What follows are dispatches from K.C. Tomsheck, senior director of IT at CDW, during his summer visit to Thailand as part of a Habitat for Humanity effort to help tsunami victims.
Day 1: July 11
We made it to Khao Lak on the western coast of Thailand — about 40 miles north of Phuket — around noon today local time with almost no issues. Due to daylight-saving time, we’re exactly 12 hours ahead of Chicago.
The airport hotel in Bangkok was very nice. A hot shower felt great. We all got about three hours sleep. Despite the long trip, significant language barrier and sweltering hot weather, it still doesn’t feel like we’re on the other side of the planet.
The majority of our hotel here in Khao Lak survived the tsunami because it’s set on a hill. The buildings down near sea level were demolished and are under reconstruction.
I talked to our host, Ruthann, this evening. She’s meeting our CDW team at the hotel at 8 a.m. tomorrow for the safety briefing and we’ll be on our way to the work site by 9:30 a.m.
The Internet connectivity situation is not good. There doesn’t appear to be any broadband access in the area. The hotel has one very old computer with unreliable and slow dial-up access that cost 300 Baht, which is about $7.50 per hour.
Day 2: July 12
We’re off to the work site on our second day. On Day 1 we toured several areas devastated by the tsunami. Our CDW team has been assigned to a Habitat for Humanity work site building a new house from scratch next to the old house which is damaged beyond repair.
We’re working with the family who will live in the house, led by 23-year-old mother Khwanruthai (Khwan). Khwan’s husband, Aumpon, is away doing construction work for the King. They have a 3-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old son.
Khwan and Aumpon used to sell food from a small shop in front of their house. Before the tsunami badly damaged it, the couple lived in a big house with extended family members. Khwan didn’t want to stay in the same house anymore because she was scared that another tsunami would come. The new house is being built well inland and uphill, just at the edge of the area impacted by the tsunami.
When the tsunami hit on Dec. 26, Khwan was selling food at the shop. She saw many people running, yelling out “The big wave is coming. Move to the hills.” It was very dark outside as she ran with her family to the hills. She saw the wave approaching but was able to make it out of harm’s way. Aumpon was at the beach when the tsunami hit. He seriously injured his leg when he was hit by some steel, but has since made a full recovery. They are grateful no one from their family died in the tsunami. So many others weren’t as fortunate.
Khwan and Aumpon now live in temporary housing in nearby Ban Ngang. The house currently under construction next to theirs is going to be the home of her father and other relatives.
In addition to family help and our CDW team, there are also a few paid Thai and Burmese laborers helping us build the new house. Holes for the footings were already dug when we got there. We were able to pour all 12 footings in about three hours mixing and hauling the concrete by hand.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was here yesterday touring the area and we saw her motorcade drive by several times. Sorry my e-mails are so short, but Internet access is painfully slow and unreliable. Back to work.
Day 3: July 13
Wednesday was another productive day. Since we were waiting on the foundation forms from another local Habitat for Humanity project, we spent the morning working on a different house that’s much further along. This house was primarily constructed by relief teams that Ford Motor Company sends down from Bangkok every week. We worked with the Thai team from Ford and the homeowner. Even though they didn’t speak much English we were able to communicate and work together pretty well. We spend the morning mixing and pouring concrete for the floors in the kitchen and the front porch.
After lunch, we headed back to our site to assemble and set the forms for the foundation. We also started digging the pit for the septic system. This hole needs to be 2 meters (about 6 feet 7 inches) long by 1 meter wide and 2 meters deep. We’re digging through hard clay and roots with just pick and shovel. What we wouldn’t do for a backhoe right now.
Less than 50 yards from our work site is a grounded 65-foot police boat. We’re working well more a mile inland. This boat was assigned to guard the King’s grandson, Bhumi Jensen, who was here jet skiing when the tsunami hit last December. He was killed.
We quit work at 3:30 p.m. today so we could head over to a local grade school and hang out with the kids. A group of 8- to 10-year-old boys played a tough game of football (soccer) against team CDW. It wasn’t pretty. The final score:
Thai children: 9
Team CDW: 6
The little girls enjoyed blowing bubbles with the bubble mix we brought from the States.
Day 4: July 14
The CDW team was able to accomplish quite a bit today, thanks to a motorized cement mixer that was on site when we got there. We were able to mix and pour all the concrete for the foundation. We almost finished digging the hole for the septic system, as well.
I spent the better part of the day at the local Khao Lak Habitat for Humanity office working on their computer network and getting all the Habitat coworkers trained on how to use it.
