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• 'Washed up' fishermen turn carpenter and build their own boats
• 'Tsunami village' rises from rubble
• Inspired by Church aid, sea gypsies turn to Christ
• Foreign aid crucial
• Body ID center looks future
• Shoddy housing doesn't make a home
• Outside volunteer carves new career in housing
• Counting the costs to the environment
• Underwater tourist trails
• Turtle hatchery at risk after waves
• Where the money went
• Covered for everything but the wave
• Corporations learn that caring counts
• Starting again from scratch
• Swedish survivor gains perspective after wave 'turned my life upside-down'
• Reasons to smile
• Justice will prevail, investor believes
• Courage and resilience ease personal pain
• Help wanted
• Second chance to get it right
• Tide turns on tourist demographics in Khao Lak
• Light on the horizon
• One day at a time
• Widows and orphans left out in the cold
• Art for the heart
DESTRUCTION
'Tsunami village' rises from rubble
Formerly idyllic spot now torn by strife as conflicts - caused by unfair distribution of donations - fester
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| Ban Nam Khem villagers discuss the rift that has widened among them following the poor management of public donations. The village has experienced a lot of changes, geographically and socially, since the tsunami. |
Phangnga - Ban Nam Khem villagers discuss the rift that has widened among them following the poor management of public donations. The village has experienced a lot of changes, geographically and socially, since the tsunami.
The tsunami that crashed ashore in the South on this day last year made the village of Nam Khem synonymous with the agony and destruction wreaked by the monster wave.
Ban Nam Khem was the hardest hit of all the coastal villages, earning it the unenviable sobriquet ''tsunami village''.
Thousands perished and the entire community was left a mass of rubble and twisted wreckage.
But the damage went far beyond physical structures. Community ties have been shattered and people are struggling to cope with enormous changes that threaten community roots.
''The old Ban Nam Khem is gone forever,'' said Maitree Chongkraichak, head of Ban Nam Khem Community Coordinating Centre. The establishment was set up to help locals handle life after the tsunami.
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| Sudden demise This hand sticking out from the debris epitomises the country's trauma. More than 5,300 people are killed while over 8,000 are injured and nearly 3,000 go missing. A large number of the victims are foreign tourists, from many different countries. |
Before the tsunami ravaged the village, there were 1,566 households, with a population of nearly 5,000. After the tsunami it is impossible to know exactly how many remain.
''Those who survived the waves are scattered all over the place. Some are too scared to come back, while those who decided to stay on are divided, at odds with each other. Even former friends are quarrelling, and peace is rare,'' he said.
He blamed the donations, which although substantial poured in without proper management and a fair distribution system, as the cause of frustration and conflicts among locals. Some villagers were showered with help while many were left out in the cold.
''Sometimes donors just came, gave and left. They had good intentions, but generosity can be a two-edged sword if one villager gets money but the others don't. People were divided and the distribution of donations was based on favouritism. Some neighbours stopped talking to each other. People are living in hostility,'' said Panya Ananthakul, a Nam Khem villager.
Old villagers said Ban Nam Khem is a ''cursed village'' which went through a cycle of rise and fall. The tin mining that flourished in the 1970s made Ban Nam Khem an opulent village which attracted people from all parts of the country. In those days, Ban Nam Khem was a hotbed of crime, illicit business and land disputes. Peace returned to the village when the tin-mining era came to an end and locals resumed fishing activities, returning to a simple way of life.
The tsunami destroyed this peaceful way of life.
The village is now a hive of activity with construction work everywhere as people, with financial support from public and private agencies, plough on with rebuilding the community.
Sathian Phetkliang, who was village headman for 20 years, said the disaster and rebuilding effort have brought about enormous changes.
The geographical change is evident. Ban Nam Khem used to have a sand beach stretching about 1.5km into the Andaman Sea, forming a bay where trawlers could moor.
Now the beach is gone, and the fishermen have been forced to dock in the canal.
How to make a living is another serious problem. Most Nam Khem villagers are fishermen, but the tsunami left them without trawlers, and the replacements they received from the government were not properly equipped.
''Many already got new boats from the state, but the boats by themselves were not enough to fish with. Most of them had no depth-sounders, which is a key instrument,'' he said.
Left with the useless boats, several fishermen could not make a living. They had to borrow money to buy fishing equipment, and were in debt for the first time in their lives. Others who couldn't take out loans had to look for small jobs to kill time, earning little money.
The disaster also had a great impact on people's mental conditions. Many are suffering from stress and post-disaster trauma due to the loss of loved ones and property. Some were so haunted by the wave that they could not stay on in the village, and news of an earthquake is sufficient to spread panic in the community.
''I'm so scared that I've never gone close to the sea nor swum since then. It reminds me of the people who were killed, those I knew and used to talk with. The village has turned quiet, like a cemetery. Nothing is the same here,'' said grandmother Komol Phanpairoj, 67, who returned to Ban Nam Khem last August.
Another rising problem is drugs. Narcotics have begun to spread, although they had been successfully suppressed by the government's war on drugs. Weakened family ties means it is easier for youngsters to get involved. Many children lost their parents, and often hang out with their peers, which puts them at risk from drugs and promiscuity.
''Ban Nam Khem was once notorious as a drug haven, with people of all types coming here from all over the country.
''The problem seemed to be under control after the war on drugs, but the tsunami has brought this vicious habit back to the village,'' said a villager who declined to be named.
Changes of religious faith among locals also became common in the village after many Christian organisations entered the ravaged area to offer support, mostly in the forms of donations and counselling.
''In the past, the wat served as a community centre. Villagers would flock in whenever there was a Buddhist religious event. But today many chapels have appeared in the village and nearby areas, and the wat is almost empty,'' said Mr Maitree.
Some allege that it was donations, not religious reasons, that prompted the conversions, as the converts received more assistance from Christian organisations, compared to what was given by the wat.
''A number of villagers converted. That's a surprise. I don't mind [that they change their religious beliefs], but I still doubt if the conversion was truly based in faith,'' he said.
Yet amidst such scepticism, the Christian groups are carrying on with their mission.
Chanakan Chanaphun, 40, a missionary from the group ''U-Turn for Christ'', was among the first volunteers who entered Ban Nam Khem when it was devastated by the tsunami.
''We came here because a lot of people were in trouble. We helped them repair the houses, take care of the children, comforted them and taught them the Bible,'' she said.
Her team frequently made house visits, consoling those who were still mourning or feared that the tsunami would return.
''We tried to talk and befriend them, let them release their emotions. When they got sick, we took them to hospital. When they trust us and have faith, they feel they are connected to God,'' said the missionary.
The group had bought a one-rai plot of land in the village to build a chapel, and now it has about 50 members from Ban Nam Khem and nearby areas. The number of Christians has risen from just a few in the past to hundreds. The members come to the chapel or hold a meeting at a member's house every Sunday, Monday and Wednesday.
The villagers said they are alarmed by these post-tsunami changes and decided to set up a village coordinating centre, with a community bank. They also established a mechanism to ensure that the donations are used in a sustainable and effective way.
Mr Sathian, the village headman, said the urgent needs of his villagers now are jobs and life security.
He said priority should be given to the needs of fishermen, to help them return to the sea as soon as possible. Most of all, the villagers want a complete warning system put in place so they no longer have to live in fear of the waves.
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