tsunami memorial

Baan Nam Chem had a beautiful memorial park dedicated to those who had lost their lives there, and along the coast, a year ago. We wrote our name in their giant guestbook, then walked along the 10 foot tall, wave shaped black stone memorial, reading the names and home countries of those who died. We visited the temple where we had worked, "yok sop," or in English, lifting bodies. That is what my husband did, anyway, I couldn't bear to do it, so I helped with translation and with those who came to look for their loved ones. We brought a gift basket to the Thai folks that took us in and let us sleep at their house, but they had moved already. A local girl told us another group had come, too, the day before. Other westerners that had helped at Yan Yaw temple, they had come and done so much, they are heroes to me. I don't even remember most of their names, they were tourists, or ex-pats, younger and older, they came from all over the place, and came to do what many Thais told us they just couldn't deal with, the dead corpses, thousands of them. The first day my husband went in to the back to help, he felt afraid, there were a thousand rotting corpses in the back, the smell was overpowering. People were crying and vomiting, it was such a mess. Trucks came flooding in with more and more bodies, wrapped up in plastic, the smell was so overwhelming, no one could eat the piled up boxes of food offered to volunteers at the temple. We ate the ramen noodles instead, because they slipped down our throats easier. When we came back at night to the house we stayed at, we reeked like the corpses, especially the men of the group, who had worked with them all day. It was the worst nightmare of our lives.