Colombo, Jan. 18: The spacious main hall of the national gallery in Colombo is empty. There are no visitors on a Monday morning, with the grind of daily life in progress. But the walls tell a story of how precious the daily grind really is, and how acutely its absence is felt when suddenly and tragically interrupted. And this story needs no words.

The walls are covered with a few hundred images drawn by children in relief camps across Sri Lanka, in the regions affected by the tsunami disaster. Children often find it difficult to put the pain in words. Images are their most honest means of expression.

These drawings express what words often can?t. The artwork is drenched in blue, with occasional blotches of black and rivers of red. A mother running from the waves with a child in her arms, people climbing trees and hanging on to debris or just each other as the waves wash away everything in their path. Homes under water, floating bodies, sunny skies overlooking derailed trains?

The rescue mission is almost done, although there are still thousands missing even three weeks after the tragedy. Relief work is on in earnest, while rebuilding is just beginning. But even as life returns to normal, the task is only getting tougher.

?It?s a huge effort, just to get the children back to school,? says Martin Dawes, senior regional communications officer in South Asia, Unicef. ?Some schools have been opened, but about 240 are out of commission, because they have either been destroyed or are serving as centres where displaced people are staying. You can?t just throw them out. Besides, lots of teachers are not back to school yet, because they have lost loved ones and belongings too.?

Unicef is helping the government to clean up the schools, and is also providing uniforms, furniture and stationery. Thousands of ?school-in-a-box? with essential materials have already been distributed, and 3,000 more have been ordered. Each has enough for 80 children.

The number of camps has been cut down and the number of displaced has reduced by half, to about 431,000, according to government figures, as people return to live with family and friends, with community support.

But normal life is still a dream.

?Fishing boats have been pledged, better ones than what people had. But no one in the coastal areas has returned to fishing yet. The entire fishing economy has been devastated,? says Niranjan de Soysa of the Centre for National Operations, at the disaster command centre in the old Parliament building on Galle Face Centre Road.

As the country learns to cope in the aftermath of the tragedy, there?s more work in store. Infrastructurally, most main bridges and roads have been patched up.

Emotionally, the bandaids hide deep wounds that need constant care.