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The following is my account of what happened to me during the tsunami. I am still coming to grips with the whole disaster and trying to decide what to do with the next eight months of my life. Kate and I wanted to travel around the U.S. and raise money for the disaster victims in Unawatuna but have come to the realization that we just cannot afford it. We have enough money for India for seven months ($15 dollars a day) which just does not cut it in the good old US of A. Also, my travel health insurance will not cover me here, and, therefore, ironically, I have to leave the country. Will stay until mid-February, do school presentations, hold a fund raiser and then hit the road. Where? That is still to be determined. The following story will appear in the New York Times (shortened and edited) on January 16th in the Travel section. The money I was paid will all be donated to the Friends of Unawatuna fund that other survivors have set up in England. They started a small website: www.friendsofunawatuna.org.uk if you want to check it out.

January 9 - New York - Laura

Lasulo
2006-01-06 18:27:09

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The following is my account of what happened to me during the tsunami. I am still coming to grips with the whole disaster and trying to decide what to do with the next eight months of my life. Kate and I wanted to travel around the U.S. and raise money for the disaster victims in Unawatuna but have come to the realization that we just cannot afford it. We have enough money for India for seven months ($15 dollars a day) which just does not cut it in the good old US of A. Also, my travel health insurance will not cover me here, and, therefore, ironically, I have to leave the country. Will stay until mid-February, do school presentations, hold a fund raiser and then hit the road. Where? That is still to be determined. The following story will appear in the New York Times (shortened and edited) on January 16th in the Travel section. The money I was paid will all be donated to the Friends of Unawatuna fund that other survivors have set up in England. They started a small website: www.friendsofunawatuna.org.uk if you want to check it out.

Thank you to all for inquiring on how to donate, especially my school, Valley Stream South.

My heart and soul are still in Sri Lanka. I cannot watch the news. Recovery is going to take some time.

Kindness Radiates

It was 9:25 a.m. on Dec. 26 and we were in Unawatuna, a beach town in southern Sri Lanka, which we had described the day before as paradise. The town was unknowingly preparing for one of the world’s worst natural disaster.
Women shrieking and what sounded like the roar of a freight train awakened me. I jumped out of bed and ran to the balcony door of our second-floor guest room to see water filled with wood and cars and pieces of twisted metal violently swirling below us. Damika, the kind and gentle owner of the guesthouse, and some of his family had ...