(Hurricane Katrina had just passed and Rita was on the way when I left for Thailand again – I had already committed to lead a volunteer group, but felt a little guilty for not staying to help in America.)
Even in the more remote places here in Thailand I hear about the Hurricane(s). Up in Khon Kaen, about eight hours north of Bangkok by train, a town where I sometimes felt I was the only foreigner and English is a very distant second language, “Hurricane” was one of the few words heard from a Thai
that I understood.
Many want to know how far away I live from the hurricane and do I know anyone there. At a Buddhist temple, a Monk asks about New Orleans when he hears I am from the States and he leads his fellow monks in a prayer for the people suffering in the South of my country so far away from here.
I’m back in the south of their country again – back dealing with that other disaster that never went away. It felt a little wrong at first to leave the States to do some foreign disaster relief, but now that I’m here I feel like I’m scouting the future for the people in the Gulf States and I’m happy to report it’s a very hopeful one where things do get better.
So much has changed since I was last here in May – it’s now nine months since the Tsunami and Phuket is a little too crowded for my tastes – I was never here before the Tsunami but it seems that the tourists have returned to these famed beaches. To see those images again of the Tsunami and it’s destruction and then to see it now is night and day – the festivals go on here just like the year before and so too will there be another Mardi Gras parade going along St Charles.
Up north of Phuket, in Khao Lak, the area hardest hit by the Tsunami, the Monsoon rains that hampered rebuilding projects are ending, new homes have been built and new longboats are ready for the fishermen.
It’s hard to gage what needs to still be done – I know that there is still many people living in refuge camps and there is still a political problem with land and who should get it – many of the new homes built are for those who had proof they had lived on the land destroyed – many did not and where they will go? Who knows.
The intensity of the aid effort over the region has clearly waned but not among the people I’ve met – I work along side some really great people: one volunteer here is a Marine who has done two tours in Iraq and about to do a third, but spending some of his well-earned r&r doing relief work. Most of it is manual labor – you couldn’t pay me to dig holes for septic systems back in the states and that’s exactly what I’m getting here – hot, sweaty, chain-gang kinda work – for free…well the payment is some really good Thai food that I will miss when I return home after doing my time.
I sometimes feel cut off from the world living in the States – Our news is always focused on us and on today as if there is no tomorrow, but here I feel I’m living in a small world – almost as small as a small town – everyone is a friendly neighbor – they know about my part of town and they wish us well.
