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Sri Lanka Journal |
Arabella's Diary
Monday 7 March 2005 "Seenigama")
We visited Seenigama, a village just a little inland. Even though the village is more than a kilometre from the sea, we were amazed to see dirty tidelines on the houses, showing how far the water had risen - it was at least 10' high. Again, most of the well-built concrete houses had survived, but older and less well-built ones had either been partially or completely destroyed. We met some great New Zealanders running a project called Operation Phoenix, rebuilding many houses and building some from scratch.
 "the Clown juggling by the temple")
 "Parachute games")
 "Parachute games")
One of the local schools here, just outside Hikkaduwa, was completely destroyed (thank goodness it was Boxing Day and school was not in session, or several hundred children would have died) so the school has moved up to a small Buddhist temple inland. We paid a call on the Head Teacher, and he agreed that the Clown could do a show for his students. We kept it shortish as the children were due to go home at 2 p.m. and eat, but the Clown performed 15 minutes of stylish ping-pong ball, juggling and hat tricks to the children's delight. We followed this with some quick parachute lifting and parachute football games, which were a great success.
Then we had a quick lunch at the Coral Sands Hotel, and a very interesting talk with the owner. The water came right in here, filling the whole ground floor, but the building was very solid, and although all the furniture was completely ruined, the building survived the waves. The owner has had various aid workers as guests, but tomorrow he receives his first group of proper tourists since the Tsunami. I pray it goes well for him, and for Sri Lanka. This country desperately needs its tourist trade, and it is vital that people start returning here for their holidays. The island is still beautiful, the beaches have been completely cleaned up, the water is blissfully and tropically warm and the people are wonderful. We haven't got time to be in holiday mode, but I recommend it thoroughly - you will be welcomed with open arms! Over lunch we spoke again about the replacement housing crisis - the monsoons could arrive as early as the end of March, and it is clear that nothing like enough building or rebuilding will have been carried out by then. There seems to be quite a strong feeling that the Government is not doing enough, and certainly isn't doing it fast enough. Yesterday afternoon's rain, which though heavy, was nothing like what they will get during each day of the 3-month monsoon, has soaked many tents and made them unsleepable.  "Dodanduwa")
After lunch we head with Mohan and Kumara to a Displaced Persons' Camp at Dodandowa. There are about 50 or 60 nice, biggish, clean, white field tents, where people are living pretty basically. Here, even though it rained relatively gently yesterday, compared to the upcoming monsoon season, the rain that fell created a really boggy area at one end of the field very near some of the tentsl. Mohan talked to 2 ladies who were living in one tent with several children, and they said that last night their ground sheet swelled up, with water leaking around all sides. I know that housing is not really Children's World International's problem (except in so far as it affects children) but the Clown and I (and everyone we have met, both foreign NGO's and Sri Lankans) are extremely worried about what is going to happen here to the homeless people once the monsoon comes.
Anyway, the Clown starts spitting ping-pong balls at this camp and instantly has an audience of around 70 children of all ages.  "Parachute games")
He does about 20 minutes of performance and 45 minutes of parachute games - lifting games, cat and mouse (because there is grass to work on this afternoon - it simply wasn't possible this morning in the dust) and the ever-successful parachute football game. The parachute is so colourful and the children are having such fun that our spirits really lift. Kumara, who brought us here today, really enjoyed himself and we have booked him to come with us to this camp and several other camps next weekend, once we are back in the area after our trip along the south coast. Kumara will drive us in his tuk-tuk 3-wheeler and help with translation of the games - a lovely, enthusiastic guy.
Back to Sunbeach and write up our diaries. Try to ring England (where my secretary Chris is) and France (where my husband Haggis is) with no conspicuous success. Eventually get through to my lovely secretary and discover there is nothing vital happening in England that I need to worry about work-wise. Arrange to email her these diary pages as soon as possible. A fascinating (though exhausting) meeting with a representative of Spirit Aid (from Glasgow) and a German guy called Stefan who is working with Sri Lankan puppeteers to create a Sri Lankan, but modern, puppet show that will include scenes of the Tsunami. I really think that if organisations such as we three can join together at times to work, we could create extraordinary workshop experience days that would we welcomed by schools throughout the Tsunami areas. Anyway enough for now - more tomorrow. We feel that things are going as well as they possibly could, all things considered - we have only been here 36 hours and have already worked with 2 large groups of children and met an amazing number of contacts. 
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CWI Tsunami Tour