Appendix A: The People in Your Neighborhood

Do remember when Seseame Street was great? I do. There was this song they would sing every once in a while called "The People in Your Neighborhood." It went something like this:

Oh, who are the people in your neighborhood?
In your neighborhood?
In your neighborhood?
Say, who are the people in your neighborhood?
The people that you meet each day

Last week as I journyed around the world, I couln't help but ask the same question of Jesus as the expert of the law did in Luke 10:29, "And who is my neighbor?” What he showed me was everyone I meet is my neighbor. I learned I have neighbors all around the world. Here is a list of just some of the people in my neighborhood:

Larry - I met Larry one morning at the Emerald Garden before breakfast. He lives in Madison, Wisconson where he is on staff at UMW. I think he is an IT person there. Larry was in Thailand as a representative of Friends of Thailand. This is an organization of Peace Corp. alumni that had served in Thailand. Larry served the peace corp in 1977 and 1978. Larry's wife is Thai and is a middle school teacher.

Sak - Mr. Sak and I first started communicating before our trip even began. Sak is the day manager at the Emerald Garden. His english was decent, but not decent enough. He leads a great staff of people at the hotel. This resort isn't five star by any means, but the service sure was. I highly recomend going there and meeting Sak yourself!



Pla - Pla was the night manager at the hotel. She did a ton of calling around for us to find a boat that would take us over to Phi Phi. She spoke less english than Sak. But was efficient in getting us the help we needed. I also wrote her name on the dinner check one night instead of my room number. It didn't work.

Brenda - The steorotypical hippie chick. Brenda was an american that had been "hanging out" on Koh Phi Phi for a few many years. I'm pretty open about people's lifestyles, but a lady not shaving her arm pits is where I draw the line. I think one could have braded that hair. She was very nice and was glad to see other Americans coming to help. I think God needs more hippies.

Ryan - Another American we met on the island. Ryan is a southern California boy hailing from the San Francisco area. At 26 Ryan had been traveling around the world up until five months ago when while hitting golf balls at a Thai golf ball range in Koh Samui, the owner offered him a job. Ryan like many others heard of the need on Phi Phi and decided to come and help. He had intended on only staying three days to help but was on his tenth day when we meet him and was planning on staying another ten.

Laura & Jenni - TEXAS! This two twenty-somethings knew they wanted to help in the tsunami relief with no idea on where to help. They got steered towards Phi Phi and never left. Both girls were very up front and proud about being in the 5% of Texas residents that did not vote for George W. Bush.

Annique - If you read all of this blog you remember Annique as the British mom "boat schooling" her kids aroung the world. To get more info on her read the blog! ;-)

Marco - I met Marco out in front of the Kodak shop that had been converted into the island tool shed by the folks at HI Phi Phi. Marco introduced himself and asked if I was Jewish. I thought it was a funny question, until I realized I wasn't wearing a shirt and he could see the star of David tattoo on my back. I told him my wife was jewish and he said, "You must love her a lot." I showed him the one on my forearm and all he could say was, "That's heavy man!" He told me not to go to Chonburi, Thailand. He said they sell Nazi items in the street. I told him that he wouldn't find that on Phi Phi.

Michael - Coming Soon

Ray - Coming Soon

Neil - Coming Soon

La - Coming Soon

Frank - Coming Soon

Rachel - Coming Soon

5) Last days.

On Thursday we found out that there would be no working on the island the following day. The organizations trying to rebuild there had decided to try and respect the Muslims on the island by not working during their holy day. So we decided to take Friday morning to rest before stopping by the nursery in Krabi and then heading back to Bangkok.

It was hard to say goodbye to our new friends at the Krabi Emerald Garden. I highly recommend this resort if you have some romantic occasion to celebrate, like let us say a fifteenth wedding anniversary (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). After saying goodbye to the hotel staff we set out for Krabi Town to meet up with La, the director of the Phi Phi refugee camp. On our arrival to the HI Phi Phi offices La spent some time with us telling his story of the tsunami and of the plight of those displaced off the island. He then took us to a day care type center where we were able to interact with some of the children who had lost parents and relatives on December 26th. We distributed many toys and stuffed animals to the kids. After the soccer balls, the second best received toy had to be the plastic snakes, as the Buddhist in Thailand hold snakes in high regards. It was fun seeing the kids light up for just a moment when receiving the gifts.

