Apologies for the lack of posts here over the past week or so due to a lack of words to say.

When a disaster such as last week’s ferocious tidal wave happens, taking so many lives in a matter of moments, how do you respond? For me it is nearly all-consuming - I feel helpless and that my personal issues are insignificant (which is sometimes a good thing anyway).

In the past I have felt compelled to volunteer my time and skills to those in need of humanitarian support and have done so on a local level. But in times like this I contemplate how I might be useful in communities other than my own, though my qualifications don’t extend to medicine or logistics management. Interestingly on this note, the American Red Cross posted several new (US) job opportunities on their site yesterday.

I have spent quite a bit of time looking at home videos of what occured, and the tragedy is inconceivable. By now many of you may have made donations to relief organizations that have responded fairly quickly with aid. If you haven’t already (but I bet you have), I encourage you to give something if you can afford to. From what I’ve seen the best org’s are Red Cross (American, Canadian) and Care (Canada, USA). Apparently they are two of the most efficient. You can also make a donation by PayPal.

I sincerely hope that your family and friends are all safe right now.

As for accessing information, we don’t watch TV but get news via NPR or from various internet sources.

Waxy.org has a selection of amateur videos that you can watch to try and comprehend the destruction. I am serving one of them here that was shot at a resort in Sri Lanka.

AFP Photo has a Slideshow

At Kinja, a tsunami-info digest

Flickr’s photos tagged with ‘tsunami’

del.icio.us links tagged ‘tsunami’

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