A busy week. From my last post I’ve been on the road pretty much non-stop, out to the far east, way down south, and now back to Colomboa before an early morning flight out. This trip was a bit of two things: recovery from the tsunami, in the form of homes and livelihoods, and recovery from recent displacement around fighting in the east. Sri Lanka’s war has simmered quietly for more than 25 years, and the world notes it only infrequently. The tsunami, on the other hand, generated an outpouring of support probably unsurpassed. Yet 70,000 people have been killed here by fighting since the war broke out. As many as 800,000 others displaced in that time.
That said, it was a rare opportunity for me on this trip to get to go back to see someplace with new eyes, years later. I was last here just after the tsunami, with all of the scenery that time and place involved. Today, in Galle, where I spent much of my time in early 2005, things are easing back into the pattern of pre-tsunami life, by most accounts. It’s nice, at least, to see homes where only rubble had been. That’s as good a notion as any to end on with this trip, before I head off in the morning.
June 15th, 2008 | by David in Uncategorized
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All Material © 2008 David Snyder