We made one more stop in Krabi town before heading to Surat Thani. Capital is a chain of music stores in Thailand and where Michael picked up the latest CD's by Silly Fools (the Thai equivalent of Incubus). So we jammed to Thai rock all the way to Surat Thani. After dropping off the rental car we took a taxi to the train station where we waited three hours for our train. There was a train that left earlier than ours but I figured better to hang out in Surat Thani with nothing to do for three hours then to hang out in Bangkok with nothing to do. Again the rhythm of the train put everyone straight to sleep.

The next day in Bangkok we spent several hours at the weekend market. This market sells about anything you would ever need in Bangkok. Over 200,000 people crowd the nearly 15,000 shops that are only open on the weekend. Later that night we took a two-hour boat ride on the Chao Phraya River. This ride included a traditional Thai meal; traditional Thai dancing and spectacular views of the Wat's all lit up at night. After the boat ride we ended our time in Thailand with a Tuk-tuk race.



These half-breed moped/rickshaw are crazy to look at, but not as crazy as the people that drive them. Watching the tuk-tuk drivers maneuver through traffic one might think they didn't know they had a back seat behind them with passengers in it. Unfortunately my attempt to bribe the other tuk-tuk driver failed due to translation problems and Neil, Jake and Joe won the race. We went to bed early so we could get to the airport early and start our journey home.

I wanted to thank everyone who supported our group with finances, prayers and encouragement. This trip would never had happened with out all of you. Please visit the web sites to the right of this page and continue to support the rebuilding of Phi Phi and Thailand!

Roger, out!

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!

3) Knackerd!?!

Our trip out to Ko Phi Phi Don was one of the most beautiful experiences I have ever had on water. Skimming across the water there would appear giant limestone islands that looked like huge chia-pets. As we traveled the west side of Ko Phi Phi we could see Laa Nam Bay, which is "the" beach in the movie. I was struck by the fact that it didn't look like there was much damage. But as we turned the southern tip of the island we had a much clearer view of Tusani Bay and all the damage done by the tsunami.

From our first steps on the island we could tell that we were in another world. As we walked down the main strip we saw tons of damaged shops. There were several volunteers cleaning out street gutters. And walking right by them were tourists in bathing suites carrying towels to the beach. This frustrated me at first. I couldn't believe that people would be so insensitive to the needs of hurting people around them that they could go about their lovely day at the beach without picking up a rake, a shovel or a hammer. But later in the day one of the main volunteers told me life on the island had to be somewhat of a duality. Life on the island was going to be a "both/and" for some time to come. There needed to be both those that worked and those that spent money as tourists. As our time on the island went on I became more and more at ease with this seemingly contradiction of the human spirit.

We picked up our work assignments from Calisto's Bar. This small beach side bar serves as headquarters for the volunteer efforts during the day and as a gathering spot to unwind at night. Neil and Michael were asked to start work reconstructing vendor carts on a side street in town. Joe, Jake and I were asked to join a small army of people helping to clean up debris around the water treatment plant for the island.

While working on their first vendor cart, Neil and Michael were interrupted by an English bloke also named Neil. Neil was eating at J.J.'s like he does everyday on Phi Phi when he noticed Michael and Neil working hard on their project. He asked, "What made you choose to work on that one?"

They responded, "It was the worse looking one, why?"

He replied, "Well you maybe working on a dead persons cart. I know for sure that those two down there are owned by a woman that wants to start her business back up. Those should be a priority."

While at the water treatment center we meet a wonderful group of people in their 20's from around the world. Most were just taking time out of their lives to travel around the world and decided to stop in Ko Phi Phi to help with relief. One such person was a young British girl who was hanging around us during one of our break times. While standing there drinking water this girl said, "I'm feeling naked." I shook my head and said, "What? You're not naked." She said, "No naked." "No one is getting naked during this break time." She said, "No, knakerd. Like tired." I had never heard this word or term before in my life. Needless to say the word was used in its context multiple more times during the rest of the trip.

