Sri Lanka Journal- Andew and Annette Dey: 2/19/2005

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Links from Andrew and Annette:

Pro Photographer Dixie's web site

Mondo Challenge set up Andrew and Annette's trip.

Unawatuna is the village where they're staying and working

In the north, Andrew and Annette are working with Norwegian People's Aid. NPAID is partnered with the German organization called Arbeiter Samariter Bund.

Bensonwood.com

Andrew

Having been away from the Galle area for nearly three weeks, the changes we notice are heartening. On the drive down the coast road from Colombo’s Ratmalana airport the previous evening, we passed through a number of areas that still looked devastated, but many others had been cleaned up. We saw more evidence of NGOs at work—including a banner from Habitat for Humanity just outside of Galle. We did not see any structures that looked like transitional housing, although we have heard that it is being built. In Hikkadewa, previously an epicenter for tourism, the stores were stocked with goods, many restaurants were open, and we could hear the sound of dance music coming from nightclubs.

We were surprised to see a train engine running on the coastal track. Our driver informed us that train service was about to be restored from Colombo all the way to Matara. When we first drove the coast road from Colombo to Galle six weeks previously, I had thought from the twisted tracks and destroyed bridges that it would be months before the train would be running again. Across the water, we saw the lights of fishing boats on the horizon. In the villages, the small open-air markets were filled with fresh fish. As we rolled into Unawatuna, we noticed the glow of televisions emanating from most of the houses that we passed. Life was indeed getting back to normal.

On Saturday morning, after sleeping in and eating a delicious breakfast at Mr. Jinasena’s South Ceylon restaurant in Unawatuna, we head over to the temple to check on the progress of the playground wall. Our coworkers at Benson Woodworking have funded the rebuilding of the wall and the restoration of the play area. Masons are finishing pouring the footings of the wall, and in some sections they have begun to lay block. The head monk, Venerable Ariajothi, is pleased to see us. We ask how the children are doing now that the preschool is back in session.

“Children doing very better now,” he says with his big monk smile. “Counselors working with children. At first all children make pictures of tsunami only, but now pictures happier. Pain is going out from their mind.”

He tells us that the designer who had drawn up plans and specifications for rebuilding the wall has proposed a design for the play area. He has the young monk in attendance fetch the drawings. The scheme is more elaborate than we had envisioned, but it looks wonderful. Symmetrical paths flow through areas of lawn to swings, see-saws, a slide, and a four-seated “merry-go-round.” Beds of flowers will line the new wall that encloses the play area. The plans are accompanied by a budget that is about six hundred dollars more than we had planned. Our previous estimates for the playground equipment are right on target; it’s the extensive work on the lawn and flower beds that we had not anticipated.

After a quick huddle, Annette and I inform the monk that we would like to go ahead with the plan. Given that on Monday we will be returning to the north for at least another week-and-a-half of work, we are happy to agree to a well-conceived plan for the play area.

The monk invites us to a memorial service at the temple for the thirty-one people from the immediate area who died in the tsunami. On February 26, the two months anniversary of the tsunami, he and the other monks at the temple will lead an evening of chanting, and on the following day, they will provide an opportunity for the giving of alms in remembrance. We appreciate the offer to attend, but have to tell the monk that we are not likely to be back by then. We assure him that we will visit as soon as we are back in Unawatuna, sometime after March 4.

As we negotiate for a tuc-tuc to run errands in Galle, I feel like an old hand:

“Will you take us to Galle center for 150 rupees?” I ask the driver.

“I normally get 180 rupees to Galle.”

“I normally pay 150.” The driver wobbles his head to signify that we have a deal.

Annette and I catch up on email at an internet café, shop for books and supplies that are not available in the north, and lunch on delicious salads at a rooftop restaurant looking out to the Galle Fort and the distant ocean. The difference in the atmosphere between the southern coast and the north is palpable. While culture in the Vanni is anything but commercialized, and the residents have not been subject to what can be a sullying foreign influence, there is also a kind of heaviness to life in the north. My sense is that most of the Tamils living in the area controlled by the LTTE have not left the Vanni, and the information they receive from the “outside world” is tightly controlled. This lack of openness can result in perspectives that are limited.

This is not to say that the relative freedom and ease of life in the south are not without their issues. In Colombo, the Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut branches do a brisk business. In many of the tourist-driven coastal villages, the commercial construction that for years had crept insidiously onto the beaches magnified the extent of the tsunami destruction.

We return from Galle and head to the beach for a refreshing swim. The tourists have returned to this beach: at least a dozen swim-suit clad Europeans are lounging on the beach in front of the Unawatuna Beach Resort. Several of the local vendors who sell their wares to tourists on the beach are back in business. We fend off aggressive purveyors of sarongs and wooden carvings. We don’t see this on the deserted beaches of the Vanni.

In the early evening we catch up with Sassi at his restaurant The Flower Garden. He has been overseeing the work on the temple wall in our absence, and making progress payments to the contractor. Sassi has also seen the plans, specifications, and cost estimate for the playground. What does he think of them?

“I think the playground will be very nice.”

“Too nice?”

“No, I think it’s okay. It will be very good for the preschool children to have this place to play, and other children from the village will also be able to use it. The cost estimate for the work on the lawn looks high to me. I will try to negotiate that lower.”

Sassi tells us of his plans to build an orphanage in Unawatuna. He has been working with the local government to obtain the necessary permits and approvals. Construction of the buildings is already underway, and he expects to finish the work within two months. Given our experience of his capabilities thus far, I bet on his success.

We indulge in French fries and another round of fresh salads, knowing that Sassi’s are the best, and that it may be a couple of weeks before we return.