help support the 105 fanilies living in Krabi who come from Phi Phi. They need rent and food because they all lost their businesses and homes on PhiPhi. Cathy met us this morning in Krabi town and explained how her non-profit Releve-Toi works. They actually have a full non profit status so donations to them are 100% right-offable. We went and saw a daycare that was built in this area for the children by this woman's family named Mel. She was an English woman who died in the Tsunami along with her 2 daughters. The building was colorful and beautiful....and filled with a couple dozen sleeping little ones. We also went to the homes of people from Phi Phi and heard their stories. Fatima is a smiley woman with dark sunkissed skin and a round face. Her loong hair is pulled back in a bun and she wears a saarong skirt typical to many Thai beach women. She is Muslim like most of the people from Phi Phi. She and her husband owned a very successful and yummy restaurant on Phi Phi. It was one of Cathy's favorites. On the day of the Tsunami Fatima and her husband were in Koh Lanta looking into maybe opening a restaurant there as well. Her sister was on Phi Phi and Fatima talked to her the morning of the Tsunami. Just before it hit she had complained of feeling sick and Fatima said she should go to Krabi to the doctor the next day. An hour later the wave hit and Fatima never spoke to her sister again. As she tells me this story her eyes fill with tears and the opens a file that has all of the information about her sister's children who were sent away to Bangkok to live with other family. She misses her niece, she misses her sister. You can see that in a way while she is resolved, it still all seems like a bad dream. As she cries I can't help but start to cry and hug her. I think about my sister and how I would feel if I lost my sister. There are over 100 families who need permanent housing for the next 1-2 years in Krabi from Phi Phi because the government is still deciding what to do with Phi Phi. Cathy and Sanan are trying to build housing for all of them on a piece of rented land they have. They need $50,000 US. They have a long way to go before they reach this number.... Releve-Toi, the org that Cathy and Sanan runs has actual images and case numbers on families, so if anyone is interested in sponsoring a family they need about $30-50 in rent a months and another $50-100 for living....yeah, that's it for a family of 5. Pretty amazing. One of the hardest things Cathy is finding is that it's hard to get receipts on everything because it is Thailand. She and Sanan actually pay the rent for the families every month directly to the landlords, so there is careful record of this....then they try to give 2000-4000 baht ($50-100)cash a month to help these families live. The Phi Phi residents are trying to work as well...but their lives are very up in the air and they often have to stand all day in useless government lines to register and register again and insure they don't lose their spot on Phi Phi. Tomorrow I am going out to Phi Phi to meet up with John, Cathy's friend who is working on clean up efforts on phi phi....I will also go see the family we stayed with before xmas....and assess their damage and see how we can help them. That's about it for now...
Lots of love from Ao Nang
March 17, 2005 Khao Lak to Ao Nang To describe the feelings we have today is impossible. I am not sure if there are words for it. We entered a war zone. I’ll admit I was apprehensive about going to Khao Lak because I had read so much about the devastation, the scent of bodies and rotting food, the mangled buildings, the clothing and toys and random odd items strewn everywhere. But we are human and humans are curious, so we couldn’t help but capitalize on the fact that we had a driver and van rented for the day to get us to Ao Nang. Khao Lak was about an hour out of our way north, but since nothing in Thailand is ever far or ever close, you just kind of go with whatever. Daz knew of a woman named Simone, a divemaster who lost a number of friends in the Tsunami, who has been working non-stop since the tragedy to help Thailand repair itself and in turn repairing herself. In Khao Lak there’s so much destruction that it’s hard to even know where to start rebuilding. It’s hard to imagine how any survivors made it out at all and for those who did I would imagine the nightmares will plague them for the rest of their lives. There is almost nothing standing for miles where there was once 5-story luxury resorts. The saddest part about this area is that it’s such a remote beach you can imagine that most people were lounging at the beach or poolside at the resort when the Tsunami hit because it’s the kind of place where you pay for your package, get dropped off by the hotel transportation and don’t leave again until your week vacation is over. The landscape is flat and there are no islands or reef or bends in the land to break up the massive volume of water that came at it. This is the place where the Canadian couple’s digital camera was found who died. You can go to CNN website and type in Canadian and Tsunami to see the images. When you look at it you can imagine why the water came rushing in a wall and traveled up to 3km back and why no one here had a chance. We didn’t know what to expect when we arrived. We had seen pictures but nothing anyone says or the pictures you see can prepare you for the feeling when you are standing there in giant open fields of sand and rubble. Looking in the piles of mangled concrete and metal and glass and clothing. Pieces of a toilet over there, chipped tiles from a pool over there. Metal soup spoons imbedded in the sad, a half full ketchup bottle that somehow survived and now sits on the top of a pile of junk. There are stuffed animals, pillows, umbrellas from the beach. Fragments of life in every object, colors now fading from fabrics, mixed in with so much concrete and bits of buildings and boats. The boats are everywhere. In the middle of what is left of one part of a town called Kem, sitting on the bottom of hillsides, the boats are spooky and out of