BANDA ACEH, Indonesia -One month after an epic tsunami ravaged southern Asia, children and teachers in Indonesia's worst-hit Aceh province yesterday made an emotional return to school, where thousands of desks of classmates and colleagues sat empty.
Alqausar, a 6-year-old boy with neatly parted hair, arrived at school with his mother and wondered where his best friend Andi was. But reality soon dawned on him.
I don't think he's coming
whispered the boy, one of six in his class of 43 who showed up at a primary school. Of the school's enrollment of 600, only 260 came yesterday. The others are presumed dead.
Mourners along a road on Sri Lanka's shattered coastline lit candles and set colored flags in silent memory of at least 30,957 people who died there Dec. 26.
In memory of that day for the missing and dead in all the countries we are praying that a tsunami will never return
said L. Chandaransi
head monk at the Ariyakara Viharaya temple near the southern Sri Lankan city of Galle.
