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Thailand - Golden Buddha Beach
The Unitehope angel was placed at Golden buddha beach at 26 December 2005 as a memorial of the tsunami victims 26 December 2004.
Solace
The day began, again, with a bang. All through the Christmas night of 2005 the sky screeched for attention like a child, bursting into white as if teasing us with temporary dashes into daylight. The thunder, a later arrival, clapped in applause. At first mere background to the light-show drama, the boom soon dominated the main act with crescendo roars and torrents of rain. It was impossible to ignore it, so I lay awake, flat on my back in prostate attention.
It was a demonstration of raw power, an unscheduled December monsoon. It was as if it were saying, “I remember.”
A kilometre or so away in the rebuilt Mr Choi’s bar, which now boasts an ocean view, the Needham boys and friends had returned, just as they did that Christmas night a year ago, to drink into the night. Whenever the tsunami entered their conversation, its presence would be accompanied by a thunderclap, a supporting soundtrack to their stories. No one mentioned it at first, but after a time they began exchanging furtive glances with each other. Finally Bodhi spoke it. “This is so weird, whenever you mention Robin, the sky goes CRASH,” he said.
But by morning, the show was over and the beach sparkled, golden once more, in the soft sunlight. I rose and stretched out into a few yoga poses, then hurried down the path to meet Robert and Dan, Alexander’s godfathers, and install the angel sculpture they had brought with them from Sweden as an anniversary monument. It was tiptoe quiet. Even the hornbills, who had announced the end of the stormy night with a barking
cacophony, had retreated into the high branches in silence, as if pausing for a morning cup of tea.
We climbed Hornbill Hill to select a site for the angel. It took us only a moment to pick a spot that would allow the statue to keep a vigilant eye on that..
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