----------------------------------------------------------

ATTENTION ALL ARTISTS:

IF YOU ARE A GIFTED ARTIST/MUSICIAN

Please contact me if you would like help aquiring original songs for your reperetoire.  I will help you to use your creativity along side your gifts to create your own songs. I can write entire songs for you, or just music if you supply the lyrics or gereral ideas about the subject matter.  There is no trequest that cant be met, let me teach you to use your creativity to breathe life into the music you play so you can Leave your mark upon the music scene.

JaiBreisch@gmail.com

801-554-6632

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A story by Jai Breisch written from a Bangkok hospital January 3, 2005             

this piece was written by Kali’s 16 year old brother, Jai, while he was an inpatient at Bangkok General Hospital to care for injuries he sustained while riding the wave he describes so clearly in the story. He heard about the new website (that has since evolved into a charitable foundation) and submitted it to the impressions page of the site without telling anyone he had done so. He shares this with you here so you can experience through his writing what it was like to be carried almost a mile inland by a Tsunami and lose your best friend and sister along the way.

My last day with Kali,

before the Tsunami took her away

A story by Jai Breisch written from a Bangkok hospital January 3, 2005

This is a story for anyone who knew Kali or has heard about her passing. It is the story of her last day and her last moments, which I surely thought would also be mine, so be prepared. I am her 16-year-old brother, Jai Breisch.

Kali was such an amazing soul. She and I, along with every other person who was privileged enough to meet her, can agree that she was not an ordinary girl. The moment she walked into a room, you could feel her, you could know how she was feeling and experience the miracle of how much love she had in her heart for everyone and everything. I was so lucky to spend all of my life and such a wonderful Christmas day and night exclusively with her.

During the day we went on a trek through the jungle, and I remember her making me the official spider lookout (they were her worst enemies) as we explored through the foliage together. We found some big jungle vines and thought it would be fun to swing from them like we had seen in the movies, so we did exactly that. I remember the joyous look on her face as the wind blew through her hair while she was swinging through the trees and plants. We finally reached the end of the path, which placed us on a giant rock overlooking the ocean. "Come check out these cool crabs," she said as she leaned over the edge towards the ocean.

Once again, she made one of her brilliant smiles that could light up even the darkest corners of the universe. She expressed how pretty the view was and we had a joint decision to walk along the rocky shore to a beach instead of continuing through the jungle.

Along the way we saw many cool sea creatures and birds that surrounded us as we made our journey along the sea. "Ahhh," she yelled as I almost stepped on a giant jungle spider that was a foot from where I was standing. "Kill it, get it away from me," she cried. I laughed, she smiled and we continued.

When we finally reached the beach, we were so worn out and covered in sweat that we decided to return to the resort. Later that night we went on a shopping adventure through town. It was my first real night out, because most of the trip I had been feeling icky from my neck injury, but I decided that it was X-mas and I might as well make the best of it.

We started out our experience pretending we were French tourists, speaking what French we had learned in school to the Thai store owners and having a grand old time doing so. We went to many shops and had fun bargaining with the people and buying cheap rip-offs of expensive brands. Christian Dior was her favorite, and I remember her buying a nice white bag.

She was very interested in the small works of art (Buddhas, jewelry) that the Thai artists had created, for she herself was a very talented artist and someone who had great appreciation for the arts. The sight of her eyes lighting up after she saw or experienced something she liked was a feeling that could warm anyone's heart. A piece she found that she especially liked was a pretty shell necklace in a rectangle shape that had a green and silver glow to it. I remember the reflection of her gleaming eyes and radiant smile in the piece, and it made me feel so full of life and happiness just to have the experience of being next to such a beautiful soul.

After looking into many shops and making some Thai friends, we rejoined the rest of the family and they expressed wanting to call it a night. Neither of us wanted to go back to the resort when we were having so much fun together in town, but it was getting late. Eventually we gave in, which is odd considering the fact she and I were always on the same wavelength and were used to getting what we want by joining forces. We got back to the resort and crashed after having a long yet exciting Christmas Day.

The next thing I remember is her yelling, "Jai! Jai! Get up! You aren't going to believe this!"