place. We hear a story about a man who was on a police boat that was swept in from the sea and lodged itself at the base of a hill. It’s still sitting there and handful of tourists, us included line up to shoot photos of the awesome massive boat sitting so oddly on the dirt. The smell of death wafts through the air here because there is a giant freestanding pool of muck, mud, sand and debris. The policeman survived the Tsunami and immediately left the police force and is now a monk. Cops are wickedly crooked here because they get so little money a month they have to be crooks to make ends meet. I can only imagine what was going through his mind as he rode the massive metal boat through luxury hotels like a pinball ricocheting through the structures. We started our Khao Lak journey with a stop on the hill at Tsunamivolunteer.net. This is a Thai run project that’s connected to a drug rehab program in Chang Mai in the North called the Mirror Project. The key here is Thai run, so there is a lot of appreciation for the culture with the projects they are running. Tsunami Volunteer has rented this beautiful, peaceful bungalow resort (I think it’s called Khao Lak Nature Reserve) that has the feeling of a summer camp mixed with a tropical paradise backpackers hotel. It’s up on the hill overlooking Khao Lak, very zen and hidden all day by the shade of the jungle. Two gibbons jump over computers and swing from the rafters providing both a nuisance and all day entertainment for the couple of dozen Thai and Westerns working in this center. People who come here are helping to rebuild a temple, build furniture for a school and work on various projects in the area from home rebuilding to playing with kids. They ask you stay two weeks at least, but then again it’s a volunteer position and those staying are asked to pay 200baht a day for accommodations (which is a steal as this places costs about 2000baht or more in high season!!!). Oh, on the note of BAHT. I keep getting my math all wrong. So to set the record straight there are 37baht to $1. If I do the math wrong on something don’t bother telling me as I won’t get it right next time either! So at Tsunami Volunteer we were walked around by Sarah, a cute 20-something gal from Canada who I pegged right away from her oh-so-Canadian-phrase “Right on.” Sarah walked us up the hill so we could see the tents volunteers were staying in.....tent stays are free....so bring a tent if you want to stay here. Also volunteers can stay just down the hill in the accommodations that are left and hitchhike up the hill everyday, which is very easy according to Sarah. Just below the tents and bungalows there is a wood shop of sorts where a dozen people, mainly Westerners were working on building furniture for the schools in the area. The part that’s interesting about this furniture is that they are using wood meant for coffins. They hammer together benches, shelves, tables from the long pieces of wood. They paint the furniture bright colors like blue, yellow and pink and add little flowers creating rustic, but very uplifting furniture. As quickly as the pieces are built and dried, they are loaded up into the backs of trucks and taken away to the schools. The process is very factory-like and efficient and grim when you think about what they are using to build this furniture, but it’s the perfect example of taking a bas situation and making it better. The whole set up has a really positive feeling thanks to the jungle draping gracefully over the whole camp. We made a small donation to the camp (5000 baht) and while it felt like nothing more than a minor offering, it also seems like this is a camp that is well funded and has access to more funds than many projects. They were so grateful though and asked us to spread the word and tell other Westerners to come see their camp if you go to Thailand. I highly recommend it as it was really a lovely place and we hated to move on from it. www.tsunamivolunteer.net Also check out their parent org: the Mirror Project. 20 minutes later we were in the middle of ground zero Khao Lak and the contrast between the lovely utopia on the hill and the bleak dirty bombed out landscape was shocking to our systems. I kept feeling like I wanted to cry but was so in shock there weren’t even any tears. All I kept thinking over and over were the words “the horror.” Totally an Apocalypse Now scene. So surreal it feels like you can’t really be looking at this. Where’s the Hollywood crew and the camera man ready to yell CUT. This can’t be real I keep thinking to myself. It’s easy to see how here no one had even the slightest bit of the chance. Now that I have been there it’s hard to imagine how there could even have been one survivor. There is nothing left from the ocean to the mountains about a mile back. There’s the odd building here and there, but the rest of the area looks like a bomb exploded. Everywhere you look there are half smashed boats moored on dirt. Big boats, little boats, boat engines. Many palm trees managed to hold which seems so strange considering how much debris they must have had bashing against them. When I hear stories of people living because of climbing a palm tree I can’t believe it. Those are people with an intense will to live. Next stop was the beginning of a handful of local home rebuilding projects. This first project seemed to be one of the best ones we saw as the homes were made of wood and built high up on stilts for ventilation. We stopped and met a kid from Florida who looked like he just stepped out of “That 70’s Show” complete with well manicured sideburns, trucker cap and oversized shades. He was on a Christian missionary project and they were building 6 of the 70 houses. “That’s all we could afford,” he told us. “the only problem were having is that we don’t know how to build anything,” he says laughing. At least their heart is in the right place. Each house costs around $2500, so still impressive that his group was able to pull in that amount. It seems that many of the groups we are coming across are Christian missionaries. An hour later we are at one of the worst hit