Round Trip

No glasses with me, and 5 days left of the trip, so this one will be a little shorter than the last.

We are back in Phi Phi. I want to cry. I want to laugh. I want to hug everyone on the island, and avoid some of it all at the same time.

It's been about a month since i was here, and right off the ferry, I could see what had changed (see photos- left side is June, right side, July- same places). The HiPhiPhi main center had moved, a few new restaurants were open. Several stores are now selling things that the surviving children have made during 'art therapy', and a way to continue raising funds for the rebuilding effort. We stopped and saw Lek, the woman who I (you) donated money to in order to continue health improvements with her leg. SHe recognized me at once, though couldn't quite place why. She has visiited with the doctors, and will go to her family in Trang for more work, but it looks promising. Her smile continues to be infectuous. she waves each time we walk by, holds my arm when we stop for a minute.










We took the same tsunami walk that I took with Jamie a month ago. The trash that had been piled up- what the volunteer divers had been dragging from the ocean- has been removed. Tourism, though still only at 15% of normal, is double what it was only a month ago! There is a lot still, to do. But it is being done, and seeing what is possible, really makes me impressed with the organization. On a side note, one of the links on the HIPhiPhi.com website, is Krabirelief.com. My students chose to donate, and I wanted to visit. In my head, I envisioned an orphanage- I will explain more alter, but I visited with the director of the program in AoNang, an AMercian ex-pat. He knew the names and stories of each child in the book. And many of them are from Phi Phi. All of this makes me certain that the money donated is going 100% to those in need.









for a few hours, i felt incredibly guilty that when we left Ranong, we didn't come back here. My stomache ached when I started counting how many days we could have been here, we could have made a difference. But then I recalled my swollen arms, and our not-so-happy bellies, and our reason for going north in the first place=to get well in a cooler climate. And although I didn;t pick up a hammer or a paintbrush as often as I had imagined and hoped, I donated in larger quantities. In the end, more money was spent than originally expected. And each person was gracious for the tourist dollars, for their livelihoods, for their dilapidated businesses.

It was easy for me to overlook my original anxiety about coming here- the age of most of the tourists, the excessive drinking, the 'this could be anywhere' feel of Koh Phi Phi. Those things are still true, but this time I had the experience of meeting the people for whom this is their life, their family, their love. I strongly urge those of you who are travelers to come out here to Phi Phi, or to Sri Lanka, or wherever is appealing- even though stretching of your comfort zones. Even in the midst of Ground Zero, there is a way to enjoy paradise, and know that by coming here, you are doing a great service to those who rely on our vacations for their everyday lives.

I'll leave it at that for now.
Thinking of you...