I was half-asleep and groggy, so I was hesitant to get up. I figured, through half-awake rationality, it was just a spider or a cool-looking animal. The next thing I know, I am standing next to her in the bungalow with a pair of earplugs in my hand looking out the back window/sliding glass door at what looked like a hurricane. There was water everywhere, and from what I could see, everything was a gray color. There was this massive noise of such magnitude that I can only explain it as something such as the Niagara Falls might be able to re-create.

I saw that there was water all the way up to our back porch (three feet or so.) We exchanged looks of excitement and terror as each of our minds were racing at a million miles an hour, spitting out curses and trying to find an explanation for what was happening. Then we saw the wave. It must have been two stories high or more and it was headed right for our room. "WE HAVE GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE!" I screamed, and we ran for the door.

The second I opened the door, there was a crash as loud as a million bottles breaking and I was underwater praying for my life and searching for air. I was able to grab on to a suitcase that had washed out of the room for a moment, but I was soon pulled under again. I looked back at the bungalow and all I saw was the red tile roof floating above the water. She was nowhere to be seen.

My first instinct was to swim back and get on the roof, but the massive force of the water was pulling me away with the force of ten semi trucks. I was pulled under and under again, and it seemed that my life was traveling in slow motion. All I could do was keep telling myself, "This is not my time to go!" as I was experiencing what felt like being in a washing machine with bricks, pool balls, glass and razor blades.

I was washed through a construction site and tried several times to grab on to concrete posts with re-bar sticking out of them, but the water was moving too fast and there was not enough human power in me to fight such an amazing force of nature. It was an impossible task to get air, for the complete surface of the water was covered in debris and it was like trying to get your head above water in an ice-covered lake. One time I was able to grab on to some boards and float with them, but another big board soon floated over my head and I was under again.

While I was on the surface, I saw dry land just 50 yards in front of me, but it was being covered and demolished at a devastating rate. A few minutes later, I was smashed through some dense jungle where the water, with all of its force, was knocking down everything in its path. The trees that were not knocked down combined with the water to make rapids and terrible currents that sent my body spinning in every direction.

This whole time all I could think about was "what if" a tree hits my already injured neck. "I will sure be dead," I concluded. CRACK. The top of my shoulder was smashed in by a tree trunk and I was sent into further spiral. I noticed that my body was dragging on the ground, so I tried to gain footing, but I realized if I stopped moving, everything from behind would completely consume me.

Finally I was able to get hold of a giant log and float with it for another five minutes until the water finally settled out and I was able to walk. After accomplishing the amazing task of just standing up, I walked past a refrigerator and a septic tank that was 10 times the size of me to reach something I never thought I would touch again - dry land.

There was a small inclined path in front of me, and when I reached it I collapsed. As I looked up through the trees from the leaves, bugs, dirt, blood, and debris that covered my body, I saw the most beautiful sun and sky I have ever seen.

I knew I needed to get help, so I stood up and called out but no one answered. Only the sound of trickling water was to be heard. I saw a house through the dense leaves, so I limped on and climbed through a barbed-wire fence onto the driveway of that house. There were two trucks and three little motor scooters out front, so I surely thought there must be people inside.

As I walked through the open doorway into what seemed like an apartment complex, I noticed shoes outside of each room. I helplessly began banging on the doors, screaming, but there was no reply. There was a trail of blood following behind me and the sight of it made me lightheaded, so I lay down once again on the cool tile floor.

A few minutes later I realized I needed to still find help, so I limped up to the road. When I got there, I was confronted by a group of Thai women who were screaming and crying while pointing at my leg. I looked down and there was a backwards 'J' cut on my right knee and the whole thing was gashed open all the way down to the joint. A man helped me into a truck and I was taken to a small care center, where I was transferred into the back of a truck/ambulance with about seven other bloody, dirty, shocked and scared people.

When we finally got to a hospital, it had been about an hour since the wave hit and everything in my body had gone numb and my whole right arm could not move an inch. They put me in a wheelchair and I was wheeled past body after body lying on the floor, for there were not enough beds for all of the victims. All around me were screams and it looked as if the entire floor was covered in blood.

