Thursday, December 30, 2004

Aftermath

The tragedy in the Indian Ocean continues to grow. We have been glued to the news for much of the past three days, and are simply devastated by what we see. The death toll now tops 150,000; over 41,000 in Sri Lanka alone. There is no question in our mind that the people we know are now dead.

We stayed for over a week on the south coast of Sri Lanka - Mirissa, Galle, Unawatuna, Matara, Welligama - these towns where we were are all destroyed. We think of course about what could have been had the timing been off, but think more often about the people we know there. The dive master that took us scuba diving lived less than 200 meters off the beach with his sister and brother. They made us tea after our dive. The staff of the resort where we stayed in Mirissa – dozens of young Sinhalese with perpetual smiles. If they came to work that day they were literally on the beach when the waves hit. The Japanese guy that takes care of the stray dogs on the beach every day. Shit. The stray dogs are gone now too. The Canadian guy we met upcountry in Kandy. He asked us where we had been in Sri Lanka, and what we liked. We raved about Mirissa, and he told us he would definitely go. He could have easily have been there when the waves hit (and one could say it was because of us).

Much of the footage we have seen from Sri Lanka is from Galle. We stayed there for two days. The CNN footage shows the bus station, with buses upside down and on top of each other. We walked through that bus station multiple times every day. The coastal train was also decimated by the waves. We rode the train in Sri Lanka several times, and met many great people.

In Cambodia, we didn't feel a thing. Yes, we know how lucky we are. We look back at the Mirissa and Galle photo galleries, and have difficulty reconciling our Sri Lanka with what we see on BBC World and CNN.

What a devastatingly sad thing this is.

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