Look for the Essence

Going south, on the left side of the road was a wide beach. The widest expanse of beach I've ever seen. There were none of the dunes I expected, and so the ground was flat from the road leading right to the strand.

Dotted along as we drove were little shops for tourists -- cool drink shops, hot snack shops, water toy shops, and the like. These little wooden structures were sitting right on the sand, and it being a Tuesday evening most were closed until the weekend. People strolled along. Some folks rode horses. Fisherman's boats were pulled up onto the sand.

After a short ways I began to see on the sand next to the road a few folks sitting on reed maps or tarps, with their catch for the day spread out in front of them, making their livelihood, shooing away the flies which buzzed around the fish and shrimp and crabs. In just a matter of a few more feet along the road, the fisherman were sitting on their mats in front of tiny, fragile huts made from bamboo and reeds and driftwood, which served as their homes -- built on the sand next to the road. I caught glimpses into some of the houses, where people laid on the ground on sandy blankets, or sat looking out into the distance.

The ladies doing the selling were thin, wizened beyond their years, and the children were half dressed and smiling.

On the right side of the road, away from the beach, was row after row of tiny, old structures which served as home for a good many people milling about in the lanes. Every so often there were water faucets sticking up out of the ground which served the population. Temples and churches took prime real estate looking toward the waters where the people made their living.

Trash was everywhere, papers and bags and bottles and organic materials, large and small, blowing in the breeze or piled up against the sides of buildings or heaped up on corners.

"These are some of the happiest people in the world, " Saj said.

After the tsunami the government built new houses for all the people who lived in that area, so close to the water. But they refused to live in the new houses. They needed to be near the sea. So they came back to the beach, and those who had lost houses built new ones as best they could, to live next to the bay which gives them life.