One of the first questions I have been asked when folks see or hear that I have returned from Sri Lanka is "What was it like? Was it as bad as it looked on TV?" This of course is a very fair question. The answer is "no, it did not look as bad as the pictures I saw on TV." In fact, I must confess that I was actually disappointed the first few days BECAUSE it did not look like what I saw on TV. However the longer I was there, the more that I realized that in many ways it was "worse" than what I saw in the media.
First, let me describe what I did not see. I did not see piles of tall buildings completely destroyed. I did not see piles of dead people or dead sea life strewn all about the area. I did not smell the overwhelming stench of death. But again, lest you worry that I had a beach vacation the past two weeks, let me reassure you that the devastation of the village where we worked was very complete.
Our Advance Team decided to work in a refugee camp near the small inland village of Valachchenia, about 50 km north of the Batticaloa. The people in the camp came from a smaller coastal village about 3 km from where they were now encamped. The village had 139 families living in it. Almost all of their economy came from fishing or diving.
Many of the villagers were down near the beach when the tsunami hit; many were at sea. The waves came in at heights of up to 20 feet. The water came inland as far as one kilometer. The waves were so forceful that about 50 feet of the beach has disappeared. It changed the contour of the beach. Enormous ecological damage was done. Almost all of the palmetto palm trees were submerged by waves. Most were already brown; they were dying from the amount of sea water that saturated them. Also of note, there were several coconut trees that were down. These were not damaged by the waves, but rather by displaced wild elephants that came through the village looking for food.
The sights, like I mentioned, were not like the ones on TV. In some ways they were worse. The waves came in and completely wiped out the village. It looked like it had been vaporized. There was only a small amount of evidence that over a 1000 people actually lived in this little village. Only a few foundations were left. Only a few of the town "latrines" were left, and these leaning very precariously. Only small fragments of personal effects were left behind, most being swept away to sea. Occasionally we would come across a suitcase, empty of course, or a water drenched school backpack. We came across a few water damaged photographs, showing only hints of a previous, happier time. The village (or what was left of it) had some of the fishermans equipment scattered about, and this almost half a kilometer where it should have been; several tangled fishing nets were here and there, with a few boats smashed to pieces nearby. We even saw a sandal stuck in a palm tree about 15 feet above our heads.
From this small village of 139 families 69 people died, 35 of them children. One family of 11 was watching TV when the tsunami struck; only one survived. Along one of the paths we saw a small mound of dirt; our guide told us this was the burial site of a 4 month old baby who had died. The local cementary (in the bigger village of Valachchenia) was full of mounds of dirt - most of these new graves were unmarked.
Life is different now for these people; completely different. When we first arrived there was a look of stunned hopelessness on their faces. Almost every single person in the village had a family member or friend die in the tsunami. The waves of the tsunami are gone but the waves of despair, anxiety, guilt, pain, fear, anger, and hopelessness continue to buffet this band of people.
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