Ground Zero

Blog 2/28

On Sunday afternoon we drive Phil to the airport to return home to his family; his 30-day visa almost expired. He has made a great contribution helping setup and run the Internet Café. I value our time baking together in the blistering tropical heat of our internet café tent.

Leaving the airport, we try reaching the beach that was first hit by the tsunami. Adi, our driver is skeptical, saying the bridges going to the isthmus were taken out. After weaving our way through large areas of waste and ruin we come to the bridge which is damaged but still useable. Proceeding on ahead we arrive at “ground zero”. The road that used to go along the beach is dramatically cut off and all that remains are piles of rubble that are mere remnants of the former shoreline. 100 yards of seashore have been forever removed. Our driver, knowing the former beauty of this beach area, is so taken aback, he’s afraid to get out of the car.



The immense power of the tsunami is staggering as we again see flattened areas with bare foundations wiped clean like a table top. What remains of the steal reinforced cement posts clearly show the direction of flow.



Amazingly, sticking up like a monument of defiance amongst the flattened ruins, this house still has standing walls. Debris caught in the upper structure show that it was probably completely plunged under water.

I’m always interested to read the graffiti that that gives a little peek into people’s lives. It reads –
“lost 26 December 2004”
“Angga – 11 years old”
“Iwan – 7 years old”
“Rahul – 5 years old”