Tsunami: 2005

Saline Reporter 20050120
FRONT
Area teacher raises dimes from students for tsunami relief
By Renee Lapham Collins, Heritage Newspapers
“Three years ago to the day, if the tsunami had happened, I’d either be dead or on TV with an amazing survivor’s story,” says Brian Kissman.
Three years ago, Kissman and his family were living in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. Kissman was director of curriculum and school improvement for one of the top private international schools there, and during the Christmas holiday, the family spent several days in Phuket (Poo-ket) and on Phi Phi (Pea-Pea) Island.
“Phuket and Phi Phi are two of the main destinations for people in the international community in Malaysia,” he explains. “We were there in 2001. We spent four or five days in Phuket and three or four days on Phi Phi where we went snorkeling.”
He draws a rough map of the area on a piece of paper.
“Phi Phi is like a big rock with vegetation on it,” he explains, as he marks out the places were tourists stayed in small cabanas or huts. “You can only get from one side of the island to the other by boat. This was all washed away in the tsunami.”
Geographically, Phuket lies on the west coast of the Thai peninsula overlooking the Andaman Sea. The southern portion of the peninsula is Malaysia, with Singapore located at the very tip. Kuala Lumpur was protected from the tsunami by the Indonesian island of Sumatra, which had the highest death toll from the disaster.
The pristine beaches, turquoise water, and tropical, lush rainforests have made this part of the world a popular tourist destination, particularly for those from Europe seeking sunshine in the winter. Phi Phi and Phuket are to Europeans what Caribbean destinations are to Americans.
“From Kuala Lumpur, it’s only a three hour flight, and it’s cheap airfare,” Kissman explains.
On Sunday, Dec. 26, when Kissman first heard news of the disaster, he was in a state of near disbelief.
“It was happening in a place we know and may have affected some of our friends. We were close to many families over there and still are. We thought of them immediately, worried that one of them would have been injured or killed.
He and his family immediately began sending emails to friends in the area to check on their whereabouts.
“We emailed our friends and miraculously, everyone was vacationing on the east coast of Malaysia or in Vietnam other than in areas ravaged by the tsunami,” he said. “We did have some friends vacationing in Sri Lanka. They survived. They lost all they had, but survived along with their child.”
Watching the footage of the disaster was particularly unsettling.
“I saw the boardwalk that I had been standing on three years ago now washed out, but I recognized it,” he says. “It touches me in a way that other people who haven’t been there may not fully understand.”
Kissman, who also has taught in international schools in West Africa, Tokyo, Paris, Geneva, and the Spanish Canary Islands, says, “no one ever talked about a tsunami because it wasn’t seen as a threat.
“I was worried about earthquakes in Tokyo, and even experienced one there,” he said. “But I never worried about that in Malaysia or Southeast Asia.”
The Kissmans arrived in Kuala Lumpur in June 2001, three months before Sept. 11. From the start, they were treated with kindness and hospitality.
“When Sept. 11 happened, Malaysians came up to us and apologized to us and told us that it wasn’t what Islam was all about.”
Kissman watched broadcast after broadcast, and each day saw new video footage of the disaster and what was left of the place he visited three years ago.
“I was watching some of the video on television and there was a couple who talked about the kindness of the Thai people,” Kissman adds. “I heard how some Thai people cared for others even after they had lost everything. The Thai people are very gracious and unselfish. To them, foreigners are guests of honor in their country and also their responsibility.”
After the deadly quake and tsunamis struck, little was left of the coastal areas. As of Sunday, the death toll had risen to more than 155,000 people. As relief workers continue to reach some of the hardest hit areas, more victims are being found, virtually all so badly decomposed from the 95 degree heat and 100 percent humidity that they are being shoveled into mass graves.
Kissman feels a special connection to the victims and survivors of the tsunami because of the time he spent in that part of the world.
“I think that because I’ve been there, I feel a sense of ownership and connection,” he says. “It has made me continue to follow the story and also to have some kind of fund-raiser here.”
To that end, he has initiated a “dime drive,” encouraging area students to donate a dime to a tsunami relief fund.
“There are more than 90 million students in the U.S. If every one of them contributed a dime, it would be just shy of $1 million,” he says. “It could make a tremendous difference.”