| |||||||
Eduardo's Story
|
I am writing this last instalment as I prepare to return to the UK in a few days time. It seems hard to believe it has only been one week since I wrote my original notes of what has happened here. Trying to make sense of the jumble of events, experiences and emotions of the last seven days is difficult but here goes.
I was asked yesterday how I felt. My reply was that I felt emotionally drained and numb most of the time until now and again an image or scene would jolt me such as visiting the local hospital and seeing a wall full of missing people posters. Children, babies, whole families, victims of a time and place, their lives reduced to a plea for information on a single side of paper. I think the only way to untangle what has happened is to describe the last aid convoy I was involved with as it pretty m uch sums things up:
After getting a small quantity of aid to Khao Lak I learnt that the official relief efforts had started kicking in but were concentrating on the main tourist areas to the determent of some remote fishing villages in the extreme north of Khoa Lak, which had been decimated, and although had basic life support aid, needed cooking utensils, cooking oil and camping stoves. 
By around 11pm of the same night I called on some friends with cars and we arranged to meet up the following morning at a local store to load up and then proceed to the villages. We met and began filling shopping trolleys with every conceivable useful utensil we could find. At the checkout we were asked if we were opening up a restaurant. When I explained what it was for the manager was summoned and immediately offered to contribute items of his own volunteering staff to help us load up. In the end overwhelmed by the generosity and unable to physically cram any more items in, the suspension down to the bumper stops we made our way to a local gas supplier for the camping stoves.We had not anticipated the reaction of the gas company either. After buying 20 stoves (all we could carry) and explaining where they were destined, the owner offered to supply another 300 camping stoves and a lorry to join our small convoy, and the convoy rolled on. |
At one place we saw a Thai Coast Guard frigate that had been washed over 3km inland like a piece of flotsam, ending up embedded on the side of a mountain. The local authorities intend to keep it there as a monument to what happened here. We subsequently arrived at the larger of the villages that had a central government building coordinating all the aid arriving. Our convoy was one of many privately organised ones that had responded to the call for help and the villagers had got organised by having a central distribution point. After unloading the aid, I was able to seek out the local orbitor (equivalent of a UK council leader) and ask him what else he needed urgently. He immediately took me to one side and explained that he now had enough food, water and with the influx of convoys he would have the basics for setting up more permanent accommodation. He empathically told me not to send them cash but rather to help them longer term re-establish their fishing fleet which had been wiped out. His main concern was that his people would become dependant on aid. He wanted to get them back earning a living as quickly as possible as this was the only way to rebuild these communities. I was deeply impressed with this individual who had clearly been thinking about what would happen to his people after the initial sympathy wore off, and knew exactly what he wanted to do to avoid a further catastrophe. We spoke at length about the type of vessels they would require. In Thailand the staple boat of the local fishing fleet is called a "Long Tail Boat". anyone who has visited Thailand will recognise them. They are gigantic canoes with a very long tail rudder and often a car engine mounted on the back. The orbitor also asked for fishing nets and fishing cages. He went on to explain he could not begin to take delivery of them for 2-3 months as the local community were too traumatised to make use of them before.
On the way back from Khao Lak I was contacted by BBC News 24 in London who had heard about my views on their unbalanced reporting of Phuket, and offered to interview me live on Talking Points that night. I accepted, and to their credit they did broadcast my criticisms of them. I can only hope it can redress some of the damage caused.
The following day we approached the local Coast Guard offering to take my boat to Phi Phi, a beautiful set of islands (setting of the film The Beach) to help recover bodies as some local boat captains were refusing to put to sea fearing another tidal wave. I have to say it was with some relief our offer was turned down as my boat is too small to be much use.
Continue reading Eduardo's Story Here |
 |