Smaller, more fearful class of 2005

January 6, 2005
Kochawan, 9,  left, and Kanittha, 8, centre, lost their 
homes, but Rungsun, 10,  right, had a lucky tale of 
survival to tell.

Kochawan, 9, left, and Kanittha, 8, centre, lost their homes, but Rungsun, 10, right, had a lucky tale of survival to tell.
Photo: Paul Harris

For the children, the tsunami has been a hard lesson in life, one they really don't comprehend.

When school resumed in Phuket, children were missing - some dead, some injured, some grieving, and some whose fate remains unknown.

But for others there was a reunion of survivors with tales of the day the ocean almost swallowed them whole.

Rungsun, a shy 10-year-old, can recall every moment of his ordeal, but wishes he couldn't. For him, like many of the children, the wave was a terrifying visitor he fears might return at any moment.

He was walking near the beach that fateful day when he saw the ocean drop then come roaring back towards him. He ran and ran but could not run fast enough and was engulfed in the surging water.

Could he swim? "Yes," he says through an interpreter, but not strongly enough to escape the wave's clutches.

Salvation came from the grasping arms of two foreign tourists who hauled him from the torrent on to the roof of a truck.

Rungsun's tsunami story is unusual perhaps only in that he emerged physically unharmed and without losing a relative. But for him and his fellow young survivors, other scars will remain. Memories of those minutes of terror will haunt them: many lost their homes; their parents lost their income; some had friends who perished.

The Thai Government is sending counsellors into schools to deal with psychological problems.

One teacher said debate about whether it was right to start the school year as scheduled on Monday gave way to recognition that it provided a sense of community as well as an opportunity to assess how many children had been affected.

In the saddest but most practical sense, a child's failure to return to school may be the best indication that he or she is missing or has lost family.

At Kalim primary school, opposite the worst affected areas of Patong beach, pupils are back in class even though buildings are damaged and their books are still laid out in the sun to dry.

A teacher, Chamlong, said none had ever heard of a tsunami before December 26. His first task on Monday was to explain to them the agent of all the destruction around them.

"They don't know about the big wave," he said. "They don't know if it's going to come again or not."

At nearby Bansainamyen primary school, Rungsun's classmates include two girls, Kanittha, 8, and Kochawan, 9, who both lost their homes. Kanittha says she and her family have built a hut from bamboo and aluminium sheets after the tsunami washed away their every possession.

They had fled on foot after the little girl, out buying food for her mother, saw the ocean behaving strangely and raised the alarm. "We ran to the mountains."

Kochawan, clad head to toe in donated clothes, tells a similar tale. Her family lost everything and now live in a relief centre for the homeless.

Is she scared of the wave coming again?

"Too much," she says. "Too much."