What were we doing, anyway?
As I said earlier, except for some areas right along the coastline, the infrastructure was largely undamaged. So we would go to a grocery store, buy large quantities of basic goods (toiletries, cooking and cleaning products, toys for the children, that sort of thing), set up production lines, and prepare packs for distribution.
Then we would drive up north, towards Ranong (up near the Burmese border), and distribute to villages and small communities that had been destroyed. While the Thai government and the larger relief agencies were doing a good job in the big camps, some of these smaller villages were falling through the cracks. We also distributed the medical supplies to small clinics and hospitals.
To be clear, this was not lifesaving work. Rather, we were putting the first few possessions back in the hands of people who had lost almost everything.
In places like Aceh in Sumatra, which had been totally destroyed by the earthquake as well as the tsunami, this kind of amateur help would probably have been impossible. But in Thailand, small groups like ours were able to fill some of the gaps left by the (very overstretched) large aid organizations.
And, even if there were moments that resembled a painful episode of The Apprentice, overall we were reasonably effective. Immense credit goes to Arnout, Christian and Jakob, whose leadership and management were truly impressive.
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