Tsunamis (Shakespeare's been sidelined)

[zcat_abroad]

The first I heard of the tsunami was in an email from Dad - we don't watch the news much here, and I haven't had the time to get near a computer to read any news.  I shouldn't be here now, but I can't remember what I should be doing. 

I feel so helpless here, there is nothing I can do to help my friends in Phuket.  So I take up my computer (as opposed to 'pen')to record my frustration.  Phuket was hit hard, and is getting a lot of coverage, because many rich people were holidaying there.  I feel sorry for them, and for their families back home trying to find out what's happened to them.

But the bulk of my sympathy lies with the poor people on Phuket.  The village where I grew up was reasonably protected, thanks to the island just off shore.  Another small tribal village was not so lucky, and most of the houses have been destroyed.  These people lived on the beach, not because they were rich, but rather because that was the only place they had.  It was not a pretty beach - I remember the water there being muddy most of the time - so they weren't kicked off to build some flash hotel.  Now the villagers are huddled in a temple at the top of a hill nearby, having lost what little they had.  Fortunately, my friend in Thailand reported that there was no loss of life in either village.  But their boats are smashed, and for subsistance fishermen, that's pretty much the end of their livelihood.

And those are just the two villages that I know most of.  There are many other small villages on the coast, built of bamboo and coconut palm, that have been flattened.  And that's just in one small place in one of the countries affected.

I know my concern is mostly for my friends, because they are the people I know about.  My Thai friends will be in the hospitals, helping with the foreigners, because they can speak English.  My tribal friends will be heavily involved in the clean-up, and the collection of bodies, because they know the sea best, and know where the bodies will wash up.  I'm not sure how much aid they will be given to rebuild their houses, and i know that the village I grew up in, the landlord (Thai, not tribal) has been trying to get rid of the villagers for years.  He may create all sorts of trouble with the rebuilding.  The foreigners will be given counselling, but what will the villagers get?  I know, zcatcurious pointed out that they won't need counselling - they're tough, and are even used to death coming from the sea, but they will all be affected.

I just wish there was something I could do.  Dad's talking about maybe going there, if he can be of use.  I want to go there, too, but I don't know how much use I could be, other than translating.

And that's actually a bit of a problem too.  I got an email, in Thai, from my Thai friend in Phuket, and tried to forward it to Dad, but his computer couldn't read it, so I tried to translate it, and realised for the first time how much I think and understand in Thai, rather than translating it to English in my head.  I understood the email, and once away from it, could summarise it for Greg, but it couldn't translate - the two languages are different!!  They don't equal each other.  The Thai should be read in Thai, and the English in English.  I know this is something I've been telling students for years - you have to practice <i>thinking</i> in the foreign language!  I knew I had trouble interpreting, when foreigners came to church in Phuket - my Thai friends would say, "Oh, you can tell them what's happening, what's being said", but I couldn't.  I can think and speak in Thai, (not very complex thoughts, but still), <b>OR</b> I can think and speak in English, not both at once.  Now I realise how much translators and interpreters must do.

If you pray, pray for all the ordinary people out there, all around the Indian Ocean, as they try to pick up their lives.