A woman from Komari with her baby in Sri Lanka.…
This is a moving report from Sri Lanka in early 2005. It is a very personal account of visiting the tsunami affected region:
- Lisa
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A woman from Komari with her baby in Sri Lanka.
This is a moving report from Sri Lanka in early 2005. It is a very personal account of visiting the tsunami affected region:
When we visited Komari, we saw a family seated near their house and the whole house had been destroyed by the Tsunami Wave. They were collecting whatever was left over, while cleaning the debris. Only the foundation of the house was left. The family consists of eight members, including the father and mother.
With the greatest difficulty we managed to talk to the father Kadiragamathambi who was 48 years old and was working as an anti malaria sprayer. He has five boys and a girl. The ages range from 18 to the youngest girl who is eight years old. He had this to say about the Tsunami.
"In the morning of 26 December all of us were at home and at around 8.30 am the first wave hit and immediately the water level was almost one metre high. With all the children and with my wife we ran to the opposite school as this school had a two-story building.
Within a few minutes the water subsided and my eldest son managed to stop a bus on the road by force and sent us away from the place we were. Although he wanted to join us, as he was bare bodied he ran to the house to put on a shirt. At this point the bus started to move and we had to leave him behind."
His son Jayaprashanthan had this to say. "I am a commerce student studying for my advanced level exams. After sending my family members in the bus I locked the house and was trying to follow in the direction of the bus. At this point the second wave hit me very badly. I managed to float by holding on to a roof for more than 40 minutes, until the water subsided.
I was shocked to see what had happened during these few minutes and was very sad to see the house completely destroyed. I took the jungle route in search of my parents and siblings and managed to meet them in the camp at around 4.30 pm. My only desire is to sit for the exam but I don't know what to do, as I have lost all my books".
At the end of his story this is what he had to say. "If a person is attacking you, you could ask him to stop but when the sea decides to attack you, what could you do against this?"
- Mary
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Children who attend the social center Sucre, Bolivia, who are dancing Thinku, a typical regional dance.
I've been reading about the commemoration of the festivity of the Virgin of Guadalupe offered locals and visitors a tremendous folk dance spectacle.
Children and Youths Joined for the Festivity of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Over a hundred traditional folk groups danced the streets of Sucre.
Being the city of Sucre an architectural jewel, walking its streets is a real pleasure; but being present at one of its folk parades is certainly fascinating. The commemoration of the festivity of the Virgin of Guadalupe offered locals and foreigners a tremendous folk dance spectacle.
The chapel that hosts the Virgin of Guadalupe displays an extraordinary collection of colonial art and silver religious relics. Not in vain, for many, the Chapel of the Virgin of Guadalupe is the star of the show among the plethora of churches in Sucre: San Francisco, the Metropolitan Cathedral, San Miguel, La Merced, San Felipe Neri, among others.
This year, the festivity got started on 9 September, with several religious activities that brought to a beautiful Catholic procession that went past the main streets of Sucre. The parade was programmed for the next day when over a hundred folk groups of dance congregated in the city to sanctify the festivity of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
During the parade, the town square was covered by the multitude that sitting on the sides of the streets enjoyed the traditional parade. Most groups of dancers were accompanied by brightly decorated cars that, in some cases, were covered from trunk to hood in dolls, blankets, flowers, and so on, that even the windshield was completely covered.
The town square was temporarily blocked off as several columns of young dancers came jumping down the street. The scene was just incredible, as hundreds of dancers came homogeneously down the street, performing the same steps while dancing the many traditional rhythms of the regions such as "Thinku" (Quechua word for "encounter").
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