TSUNAMISED

After a night in Bangalore, two in Changanacherry here I am in Kanyakumari for another single night, next one will be in Tuticorin and the next again will be in Madurai. I realise I will never sleep more than one night in the same place until I will be back in Bangkok, not bad for an old Khun Phu.

I am here to visit the Tsunami affected areas of South Tamil Nadu. It has been nearly one year since the killer wave struck these shores and since my first visit here.

It is surely been an eventful year, we did lot of work for fund raising, three visits on the spot and a countless e-mails and phone calls with the ones in charge of the relief works.
It was worth, the have been able to overcome lot of problems, it surely hasn`t been easy but here I am, and allow me to feel proud of our work, proud to have been able to keep our promises and to have done our part in this tragedy`s relief.

Of course we are not the only ones who did our job right, so many other good people did their part too in trying to bring care and relief to those thousands of people all over South East Asia who have been so much affected by the seaquake. And this was really a great thing, all people being mobilised with a real positive energy to help the others.
It was great being involved in this and I may be selfish but I have to admit I feel really proud to have part of this positive energy wave, I can say: “I was there and I did my wee part in helping those victims”, and it makes me feel well.
Unfortunately, is also true that thanks to the Tsunami lot of people got shamelessly rich.
They stole, tricked and cheated the poor affected people, took the money that was meant to be for the victims and ran away. These are every day stories, like vultures those men blatantly misused the funds meant to be for whose who were in real and urgent need. Shame on them, really.

For our part we`ve built a big Water Tank (a God`s sent blessing in local people words) and here I am in Keela Manakudy distributing the fishing boats we did promise six months ago. It took longer than expected because we faced really unexpected problems but we did not back out and we did our duty.
Not a single penny was lost and every single donation we did receive is now in those floating pieces of wood.

I am happy, let me feel this way, I am happy to see those faces smiling, those faces whose eyes have seen death, misery, hunger and cheaters finally have something to cheer. Their shy way to give me a “namaste”, their shy smile which barely has teeth, with the eyes nearly closed as they would be afraid to make contact with mine, is a big reward for myself.
A reward that I do not even deserve because all this has been possible thank to the hundreds of people who donated money to help other human beings in a distant and far away part of the world.

Now back in the car and on the way to Tuticorin, where I will meet other poor people and children affected by the Tsunami, but not only by that.
They are affected and crushed by the loan sharks and by the rich people`s exploitation, never any change in the history of man kind, right?

Kanyakumari, November 25th, 2548

C – COPYRIGHT / Claudio Romano