Tsunami Damage

Where time seems to go I do not know, the pace is definitively not the same as it is at home! This time I'd like to give a short impression of some of the destruction the tsunami caused.

After a fantastic party on saturday night (socializing comes very easily here!), the girls and I decided to go on 'the tsunami tour'. This consisted of a UN driver taking us to see an enormous boat which was carried in land by the tsunami.
It is so big that it was too much work to remove it, so it now rests in the middle of a neighbourhood to remind people of the staggering force of this incredible wave. Climbing onto the boat, we could hardly make out a sliver of water in the distance, so it was not at all close to the shore. Around the boat the community has already started building houses, you can clearly see the difference between what's new and what isn't. This area was hit hard and it reminded me of pictures of warzones. You can clearly see the total destruction when you stand in the middle of ruins. In Aceh alone, almost 150.000 lost their lives and more than 200.000 were displaced. Today there are about 4 million people in Aceh. Almost everyone who is from here has amazing stories to tell. Some of the drivers have lost their entire family, one of them was in his car driving away from the tsunami when the water caught up with him and overturned his car. He managed to climb out of the window and got away. If you stop and think, absolutely everyone and everything was affected.
Yesterday afternoon the entire area of Aceh lost electricity. Some of the shops and NGO's have generators, but our house doesn't. We ended up with candles and in a very warm and dark house. It was very cosy but looking out of my bedroom window later that night, I could imagine how scary it would have been after the catastrophe hit.

At the same time, it is very impressive to see how everyone is dedicated to rebuilding and developing the city and districts. The locals are very welcoming to us foreigners and we were a big attraction to some little girls whom I took a picture of!

Well, it's off to home now. Tomorrow I am having dinner with a Dutch guy whom I met in the swimming pool where I swim in the mornings. Amazingly enough we were the only two people there, imagine the chances!