Hi All,
Have just returned from a very full day. I really am stumped for words to explain what we saw today - the closest thing I can correlate it to is footage that I have seen from Hiroshima - it like nothing I have ever seen before and am totally overwhelmed by what has happened. For most of the drive, once you are about an hour out of Colombo, all you see is devastation - houses are destroyed, cars and trucks are flipped over and scattered everywhere, boats are scattered up to 1 km inland from the sea and the most difficult thing I found is the smell - it is like nothing I have ever smelt before and is due to the number of bodies that are still underneath the piles of rubble and debris. Some of this debris is 2 - 5 metres high and just impossible to envisage where they would even start.

What threw me even more was the extent to which the Tsunami carried - we travelled up to 3 km inland from the coast and still could see devastation from where the water had travelled - it is impossible to imagine a wave of water to carry so far inland and wipe out everything in its way. The power of the water must have been so strong it destroyed everything in its path. We spoke to one guy who was the caretaker of a catholic church and he explained the water have risen to about 10 metres above land level and he had to wait at the top of a coconut tree holding on for dear life till the levels subsided. The water for most of this time was only inches away from him and he was about 15 metres high in this tree.

A miraculous thing about the destruction is that all the way along the coast road there are shrines with Lord Buddha statues and also Christian statues and none of these have been damaged or knocked down. Some that were encased in glass have just had the glass broken and right next door to it is a house made out of brick that has been totally destroyed. You can imagine what all the locals think about this - it seems to have some spiritual significance to everyone you talk to - it has even got me thinking.

With regards to the orphanage - one issue is that they all seem to be segregated - either for boys or girls, except if they are for 1-4 year olds. So we may have to make a decision on choosing a girls home or a boys home - have not spoken to authorities about this but my research so far has shown this. The property we are looking at in Galle was for girls only. The other issue we may have is that this property is very close to the water and for a lot of people they are now scared to live near the sea, so whether this location is going to suit if the community are not comfortable with it.

Thanks everyone for your fantastic support - we may need to be a bit patient as the Sri Lankans here do not have the sense of urgency that we all seem to take for granted. Am having a huge education on the frustrations of a third world country and the power of nature. We are so unbelievably fortunate and lucky to have been born into the lives we have!
Love to you all
Needs