It all started with Christian.
Christian was on Koh Phi Phi when the tsunami hit. Phi Phi island used to be one of the most beautiful spots in Thailand, and it will be again. But it was destroyed by the wave. Hundreds died. Christian survived because he happened to be in an upstairs room at the crucial moment. He spent the next hours doing his best to treat people who had been injured, armed with not much more than a tube of antibiotic cream. When he got back to his room at the end of the day he cleaned himself up using Champagne. That was all he had.
Jill and I were in the United States when the tsunami occurred, and returned to Singapore just before the New Year. The extent of the death and destruction was still only beginning to become clear.
Christian had been a student at INSEAD (where Jill teaches and I used to teach), although neither Jill nor I knew him. We had however taught the other two key players in part one of our story: Arnout and Jakob.
After he got back to Singapore, Christian decided he wanted to return to Thailand to see if he could do more to help. Arnout and Jakob joined him, and started fund-raising. Jill happened to be on Arnout's mailing list, and so it all began.
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