Sri Lanka

Again, another country that we spent a scant 24 hours-ish in. We actually spent our day driving along the southern coastline to go visit Operation Mobilization's ship that was docked at the southern end of the country. We spent several hours driving by kilometre after kilometre of tsunami devastation. It's hard to describe the sight. Certainly, knocked down buildings and such are fairly commonplace, but to watch for miles of buildings that are (still) gone, and, in their place, a few houses here, many make-shift tents and wooden shacks there, is another thing entirely. To see forests of palm trees with their branches flailing backwards, away from the shoreline, single flip-flops lying in the sand, boats in broken pieces several metres from the beach.... What I found most striking though, was the overgrowth. Morning glories have taken over much of the ground cover since then, as many people have not been able to afford to rebuild again....
Shamefully, we did make a "tour stop" to take pictures of the destruction, and I spent a whole roll on it. I don't think words or pictures are adequate though, to communicate it all....