4) "Rich Come"

Finding the story of Koh Phi Phi Don is as easy as looking at the graphitti on the sides of the buildings scattered around the island and listening to the hearts of the people clinging to lives shattered by nature's deadly force. The story is simple; there is a beautiful island that was devastated by the tsunami that the national Thai government would like to buy back from land owners, so that they can sell for a much higher price to huge hotel conglomerates. What is standing in the way of the government is a handful of small business owners that won't give up on their dreams and leave the island.

Neil, Jake and Joe set themselves up to continue working on the vendor carts that had been started the day before. Michael and I set out to record the story of Koh Phi Phi Island. As we traveled around the island video taping and taking digital stills for the movie Michael would later put together for us to show back home, we ran into dozens of normal, but at the same time extraordinary people. Each one had their own tale of how they wound up on the island and an even more compelling story of why they were staying. I am going to list a good majority of the people I met on this journey in another post, but I wanted to introduce you to one lady. Her name is Annique.

When new volunteers arrive on the island, Annique is usually the first person they meet. Annique is a British citizen traveling around the world "boat schooling" her two young children with her husband. She told us that as they started to hear more and more about the needs in Thailand, they felt as a family the urging to come and help. Annique is the queen at being a helper. We would run across her all over the island. Normally she was helping folks find a job site, locating a member of the HI Phi Phi staff or making sure one of the tourists was getting their donation to the right spot. And she did this with a smile on her face at all times. Annique's ability to serve others with a grace filled kindness was not what I admired about her the most. It was the sheer amount of margin she and her husband had built into their lives to be able learn how to pilot a boat and sail that boat around the world. All the while schooling their children on how the world works. What dedication and love for their kids must this couple have to open up the world as a classroom for their children?

The more people we talked to people the clearer the true picture of Koh Phi Phi became. The Thai government is greatly admired by all the Thai people. But right now they are trying to pull a "land grab" or "island grab" if you will, from the people on Phi Phi. Besides the initial help of cleaning up and removing debris from the island and the bay, the Thai government has done very little to restore Phi Phi to it's condition before December 26th. In fact they are with holding relief money from small business owners on the island that could be used to rebuild their lively hood. As we heard over and over again from those we interviewed, the government wants these small business to leave the island, so that the land owners wont be able to collect any rent and be forced to sell the land to the government for ridiculously low prices. The government would then start taking bids from huge resort developers to repopulate the island with extremely expensive resorts that the government could collect huge taxes from.

I could see how some might look at this trip and say, "Well you didn't get much work done." I don't see it that way at all. If the clean up the boys and I did the first day makes the island a little more attractive, so that the tourist currently returning to the island will encourage others to vacation there, then it was worth it. If rebuilding six vendor carts helps a couple of families restart their business so they can return to the island, then it was worth it. And if us making a video of the story on Phi Phi motivates one youth group or church to donate to one of the organizations (that can be found on the right hand side of this page) trying to help rebuild the island, then it was more than worth it.

More soon!