on how small the world really is

So today, as I was riding the train to work, I was reading the paper. I was reading about this horrible, amazingly awful, unbelievable disaster in the Indian Ocean, and then it hit me. Friends of mine (the family I was a nanny for this summer in Italy) were vacationing in Thailand. They had left Sunday last and were supposed to be there for 2 weeks - which means they were still there. I panicked. Being on the train, and having no way to call them, I tried to think peaceful, reassuring thoughts, but all I could think was - 50,000 dead, and many of them tourists. Many of them children.

When I got to the office (my super-boring temp job, that is), I headed for the computer, and at my first chance to take a break, I emailed some of my computer-savvy friends and asked them to help me do a web search for a list of British victims (my friends live in Italy but are of British nationality). My friend Heather responded in about 2.4 seconds with a great link, and I searched a database - and luckily came up empty-handed (how amazing, that in a time like this, there can already be a database of victims, searchable by name and nationality and a million other options).

I tried to call my friend but then I realized that, if she was okay, she was sleeping - it was 2 am in Thailand (I know because I did a search for global time zones - God bless Google). But then I received an email from my guitarist in Italy, and something occurred to me. I can't send text messages from my phone to hers, but he could - they were both on the same Italian phone network. So I asked him to text message her and tell her that he was a friend of mine and I had asked him to find out if she was okay.

Less than 5 minutes later, she had already responded (I probably woke her with my call) and he had emailed me back to tell me she was fine, the kids were fine, everyone was fine. Now just think about this. In the span of 10 minutes, I received an email from Italy and responded; My Italian friend text-messaged my British friend who lives in Italy but was vacationing in Thailand. She was living through the worst disaster known to recent mankind, yet she was able to text message him back instantly, tell him she was fine, and wish me a Happy New Year and send me baci (kisses) all at the same time, using him as her medium, while I was sitting at a desk in Dallas, Texas, doing some unbelievably boring data entry, all the while panicking quietly. Now I ask you - is it a small world after all, or what?

happy new year to you all, and keep those hundreds of thousands in your prayers.
love
vanessa