Jan 1, 2005

Hi all from Phuket. I know some may think we are
crazy for coming here but where we are is untouched
and pretty normal. As we had to pick up our stuff
from Katie at some point and we had our air tickets
and Katie said that it was fine for us to come we
decided to come ahead - we need to move south at this
point anyway....and maybe we can either help Katie out
a bit or others if there is an opportunity.

We took a drive through some of the areas hit today on
the way to see a friend of Katie's and it is amazing
what the ocean can do although strange to see this
type of destruction without other storm damage as we
are used to seeing after hurricanes.

The worst hit area in Thailand is further north of
here and has been closed off except for relief workers
as they are still trying to clear bodies. Most of
what we saw today here further south was people
clearing debris and trying to get their businesses
open again. The areas impacted are quite a small part
of Phuket itself and it was strange to see that on one
coast line the damage was very random - some areas
looked OK with just sand in the streets while other
areas were really crushed. Westerners were in evidence
in the towns but it was hard to tell if they were
business owners or tourists.

Our friend Katie was happy to have an excuse to take a
day off from helping at the international school near
by that had been turned into a refugee center. Things
are winding down there now and she expects to begin to
focus on getting ready for the school to reopen next
week - school has been delayed by a week which I think
will help people work through this tragedy and give
them some time to get their lives back in order.

We are not sure how long we will stay here - probably
a few days - we'll keep in touch here and let you know
where we are headed.

Hugs to all.



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