By early morning on Jan 14, a small crowd of children and male elders had gathered at the T-junction at Kampong Kepala Jalan, one of the village hit by the Dec 26 tsunami in Kuala Sungai Muda, Kedah.

The day before a truck had unceremoniously dumped about some 50 boxes of used clothes at this junction. It was difficult to miss the pile as this junction leads to the main road out of the several villages of Kuala Sungai Muda to Kota Sungai Muda.

Eleven people perished here including an 11-year-old child. The dead were “kept” (“simpan” was the word used by villagers) in the cemetery in Kota Sungai Muda which is on higher ground, not in the village cemetery.