areas in Khao Lak where two guys from Riverside had been put on sewer duty and they pulled up bucket load after bucket load of yes, you guessed it, shit. I am pretty sure this is not what they had in mind when their church told them they would be going to Thailand to do some rebuilding. But being good Christians they weren’t complaining. I have to say I would probably pass on that job. The rebuilding projects are everywhere in Khao Lak, but it’s strange to think about living there for the next year or two since it’s so desolate. It looks nothing like Thailand but more like what you see when you watch Vietnam movies and there’s a beautiful ocean and a bombed out landscape. That’s the only think I can compare it to. We went for lunch at in the front of someone’s house that is now sort of two little tables. There’s no menu, they just sort of cook for you. At the back of the house a boat is lodged up against the building. This boat is going to stay there and it’s been said that this will become a museum. It’s so strange to see all of these boats nestled in between the few houses that are left. Very surreal. While we are eating lunch Daz’s friend Simone calls. She’s this very boisterous half French, half Malaysian but looks like she’s English (all white and petite) so I am not sure quite what she is or where she’s from. She talks a million miles a minute and rattles off about taking a car load of Swedish consulate people around on a tour. She’s working on helping get boats back in the water in this area. I’ll post a link to their site when I have a second. Klaus, a very endearing Swiss man with kind eyes and a bald head is the main man in charge of the project. I think he had a dive operation before all of this and now appears to be 100% dedicated to rebuilding the Khao Lak area. We donated $475 to their project, which will buy nets for between 4-6 fisherman. Nets are about 6000 baht or so per set up depending on how big the boat is. Simone had another friend working on a project to help a woman who lost everything build a kitchen and get a restaurant going in the area, so the fisherman have somewhere to put their goods. We donated 6000 baht to this project. After a few hours we had about all we could take of Khao Lak. To be honest I still am reeling from going there. That could be one of the harshest and hardest things I have ever seen in my life. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have been a part of that moment in time or to continue on and be a part of that community now. If you are interested in donating funds this is an area that could really use any help. I will post links of places you can donate and I will continue to try and help getting funds over there when I return home. We left Khao Lak and it was like a heavy weight lifting from us as we rose up and over the hill away from the area. Our next destination was Ao Nang and our friends Elizabeth and Sun. I met Elizabeth when I was in Thailand in December. She’s Australian and her husband is Thai. They own a longtail boat tour company, so if you are ever in Thailand you should go see her for sure. www.krabi-island-tours.com They picked us up in the middle of town in front of a McDonald’s. You can’t escape McDs anywhere in the world. Looks like we have to run right now....headed to Krabi where we will meet Cathy who will take us to meet the survivors of Phi Phi who are living in Krabi in tents now. I will write more later but want to get this all out to you all
Namaste
March 16, 2005
Hi All, Meet the Kamala Kids Today is our last day in Phuket before we begin our journey south. We headed out at about 8:30 this morning with the intention of shooting a bit of the coastline and the damage before heading into Kamala to deliver 49 packages of goods (shoes, shirts, stuffed animals) to the kids who lost parents. The rest of the stuffed animals ( a good 100+) left were headed on to a group of 3-6 year olds that they call “lower class” where they would be shared by the 60 or so kids in that group. We met Paul and Doug at the school and Daz also rolled in to join us after we sent the cryptic cell phone SMS: Kamala School 10 am * come play. He’s definitely all about the kids so he couldn’t turn our offer down. We started by handing out the packages of goods to kids, which left me with a mixed feeling. Some of the other kids stood up above on a balcony watching the 49 kids line up and all get a little bag of goods and we didn’t have anything for them. It’s hard because this is part of the struggle right now because you just can’t give to everyone because the needs are bottomless. It also felt so Western, like check us out giving out all of these little material things to help relieve your pain. But these are just typical feelings that you have to work through when over here because the reality is even if we gave everyone here a million baht each it would not change what has happened or make anyone’s life better or worse. The truth is that most of the Thais in this area have an amazing, uncomplicated life here. They live in paradise with their world focused around nature, around the beauty of the ocean that draws us all here. Their view no matter how polluted with million dollar cruise ships and redlight districts, it’s still so much more sensational than anything we could ever see rolling down the 405 in California. Anyway, after a hand out session at the 6-12 year olds school we went on to the temporary housing for the 5-6 year olds in the middle of a little neighborhood. Here we were greeted by a concrete schoolyard of beautiful laughing children that had such big smiles on their face and were so pure and open to us being there it was hard not to feel so in the moment and feel touched by their energy. They wanted nothing more with us than to just have us play with them. Daz broke the ice by turning into a big 6 year old and playing a bit of boogey man with them and within 15 minutes he had almost every kid in the place chasing him around the courtyard squealing with delite. Shilpa found a little sad doe eyed boy and scooped him up. She hugged him non-stop for the whole time we