Today has been a day of bombardment of news, images, stories and updates. It is enough to take the humanity out of the event. I am starting to forget those feelings I had a year ago tonight, and seem to only be able to remember those thoughts I had today. ‘Those poor people.’ The thing is, it seems to not really phase me that I was one of those people. I woke up on Boxing Day planning on going to the beach. I was planning on going to check on a friend’s house who was back in Canada for the holidays.
I can hardly remember the days following the tsunami now. I get letters from home wishing me the best and wondering how I am doing on this anniversary. To tell you the truth, when people go through events like that, it all seems to slip by without the emotions attached. If I was to see a dead cat on the side of the road today I would turn my head. But it was a year ago this week that I was peeking under sheets, covering my nose so I wouldn’t wretch from the stink. Looking at bodies that once had life, blown up like balloons, full of tsunami. Riding around in the back of a pick up truck with people from the Canadian embassy, helping translate at Thai Hospitals, looking for missing Canadians. Talking with mangled bodies and minds, trying to find out if they are Canadian, or if they have contacted their embassy. Hearing stories of being picked up twenty feet by the wave and thrust into the ocean to be scraped along the coral, and then some how found themselves in a hospital somewhere on Phuket island.
‘Have you seen my friend? She was right next to me, I managed to grab a branch, and she didn’t. Have you heard of her?’
‘Ruby. Ruby is missing.’ I remember this Asian-Canadian girl whose husband pleaded with me to find her. I saw posters of her throughout the island until February. I eventually saw on a Canadian news-report that her body had been found in Phi-Phi. I went to the hospitals around the island and took down all of her posters, telling the staff that she had been found. I still have one of her posters in a box from when I moved off of Phuket. I know where it is, but I haven’t looked at it since.
Things are surreal today. My life has changed. The tsunami changed Phuket. It changed me. But in a way I can’t describe. I will never forget my time with the Canadian Embassy looking for missing people, trying to sort my way through the madness. Hearing about people who had lost people. Counting the people I knew, making sure I didn’t.
Today the sea was calm. The weather is sad. Mother Earth has made her mark. She was trying to tell us something, and hopefully we have listened.
I can hardly remember the days following the tsunami now. I get letters from home wishing me the best and wondering how I am doing on this anniversary. To tell you the truth, when people go through events like that, it all seems to slip by without the emotions attached. If I was to see a dead cat on the side of the road today I would turn my head. But it was a year ago this week that I was peeking under sheets, covering my nose so I wouldn’t wretch from the stink. Looking at bodies that once had life, blown up like balloons, full of tsunami. Riding around in the back of a pick up truck with people from the Canadian embassy, helping translate at Thai Hospitals, looking for missing Canadians. Talking with mangled bodies and minds, trying to find out if they are Canadian, or if they have contacted their embassy. Hearing stories of being picked up twenty feet by the wave and thrust into the ocean to be scraped along the coral, and then some how found themselves in a hospital somewhere on Phuket island.
‘Have you seen my friend? She was right next to me, I managed to grab a branch, and she didn’t. Have you heard of her?’
‘Ruby. Ruby is missing.’ I remember this Asian-Canadian girl whose husband pleaded with me to find her. I saw posters of her throughout the island until February. I eventually saw on a Canadian news-report that her body had been found in Phi-Phi. I went to the hospitals around the island and took down all of her posters, telling the staff that she had been found. I still have one of her posters in a box from when I moved off of Phuket. I know where it is, but I haven’t looked at it since.
Things are surreal today. My life has changed. The tsunami changed Phuket. It changed me. But in a way I can’t describe. I will never forget my time with the Canadian Embassy looking for missing people, trying to sort my way through the madness. Hearing about people who had lost people. Counting the people I knew, making sure I didn’t.
Today the sea was calm. The weather is sad. Mother Earth has made her mark. She was trying to tell us something, and hopefully we have listened.
posted by isobella at 7:33 AM
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