Sri Lanka

Sitting here, bundled up in blankets, frozen fingers, from the well below zero temperatures outside. Just a week ago, I was laying out beside a pool, bathing in the warm sun, drinking a king coconut. Now the long, tedious project begins, the photographs have to get organized, the journal entries have to be written out in legible writing, the memories need to be collected and the trip of a lifetime must be filed away.

We spent two days in Bentota, at the Taj Exotica, then left for Colombo. On the way we stopped by “our village” Paiyagala, to say goodbye to everyone. They had finished 45 houses, and the village was looking really good. From there we caught a train to Colombo, and got a room at the Galle Face Hotel. One night there, and we switched to the Taj Samudra, just across the street from the Galle Face Hotel.
Its really amazing that after seeing the destruction, and these people who lost everything they had, that I can still go shopping. Somehow the media driven society I am from makes me feel okay about it. It reminds me of watching the news, watch the story about the tsunami, then cut to commercials.

There are two large stores in Colombo that sell name brand everything for next to nothing, Odel and Arena. We took care of our clothing shopping for the next year, and bought a nice collection of dvds at them, and got all packed up to head home. We saw a few sights in Colombo, and ate some of the foods that we had been missing, sushi, pizza, and indian food.

The trip home was rather hellish, our flight from Dubai to Prague was rerouted because the Prague airport was closed, to Frankfurt, where we stayed on the plane for 4 hours, refueling and waiting for Prague to clear up. Finally we got into Prague, but we had missed our connecting flight. We waited for hours and hours to get new tickets, and then finally caught an airplane to Heathrow Airport. We had spent 8+ hours in the Prague airport, with all the food stores closed, and nothing to keep us warm (they dont seem to heat half of the airport).

When we arrived in London, we were not surprised to find our bags missing. So we told them they were lost, and they arranged to have them sent to us, then we caught our Air Canada plane and everything was smooth sailing from there. Our bags arrived two days later, slightly tossed around, but in one piece. Its good to be home.

The safari was something else. We saw everything we were expecting and much more. We saw at least two leopards, a black bear, a family of elephants, and a lot more. The land rover was great, a little bumpy, and we did get stuck once, when we tried to drive around a section of the road that was being worked on. In the end we got a helpful push from a backhoe.

Much of Yala park was effected by the tsunami. We had been told that it was closed because most of the guides and the park officials had died in the tsunami, but when we arrived in Tissa we found a different story. Although many people had died, it was not as great a number as we had been told.

The park is a giant maze of roads, covering all kinds of terrain. Jungle, shrubs, plains, lakes, beaches. There is a giant number of birds, from the blue tailed bee eaters too spoonbills. I took near a thousand photographs on the safari so I should have something for everyone, especially the birders.

Today we left Tissa, and decided not to go to Tricomalee. There is not enough time to get that in, and I left some stuff here in Bentota. We traveled by bus from Tissa to Bentota, a grueling 6 hour bus trip in a rickety, old, noisy bus. It is rather amazing to travel by bus, they are the fasted vehicles on the road here, passing everything at breakneck speeds. For much of the trip we were traveling 115+kmph. I spent the whole trip with my camera sticking out the window, taking photographs.

Tonight and tomorrow night we are staying at the Taj Exotica in Bentota. It is rather comfortable, good food, and they have very fast internet. They are giving us a very generous discount because we have been helping out building houses as well.

I would like to send out a b-day greeting to my sister, a bit late, but giant hug from Sri Lanka. Till next time

After spending a wonderful day and one night in Mirissa we caught a tuk tuk to Matara and from there a bus to Tissamaharama. The bus ride was much better this time, we both got seats next to windows. Tomorrow we are taking a safari in Yala Park. We took a “preview” safari today, just around a lake.

Marissa is a wonderful, small town bordering a pristine beach. The surf is wonderful there. We spent many hours body surfing in the waves, and walking along the beach, relaxing. There was not a lot of visible damage in Mirissa, most of it has been cleared and those houses and stores that were damaged have begun to rebuild.

Watching out the window as we drove to Tissa was rather amazing. The destruction in this area caused by the tsunami is just horrific. On both sides of the road there is nothing left, except trees. Most of the ruble has been cleared already, and tents are scattered everywhere, housing the displaced people. Most of the tents say where they are from, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Korea. It is wonderful to see just how people help out in situations like this.

We are staying in a small guest house named Mihisara Lake View. It is a very friendly place, wonderful people, in Tissamaharama. We are spending at least one more night here, before heading to Trincomalee, about 400km north of here. We will probably have to make at least one stop on the way, overnight, because the buses do not run very often, and there is no direct bus. It will be a long trip to say the least. Till next time.

As our bus darts, on thread bare tires, in and out of traffic we begin to realize the true scope that has afflicted this area. Nothing remains but the trees and piles of rubble that we have grown so accustomed to seeing. The roads are washed out in many places, being repaired now the whole length of the road. Tents are scattered on either side of the roads, and rescue workers hand out goods, and life continues.

Clambering off the bus in Galle we were faced with a bustling city in the process of rebuilding. Everywhere you look there is work getting done. The bus station gates, the roads, the shopfronts everything that you can see. Hungry and slightly dazed from a 2 hour bus ride, we caught the nearest tuk tuk and directed him to a hotel.