There was quite a bit of excitement on the site in the late afternoon when two large scorpions were found crawling in a pile of bricks. A couple of young Australian boys working on the adjacent site captured them to release them elsewhere. Our work site is set on the edge of a large rubber tree plantation…
Day 5: July 15
Today, progress was slow. We got our first real taste of monsoon season. It rained most of the day. The rest of this week we could get light rain on and off throughout the day. Usually the rain is a welcome relief from the heat, but this morning it was coming down in buckets.
We spent the day between downpours taking turns digging the hole for the septic tanks. By the end of the day, we made it the required 2.3 meters deep, which is about 7 feet 6 inches. We had to build a ladder to get in and out of the hole …
The CDW team is looking forward to a well-deserved weekend off. Tomorrow we’ve arranged for a boat tour of Phang Nga Bay…
We’ve learned some of the bleak tsunami statistics for the Phang Nga Province area where we are located. The death toll stands at 4,222, with about 60% of those having been foreign visitors to this resort area, which is very popular among German and Scandinavian tourists. About 1,800 people are still missing and 5,600 people were injured. Also sad is that 137 children were orphaned by the tsunami.
In addition to the loss of life, 2,625 homes in the province were completely destroyed. Just over 2,000 were damaged. Of the 72 hotels and resorts in the area, many were completely destroyed and most remain closed. Before the tsunami 500,000 tourists per year visited the area. Currently, there is virtually no tourism, devastating the local economy.
Day 8: July 18
After taking the weekend off for some much needed rest, we arrived at the site this morning and we were pleasantly surprised to find that the team of Burmese laborers had worked Saturday and Sunday. They made good progress. They had not worked on Friday and we weren’t sure when they’d be back. They had removed all the forms from the foundation, built the forms for most of the columns, and poured the cement for those columns.
We started the day by removing the forms from the completed columns and pouring the cement on the last two remaining columns. We filled the foundation in with earth and sand so we can pour the concrete floor in all the rooms. We also built the septic tanks. These are built with preformed concrete rings that each weigh 300 to 400 pounds. Each of the two tanks is made by stacking 4 of these rings on top of each other. Lowering them into the hole we dug was quite a feat.
We’re waiting on additional concrete in order to pour the floors. The good news is we should be laying block for the walls by the end of the week. The walls of the homes here are primarily cinder block. Once you start laying the block, things really begin to take shape and it starts to look like a house. If we get to that point, we will have made very good progress for two weeks of work.
It seems like the team encountered more scrapes, cuts, and nicks than usual today usual. Tony Williams is our on-site first aid volunteer. He’s always there to make sure minor injuries are dealt with immediately, that we’re drinking enough water and taking our malaria pills.
After a late lunch, we moved to a different Habitat for Humanity home site to help the home owners paint roof tiles. We painted several hundred 2-foot by 2-foot preformed concrete tiles and were almost able to get them all done before running out of paint.
Overall, it was a very productive day…
Day 9: July 19
Today, the team was split up working at several different sites. Tina, Tony, Maureen, and K.C. went to the house with the leaky roof. As it turns out, the roofing tiles were not right and the roof has to be completely replaced. Nearly 1,000 roof tiles had to be removed, which took all day. Except for a few hard to reach tiles, they were all removed. We’ll head back there tomorrow to finish the last few tiles and start applying the new ones.
Another team of Todd, Damian, Rey, Andrea, and Margarite spent the morning painting the rest of the roof tiles at the same house we worked at yesterday. After meeting us for lunch at Mr. Pong’s, they went to another house to build a cinder block wall around its septic tank. This team will most likely be back at our main site tomorrow as we’re expecting the wire mesh rebar to be delivered first thing so we can pour the concrete floor in all the rooms.
Today was especially hot. I’m sure the heat index was well over 38 degrees Centigrade (that’s 100 degrees Fahrenheit for the Metric system challenged). We only got about 30 minutes of light rain in the morning to relieve the heat. The team is tired tonight. Most of us are just chillin’ (literally with the AC cranked) in our hotel rooms.
The local Tsunami Relief Habitat for Humanity office here in Khao Lak just got air conditioning installed today after months of waiting for it. The office is located in the middle of what we would consider a strip mall. It is three levels with offices on all three floors. Doors and windows were also installed this week in preparation for the AC. Can you imagine sitting at your desk trying to have a meeting in 95-degree heat? Not to mention what the humidity does to the computers.
We depart for Bangkok on Friday. This means we have only two full workdays left. We intend to make the best of them.
