Over the rest of the summer we all started to come to grips with what we had expected, and to plan what we were going to do to with what we had learned.

Going forward, we realized that we could not be content with limiting our experience to this one relief trip. We will play an active part in Penn's further involvement with tsunami relief and Sri Lanka, of course, but our new mission is to form a student group in order to serve as a liason and unifier between Penn's administration and student organizations involved in disaster relief. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, we formed the Penn Crisis and Disaster Relief Grou. You can find our manifesto here.

Jason and I worked actively on KnowYourNGO, a nonprofit we started in order to address the amazing disparity between efficient, local charities we worked with (such as AFLAC International) and the behemoths of international aid, like the Red Cross, whose officials we often met in five-star hotels. We plan to make a difference by channeling donations to small partner charities across the globe who do not have a presence in the United States. Check it out at www.knowyourngo.com

We all kept in touch, whether working in banks, nonprofits, or on beaches.