Michael had met some girls from Texas (who excitedly proclaimed to be in the 5% of the states population that did not vote for President George) who were running the tool shed for the HI Phi Phi organization out of a destroyed camera shop. After finding out we had a boat that was leaving the island and coming back the next day they asked if we could buy some much needed supplies for the efforts. So we pulled up shop a little early and headed back to the main land. While on our boat ride back, our guide Pat (pronounced pot) pointed out two islands that were about a hundred yards a part from each other. He told us that before the tsunami this had been a huge tourist spot because a small beach that you could walk across had connected the islands. The tsunami however had washed the majority of the sand away and tourist seldom ever came there anymore.

Our group got cleaned up after a short dip in the pool. I asked Sak and the staff where I could buy a hammer and they should be on a map where a mom and pop hardware store was near the hotel. Our trip to the hardware store had to be the worst case of a language barrier we had faced on our entire trip. The shop owner knew zero English. And when you are trying to locate three way electrical switches, knowing some Thai might help. We wound up spending any extra money we had collected before we left on buying all the supplies for the relief effort that we could. Having felt like we had accomplished a decent amount of work we retired back to our hotel for another night of rest and relaxation. It had been a good day!

2) Driving on the left side of the road with elephants.

We rode the train in a first class car. This meant we had private rooms with two bunks in each room. I was by myself and quickly fell asleep for a mid-day nap, which turned into a seven hour-long snore fest. The other four guys had two rooms and were joined by a sliding door which allowed them to hang out and converse for most of the trip.

Our train arrived at 1:30 am Surat Thani time. We took a 15-kilometer cab ride to our hotel. Now I say cab, but it was more like a small pick-up truck with a tarp over the back of it. But hey, what else can you expect at 1:30 in the morning in the middle of Thailand.

We all woke up the next morning and enjoyed a healthy breakfast at the hotel. Michael and I then grabbed a taxi to the airport where we picked up our rental car. Okay, up to this point in my life I had always driven on the right hand side of the road. Now it is no longer illegal, it is merely just an option. The novelty of being in the passenger seat with a steering wheel in front of me quickly wore off as I made my way onto the main roads in Surat Thani. I think Michael could sense I was tense because about every five minutes he would say, "You are doing awesome." Driving on the left side wasn't as big of an adjustment as driving with thousands of mopeds weaving in and out of the traffic around me. When we arrived back at the hotel and I had placed the car in park, still sitting in our seats, Michael and I pumped our fists, stomped our feet and screamed as if we had just won the Baja 1000.

The Thai roads we used for travel where very smooth. The driving however was like a roller coaster. "Keeping up with traffic" should be considered an olympic sport. As we drove through southern Thai land our group imagined developing a video game called
"Developing Nation Racing". Each game would have multiple races, using indigineous modes of travel. For Thailand that would be cars, boats, trains, planes, tuk-tuks and mopeds. There would also be local "obsticals" like the ones we faced while driving, such as a truck full of elephants.

As I had projected it took us two hours to drive from Surat Thani to Krabi. What I didn't plan on was the hour and a half it took us to find the Krabi Emerald Garden Resort that would become our home for the next four days. When we pulled into the Ao Nang beach area there were no signs that there had been a Tsunami warning the night before. Shops were open and tourists were bustling around as tourists normally do. After checking into the Emerald Garden I asked the hotel staff to help secure us travel to Phi Phi Island for the next three days. I asked about a traditional Thai long tail boat and they laughed. Mr. Sak, the day manager, informed me that it would take two and half hours to get to Phi Phi by long tail boat. We opted for a speedboat that would take us only forty-five minutes to get to the island. The boys and Neil went swimming while Michael and I checked out down town Ao Nang. We ate dinner at the hotel where I had Pad Thai with Chicken, which I love. While at dinner the restaurant sound system started playing Jack Johnson. I couldn't help thinking how perfect this would have been if my wife and kids had been there to enjoy it with me. After dinner we shared with each other the stories about the previous days earthquake and tsunami warning that we each had heard about. We decided to head to town to call family.

After reassuring our loved ones that we were fine and everything was fine we headed back to the hotel to begin our "The Beach" marathon. The Beach was a movie released in 2000 staring Leonardo DiCaprio that was filmed on Phi Phi Island. Many young travelers come to this area of Thailand to relive portions of this movie. So as a way to promote Phi Phi and the movie, our hotel had a designated a TV channel that would show this movie twenty-four hours a day. I'm not sure how many times I viewed it in it's entirety over those four days, but it seemed like a hundred. If you would like to see where we were, renting this movie is a great way to do that.

More to come!