Resilience

One of the most amazing things I saw was on my drive home from Banda Aceh. We were driving along and to our left there was all this mud, and you could see the ocean. There wasn't even rubble, I thought it must have all been rice fields or something like that. I asked one of our interpreters "What used to be here?" and he said "It all used to be houses". It seemed impossible to me that people's homes used to be there. Then I saw a man, on his own, standing poles up, like he was rebuilding his home. A home that had a view of the ocean. After everything they'd been through, only a short time ago, people were moving on and rebuilding their lives the best they could. I can have nothing but respect for these people. I think faced with the same thing, I would have collapsed in a heap at the almost impossible task in front of me. In my mind, that man has become a symbol of resilience, of what that really means. It's not just about survival, it's about rebuilding. Below is what I wrote in my notebook about that man.

Not even rubble
Ground completely razed
Lone man
Stands poles
To rebuild
Resilience