Surviving a tragedy

Firstly, looked at Cam's blog yet? He's slowly meandering his way home now (via beautiful scenic ocean and mountain roads - bastard) and should be back by the end of the week. Watching the trip from this end has been a pretty humblimg experience. When he first got there, the majority of the photos were of happy, clothed, fed children or, of camps that were apparently well resourced. Then he went out to those areas that got severely devastated by the tsunami and were left completely isolated. These are the areas where they still can't get aid there because there's no roads. There are the areas where they are only just starting to build roads but the progress is incredibly slow due to the difficulty of getting in equipment etc. This has been very humbling for me. Even though I had heard of Aceh before Boxing Day and I had a decent understanding of the politics of South East Asia it has still been a humbling experience to watch these images feed through. Knowing that I have done a bit to help in terms of money, time and trying to educate people about what's going on, yet still feeling like it's so enourmous that I'm unable to anything really. I don't think we will ever appreciate how much damage was done in these areas and I don't think we will ever appreciate how long it is going to take for these people to recover, if it happens in this lifetime. But thanks to the work of people like Cam bringing these images to us, to educate and remind us that even though the headlines might have faded away the problems are still there. And thanks to the people who are out there doing the hard mahi helping with the clean up and the rebuilding (eg Architecture for Humanity), and thanks to all those who have given time and money in other parts of the world. You all rock. When Cam gets back there will be opportunities to see the work he brings back so keep your eye out for that. In the meantime, cheers to him, bloody legend. And big ups to the people that paid for it, legendary as! I'll leave you with my favourite shot. I don't know much about the situation surrounding it, but to me it says Hope, and I have plenty of that for the people of Aceh.