Feature Article
When almost two years have gone by, it still feels as if it happenned today.
I was in Sri Lanka visiting my family in December 2004. It was a festive time and everyone was anxious to celebrate Christmas both from the Christian faith and from other various religions. on Christmas Day, we had our family and friends over for Chritmas Dinner as always at my family home in Pagoda Rd, Nugegoda, a few Kilometers from the capital. All went well and I went to sleep that evening as I hardly had been sleeping since I arrived from London a few weeks before. I was waken up by my brother and a mate of his around 9.30 am and was told Sri Lanka was under water but I just went back to sleep not knowing the tradgedy that had just taken place moments before. I was woken up a second time when I went to the living room to witness before my eyes on the television, horrible scenes that changed my life and my value for life thereafter.
That whole day we were planning a course of action and wondered what relief was needed and whom to gettogether with inorder to take the items across to the devastated regions and this was to be the last 2 weeks before i headed back to London.
We formed teams from our Church, 'The Living Way Church' of the 'Four Square Gospel', headed by Pastor Leslie Keagle, along with other pastors, Romesh Bulathsinghala, Pastor Wayne de Costa from the USA who was transfered to India and other workers from the Church and youth who I must say put alot of effort to help with this task of carrying relief items to these people who have suffered.
What I did not realize was, what I was to witness post Tsunami, the aftermath of this disaster, the debris and emotional stress that I was to go through.
Travelling along the west and south coasts - the parts of the country worst hit by the waves - I was almost numb at the destruction. Words really failed as I tried to describe such a huge area so utterly destroyed. Places that I use to see driving along the coastal regions with family and friends for vacations. It was as if a tornado had ripped through our Island.
Details of the land and the lives of those who lived on it had literally been washed away. Instead there was little more than grey and brown rubble. The palette of colours one would expect in such a tropical place was gone.
In most cases what felt was, what you see in reality doesn't match what you see on TV. Past the areas of devastation you find life looking pretty much normal - and even the areas of devastation are smaller than you might expect. But in Sri Lanka the opposite was true. Even aerial shots couldn't convey the pervasiveness of the tragedy; the destruction of building after building, village after village, life after life. I finally found that the best way to grasp the tragedy was through little things: piles of lost shoes near the iconic train wreck on the west coast (which eerily hinted at the piles of shoes on display at Auschwitz) or the scores of saris left blowing in the trees in Hambantota, providing a lone splash of colour to the drab, scoured landscape.
I returned to Sri Lanka in October 05', nearly a year after the Tsunami struck, and was anxious to see how things had changed; how the Sri Lankans had been able to get back on their feet and get on with their lives, even while carrying within the stories of loss that were so common with the people I met in December/January 04'.
What surprised me the most, however, as I retraced my journey along the coast road, was how little had changed. More often than not, it feels like yesterday and not an entire year that had passed by. In town after town people are still living in tents, buildings remain damaged and the boats that were washed ashore still sit stranded. Mercifully there are some changes: the lush tropical vegetation is busily filling in the landscape, covering up rubble and breaking up what had been sweeping panoramas of destruction. And in many areas, the mind-boggling piles of rubbish that stretched as far as the eye can see are gone; cleaned up by volunteers, aid agencies and the government to give people a blank slate for rebuilding.
Lush tropical vegetation is busily filling in the landscape
But that rebuilding is taking much longer than anyone had thought. In January people I talked to routinely said they hoped to have things in order in a month or two. As I revisited these places I was struck that the situation often didn't look much better than it had before.
As you drive the coast, there are places where there seems to be little damage interspersed with areas of destruction. The mix is odd and seemingly random. Even in places where things appear to be ok, they are not.
True there is evidence of projects run by aid groups and the government all along the coast (although at times the signs proclaiming the generosity seem as large as the actual construction). But I couldn't help but decide that the most efficient aid was that which was immediate and personal. On the west coast, I saw a large group of locals gathered for a ceremony. Stopping, I was enthusiastically told that it was for the opening of several new houses. A German woman who had previously spent her holidays in the area had used her own money and force of will to get the homes built, bureaucratic intransigence be damned. They were the nicest new homes I saw on the coast.
It's this kind of individual commitment that is most essential by locals and outsiders alike as the region tries to put the tsunami in its proper place in the past and look to the future.
Lets Pray that we put aside our differences and help one another and stick by each other for a better Sri Lanka.
Peace be unto all of you
God Bless you all
Angelo
