Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Rebuilding

On December 26, 2004, a horrifying tsunami swept through the Indian Ocean, killing more than 200,000 people, and rendering 800,000 more homeless. In Thailand, one of the hardest hit areas was Khao Lak, where the churning water swept more than a kilometer inland with enough force to snap reinforced concrete beams. Entire swaths of land were flattened, and thousands of people died instantly. The people that survived have lost more than one can imagine. Their friends, homes, schools, businesses, and lives have been destroyed.

While many of the resorts in Khao Lak are simply gone, others are struggling to survive in a world where income is suddenly non-existent. Those that are left fear the second disaster – the economic hit from a completely decimated tourist season. As we enjoyed paradise on the busy eastern coast of Thailand, it seemed very clear that our tourist dollars were being spent in the wrong place. We needed to head west.

Despite reams of media coverage over the past six weeks, the first glimpse of Khao Lak takes your breath away. Everything is gone. Not damaged – gone. Where vast high-end resorts once stood, there is little more than sand and rubble. The lucky ones – those that drape across a small hill – lost only the beachfront infrastructure, while everything on the hillside remains miraculously untouched.



Upon our arrival, we met a saint of a man – Jan-Erik, from Sweden. He is in Khao Lak for at least a month, working six days a week, 10 hours a day, as a volunteer. Much to our surprise, he said his organization could use all the help it could get (surprising, because our research indicated that all of the aid organizations have no infrastructure for drop-in volunteers). So, the next morning, we got up early, made our way to the Tsunami Volunteer Center, and found ourselves a job. One of the many projects of the group is to refurbish all of the schools that were destroyed, so we joined a team building and painting furniture for schools.

The Tsunami Volunteer Center is a group consisting of men and women from all over the globe – the volunteers hail from over 30 different countries. The Volunteer Center is currently running a number of different projects, from ensuring the availability of clean drinking water, to rebuilding a monastery on an island offshore. It is, quite simply, a remarkable organization made up of amazingly caring people.



Our furniture is not going to win any awards for design or comfort. Yet, now there are tables and chairs for schoolchildren in Khao Lak. Although small, it is a step towards the resumption of normal life. We would have liked to stayed longer, but we were already scheduled to leave Thailand, and only had two days available for furniture building. Without question, these were two of the most rewarding days of our entire trip.

Click HERE to see the photos of Khao Lak and the Tsunami Volunteer Center.

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