Arabella's Diary
Tuesday 8 March 2005
Computer connection problems
Well...sending emails, and particularly this diary, has been far, far harder than we ever imagined.
I wrote all this on my laptop, and last night blithely thought that I could either plug into a computer at the internet office in Narigami, or download it onto a hard disc and then pop that into the internet office computer - but it simply doesn't work like that! In fact I have had to retype every single word of this diary now we have found at last found a computer that is linked to the internet that we can use today.
Mohan's family home - gone
We set off from Sun Beach Hotel and head eastwards along the south coast till we get to Matara where we are joined by Mohan's 2 brothers Ranil and Rajnul, who take us to visit the site of their wonderful 19th century plantation type home. We drive along a peninsula and there is the site, with a wonderful bay on one side and a somewhat wilder sea on the other - the most idyllic position - apart from the foundations, there is nothing to show there ever was a house here. It was completely destroyed by the Tsunami. Rajnul's wife was tragically drowned.
Rajnul was swept almost a kilometre inland in an incredibly short space of time, but found things to cling to and survived. Ranil's wife had gone to the Temple as it was a full moon Buddhist day, but Ranil was at the house - he stood on the 10 foot wall that surrounded the property until that started to crumble, and then he clung to the upright very sturdy metal gates which supported him until the waters ebbed. Their two dogs amazingly survived and were reunited with their owners. They showed us photographs of the house as it was and it was so sad to see this now desolate area - many surrounding families also lost loved ones as well as their homes and possessions. It is quite extraordinary to hear people's first-hand accounts of the disaster in the place where they experienced it.
Tangalla Special School
We are at the Navageevana Society in Tangalla (about half-way along the south coast) where we drove to this morning. It is a fascinating organisation running a special school and a pre-school for children with special needs, creating prosthetics and other appliances, and carrying out a great deal of outreach work in the surrounding area. We have just had lunch with their Director, who is the most amazing woman, and she has very kindly allowed us to use her computer and internet connection.
Another problem has arisen, which is that we simply cannot download all the wonderful photographs we have taken of the Clown working with the children, so this diary is sadly going to be as dull as ditchwater and completely lacking in photos for the time being, I'm afraid, though we hope to find a solution in the next few days.
Useful information and contacts
After the Navajeevana Centre we drove on eastwards along the south coast - we were due to rendezvous with David and Georgina Innes and their driver/guide, who were heading in the other direction towards us, having spent a week assessing the situation on the east coast, particularly Trincamolee, on behalf of the Ragala Aid Project. The two vehicles met just outside the Ambasantota Temple and an incredibly high-powered 20 minute meeting took place, with all sorts of incredibly useful information being exchanged. They have given us some excellent contacts with Sri Lankan Methodist ministers in the East, which will be extremely useful when the Clown heads that way on the 16th. 4 English people and 2 Sri Lankans talking 19 to the dozen outside a temple - goodness knows what the monks and children thought we were doing, but all good stuff, that will help facilitate our work in the future. We drove on to Tissamaharama, where we will be staying in Tissamara Rest House right on the edge of a most beautiful lake for the next two nights.
Immediate plans
We are visiting a variety of schools and camps on Wednesday and Thursday. We will return here to Navajeevana on Friday morning, so that the Clown can do performances and games with the special needs children here, and then we return to Narigami on Friday evening, where on Saturday and Sunday we will work in 4-6 different camps. Will email more news as soon as machines allow - hopefully some pictures soon which will give people a much clearer idea about what fun and excitement this project is creating.
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 "The remains of Mohan's family home")
We set off from Sun Beach Hotel and head eastwards along the south coast till we get to Matara where we are joined by Mohan's 2 brothers Ranil and Rajnul, who take us to visit the site of their wonderful 19th century plantation type home. We drive along a peninsula and there is the site, with a wonderful bay on one side and a somewhat wilder sea on the other - the most idyllic position - apart from the foundations, there is nothing to show there ever was a house here. It was completely destroyed by the Tsunami. Rajnul's wife was tragically drowned.
 "It was completely destroyed by the Tsunami")
Rajnul was swept almost a kilometre inland in an incredibly short space of time, but found things to cling to and survived. Ranil's wife had gone to the Temple as it was a full moon Buddhist day, but Ranil was at the house - he stood on the 10 foot wall that surrounded the property until that started to crumble, and then he clung to the upright very sturdy metal gates which supported him until the waters ebbed. Their two dogs amazingly survived and were reunited with their owners. They showed us photographs of the house as it was and it was so sad to see this now desolate area - many surrounding families also lost loved ones as well as their homes and possessions. It is quite extraordinary to hear people's first-hand accounts of the disaster in the place where they experienced it.
 "Clown juggling")
Another problem has arisen, which is that we simply cannot download all the wonderful photographs we have taken of the Clown working with the children, so this diary is sadly going to be as dull as ditchwater and completely lacking in photos for the time being, I'm afraid, though we hope to find a solution in the next few days.
CWI Tsunami Tour