News reports were sketchy at first. Sunday, Dec. 26. The Indian Ocean. An earthquake. Indonesia. A tsunami. Many people were dead. Towns destroyed.

Pictures flashed across the television. Homes were crushed. Vegetation uprooted. For a group of 16 Indonesian exchange students, working and living at High Hampton Inn in Cashiers while studying hospitality management at Southwestern Community College, the fear was real — these pictures were from home. But the real story was in the details, the details that they weren’t getting.

“The first time I saw it on CNN, they said there was a tsunami in Indonesia, but Indonesia is 13,000 islands,” said Made Artawan.

It was the equivalent of being told there was a natural disaster in the United States. Not which state. Just the United States.

The deathtoll began to rise: 60,000 ... 80,000 ... 100,000 ... and the students began calling home.

“We see on the television ... ‘Oh my god, that’s a lot of bodies,” said Komang Budi Surya Dharma. “When I called my parents I asked, ‘Is everything all right?’ They didn’t know yet.”

The students’ families were among the fortunate. Living in Singaraja, a sparsely populated area in Bali with about 5,000 residents, the students’ families were outside the tsunami’s direct reach.

The group continued to watch, listen and read reports about the tsunami, and the international aid coming in from countries around the globe. They watched as the United States upped its aid ante from $35 million to $350 million.

“We’re very thankful that America is helping us,” Artawan said.

“They care about us,” Dharma added.

“Us.” For the students it is a loosely defined word that encompasses their countrymen throughout the Indonesian isles. It does not mean Singarajanian. It does not mean Balinese. It means, quiet simply, all of us.

Back home the students’ own communities took up collections to help those devastated by the tsunami, but the Balinese currency carries little weight on the international market. An unskilled laborer earns approximately $20 a month.

“We can spend $1 per day for food,” Dharma said, as the group chimed in that the single dollar would buy not just three meals, but three good meals with meat and rice.

One night, watching local TV news with High Hampton’s general manager and exchange program coordinator Mark Jones, the students saw a report on efforts in Western North Carolina to provide tsunami aid. The report sparked a discussion about what the students themselves could do to help their countrymen.

Jones contacted Jackson County’s Red Cross, a Division of the Mountain Area Chapter of the American Red Cross. The Red Cross provided the group with 35 donation canisters and the students, along with 30 other Indonesian hospitality workers in Cherokee, put them out in businesses across Jackson County. The students also challenged themselves to each give $20.

“It’s not how much you give,” Artawan said. “Give what you can give no matter how much.”

The money the gorup raises will be earmarked for tsunami relief and sent to the Red Cross’ national headquarters, which will in turn send the money to the International Headquarters of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.

“In those stricken areas the Red Cross has very specific roles,” said Joyce Brooks, director of public relations for the Mountain Area Chapter of the American Red Cross. “Immediately after the disaster hit our roles were emergency needs — shelter, food, clothing, water.”

Now, the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies around the world that will be participating in disaster recovery are dividing up the tasks.

“Each one is given a specific thing they’re responsible for,” Brooks said. “With us it will probably be water and long-term mental health needs.”

The long term is something students too are weighing. Six months into their 18-month visas, the students still have a year left before finishing their six courses at SCC — introduction to hospitality, housekeeping supervision, principals of management, people skills, culinary sanitation and safety, and computer literacy — to earn a certificate in hotel and restaurant management.

“We like being here,” said Made Arsa Wijaya. “It’s not so crowded here. The hardest thing is the winter. Bali doesn’t have any winter.”

The group is the sixth in the exchange program, developed jointly by SCC and High Hampton, as a way of melding scholarly study with work experience. Students earn approximately 20 hours of college credit in their own countries, and provide a little variety in the college’s student body.

“It was intriguing to us because a community college typically does not have a lot of international students,” said Tom Brooks, SCC’s Dean of Career Technologies.

However, when it is time to go home, the students will be returning to a country greatly changed.

“Change is going to be a challenge for us to face,” Dharma said.