The Tsunami disaster site

Wow, I think I spoke too soon on my last blog about the Tsunami. We were at the beach, Patong, which was hit but it already had so many repairs done that you could hardly tell. well, the next day we went to Kamala, the only muslim beach, and let me tell you it was wiped out! the entire valley was devastated. horrible. only buildings were standing as ruins or just concrete foundation. there wasn't any bad trash like you would expect b/c that had been cleared, but there were just piles of furniture, etc. from the inside of hotels. i stood in awe and amazement of the tragedy on the very sand where many people's lives were taken. it was very sobering. we saw military men camped out for the relief efforts. some people were still sitting in their shops just waiting for a visitor. no visitors were there, hardly. it was not a tourist site anymore. a lot of prayers need to be said still.

let me tell you what happened after i blogged last. i was sitting in phuket in the internet cafe and when i finished, a thai man asked me if i wanted to see a video that his friend had taped of the tsunami. i said yes, hesitatingly, but knew i should. he even sold it to me. which i do not condone profiting off of tragedy, but i knew it covered the costs for the cd. since i missed so much of the tv coverage, i wanted to truly see more of it to relate. i saw 10 seconds and that was more than i could bare. see, this lady's son was on a beach further down that was sticking out more in the water and it was hit first. he had time to call her on his cell and she was warned that it was headed to her beach. she then got her video camera and filmed it. i'd be running! i dont' know why she did that, but nevertheless, i saw the ocean slip back as if it was being swallowed and then i saw the huge tidal wave come. the next thing i saw was her camera moving everywhere as they were probably panicking and then i saw bodies floating every where in the water. that's all i could take. oh, it's so bad to think what they went through. do you know, the few people i've talked to are not shaken by it. they are very nonchalant and say it was just nature, what can you do about it. wow. maybe they are content in their reincarnation, but you'd think they'd still miss and mourn the loss of loved ones. i can't stereotype everyone, though. i will say i prayed so hard, that through this tragedy Christ will reveal more of Himself to these people. maybe they will experience Him as their Shelter or their Provider. they definitely have monetary and physical needs in addition to their spiritual needs.

we stayed in that internet cafe until 4 am. i couldn't believe it! when we were done, we decided to walk back to the hotel, but we were so tired we weren't thinking clearly. i asked a lady where hotel paradise was. julie, corrected me and said, no, hotel peace. what??? we finally laughed and realized our hotel was called graceland. thankfully, she directed us to this guy who gave us a ride on his motorcycle back to our hotel. the weird thing was everyone was sitting outside at 4 am eating dinner!! that's why we didn't realize what time it was.

i would love to share more about the tsunami with you later. it was an amazing experience to witness the site and prayer walk the area.