The Indian Ocean

This afternoon, our team got into one of the MSF vans, and went to the beach. This was the beach adjacent to the town of Mullaitivu, about 7 km from our house. In 2004, the tsunami that hit Asia, also hit Sri Lanka, but we didn't really hear about it here. About 30,000 people were killed, and the town was pretty much wiped out. The rebuilding efforts have been minimal, as this was also the area where the most recent war ended. It seems that if the buildings weren't destroyed in the tsunami, they were destroyed in the final battles. An interesting building rises out of the ruins and sand. It is church-like, but is not a church, rather a memorial to people who died in the tsunami. Apparently the memorial was at least in part funded by a church in Michigan. Each of the pillars is lined with the names of the dead, written in the Tamil language. There is a beautiful metal sculpture of a woman holding her head with her hands as a wave comes up to her.