TeriThai • Hanuman International Thailand Tsunami Letter
Top Bio Classes Tours Schedule Store			2006/03/11 Thank you for your donations and good wishes for the Thailand Tsunami Survivors!!!! As most of you already know — Alan and Teri traveled to Thailand last March and April with $4,000 of your collected donations for the Thailand Tsunami Survivors. We traveled over most of the areas hit so severely by the tsunami — and to our constant amazement we found that 80% of the destruction had already been rebuilt — and better than before. I have to say that the Thai people are amazing. They don’t sit around and whine about their woes. Instead, they work together and honor themselves and their lost ones by making things even better than before. It is done with respect and grace. In fact — we were told repeatedly — "give the money to the other people who need it more." It is amazingly difficult to give away money the right way. You can’t give it to any one person or place — without sharing it within the group or community. The people who need it the most can’t often ask for it. I have been visiting Phi Phi Island since 1990 — when it was a small fishing village. At that time the kick-boxers used to train there in the off-season. In the center of the village was a well — and under the big palm trees next to the well was a boxing ring. The whole village used the well to bathe and do laundry. The old mama-sans and papa-sans would do massage on all of the boxers when they took a break. They were amazing. P.P. Charlie Guest House was the original guest house on Phi Phi Island. At that time it was about 4 or 5 small bamboo bungalows — that rented for about $2/night. We would sit around under the palm trees and work on each other and the boxers. The only power came from small generators — that were turned off every night at 9 or 10pm. As time went by — and Phi Phi became more well known and popular — the village began to mushroom into the resort village it was at the time of the tsunami. Charlie Teach and his wife Rattanaporn, owners of P.P. Charlie opened another very beautiful P.P. Princess Resort. These became the central & largest resorts on the island. The group that we found needed our help the most were the surviving orphans of Phi Phi. Most of them were unreachable, but the group that we could do something about were the survivors of the P.P. Charlie and P.P. Princess employees. There has been a fund set up to support these children that is well organized and very fair. Charlie Teacha and his wife Rattanaporn were owners of and P.P. Princess Resort. Though they lost everything on that island during the tsunami — they have made a personal commitment to see each of these orphaned children educated through college — at great expense! While we were there, we saw the profiles on each child — one as young as 4 months old at the time of the tsunami — and a couple of them are in college already. Altogether there are 24 children needing help. This is where we donated the $4,000 from our group. We also took offers over to Thailand from some very special folks here — to adopt any children who needed families. And I have to tell you that this was met with graceful tears and warm hearts. Their answer, however, was that as beautiful as the offers were — the children would then lose their country, as well as their family. And as it worked out — all of the children had extended families to help raise them — but not always the funds. The children have to have shoes, uniforms and books to attend school — and this gets more expensive as they graduate through the years. If you have the desire to help further with the school funds for these children — you can contact them at www.ppprincess.com — you can also see what has happened there before and after the tsunami — and hear the news about how they are rebuilding. You can also find our donations listed there! So far we are the 5th largest contributors! We are taking a group back there in January/February 2007 — and if you would like to join us let us know soon! The group will be limited to 20 people. Phi Phi Island has been one of the last places to rebuild, because of political wavering — but it sounds like they have taken off again! So — we will look forward to staying there again in the near future.
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