since the tsunami of december 2004 those women live with their families in temporary shelters: that means huts with corrugated tin sheets as roof, maybe one and a half rooms, cooking outside, toilets and washing facilites shared with a big number of other families. while this may look bearable under warm and sunny conditions, in the 4+ months of monsoon it becomes a total mess – a deep swamp everywhere, seasoned with the threats of cyclones.
when foreigners on an official mission become visible, now there are sounds of protests. and it hurts me that we could not offer some more houses to be constructed from our funds, as apparently their own state prefers to spend the money on a war they cannot win: sri lanka spends 2.4% of their gdp (est. 2004, compare with 1.5% in germany) for their army, plus the (unknown to me) amount the need for police and special task forces, let alone their losses of the agonizing economy due to the civil war of more than 25 years.
oh, and did i tell you that this country could be a paradise on earth?
Impressive background story to your photos. I would feel a bit arkward to comment on the photographic beauty of the shots. The expressions on the faces of those women are really, well, impressive.
Staying (living, working) in that area must really change ones perspective on our typical European problems. Kind of “luxury problems” most of the time…
Ahh, I love those two images. Nice compositions.