Dear Friends:
I am miraculously alive. By gods grace and the help of brave strangers, my friend, Jean-Michel from France and myself managed to escape this horrible tragedy. I am not sure why we are alive, but by chance and luck we were not taken out to sea. We were on the beach that morning with the hopes of going jet skiing and having a great last day, before my friend left with some awesome memories of Sri Lanka. He left with anything but happy memories. He had a badly injured foot, but we are only bruised and sore from getting thrown about, jumping walls and climbing trees to save our lives. We are alive, so we cannot really complain or compare our story with others. He and I will forever be connected by our friendship and by this tragedy!!!!!
I don't think I should be even relating our story, when there are sadder stories of loss and destruction. I know that we did not realize the magnitude of what happened till more hours and now days have passed. On my way back from the beach, I saw destruction that I hope mankind will never see again.
Today, I will be attending the funeral of one of my friends mom, who died almost immediately while having breakfast in their hotel. He survived along with his dad, due to his bravery and courage, but he failed in resuscitating his mother. I hope he will recover from this ordeal. I am still waiting to hear from personal and mutual family and friends, who were at the beach. I don't want to give up hope, but it is almost a lost cause.
We need help!!!!!!! I plan on going down to the affected areas to help in anyway I can as most of the people affected are from a very very poor walk of life. Our country has never been faced by natural disasters and I am not sure we know what we are doing. So I hope the rest of the world will see this and take the lead in helping my people and the people from the other affected countries. If you guys can help, please do. You can go to either
http://www.helpsl.org or contact me to help us. Money is not the only thing we need. Clothes, pots and pans, medicine, bottled water, shoes and slippers are some of the more important things that are needed by those who lost everything.
For those who have already written to my email addresses, thank you for your concern. I am sorry, but I am not able to get online. I am sending this email from my dad's email account. Please feel free to reply to this email with a subject that includes my name. I can be contacted through this email or through 94 114 512414 (Home) and 94 777 942708 (Mobile). You can also text me on this number, but please identify yourself as I do not have any of your numbers anymore. Please fwd this email to anyone that I may have not added to this list.
Well my friends, with the death toll at 11,000 (SL) and rising, I am not sure whether we will ever fully recover. I have faith in the human spirit that we can come together and survive this tragedy. Like 9/11, when I saw America come together, I hope my country and the other affected countries will come together along with the rest of the world with open hearts to help and build back our spirits, economies, and lives.
Please pray for my people and the people from India, Indonesia, Maldives, Somalia, Kenya, Thailand and any other country that has been affected.
God Bless
Chrishanth/Chris
p.s. Please love those around you and let them know you love them. Live each moment as a life time, cause we will never know when our time will come. It was not Jean-Michel's and my time on Sunday.