I was lucky enough to have a bed, and the second I laid down all of the reality had to set in. In all of the madness that I had experienced, the only rational conclusion I could come to was that my whole family was dead. I had not seen Kali exit the bungalow after me, nor did I see her after the wave settled, and if my dad, his partner, and my older sister were scuba diving when a 40-foot/300-mph wave hit, I was sure that they had all left me. That was a hard thing to accept, and I had to live with it for three days and in three different hospitals.

Not only was I alone in Thailand with just a pair of boxers to my name, I began going through pain medicine withdrawal from all of the medicine I had been taking for my neck. I could not eat or drink anything, for I would in turn violently throw it up. There were headaches, hallucinations and pains that I cannot describe.

In the middle of all of this drama, it was decided that I was to be med-evacuated to the Bangkok Hospital in Bangkok, where I am staying and writing from at this moment. I underwent five debridement surgeries to get the infection out of my knee joint, and I was alone here for two days before I heard news of at least part of my family being alive. At that moment I broke down in tears just to know that I was not left here alone on this planet by the dearest people to me.

I was finally able to be reunited with four-fifths of my family when the clock tolled 12 on New Year's Eve. There was still no news of my little sister's whereabouts.

My dad decided to go back down to Khao Lak, where we were staying, with the ABC news crew to film for "Good Morning America." While filming they visited one of the three temples/temporary morgues where the corpses from the tsunami were being held. As they scanned the pictures of the bodies inside, there was a sudden moment of silence. My older sister, Shonti, had found a picture of Kali on the wall of death. They all broke down to finally face the music of what had happened to their beloved family member.

Disturbingly enough, ABC was right there to catch that for everyone in America and across the globe to see. It is a terrible thing to have happened to us, but as I have seen, it has turned people that don't even know my family into family. I hope that hearing this story of my family can help more people to understand how terrible this whole tragedy is and to help them open their hearts, lives and wallets to all of the people over here who need help from others so much.

Thank you for taking the time to hear my story. I hope with all my heart that it is enough to bring people together to understand and help the millions of unfortunate souls that have had to go through such trauma. Much love to you all and God bless.

 My Older Sister SHONTI'S STORY (She also Survived)  /  /

Shonti Breisch, Kali’s 19 year older sister, was scuba diving in the ocean an hour before the Tsunami hit. She rode over the tsunami safely on a dive boat with Dr. Stu and Dr. Sally. When she and her father and Dr. Sally returned to land she acted with courage and strength and great calmness as she made her way through the death and devastation that awaited them. She spent the first night on her own, separated from her family, in a survivors camp set up in the mountains above the beach. She was alone, surrounded by hundreds of injured and shocked survivors who were also missing family members. She was re-united with her father and Dr. Sally over 24 hours later when they all luckily ended up at the same message board at the same time.

Shonti was a great support to Dr. Stu and Dr. Sally as they searched that first day for Kali and Jai. When the family discovered several days later that Jai Ram was alive and in a hospital, Dr. Sally went to Bangkok Hospital to be with Jai Ram. Shonti stayed in the South and helped her father search day after day for Kali. When she left Phuket for the last time before returning home, she told her dad, “It feels like we just left Hell.”

Shonti chose to return to Thailand in May 2005 to help with the 4Kali Foundation relief projects. It was another very courageous journey as she returned to Khao Lak alone to discover how she could help the Thai people. She worked with the children and developed a project called "Teacher Kits" to provide teachers with the supplies they need to teach English as a second language to school children. She enjoyed helping with the boat building and construction projects and got quite good with a paint brush before returning home the end of July.

After being home several days, Shonti decided not to return to the University of Puget Sound as planned in the fall. She will be returning to Khao Lak on August 27 to continue her work in Thailand. She described her decision, “How many times in your life do you get to help someone you get to know and work with and KNOW with absolute certainty that what you are doing will make a huge difference for the rest of their life. I have to go back.” She is returning again to spend the rest of the year helping with the projects she has found to be of so much value to both the Thai people and to herself and the other volunteers. How many times in our lives do we get to truly make a difference?? Go Shonti Girl, GO!!!