Father Stanley
Chief parish priest
Our Lady of Presentation church
Colachel, Tamil Nadu

On Sunday morning Father Stanley was in church when he saw people running helter-skelter. They looked scared.

On hearing the news of the tsunami, he headed towards the beach.

"I saw many dead bodies, people's houses had been destroyed. I asked them to come to our school -- St Mary's," he says.

Meanwhile, volunteers had started taking the injured and dead to the government hospital. The priest told one of his colleagues to make a list of the dead, and made arrangements for cooking meals for the survivors.

"I told our people to make a list of the affected families and also list the damages. Later, we made a list of the missing people. The next day the bodies were still being recovered."

By the third day, some bodies which were still lying unclaimed in the government hospital had begun rotting and smelling. The police refused permission for the burial. So Father Stanley gave them a letter stating that he took full responsibility for the funeral. Only then did the police relent.

When aid started pouring in from the fourth day, he made one of his staff sit with the revenue officials while they distributed aid. Scores of survivors were given refuge at the school and Father Stanley himself only slept for an hour-and-a-half every day in that crucial first week.

"Now they are building temporary shelters as we have to reopen our school. The fishermen are refusing to vacate the school as the government-made temporary shelters are near the beach. I will speak to them and solve the issue."

Text and photograph: A Ganesh Nadar