were there. At one point he left her for a few minutes only to come running back into her arms shyly. It was amazing to see how quickly we could have a connection with these little people. There was no exchange of language, they had no idea why we were there and they didn’t care. As far as they were concerned it was another day in paradise and we came to play with them. Donation to this school project as of today: $2600. If we have funds at the end we will be making a second donation to the Kamala Kids. So now for our long term project we have taken pictures of all of the 40+ children from the Kamala Kids and they are looking for $130 a year to help fund the kids school, uniforms, etc.....for the next year. I’ve already told you about this, but when I get home I will post images of all of the kids. Currently we have posted some images on OFOTO and I will send the link our shortly on that. From the nursery school Daz told us about a project he had recently worked on about 30 minutes to the north in an area called Bang Thao. A man named Pujan saw an old woman on TV immediately proceeding the Tsunami who lived in a shack behind a resort that was just finished 2 weeks before the wave came. How the newscaster even found her is amazing as Daz could barely find his way back to this spot he had spent a week working at. The resort was severely damaged and not opened obviously. Now the 60-something year old woman and the other squatters in the shanty village had their homes wiped out. She was supporting a 17-year-old autistic boy that she says is the son of her sister. When Punjan saw her on tv he knew for some reason he had to go help her, so he went and found her. There were about a dozen people living behind this resort....and this is where it gets hazy as to why they are there. They’ve been squatting for a long time but whether they were Burmese workers and she was a Grandma of someone or what no one is really sure. The Burmese are sort of like Mexican migrant workers in So Cal where they are cheap labor with little rights. All that Daz knew was that they got there and she was sleeping on the ground until Pujan came in and built her a shelter. What little bit of world she had prior to the Tsunami was all swept away. She and the others here worked on the rubber trees for the little bit of money they got here and there. Other than that they are completely destitute and the Tsunami made them even more so. Pujan, who works for the government managed to somewhat go around protocol and went in and pulled together funds and somehow met Daz along the way and they built 4 little tin and wood homes at the edge of this forest. Go to the Ofoto website and you can see the homes. They are on stilts and look like they have been there forever, but are actually brand new. The one issue though once this was built that we learned today while visiting was that they had a rustic well built and that was wiped out by the Tsunami. They of course have nothing to build another so they have been without water for the last few months. We asked Pujan how much it would be to build this woman, the child she cares for and the handful of people a well and found out it would be no more than $250 tops. We had some money on us at that moment and while the school had been an amazing experience, it made so much sense in that moment to offer this little group the money to build a well. They need nothing more to get by. Such a simple thing to complete their life. I urge you to check out the photos on Ofoto that we’ve posted. It’s amazing to think that life could be this simple. Water, food, family to care for one another. Do we all really need anything more? This was the first time since we started this journey that I felt like giving this money was so perfect. We were not only helping a family who really needed help, but we were trusting a man who we only met for 20 minutes to make sure he took care of this family and this is akin to so many people trusting me without even knowng me. There was no question in our minds that he would make sure these people had a well before the month was out. Thank you all for your contributions. They are funneling down beautifully. We were of course so in awe of this place Daz brought us (our number had swelled to 3 English people who Tik had invited along to the school). He then told us about another project we could check out in Khao Lak that was similar to this one he worked on. Khao Lak is interesting to head to in theory, but fairly traumatized still. From what we have heard from everyone it’s like the Tsunami happened there last week it’s so destroyed. But things just seemed to be rolling forward, we have a van and driver rented so we are going to head north before we head south to Ao Nang. Khao Lak will be more of a check out and I am afraid it’s a little like looking at an accident on the freeway when you just can’t help yourself, but at the same time it’s one of the areas other than Phi Phi that was so destroyed that it also feels important to check out. We have been speaking with a woman named Cathy Beloiol from Phi Phi who owned a climbing operation there before the Tsunmai. We were planning on meeting with her tomorrow but will meet her in Krabi in a few days. Her group is Releve-Toi and they are working on helping the people of Phi Phi who are living in tents in Krabi right now get back to Phi Phi. She’s jsu returned from Khao Lak and said we absolutely had to go there to really understand the scope of it all, so we journey on. I think Khao Lak is going to be more about coming back to report you all as we are saving funds for Phi Phi and the other areas down south that really are not touristy, so little government or farang (Westerners) attention is being placed there. Anyway, looking forward to giving you all an update from Khao Lak and we have some amazing photographs we will be posting from an incredible photographer met last night named Patrik Lopes. He burned us a CD and we’re hoping to post before the end of the trip as the photos from this really give you a perspective of everything. Well must go pack as we are out of here at 8am.
