"We were interviewing Alagaiyah Vethanayagam, a fishermen we met in one of the displaced camps. Alagaiyah related how he had been standing in the doorway of his house when he heard a commotion around the village. He placed his youngest child down for a few seconds in the doorway to see what was happening - in those few moments the waves engulfed them and Alagaiyah's life was irreparably changed forever. He never saw his child again or the two others who also died as the waves engulfed their village. As we talked he started to weep.

After we had finished the interview Maniyammah, Alagaiyah's wife said quietly, "Alagaiyah is like this much of the time - now he has no work he goes over those few moments again and again and he cries often - I don't have time to grieve I must look after my husband and children who have survived."

For sound reasons Oxfam would probably choose a different photograph of Alagaiyah and I feel ambivalent about taking a photograph when someone is crying. But ten thousand people died along the Ampara coast, the worst effected district in Sri Lanka. The rawness of the emotion of this fisherman crying does hint at some of the immense pain suffered by so many."