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| Author | Topic: Tsunami - February 2005 Trip Report |
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Peter (Moderator) |
posted 2/24/05 6:54 PM
Dear All What an experience ! We managed to achieve everything we set out to do, and more. Sat 12th Arrive Colombo after 16hr flight ( 5hrs in Doha ) met by Harin ( best friend of Sujan ) we sat in a cafe talking for 2hrs until Elisabeth ( my sister ) arrived from Singapore. He took us to a hotel in Colombo and then out to dinner with his wife, Hotel bill very kindly all paid by Harin. Sun 13th 7.30 Harin picked us up with a mini-bus and driver, Jayanthe and we drove 7hrs to Tissamaharama, The journey was along the coastal road , the damage started shortly after leaving Colombo and got worse as we approached Galle, most of the South West corner along a strip of 1/2 a mile wide, was destroyed, however they are really shifting with the repair work. The main coast road was cleared and repaired, all bridges rebuilt and the Indian Government have repaired and replaced nearly all the railway line, which involves laying miles of new track and many new bridges. The people are living in tented villages, looked after by charities from all over the world. On the way down to Matara we picked up "Samarakoon" who was a book keeper in one of Harins factories, he acted as our interpreter. We then passed through Hambantota on our way to Tissamaharama. Tissamaharama is a beautiful place approximately 5 miles inland from the sea, 30 miles east of Galle. Life here was completely normal except for the almost total meltdown of tourism. Our hotel was small and quaint , with paint peeling off the walls but spotlessly clean, on the edge of a large man-made lake built by King Tissamaharama 2000 years ago, as part of a huge irrigation scheme for the paddy fields. The water system in the bathroom had a mind of its own, I eventually discovered you could get tepid water out of the tap marked cold if you ran it for 15 mins , all part of it's quaintness and charm! I would still choose it over the more Western hotel further up the road, if only because I was swayed by the lovely friendly staff and £11.75 per night B&B. The total food bill for 4 days, a driver, interpreter and a meal for 3 villagers came to £58! Sunday night Harin stayed and had dinner with us and then the driver drove him for 7 hours back to Colombo and then drove for another 7 hours back to collect us by 1.00pm the following day, would you get a driver to do that in England? Mon 14th While waiting for our Paris Dakar driver to return, Elizabeth and I walked to the Buddhist temple, which we could see in the distance,this turned out to be a very beneficial visit. We met the Venerable Dr Dewalegarne Dharmasena Nayaka Thero, who turned out to be the High Priest and was coordinating all the charitable work for the whole area and was a link between the government and local people. He was very nice, helpful and compassionate man who had been to Wolverhampton! He was a tremendous help to us. We explained that we were looking for a small village to help, recover their economy, he intern explained each village and it's size, along the coastal strip for 15 miles, which we then went and visited ourselves. One place was Palatupana, which had not been a village as such, but consisted of a tourist lodge, where 200 Japanese tourist, and all the staff had been staying while visiting the Yala national park, they were all sadly killed and there was nothing left to even show that a building had once stood there. The fishermen for this area however lived further inland and due to it being the Christmas holidays were at home and were therefore saved from this devastation. The next town that we visited was Karinda, approximately the size of Ardingly, which had a small harbour, in the main totally destroyed. One amazing thing was that a large dredger about 2000 tons, had been swept from the harbour into the town, I wondered how they were going to move that back out to sea, however with their determination, I'm sure they will. The charity working in this town was G O A L, a large Irish charity, who had employed most of the local labour force, for the clear up. At the end of the town was another Buddhist temple, sitting on a rock about a 100ft above the town, we climbed up the rock to find the priest and had a meeting with him via the interpreter. Kindly offered the services of one of his Monks for the day, to show us to each of the camps slightly west of Karinda. Before leaving he insisted on blessing us, which involved all holding a piece of thread in a circle and chanting, it obviously worked due to the trip being such a success. We intern were given a piece of the thread as a cotton bracelet. The monk proceeded to take us to the various temporary villages, which consisted of people living in emergency wooden housing from multi-religious backgrounds, varying from 200 to 500 inhabitants some farmers, some fishermen, but all very happy to live together. The third village that we visited was Nidongella Wella, as soon as Elizabeth and I drove into the small tented camp, we knew that we had found what we were looking for. Fortunately for us, living in the village was a young American chap, called Matt, a very kind gentle person, who the villagers, especially the children had taken to. He was a volunteer working for the Sri Lankan charity ASPIC, mainly looking after the children. His assistance was invaluable and he explained everything. The village now contained 66 people, about 15 had been killed by the Tsunami, there were 15 fisherman, 2 Carpenters,1 mason, 1 barber and 7 women, who earned a living from sewing. They had previously used a manual Singer sewing machine between them, but this was washed away. The camp was 1 mile west of Karinda and 1/4 mile from their original village next to the beach. The village was totally destroyed and they had lost everything, through Matt we discussed all the villagers immediate and long term needs. It left us to start organising where the villagers requested items needed to be purchased from, this involved us returning to Tissamaharama (where our hotel was) to set about these tasks. Tues 15th Both Elisabeth and myself went into Tissamaharama town, (about the size of Lindfield) one main street lined with simple shops selling fabrics, clothes, bikes, household goods etc. and one smart shop, the Singer shop (in Sri Lanka Singer sells goods from sewing machines to TV's, fridges, motorbikes and agricultural implements). The manager of the shop became a great aid and our friendly "Mr Fix-it". There was a internet cafe which took a little patience as I spent 3/4 hour trying to get a connection to send