Namaste,
March 16, 2005 New Arrivals My friends Shilpa and Sedda arrived in Phuket today. Paul and Doug hired a van and we rallied to the airport to collect the girls along with quite a booty haul....$700 more from Shilpa’s family and friends, 130 stuffed animals donated from Sedda’s friends, two large Thai flags donated by a signs&banner shop in Silver Lake to give to the Kamala school, pens from a teacher in the LA School district, pictures from a kids class Sedda volunteers at, first aid gear donated from Ben Blair and friends, more shoes, clothes. The stuff took up 4 very large, full bags! The goal today was to drive from the airport which is in the northern center of Phuket down the coast past Kamala to Patong and eventually ending up in Kata Beach at Tik’s Place. It was sweaty hot today, probably around 95 degrees with high humidity. I am sure it gets hotter but I was admittedly sweating like a pig....not a pretty image I know....but I was sitting on vinyl seats in a lightly air conditioned mini-van, what can I say? The drive down the Western coast of Phuket is beautiful. You rise and fall through lush jungle landscapes, over windy roads with the ocean spreading out forever in front. It’s easy to see how such a fantastic landscape can mesmerize and capture people forever once they make their first visit to Thailand. Everything is almost fluorescent from the blue green water to the colorful scooters zipping around every corner. Although at the moment there is more brown than usual along the beaches where the Tsunami hit, in some areas more than others though. Dropping into Kamala, the road bends left, running along a cliff that overlooks a horseshoe bay. There are large patches of empty sand along the beachfront now where there was not so long ago tightly packed bungalows and restaurants. A lone, industrial 2-story school building sits in the middle of an open flat patch of land in the center of town. There were 3 buildings there before the Tsunami. Luckily it happened on a Sunday otherwise all of the kids would have been in school. Now there is just this empty field anxiously awaiting the Thai Government to get it together and start building. It could be months, it could be many many months. No one knows. For now Tik and Neil have bought tents for the kids to go to school under as they were cooking out in the sun because no one had thought to get them covers. The water from the Tsunami invaded this area fiercely, traveling up to the second story of the school building, wiping out numerous houses, businesses and ripping apart a monastery next door to the school. Somehow the Government building in between the monastery and schools are still standing. The monastery is a particularly sad story. There were 6 monks living there and now there are only 3. The other three perished in the Tsunami. Tik and Neil went to Kamala about a week after the Tsunami to investigate the damage to the school and while there Tik decided to go next door and check up on the monks. There she found the remaining three sitting in a pile of rubble in mourning. She asked them who was helping them and they said no one. The whole community was so in shock no one thought to check up on the monks and they are not allowed to ask for any help because that is against the Bhuddist religion, so they sat there until the universe brought them Tik. She sprung too and helped them get some basic supplies. Around the same time other villagers and Westerners came in to start helping them. There’s been some controversy surrounding the Westerners helping them as the Government apparently wants all Westerners to give the money to the Government and they will rebuild the temple. This is where it gets tricky. There was talk immediately after the Tsunami from the Government about rebuilding Kamala and making it more resort friendly, thus moving the school and the monks and the towns people away from their lovely beach and up into the hills behind Kamala. This is pretty sad considering these are people who have lived in this area for generations, but this whole Tsunami business is giving the government a license to kick people who have been squatting through out southern Thailand off of their land. We’ll see what happens with all of that. So basically the Westerners are finding ways to go around the government to give the monks money and rebuild. Tik’s plan has been to just give money directly to the head monk when he “orders” supplies in to rebuild the monastery. For example a few weeks ago she paid a few hundred dollars for some shingles for the roof. By doing it piece by piece she and others can funnel money to the monastery without it going to the government and taking 6-8 months or more to rebuild. The big issue at the moment with the monastery is that they don’t have 6-8 months. When the monsoon season comes if they haven’t rebuilt the monastery to a satisfactory level they will have to vacate because they won’t be able to survive the rough patch of weather with an open structure. If they leave this gives the Government a chance to come in and permanently move them away from the center of town. Temples are so important in Thai towns and this one is lovely. It would be so sad to move it away from the ocean front view it has. Currently they need $10,000 to build a retaining wall in the next few weeks, which will at least insure they can stick around. Another local Westerner, an Australian man we met today who is a contractor is working on building them sleeping bungalows because they are in a large tent right now and need more solid lodging. To restore the whole temple they need 16 million baht ($40k US). They have raised 4 million baht to date ($10,000) so they obviously have a long way to go. If you are interested in this project there is a whole website on it that I will get to you tomorrow when I go back there. After we left Kamala today we went on to Patong beach. This is the area I was telling you all about the other day that’s the party zone. Very red light district-ish, Spring break feeling....but for less than attractive Westerners in search of Thai girlfriends. This town was hit very hard and I can only imagine what it would have been like to have been in this area. The waves went in for nearly a kilometer here. At the seafront it was over 2-stories high and the destruction is still very evident on the streets. Block after block of concrete sidewalks are torn up, glass has been replaced in storefronts but many shops remain vacant and many hotels are still closed. A lot of people joke about how it was a good thing that Patong was wiped out because it’s a chance for it to clean up it’s act, but regardless it’s still pretty sad to see the mangled buildings and still fairly empty streets. The beaches are amazingly uncrowded for March. Neil said they are usually at least at 80% at this time of year in their rooms but now they have had just a few people in two