TSUNAMI REPORT MONTESSORI COMMUNITY

Dear Montessori Community and friends all around the world

I am ANDI the educational director of a Montessori-School on Phuket Island
and I will try to explain the situation right now.

The waves have stopped and no further damage happend.

In our school:
We could have been lucky that there was no school on Sunday morning. We have
a 3 week school holiday. During operating school times it would have been a
big disaster and most of our students perhaps might now been missing. We
really had an good angel taking care for us.

The damages in our school are not so terrible as it looks like at the first
view. The Wall to the seafront can easily rebuild - and the classrooms had
to be cleaned. Some playgoods on the schoolground have to been removed. Our
Montessori-Materials are all OK (THAT IS VERY GOOD). In my opinion the
school will go back to business as usual until January 10th, when we will
start school again.

On the beaches:
Most beaches had been started cleaning up. This morning we have been taking
a roundtrip with the Motorbike and many beaches had been already cleaned in
their major parts. Chairs, mats and many other beach-stuff is totaly
damaged, as you can see on the attached picture-link.

The Hotels:
For an interview with a German Radiostation we where asking Hotels about
their damages, Problems, injured and deaths. Some big Hotels and Resorts are
now closing for the rest of the christmas season (at least on month) to
repair their damages. The other problem is, that some of them - like the
CLUB MED RESORT in Karon are without drinkingwater and electricity. There
powerstation had been totaly destroyed. One staff member also died at CLUB
MED. He was wasched away with the staffhousing-bungalows. They are totaly
gone.

PATONG:
Right now we didn't had a chance to get to Patong because the road is still
closed and controlled by the police. Friends, owning a resort near the
beachfront reported many death bodies still laying aroud in the mud left
after the wave. The damage in Patong seems tremendous.

Hospitals:
The Hospitals on Phuket Island are full with injured people. They need BLOOD
of all kind!!! and also all kind of clothing. Many people arriving in the
hospitals didn't brought much with them. Also they are asking for
translators with multilingual abilities.

RAWAI - BEACH - LONGBOATS ...
As we have seen at Rawai Beach, most of the Longboats had been damaged and
the engines too. Also fisherboats are damaged. Many seagypsies are still in
a camp up inthe mountain because they have lost their "houses". For those
people it -- if you ask me -- they really need our help. Without their boats
(most of them are earning their money with fishing and the longboats) - and
also with NO TOURISTS for the rest of the season, it will be very hard for
them to survive.

Only to give you an idea about the financial problems:
I am earning at the montessori-school in Phuket about 1000 Dollars a month
at the moment. Those people are earning about 1/10 - probably a bit more!
This money will perhaps be enough to survive their families but not enough
to repair their damages and engines.

Please enclose those people in your prayers and perhaps we could find a way
to help them. The big hotels can use their insurances. They close and build
up better buildings. But the poorest of the poor they need the tourists to
survive and this will be the biggest problem because many tourists are
leaving the island.

The PhiPhi Islands are - what I heard - the place with the most losses. Two
big resorts are totally destroyed and 200 Bungalows had been washed away
including staff and visitors.

If students of our school are also among the injured or deaths I couldn't
figure out right now. Hopefully not!

Please have a look to the picture update at my webaccount. It shows you the
Beaches and some Resorts of Rawai, NaiHarn, Kata, Karon and Chalong after
the wave.

http://service.gmx.net/mc/DDEnEDcrtxDmRxkUXUpGu0c1gCeB45

If there won't happen anything more, I will stopp here reporting from Phuket
Island. If you have got questions or want to help in any way please contact
me by mail montessori@gmx.com or phone +66 1 606 33 78 (Handy) +66 76 38 33
08 (TEL)

Have a nice and friendly NEW YEAR!

ANDI with his wife LISA and his sons ANAKIN and SKY BIRD from Phuket Island