The place we stayed last night was called Blue Swan Inn. It is a large, family house, owned by a British man who has been living here for many years. It is in a town called Unawatuna, hit fairly hard by the tsunami. We met an Irish doctor last night, who was here when the tsunami hit. In this small town they buried more then 170 people. The doctor, and a group of people who were here at the time, set up a emergency hospital at a local hotel, and cared for some 400 people in it. The dedication of these people is rather amazing. The have been clearing canals, filled with human waste, building structures, helping in every way they can. It is truly wonderful to see the work that is getting done around here.

Today we head on to Marrisa, then, from there to Yala National Park, and then on around the coast. Next chance I get I will upload some photographs. Till next time.

Yestrday was a wonderful day off. We went with some friends from the watersports center to this wonderful waterfall up in the mountains. The water was cool and refreshing, unlike the bath water temprature of the ocean. We spent many hours there, swimming, hanging out, eating, and just having a good time. The watersports centre brings together a great group of people. We walked around the jungle, and up to some higher up waterfalls. It was a wonderful time. Apart from that we didnt do anything, what a wonderful day.

a girl in the village where we are working.

Me jumping off a waterfall into a river yesterday.

Jon and some friends from the village we are working in.

t has been three long days of work, and we are finally going to take a break, tomorrow Jon takes another diving course, and I relax, only for one day, but it will help us nurse our wounds and sunburns. After the first day of work the villagers really begun to get the hang of building, and they are building their shelters quickly and very well now. It is really gratifying to see this village come together and help each other to such an extreme. We have built around 12 shelters so far, the roofing material has not arrived so they do not have roofs yet, but that should be taken care of tomorrow.

The children are wonderful. They show us so much gratitude for being there, and whenever I bring my camera out for anything they all smile and beg for me to take their pictures. They call us by name, at first they had some problems with my name, I was Soda for a few hours. They try to lend a hand wherever they possibly can, fetching us hammers or nails, or trying to carry sheets of plywood over for us.

The Italians have been rebuilding the beach that the village is on, drudging up sand from the sea bottom into giant tanker ships and bringing it close into the beach. Its amazing to see them moving back and forth all day long.

Every day we have been there a family has invited us over for lunch, always a wonderful meal of rice and a few different types of curry, fish, beef, pork, some dahl, and salad of some kind. We of course eat it with our hands, in the traditional way, I am not sure if I will be able to go back to fork and knife when I return to Canada. The amount of respect that we get when we eat with our hands is rather amazing as well.

The organization we are working for is called Rebuilding Sri Lanka, started by the owner of a dive school here in Aluthgama. An English woman has organized the money, fundraising, and the likes. They are both here, overseeing the project and doing a lot of the work building. Their website is at http://rebuildingsrilanka.org.uk and you can make donations to their bank account on the website, not sure exactly how though.

We have made some wonderful friends here during our work as well. Even with obvious language barriers, and the difference in nodding (their nod looks more like a shrug and their head shake is more of a nod, fairly confusing), we figure out ways of communicating. One of the houses built today, a simple plywood structure 8ft x 16ft with a single mesh window and a door, was for a family of at least 10 people, it seems horrible to me that this is all we can offer them, but it is a huge improvement from what they have, plastic bag shanties held together with rope.

Most of the people either work in a textile factory or are fisherman. One of the men whose house we built today is one of the most amazing drawers I have ever seen. He works in the textile factory making pants and t-shirts, but at night he draws. I took some photographs of his work, and I really want to create a deviantart page for him, but that will have to wait till my return to the land of snow.

Watching the sunset over the ocean from the houses we have built is incredibly rewarding as well, swimming in the bathwater warm ocean off a pristine (newly rebuilt) beach with the people who we have been helping out, and eating in their houses gives us so much pleasure. Till next time.

Wow, a full day, in the sun, building shelters for people whose houses were washed away in the tsunami. This was the first day that the organization we are working with was building houses, they have been distributing food, water, mosquito nets and other necessities to the area, but now they have materials to build with.

The blueprints had some serious flaws, because we have neither circular saws, and everything was measured out in 6ft lengths, causing a lot of waste because the wood is all 8 ft lengths. This was just a small snag that will be worked out by tomorrow, once we get into the flow of things.

The area we were working in was really amazing. Every house was just a foundation, except for a few walls that still stood. Everyone was living in temporary plastic shelters, mud floors, and no windows, or anything for ventilation. We are building plywood shelters with windows that can close, and a door, they are far from permanent but they will offer a starting point at least.

We met up with the group this morning at 9, loaded up a lorry with wood, nails, steel mesh and everything else we would need, and headed off to the village. We spent a few minutes trying to figure out how we were going to go about the construction, and then we jumped in. Sadly it took longer then we thought to get the pattern down, it seems this kinda construction is more of a fly by the seat of your pants deal then something you can really plan out.

The people were wonderful to us, bringing us king coconuts and sodas. We were invited over to one family’s house that was still standing, for Sri Lankan curry and rice. We then went back to work and worked until around 5:30-6ish. When we were getting ready to leave we had some problems with the locals complaining, and not wanting us to go because they needed more mosquito nets handed out and the likes. I am not really sure how it was resolved because it was all in Sinhalese, but after 20 minutes or so we were on our way again.

Tomorrow we work again, hopefully things will go smoother. I got some wonderful photographs today but won’t be able to put them up for a while because of my limited access to computers. Hopefully tomorrow will not feel as long a day as today, even thought we start earlier. Till next time