months. After Patong we ended up back in Kata Beach. Apparently only 3 people died in Kata, although no one is sure why this beach was hit gently while just fifteen minutes to the north Patong was destroyed. Pull away the water from the ocean and it surely has to do with the reef below and what stood in front of the great wall of water and land. In Khao Lak and Phi Phi there was little blocking it and they were both at the perfect angle to get slammed. Neil sent me some pictures yesterday, which I will get up soon of the waves in Kata as they were coming in. It looks more like a flood like you would see in Alabama where cows are cars are floating by and everyone is standing on the banks watching, not violent and out of control like the images that flooded CNN. But again it just depended on the place and the crazy thing is that no one really knew what was happening so people stood around and watched with no clue as to what was coming toward them. When we got back to Kata we went with Paul and Doug down to the beach where we met Aai, a disabled man who prior to the Tsunami ran his own little business on the beach renting out snorkel gear and surfboards to tourists. Of course all of this was swept away and fortunately for him someone put him in a scooter with cart and hauled him away from the beach in time, but he lost all. Aai is one of the individuals Tik and Neil are helping. They used some of the donated funds to buy him some more snorkel gear and 4 surfboards. Unfortunately they didn’t realize the surboards didn’t have scags (fins) so if anyone wants to donate old crappy fins for longboards, they need them! Paul and Doug made a donation to help Aai get his business going again today as well which put a smile on the man’s face. I can only imagine how he must have felt when he watched his whole business sweep away in the water. After that Paul and Doug dropped us back at Tik’s place. We spent the rest of the afternoon going through the bags Shilpa and Sedda brought and organizing 49 special bags of gifts for all of the children who lost one of their parents. There are 49 children who lost a parent as I have told you all before and so this is going to be a rough run for these families in the next few years as families are very dependant on both parents to make ends meet like most places in the world. The bags each contain a stuffed animal, t-shirt from Nike, some coloring pens, a pair of shoes and other little odds and ends. Tomorrow we’ll be going to the school at 10am and meeting all of the children and handing out bags of goodies for the 49 kids. So far I have given Tik and Neil $2500, which we decided yesterday will be going into a scholarship fund. This will be given to children who need it in the upcoming months to help pay the $40 a year for uniforms and other school fees. This is the best use of Western money right now. I will be taking the remaining money I have from you all: $6600 (with more still coming in everyday) down south to Phi Phi and Lanta. If I don’t find better use for it I will bring it back up with me and either hand off the rest to Tik and Neil to increase the kids fund or to help with the monastery. I have already designated $2600 of that to Ao Nang to the boat club, although until I make sure that it’s going to really be spent on supplies for the boat club it’s probably best to not just hand it out.....unfortunately as much as I hate to say this there is a lot of corruption and people taking advantage of the fact that they can financially gain from the Tsunami, so we’re just trying to the best that we can to make sure that as much of this money as possible gets to people who really need it. From here we will go on to Ao Nang on Thursday, then on to Phi Phi where we will see Pon and the family we stayed with there. They are in need of a boat engine, so once we visit them we will see if we can buy them that. They are around $600-800. While this only helps one family, I am learning that we can’t help everyone and have to pick and chose cases that I/we feel connected to on this journey. Random side note here: Sitting in this internet café in Kata and just met two interesting men. One is a photographer named Derek Caballero. He’s from LA but is now living here in Thailand and shot tons of photos post Tsunami on Koh Phi Phi (4 days after) and other areas. He was just telling me about a few cases he knows about of teens in this who lost both parents and now are pretty much screwed. There’s an Irish woman organizing and raising funds for these kids who I want to try and track down. Also, he told me a story about a man here in Kata who lost most of his family and his business in Patong. He had a business here and there and now all that is left is his immediate family here. Derek thinks he is one of those cases of a survivor who could really use help but would never ask for it like so many of the Thais. Also met Patricio from Brazil who is a diver and an amazing photographer. He shot in Koh Phi phi and Khao Lak. The pictures are shocking, upside down cars, buildings flattened, bodies, toys and passports, the human scavengers. Things like this bring out the best and the worst in people. We are downloading a bunch of Patricio’s photos and we’ll be posting those soon as well. Ok, well...I have bombarded you all with enough from this email. I am sending this email twice tonight. One will have photos, one is just the email. If you have trouble with the big file with photos just read this one and delete the other as it’s the same email...but with the images.
Namaste.....
March 14, 2005 So tonight Neil, Tik and I had dinner with Pablo (my friend who brought me here to Thailand) and his friend Doug, a former LA Sheriff. Doug had a little motorscooter accident today so he was all bandaged and bloody. Neil told us that there are 300 deaths a year in BKK that are scooter related. Don’t think I will be renting one here. See Pablo’s site at www.speakersoiree.com to see what has brought him to Thailand and read his account of being in Koh Lanta during the Tsunami. Also all of my posts are there as well if you miss one or delete it because you don't have time to read. After dinner we connected with Daz, aka Darren, a former Californite who I have been emailing with for about two weeks. Daz can be found at whereisd.net. He’s a writer, wanderer, globe trotting, truth seeking guy who’s cycling (yes riding his bike) and volunteering his way around the world. Impressive man with pretty amazing knowledge of the world for a 29-uear-old. Definitely in search of enlightenment and minimizing all bullshit. Quite refreshing to meet someone like this from Los Angeles area. I found Daz through another guy named Brad who posted an interesting site about their trip over to Thailand in early February. They went to Khao Lak, Phi Phi and other areas that were hit hard and did a combination of handing out cash they had raised from friends and looking