h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I spoke to a friend in Sri Lanka last week. She lives on the opposite coast to the area that was hit with the tsunami and all her family survived. Some of her cousins who live in the area effected managed to escape and pull their grandfather to safety. She signed up straight away with the local NGO and has been helping with the clear up operation; she's an architecture student so she will probably be using her skills to help with the rehousing program.

She's seen the bodies piled up at the side of the road; she's seen children who've died of starvation because they just wandered for days, orphaned and unable to feed themselves; she's seen bodies pulled from train wrecks caused by the water; she's almost been hijacked by looters trying to take the aid they were carrying; she has stories to tell of the child abuse occuring in the emergency camps and she's been chased by a pack of dogs who have acquired the taste of human flesh.

Every word that fell from my lips was useless. I didn't have a single idea or piece of advice that measured up to the situation. In the end I just listened.