Jima, Ethiopia: Sister Tsigue Petros pulled the jeep to a stop behind Maryam Church at the entry to the cemetery, referred to derisively by the locals of this coffee-growing outpost as "Maryam Village." No gate adorned the graveyard's entrance; no sign marked the way. Only a well-trodden path offered evidence of the living on this sacred land otherwise reserved for the dead.

San Francisco to Tokyo to Bangkok to Chennai to Madurai, then by SUV to Kanyakumari. After more than eighty hours of fitful travel since departing San Francisco on New Year’s Day, I finally reached the tsunami-affected shoreline at the southern tip of India--reminded once again, rarely is it a straight line to the disaster zone.