at the tsumami aftermath from a journalists perspective. What is really interesting about Brad’s documentation was how they went into the hotel room of a woman who was probably on the beach during the Tsunami and never returned. She’s still reported missing. They found her plane ticket, passport, etc....all laid out like she was prepping to go home in a day or two. So sad. I urge you to check it out if you have time. http://www.bradolsen.com/media/tsunami.html Anyway, so Daz brought Jason Peel along with him to meet us. He’s an Australian contractor who has been volunteering around Phuket area and is project managing building new homes. He told us a crazy story about all of the politics of being a Westerner involved with the rebuilding and how he was moments away from being killed by the Thai mafia for some miscommunications and because he was trying to get fair market bids on a number of house projects they were bidding on. He managed to wriggle his way out of a pretty bad place with them luckily, but the whole experience has left him understandably jaded about the rebuilding here. He said it’s hard to know who really needs help here and who is using the Tsunami to their advantage to get a new home. It seems like he’s interested in turning his interests to other more harder hit areas of Indo and Sri Lanka. This isn’t the first time I have heard that the corruption in Thailand is difficult to deal with. From the top-level people all the way to the guy on the street selling sodas, a lot of thai people are milking the tsunami situation for what it’s worth, but can you blame them? The average salary for a Thai person before all of this started was a few hundred baht a day at most, so people are desperate now. One of the things smaller projects are doing here is attempting to find ways around the corruption, like in the case of the re-building of a monastery, giving the money directly to the lumber store so that the monks can purchase whatever they need without limit and get people to work on their fallen monastery. Or in the case of the schools, building what is needed around the school like a library and filling it with books instead of just trying to butt into the Governments rebuilding of the school. It’s a fine line between helping and injecting our Western ways into a very proud culture, so we have to be careful. This is something I hadn’t thought about much before I came here. Also with giving money I am seeing how important it is to do it with respect and learn that giving money does nothing for many Thai’s, but giving one family a boat engine so they can always fish is a purer way to give and know that you made a difference. I have sent Jason toward a woman I connected with right before I left to Thailand named Chellie Kew. I am not sure if I mentioned her previously but she’s been working for years on AIDS projects with children in Africa. After the Tsunami she headed for Sri Lanka to see how she could help the children there and now she’s working on raising $84,000 to build a school for 600 children outside of Colmbo. That’s all she needs. It seems like such a nominal amount, but it could take a longtime to raise that because there’s no Western interest in Sri Lanka. Here’s her website. She is a small non-profit, so if there is an urge to send money to someone and have it really do something that directly helps people she is a great option. www.qfund4aids.org. So Neil has left for Bangkok this morning and I am going to head down to the beach shortly and do another run and a swim and stare dreamily at the ocean for a bit to collect my thoughts. This afternoon we begin to spend the $2500 for the Kamala Kids. We’ll be buying school supplies to take along with the excellent donations from all of the companies who sent me things before I left for Thailand. Our haul for the school is a number of little flip flops from Teva, 200 stuffed animals, about 100 really nice shirts from Nike. The intention is for every single one of the 347 children to get a gift. Ok, well I’ll be driving around a bit this afternoon and will fill you in on all that I see out there. Should be getting some photos up on Shantisos.com/Thailand soon too. Keep an eye out for it. Much love to you all and be good to yourselves and each other. Shanti
March 13, 2005 Formulating a plan Woke up at 4am this morning. Jet lag. Always a rough part of traveling halfway around the world. We are 14 hours ahead so half a day can really screw with yout body clock. I looked at what I wrote yesterday and you’ll all have to excuse the typos as it can be hard to type at times on the funky keyboards here. But other than the typos I feel like I did an ok job of beginning to explain what is going on here. There is so much more, but I don’t want to bore you all with the minutia of it all. So here’s what I did today: Woke up at 4am like I said and went and made some calls since it was day time at home. Used up a chunk of calling time talking to Mom and explaining the situation about the 49 Kamala kids who have lost a parent and need financial help. Let me explain that better now. So one of the main projects that Tik and Neil are working on is to help get the Kamala school back running. The idea behind this is that these children are between 6-12 years old and there lives have been very disrupted over the last two months. Right now what they really need is stability because if they don’t have that and a good education then it potentially will lead to long term fall ot in the community in the way of crime, employment issues, etc....of course this is LONG LONG term thinking...but since everything has been in crisis mode for the last few months long term thinking is what needs to start happening to move people’s lives forward. Neil explained when he Tsunami first happened and he and his wife clicked into helping mode they were all over the place and wanting to help every community, every family, every monk, every child. Then they quickly found that it was impossible to help everyone because the needs were so deep. In the first week after the Tsunami they went up to Khao Lak which was one of the hardest hit areas in Thailand. The people there had been dropped shipments of rice from a large NGO but we won’t mention any names here. While that is really kind that the large non-profits sent in pound after pound of rice and electric rice cookers, all shipped in from other countries, the reality was this: These people didn’t even have a place to cook food, nor did they have utensils or pots any more, nor did they have electricity. Something the relief workers hadn’t even thought about. This is when Tik and Neil started putting together simple $15 emergency kits for families with a pot, utensils, cup, plate, knife, etc....They started with 50 kits and instead of even putting a dent in what was left of the people of the town, they experienced long winding lines as people stood for hours to