Im writing this on the flight from Jakarta to Banda Acehmy 17th visit of the year. When Garuda announced in mid-year that its 6:20am flight would be non-stop (saving an hours lost time in Medan) it made many of us very happy.

In the dreadful days between Christmas and New Year 2004, when each day brought new horrors on the massive scale of the tragedy, none of us realized how this would change our lives in the coming year.

The scale of the trage