'My cousin lost his two boys, ages 12 and 13. They were fishing. I rode a motorcycle to the mountain; waves were five meters (16 feet) high. But I'm OK. My wife and sons are, too.'
--Sompon Doiedee

A Return to Ruin

Tsunami destroys lives and livelihoods
Teaw Harnthalai, 25, squats in front of her shelter, a tarpaulin folded over a rope that's strung between two rubber trees. Another tarp makes a cover over her head. Her daughter Janthakarn, who looks younger than her 5 years, sits with two "aunties" while Teaw stir-fries flowers and stews leaves in garlic over a bucket-shaped firebox.

"They are giving us packages of food," she says of the Catholic sisters and relief workers who staff the camp. "But I prefer to cook my own."

Sixty families of chao ley, or sea gypsies, have relocated to this camp.

The tsunami flattened her village and destroyed the fishing boats that provided a living for most of the community. It also took her husband.

"He worked at the resort on Ko Khao island," she said. "We were sitting on a low wall when the water came. I swam away and got to the roof where I could hold on."

Her face darkens with the recollection. "He drowned and they haven't found his body. My mother died there, too."

She stoically goes on with life, for the sake of her daughter. "My husband was such a good man," she says. "He didn't even smoke or drink-he shouldn't have died. I pray that my daughter will grow up to be as good a person as her father."

A lucky survivor looks for better days
The people who lived or worked on Ko Khao island were among the most vulnerable of the tsunami victims on Thailand's Andaman coast. Prasit Doiedee, 36, was one of the lucky ones. He was supposed to have been home when the waves hit, but he had taken his cattle into the hills to graze.

"Wood hit our house and it was all blown away," he said. Since then, he and his wife and two children have stayed in the nearby hills at the Nok-Na village school where he is the janitor. Others were not so fortunate. Of the two families that lived closest to him, no one survived.

Of his other neighbors who lived, few have a way to earn a living. Their fishing boats were destroyed, the resort closed and salt water killed the grass in the valley so the cattle can't feed there. "Lots of people are just waiting for food handouts," said Doiedee.

Among the twisted pieces of tin roofing scattered near his home site, Doiedee makes two lucky finds: his daughter's birth certificate and a treasured picture of the king. Someday he hopes to re-hang that picture on the wall of his own home.

'The waves took away everything'
"The waves came three times and took away everything; they were five meters (16 feet) high," said Warin Chaiyarat, 27. He was at the entrance to his village and managed to get away to higher ground. His older sister and a sister-in-law lost their lives.

"All our boats are broken, so there is no fishing now," he said. "Someone from the government fisheries department came to assess the damage, but I don't know when we will hear from them again."

With the help of volunteers and outside funding, he hopes to rebuild near the site of his old house. They are clearing land for 30 small houses. It will take 120 houses or more to accommodate the surviving members of this village of Moken people who have lived in this location on the Andaman coast of Thailand for 40 to 50 years.

They are a close-knit community and are used to living and working together, Chaiyarat says. Now, two weeks after the tsunami, they are scattered in camps for displaced persons and still looking for lost family members and friends.

Teaw Harnthalai and her daughter Janthakarn make do in a tent camp after losing everything, including their husband and father, to the tsunami.