The Third Wave

March 28, 2011
After the 2004 tsunami hit regions bordering the Indian Ocean, Australian filmmaker Thompson traveled to aid a devastated village in Sri Lanka. More than a year later, she arrived home to New York with hundreds of hours of footage, later edited into her documentary, The Third Wave. Here, Thompson (daughter of a preacher and a nurse) relates events often harrowing (terrorist attacks), disturbing (bone collecting), disheartening (the "dirty" aid business) yet, on balance, uplifting (lasting friendships) within the context of her emotional and spiritual growth. She interweaves her narrative with accounts of her work at ground zero after 9/11 and in Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake with The Third Wave executive producer, actor Sean Penn. Readers will marvel at Thompsonâs ability to leave her life midstream to help others, clearly relishing the adventure as much as the opportunity to serve. She urges readers to redefine heroism by doing whatever they can with examples of small efforts (maintaining a toilet at ground zero) with great impact.

April 15, 2011

Uplifting chronicle of the author's personal involvement in disaster-relief efforts after 9/11, the Asian tsunami of 2004 and the Haitian earthquake of 2010.

When Thompson heard about the tsunami, she knew she had to go there to help. With $300 and some gear, she was on the ground in Sri Lanka by January 5th, ready to start work. Her impressive accomplishments form the heart of the narrative. Prefigured by her months in the dust, dirt and rubble of Ground Zero after 9/11, Thompson's 14 months in Sri Lanka were alternately painful and gut-wrenching. There was nothing left in Peraliya when they arrived. Approximately 2,500 had died, and more than 500 homes had been destroyed. The villagers needed clean water, food, shelter and medical aid. All the water wells had been contaminated by the sea. On their first day, the volunteers' truck became an emergency first-aid station. In the first 10 hours, they treated 150 people. By the time they took a break, after six months, a permanent medical facility was under construction, 75,000 people had been treated, school facilities had been set up and shelter had been provided. The author and her fellow volunteer friends had been joined by Germans, Dutch, British, Danes and dozens of others from around the world, each with something special to offer. They fought the heartache of funds that didn't come through and the suffering of those who saved their loved ones from the violence of the sea, only to lose them later due to the inadequacy of follow-up medical care. Thompson writes that at Ground Zero, she overcame her fear of death. In Peraliya, she overcame her fear of evil.

An inspiring story demonstrating that there are always ways to help. For fellow volunteers, the author includes a helpful section called "What to Know Before You Go."

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

July 1, 2011
Thompson's inspiring chronicle of life as a professional volunteer starts with 9/11, when she and an odd mix of bankers, waiters, actors, lawyers, plumbers, and students set up an emergency shelter in an abandoned bar a block away from ground zero, and bandaged wounds, distributed water, and searched for body parts. Celebrating a quiet Christmas three years later, Thompson hears the first reports of the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami near Indonesia, and realizes she had to go to Asia, an endeavor that turned into a 14-month sojourn in a hard-hit Sri Lankan village. She peppers her saga with stories of the generosity of strangerssuch as the Texas minister who shares his church's funds to pay her volunteer group's delinquent lodging and food billsbut also the disappointment of rampant theft, corruption, and misuse of aid funds. She worked on a documentary, The Third Wave, about her Sri Lankan experience, then went to postearthquake Haiti and worked alongside Sean Penn in a refugee camp. Thompson calls on each of us to include some form of volunteerism in our lives.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)