maybe possibly get one kit from Neil and Tik. Neil said it was heart wrenching how politely these people who had nothing lined up and waited for this little bit of nothing they were offering. But what this was was the ability for them to cook and get started back on the right path. Of course the sad backstory to a lot of what has happened in Thailand is that this is a country with TONS of resources like rice, cooling wear, etc....and instead of the large non-profits purchasing from Thailand they are shipping things in from other countries and then wasting fuel driving it from Bagkok to Phuket. It kind of makes you think. Another random side note is that I have a good source who told me in Sri Lanka the non-profit people are staying in 5 star hotels while the roads just outside of Colombo are lined with people living in tents that are blown down every day as a result of the oncoming monsoon season. It’s interesting how these large orgs are so crippled by how big they are and how little reform there has been in spite of all of the corruption we keep reading about within them. Make you mad? Yeah, makes me mad too. So back to the current moment. This morning I went for a run on the beach in Kamala which was amazing. I found myself looking out at the ocean a lot tough, wondering if it would suddenly ride up on us. I am sure no one is every easy here now that the Tsunami has happened and people understand the power of it. There are waves here, which Neil says is unusual for this time of year. They are almost surfable at the moment and I did see a kid on an Al Merrick board sitting in them today although I am not sure if he could surf because he didn’t paddle for any of them. It was a funny site on this pristine quiet beach in Thailand. I have yet to see an American here or hear one. Mainly it seems to be Germans, Italians and Spanish. Even the Scanners seem to be absent. The beach was lovely though.....no trash whatsoever and the water was cleaner than I remembered it last time. Deep green/blue and a white sand beach. It’s easy to see why even with all that happened people still want to come back here and vacation....and they should. Unfortunately there are no deals here right now as no business can afford it, but you can guarantee if you come here on vacation it is very quiet and you won’t be sharing the beach with anyone else other than a few Thai business people renting jetskis, snorkel gear and beach chairs. Tomorrow Tik and I will be going to purchase some supplies for the Kamala school. They are in desperate need of all basic supplies. A large international business Neil works with has pledged to build a library in the Kamala area near the school while the government begins to rebuild the 2 buildings that were leveled in the Tsunami. What is needed in this area is going to be books for the library, as books are expensive in Thailand. Also, there are these 49 children who all need some financial help every year. Tik and Neil are trying to get $130 per child per year. I will be returning to the US with photos of every child as well as information about each of them. If you are interested in donating $130 for the year for a child that can be paid via PAYPAL to Neil’s account in the US. I will get that information for you in the next week. Then Neil will withdraw$130 = 5000 baht and they have set up a bank account for each child, so the money is deposited into an account for them, with the parent or grandparent being the guardian. You can get a receipt if you wish for the bank account so should you want to put this into your taxes and if the government comes after you you can show that you are supporting a child in Thailand. It’s pretty simple. More details later. The other very big project that Tik and Neil are focused on is a monastery just a block away from the school that was destroyed. The building wasn’t totally leveled, but most of the building and everything in inside is gone. A few weeks after the Tsunami Tik went by the monastery and found the monks sleeping on the hard concrete floor. In Thailand Bhuddist monks are not allowed to ask for help so whatever happens to them happens. It is just the way of the path they are on. Tik and Neil have been slowly buying pieces of tile for the stripped roof top, buying furniture, and other things that were swept away from the monastery, I will have images of this for you in the next few days. I did see the monastery yesterday and I can definitely attest to the fact that it’s merely a concrete shell now. You can tell it was once a very beautiful structure though. So these are the first projects I have looked into here. I am on my way to the internet café now to go check out a few other projects I have heard about. Also today I spoke to Elizabeth in Ao Nang. Things are quite rough down there. She said the fact that it’s beautiful and sunny and perfect whether for boat trips they haven’t seen a tourist in their area for weeks. It’s very trying on the whole community because everyone has a sense of dread about what will happen in the future. Elizabeth who has been very upbeat in all her emails as of past is now feeling the strain of what has happened and she has a hard time imagining how it could turn around any time soon. This is so hard to hear as her and Sun’s boat business was one of the coolest businesses I came across when in Thailand in December. It was one of those rare finds where they really had the ultimate day trip set up that was very customized and allowed you to be a tourist but get away from all of the noisy packed boat tours and find pristine empty beaches. They tried to start a side business of buying and selling coconuts, but even that isn’t working as their area was flooded with cheap coconuts recently and coconuts are mainly used for tourists and now there are no tourists....so I know she’s still trying to keep upbeat about it all, as this is the Thai way, but it’s easy to see how the entire situation could get one down. I look forward to going to Ao Nang later this week to see her and to finally take money (over $2000) to Wa Nang at the Ao Nang boat club which was my original mission when I first started raising money in January. Anyway, so I have to get going here. It may be a few days before I am able to write a lengthy email again. For sure by Wednesday evening after we go to the school and monastery. I am hoping to send pictures on that day too. I have attached one picture here to show you Patong, one of the hard hit beaches, that still has a lot of damage to it. Hope it comes through. These will all be posted on my website if you have trouble opening, forwarding or reading. Feel free to pass my emails on to any friends as well. Thank you all once again for your support and note that if I do not reply it’s not because I didn’t get it but because sometimes the internet is very slow and time is limited.
Namaste,
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