Tsunami Aftermath in Sri Lanka -- A Personal Experience

Thankfully we couldn’t rent a car on a Sunday so we hired a driver/translator/guide/keepin’ it real with all the local info guy who made it possible for us to get a lot accomplished.  They drive so crazy over there, there is no way we could have driven on our own and made it back.

When we got to the airport I saw a sign saying media, so I said “hey were media, sort of, lets go there.”  so they hooked us up with media ID’s, nice!

As we began to drive from Colombo south, the scenes got gradually worse and worse.  We weren’t prepared for everyone’s stories and requests for money.  It was tough.  

We photographed sites and people and Kareem would shoot a Polaroid of his 4x5 portraits.  This made everyone really really happy.  They would instantly crowd around him and then fight for the Polaroid.  Then they would get disappointed when we shot film and there was no Polaroid to give them.  People repeatedly told us that they, especially the kids, really enjoyed us photographing them and it made them feel happy.  I began to photograph Kareem’s subjects while they held their Polaroid.

This one young girl, whom I photographed in front of a damaged Temple, asked if she could have my pen (for school). I was confused but I gave it to her.  I was amazed and saddened when her face lit up with the biggest smile.  As if I had given her the Christmas present she always dreamed of (she was Buddhist but you get the point).  Most people lost everything, everything.  And you can see, many of these things are lying around on the ground all over the place.

There was a big train crash due to the Tsunami, all the passengers died (approximately 1400).  They weren’t removed from the train for two days.  One woman came from the capitol to see the wreck.  She was crying hysterically.  Our guide told us she lost her three children on the train.  We photographed the train and the village surrounding it.  The smell was awful and the scene was incomprehensible.  I don’t know if any of our photographs can really show you what it was like.  I took some videos that might help more.  Picture a neighborhood about the size of 7 city blocks by 7 city blocks of one and two story concrete middle income nice homes.  There were probably 5 houses that weren’t “fully finished, flat” - as the Sri Lankans put it.  Just concrete chunks of wall, people’s personal belongings, photos, even fishing boats cluttered the area.  Along with the train.  

The kids became my tour guide and told me their stories, many lost both parents as well as their home.  They told me how they held on to the tops of coconut trees for hours until it ended.

While photographing, we were kind of detached from the impact of all of this because we were concentrating on how to convey it photographically.  Sometimes while shooting we both had to pause and say “damn.”  At points we would just walk around and not take a photo.  But when we sat down for lunch or dinner, it would usually hit us.

The ads seemed so out of place.

When we drove through areas that weren’t hit by the Tsunami, especially in the interior of the country, we realized how beautiful Sri Lanka is.  It is hard to picture the severity of the destruction without knowing what it looked like before.

We went to a town called Hambantota, and it was mostly Muslims were affected by the Tsunami here.  They were very open to us talking with them and photographing everything.  The Mosque, along with all but 3 homes, was destroyed.  They had built a temporary one out of Galvanize.  Many people were at Sunday Market that day and it is said 8000 out of the town’s 12,000 were killed, but it was a Buddhist holiday so most Buddhists were at the Temple and they were not hurt – although the water was above the Temple.  This area looked like a site that was just cleared in order to build something new.  They had already cleared away the left over debris of people’s rather large homes.  One man showed me the beach and told me usually at that time of day it would be packed with kids playing, but most of them were dead.  Most people in this community are fishermen but all but 4 boats were destroyed.  Later we heard that an Israeli Aid team showed up and tried to give them supplies and food but the Muslims refused it.  I never told them I was Jewish, either way they were very open to us and treated us very well.

In the same town we went to the school that had just reopened.  It was very, very far from the ocean, yet there were still water lines about 4 feet high showing how high the tsunami water was.  We photographed the students and Kareem asked them to raise their hands if they had lost any family members.  We were told that two of them lost both their parents so Kareem shot them individually and I photographed them with their Polaroid.

In another town the bridge connecting it to the main land was destroyed and the Canadian Navy was running a shuttle service back and forth.  We had just walked away from a family in which the mother told me she lost three of her children, she was about to start crying as we walked away.  Shooting buildings was much easier than people.  As I walked away I felt so sad and down, I just wanted to leave.  Then the cutest little girl in this bright red dress walked towards me and I had to photograph her.  She looked like she was dressed for Sunday church or something, though it wasn’t Sunday and she was Muslim.  Anyway, she had a beautiful smile and made me feel a little better.  Kareem then photographed her younger sister who then started to do some sort of cute hip-hop dance.  As I came out of the remnants of a house, I saw the girl in the red dress again by these blue tents so I went to photograph her by the tent.  All of her other sisters were there and they were also dressed up.  Their faces lit up when I asked to take their picture.  They were having so much fun, it made me smile.  Their dad came out of his tent, his home now, and invited me inside.  He told me all of his daughters survived the tsunami but his two sons did not.  He had a shop next to his house and he lost both.  The two tents stood in their place now.

A lot of the architecture was historic and beautiful.  I spent 2 hours inside one house, with all of the owners’ possessions were still lying around.  Books, photos, purses, Buddha images, and clothes.  The couple, a Judge and his wife, both died when he tried to rescue his wife from the second and most powerful wave of the Tsunami.  His neighbor told us the first wave was like 10 ft but 20 minutes later a 30-40 foot “flood of water like a wall” came rushing in, followed by a third attack 30 minutes later. We then went and photographed more people in front of their homes.

On our last day, we heard many homeless people were staying at the local Buddhist temple so we stopped by there.  We ended up photographing every kid as they fought for the polaroids.  The Monks then requested that we take their pictures too.  They told us it really made the kids feel loved and they were all happy that we spent so much time photographing them.  Many had lost their parents and siblings.  No one has any money, any clothes, any home.  We gave money at times when it seemed right.  Our guide told us many people were taking advantage of foreigners by asking for money that they would have spent at the bar.

In Hambantota I photographed a mother and her 2 daughters next to their tent.  They did not ask for money and I did not give them any.  Later that night when we were about to leave I looked over at them sitting in their tent as I put the 4x5 camera in the car.  The driver really wanted to leave but I told him to wait a second.  I went to the tent.  The mother and daughter peaked out with a confusing look of what was I doing there.  I gave them whatever money I had on me, probably on like $8-10 US.  The whole family, like 8 people, then came out of the tent with huge smiles thanking me profusely.  The youngest one took the opportunity to use his English on me and they all shook my hand multiple times as the smiled and thanked me again.  It felt really good, yet not so good -- because I felt I should have given them more.

We went back to the village where the train had crashed.  I ended up walking all over without the will to set up the 4x5 and take another photo.  Then these kids came up to me and I ended up photographing each one of them in front of the remnants of their homes.  They showed me where their bedrooms used to be. One even had half of a boat sitting where is house used to be.  Meanwhile, Kareem put down the camera and painted the school desks in order to help get the school reopened by the following day.  

By then end of that night and the trip, we were both exhausted.  Mentally and physically.  We took our mind off of it by playing video games on Sri Lankan Airways and enjoyed the sunset and the view of the snow covered desert of Iran.

As soon as we get the real film back we are going to create a new site for the work, along with people’s heartbreaking stories of survival and loss.  We hope that somehow we can use these photos to raise money for, or awareness of, the important rebuilding process.  Check out Architechture for Humanity if you are interested in giving money to rebuild.