THAILAND: Saturday was Children's Day in Thailand, a day when children are given special treatment by their families, taken to the cinema, given new toys, extra helpings of fruit and sweets and allowed to play video games all day long if they want to. And, of course, play on the beach. Clifford Coonan reports
I went back to Bang Muang refugee camp, which I visited last week, to see how the children there were celebrating their day. The camp is in Phangnga, where thousands of Thais lost their lives in the tsunami. Many of them were from the fishing village of Namkem, where thousands also perished.
All around Thailand, Children's Day celebrations have been fairly muted this year because of the St Stephen's Day tsunami, but even at the refugee camp, there was time for a party.
"We had a party, it was great fun," says Jadsaddhagon Nusti, a nine-year-old wearing a luminous pink T-shirt and playing keepie-uppies in the style of his hero, David Beckham of Real Madrid.
The building work on temporary shelters is coming on quickly and many of the prefab buildings are finished and the kids are playing nearby. Children have been especially badly hit by the tsunami, with several hundred young Thais being orphaned.
Jadsaddhagon was lucky: his brother and his parents survived the tsunamis. "I was cycling around on my bike in the town when the wave came. I just turned and pedalled," he says.
Five-year-old Nat also had a good time at the party but now she is concentrating on whizzing around on a small bike, complete with stabilisers, donated by an aid agency. She makes a point of sharing with her friends.
Mos Komhumkam, who is two, watches on, a little put out that the bigger kids don't want to play with him, and he starts to bang his rice cracker on the handlebars in frustration. But the scene is a happy one. Mos's mother, Lamai Komhumkam, smiles at the antics of her son and his little playmates. Her other two are off playing in the camp somewhere and she is happy they are safe and well. It's the bigger picture that has her worried.
While everyone has enough food to eat and clothes have been distributed, no one knows how long they be here or what they will do in future.
"Everyone was okay but we lost our house. We lost our long-tail fishing boat. Today was Children's Day but we had nothing to give them. Luckily other people donated things," says Ms Komhumkam, as a little girl wearing a Thomas the Tank Engine T-shirt and tightly clutching a teddy bear comes up to see what I'm writing.
The distribution of clothes donated by western countries often leads to strange style choices - old-fashioned Adidas tracksuit tops were much in evidence. One little girl walked by wearing a T-shirt bearing a picture of a Mohawk punk and the logo "The Exploited". I doubt she was a big punk fan. And Everton FC might want to try and sign a Thai player at some stage - there were a good few Everton replica shirts being worn.
Ms Komhumkam, who is wearing an old-school Adidas sweat top, is happy with whatever she and her family get.
"We only arrived up with the clothes on our back. We need a lot of help but we know help is coming in and we are grateful for that," she says.
And, of course, she is worried about the fate of her extended family and friends from Namkem. Everyone in the camp has been touched by the disaster. There are around 2,000 people, most of them from Namkem, in the camp, but 3,000 are missing.
There are volunteers working all over the camp, ranging from professional aid workers to concerned Bangkok residents to tourists and backpackers who just want to help. As we head back to the road, we meet John Darroch, a retired businessman who is a US national now living in Phuket.
"We got some aid from America and we wanted to give it directly. We've visited six camps today and, because it's Children's Day, we've put the accent on children, giving out toys, milk powder, baby requirements," he says, handing out milk powder and nappies to the families.
"The kids don't understand what's going on. It's a big game for them. Their parents, though, are at various stages of shock and disbelief."
Mr Darroch has written to friends in the US to see if he can raise money to rebuild Namkem village. "It costs around US$3,000 to rebuild one house. The Homeowner's Association in the United States is considering getting involved. I'm working to get this underway," he says.
He drove up with family and friends, as well as a group of backpackers keen to do something other than sit on a beach.
"It's great to see Thais and foreigners helping out. But these people here are going to be here for some time. A lot of people are still scared of the beach," he says, handing coloured pencils and a drawing book to a little girl.