When I visited Phuket for the first time just a few weeks after the tsunami, I felt I was walking into a war zone. As we parked and exited our rental car along the beachfront boulevard, we looked at the destruction in complete disbelief. CNN could never have described the personal experiences of raw sewage, noisy engines of nearby excavation equipment and scooters racing past us moving people and supplies to badly needed areas of the city.

Having mentioned CNN, I should also characterized the media broadcasting from Phuket: all of them sensationalized the damage and destruction. I would, by no means, ever minimize the affects of the powerful tsunami on this community, but the news media made things to be more like Armageddon instead of a disaster centralized within 500 meters of the beach. The loss of life was immense, but it was the media's sensationalism which also scared away tourists - the lifeblood of this community - which lead to mass cancellations of bookings even when the areas they may have booked were not in the affected areas.


Today, you will be surprised at their progress breathing the tourist industry back to life. My new friend, Reid Ridgway, founder of EcoTourism Training Center, a project to help young Thais retrain and rebuild in Phuket, has recently informed me that most beaches in Phuket have all made enormous strides in returning to normal. In fact, if you had never heard of the tsunami and booked your vacation today, upon your arrival it would be difficult to know that a wave of destruction had completely washed this community away just months ago. (Visit www.phuket.com for current status of the surrounding beaches and communities.) Many of those who made tourism their livelihood have lost their businesses and jobs. The tourist season runs between November and April and this coming year is crucial to a sustainable economy.

So why build a playground here?

Well, mainly because beyond the beachfront villas, hotels, restaurants and bars, lies a community that does not have the luxury of enjoying the vacation you will when you visit. They are still struggling to regain what has been lost during the most critical economic season. And, the children in this part of Thailand have also been through the horror of one of history’s greatest and most devastating natural disasters. I can only hope to bring smiles to their faces and joy to their hearts as they play together in a playground that will reunite them as friends.