Mullaithivu (Dec 27 - 28)

Where to start? On the 26th the first waves hit, and on the 27th morning, a few groups of students from outside countries that were in the region donated supplies, clothes and monies, and took charge in seeing that is was distributed as well. One student dropped in all of his extra-strength Tylenol that he can't get in Sri Lanka, and will make do with Panadol, which I (rather...he) estimates has the pain killing power of about half a Flintstone's Chewable Vitamin. (Some may find it odd that I'm joking around, but you'd be surprised how many smiles we saw that day. Some people just wanted to forget what happened for a few minutes, and were quick to share jokes with us)

There were four large schools that served as refugee camps in the area surrounding Mullaithivu. The one I went to already had students from Jaffna medical college setting up an impromptu office. TRO was also at the school, spraying chemicals for disease prevention, distributing food, and digging washroom facilities. The years of fighting & mass exoduses (exodi?) seemed to provide them with more than enough experience to handle the emergency needs of the tsunami victims. So what could we do? We did a lot of information gathering. Compiling immediate needs, lists of foreign relatives to notify, it wasn't much, but it was a start. Afterwards we spent a lot of time talking with the families, listening to their stories. It must have been cathartic, (remember that placebo I was talking about? well maybe it was useful), because once one person started, usually their neighbors would join in as well. Just talking & playing games with the kids seemed to ease the parents' worries a bit. It was temporary relief, and it didn't feel like we were doing much, but some parents even thanked us afterwards.

Sorry, I omitted something. The wailing. It's something that everyone had to sort of "tune" out, or else they would lose it to. One of the first things I saw when I got to main school was a father, around 30 years old, crying and shaking violently. I've never seen that before. It's that macho-men-don't-cry-attitude in our society I guess. I expect mothers to cry out, it's an image I've seen on television, and even more recently at the cemetery. But I'd never heard it like this. I've never seen so many people who had stopped crying purely because they were exhausted. I resolved at that point not to so much as tear up. I hadn't suffered in any tangible way like they had, I should be steadfast and show them I'm ready to help, not look like I need help.

We stayed there the whole day and in the evening headed back to collect our thoughts, organize for the next day and get some sleep. One small group of students had headed out separately, and we took a look at some of the videos and pictures they took. I'm relieved I didn't go with them, because the pictures were hard enough. (no pictures from today...see two posts ago)

On the 28th, we headed to Mullaithivu. We didn't go on the 27th because there were reports of aftershocks, or the potential at least, and the last thing anyone wanted was a bunch of foreigners needing to be rescued. Mullaithivu had been hit hard. Out of a population of about 17000, approximately 3300 people were dead with hundreds more missing. The tsunami is just the latest trauma to hit this town. Just take a look at the post office. The façade still bears witness to the shells and bullets that struck years ago, but the rest of the building has been completely ripped open by the waves.



I snapped this from the bus, as rescuers headed back after searching another section of the town.



This captured my attention for a few minutes. You wonder if it was just clothes from the house tangled in the tree, or was there was a story behind it.



Occasionally an album or a few photos will be found. Rescuers will usually collect and spread them out where the front door used to be so relatives can come and find the house.



This lorry was smashed an tossed on it's side. It's still hard to imagine the water rushing through like that. Imagine how many people were in it's path.



I said I never took any gruesome pictures, and I don't consider this to be. But skip past if you must. Trust me on this...there's an image someone else took that is now burned into my memory; I wish I'd never seen it. I don't believe a picture needs to be gory to be important; and on a public medium like this I wouldn't post those kinds of images. Basically when any bodies are found, they are wrapped in plastic and loaded into these tractors. They're taken back to the main junction where they're loaded into a lorry. From there, they are transported to one of the mass graves that are dug nearby, and buried. Sometimes in a casket, but more often not.



This is the school where kids from the Senthalir Illam (Orphanage) went.



And this is the picture I didn't take that I found quite moving. I had a serious problem with posting this picture, because I didn't take it.

Low-Res (4mb) | High-Res (13mb)

I've applied grain & smoothed the photo to remove detail, and added a disclaimer to it, so I hope it doesn't get used somewhere else. But there is a problem with images on the internet ending up in publications or other websites, without the photographers' consent. Like here. Well not quite, I don't know exactly who took the photo, but everyone dumped their pics onto a laptop to share. So unlike all the other photos, text, etc on this site, this photo not released under the CC license. And since I went this far, I selected a few other shots, and as I was doing that, the song I was listening to seemed far too appropriate. So I created a montage, and this video (also not released under the CC license) shows more of those pictures that capture the human element that I was talking about. I'm sure you're probably saying I'm making a big fuss over nothing, but I just want to cover the bases (which I'm isn't legally binding..), and I know I'd appreciate it if the situation were reversed.

I tend to end up babbling so I'm done now.

Sri Lanka