Helping out in Ko Phi Phi

We have spent the last 4 days on Ko Phi Phi Island helping the clean up process of the island. It is devastated! It's a big shock when you first step foot on the island. I have never seen destruction this bad. For people that don't know about Phi Phi it's a very small island and in the middle it gets very thin and that is where the town is located. It takes about 5-10 minutes to walk from one side to the other. Both sides have beautiful beaches and in the middle are all the shops, bars, restaurants and hotels. What basically happened on December 26th was the waves hit it from both sides and met in the middle destroying everything. There is hardly anything left. All of the buildings are full of rubble. Walls are missing. There are wide, open spaces full of rubble that buildings used to occupy. It's absolutely shocking to see and words can't describe, but I'll do my best.

We went to the island hoping to help out doing anything. When we got there, we went straight to the Carlitos Bar where the base camp is for the volunteers. They pointed us in a direction of where we can help. We met a girl who needed help shoveling out debris from an old clothing shop. We got some shovels and started to work. The little shop was full of sand, dirt, silverware and anything else you can name. I was shoveling and bringing the rubble to the waste dump in a wheelbarrel for hours it seemed. I found a little bone in one shovel-load and took it out. There were signs in Carlitos that if we found a bone to hand it in to them. I shook it off thinking it was probably an old chicken bone. But, I put it to the side just in case and continued work. After lots of hard work, the place looked great. We started work in another place across the way and then went off to help clean up the Sports Bar. I totally forgot about the bone, so later on I went back to the first place and found it. I brought it to Carlitos and talked to the nurse. I was telling her it's probably nothing more than a chicken bone. She cleaned it up and the look she gave me told me that it was not just a chicken bone. She told me that it was the arm bone of a baby. It took me a few minutes to stop shaking and get back to work. But, hopefully someone can be identified from the little bone that I found. I'm shaking as I write this. It's the first time I have actually thought about what I have seen and the stories I heard. When I was there and working, I didn't put things together. I knew what had happened, but I tried not to think about it while walking through the destruction. I guess that's a defense mechanism.

Everyone worked together and so many people are on the island for months to help. It was also weird that you are in a shop or an old bar, shoveling sand and debris and then you walk out to the beach and see the beautiful surroundings of this island. It's very bittersweet. The next day, Hi Phi Phi (The clean up organization) organized a beach party. We only worked a half day and then there was a volleyball tournament and a beach party at night. It was so fun. All of the volunteers were there and eveyone is so cool. There were probably 60 or so volunteers.

I heard lots of stories from the people that have lived on the island and from other travelers that were there or somewhere else during the tsunami. It's very shocking to hear what happened to them or people they knew. I won't go into details about the stories. You'll have to ask me when you see me.

We didn't do much work after that, it was Tanya's birthday the next day so we went back to Maya Bay with some friends and had some fun. I am hoping to go back to Phi Phi in a couple weeks to help out again. They need all the help they can get. There is still so much work to do and probably will be for a long time. Please, if you can go to Phi Phi as a tourist and help out the locals. They need tourist there desperately. They also need volunteers, especially volunteers with specific skills. They really need carpenters, electricians, pavers...Any sort of building skills. If you know of anyone, please spread the word. Also, if you are going to be in Thailand, stop there for a few days and shop, eat and be a tourist. It is such a beautiful island, one of my favorites even though it's destroyed and I would love to see it back up and running for other people to enjoy it.

I hope I described this well. Words can't describe what happened there, but I tried. It was an amazing experience being able to help out some. I hope to go back and do some more. We are off to Bangkok today and then we are heading up north to Chang Mai to do some jungle trekking.