an email home to Andrea, as time was rather tight, I couldn't afford anymore time to email everyone else. Elisabeth by this time had returned , having setup another meeting with the High Priest and the government area housing officer for 2.00, we thought that before making the final decision on Nidongella Wella, one more visit to the two remaining villages on our list was required. so we then spent another 2 hours in Hambantota area, but after careful consideration we decided on Nidongella Wella and then returned to Tissamaharama to have a meeting with the High Priest and government officer, who were happy with our choice of village, and discussed their needs. At 10.00 the next morning we had a meeting with the High Priest and some of the villagers, followed by lunch to discuss their exact needs. We took the medical supplies that I had taken out to the lovely local hospital, which was rather like one of our old cottage hospitals, they were very grateful and showed us around for a quick visit to the wards and introduced us to the very happy staff. Our last call of the day was to the Singer shop to order the listed items we had been requested for. Wed 16th Most of the fishing boats in Sri Lanka are made by Cey-Nor a government run business in Colombo with factories around country. We had been told that there was a factory 3 miles west of Tissamaharama, so went to find it, however this turned out to be the place that the nets were made and the boats were produced in Colombo, after being given the contact details we returned to Tissamaharama for a meeting with the villagers at 10.00am. Each family visits Tissamaharama to receive their 5000 rupees (30GBP per month) from the government which is distributed by the High Priest, this we are told will only last for 6 months from the date of the disaster, after which time they will have to be earning a living from fishing, farming, sewing etc, hence the importance of our project. The High Priest picked 3 of the villagers to come with us to confirm that what we were purchasing was what the actually needed, it turned into a fun afternoon for us and the villagers. Items that were bought were fabric and all sewing items required for the 7 ladies of the village , 41 umbrellas for protection from the sun and of course the 2 Singer sewing machines from "Mr Fix-it". He also sourced from the rest of the shops, 2 sets of carpenters tools, a set of masons tools and 1 set of barbers tools, You would be hard pressed to find all these items even in Haywards Heath. We returned with our purchases and were received with great excitement, Pushpa the head seamstress put one of the new sewing machines into immediate use and produced, with no measuring, a beautiful pillow case for Elisabeth. Our final part of the day was to be shown around the remains of the original village, which was set in what must have been a most beautiful area. Thurs 17th We left early to return to Colombo but enroute at Matara we bought musical instruments for the children of the village, who will of course be the future of the new Nidongalla Wella. Music is a great way for children to express their feelings after such a traumatic experience. One of the points which we stopped at, was the place where the train was washed from it's rails killing 1000 passengers (as reported on television), we then arrived back at 7.30pm and had dinner with Harin. Fri 18th Left hotel to visit Elisabeth's friends, the husband kindly arranged meetings with Cey-Nor and ASPIC. At Cey-Nor (it sounds rather casual) we ordered 5 boats engines and nets, (as the villagers had requested), which I paid a 20% deposit, this also included delivery to the village. Then onto ASPIC, this is a large company that is involved in plantations, tourism, construction and education, they also have a benevolent foundation, this is run by a wonderfully compassionate lady Mrs Swanamadi Muhandirange, one of those people that you take an instant liking to, she was doing a superb job dealing with housing, educational and everyday needs of the village. None of this would have been possible in this time scale without the assistance of Sujan and the totally invaluable help and kindness from Harin and our interpreter and driver , the ever smiling Samarakoon and Jayanthe, We received nothing but help and kindness from the people of Sri- Lanka. I have spent of your behalf £11,998, which gives employment to the whole village for the rest of their lives and their children's futures The breakdown of this was:- 5 Boats, engines and nets 10,555.00 2 Singer sewing machines 316.00 2 Sets of carpenters tools 115.00 1 Set of masons tools 109.00 1 Set of barbers tools 45.00 Musical instruments 304.00 General haberdashery and fabrics 80.00 41 Umbrellas 51.00 Gift for temple at Tissamaharama 37.00 Expenses for the trip 392.00 ( my sister and I paid our own airfares ) We have £ 7000 so need to raise another £5000. I will come round the village with tickets for the dinner in Brighton, if we sell 250 tickets that will raise £7000 please do try to put together groups of friends or sell whole blocks of tickets to companies that you are connected with. What Next ? After raising this money we have done all we set out to do , Nidongalla wella could do with help setting up workshops, more tools etc but you may feel that we have done enough, personally I fell in love with the village and its people and Andrea & I will go out there every year to live in the village help teach them skills and there is a lot we can learn from them. My sister is going out there in the summer to live in the village for 1 month. The boats are being delivered in about 5-6 weeks so we might go out again then. Some of you are naturally unhappy about giving the boats direct to the fishermen " what if they sell the boat and run off with the money ? " I personally think this is extremely unlikely but I am spending your money not mine. So I am trying to see about registering the boats in our name, this however might lead to all sorts of complications, more about that later. As a village we have set up the Highbrook Charitable Trust ( still waiting for the Number ). We have learnt a huge amount in the last 6 weeks especially how much good you can do with relatively little money if focused properly. What would the village like to do next? we could carry on helping them in a small way or turn our attention to the desperate plight of a village in say the Sudan. Or any other Ideas ? Thank you all for your help and encouragement . As a village I think we should be very pleased with what we have achieved and as Dave Allen used to say " May your god go with you " Peter PS Many thanks to Fiona for typing this lot |
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