Sri Lanka Journal- Andew and Annette Dey: 2/28/2005

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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

I spend the morning at two different concrete block factories, trying to address issues about the quality of the blocks we have been receiving. The supply of blocks, rather than timbers, is now limiting progress. We have been pressuring the block manufacturers, and they have responded by sending us blocks that are not fully cured.

Annette makes her now-daily rounds to the welder and local hardware stores to ensure that the steel components for the trusses are accurate.

The carpenters on site have requested that we arrive by noon for two “start work” ceremonies, one for the first preschool, and the other for the shelters at the third camp. We had seen evidence of these ceremonies for the first two camps, but had not witnessed them.

At the preschool site, one laborer is finishing digging the hole for the first concrete column, while others are wiring together the last pieces of rebar for the long “cage” that will reinforce the column. The elderly man who will be leading the ceremony has gathered on a silver tray the necessary accoutrements for the starting ritual: incense, bananas, a coconut, betle leaves, coins, and several small, unfamiliar fruits. A dozen carpenters and laborers gather around the hole for the column.

The leader of the ritual places the silver tray next to the hole, and arranges two tools—a square and a chisel—in the sand next to the tray. He then lights several sticks of incense, waves them over the hole, and pushes them carefully into the bananas on the tray. The coconut is next—he cracks it open with a whack! from a heavy knife, and sprinkles the fresh coconut milk over the hole and onto the rebar column. He opens a white packet of what looks like instant mushroom soup, mixes the gray powder with water, and smudges the resulting paste onto the rebar. As a group we then heft the rebar column into the hole. Ravi, the head carpenter, has each of us—Roy, Vimal, Annette, and me—place a shovelful of soil into the hole. The tall, wiggly column is braced in place with several poles, and the ceremony is complete. Ravi offers us chunks of white meat from the coconut that was used in the ceremony, and another carpenter breaks open a case of warm orange soda.

We are anxious to know when the carpenters will begin work on the timber trusses for the preschool. Roy translates our inquiry to Ravi, who says that they will start tomorrow. When we ask why not this afternoon, Ravi explains that because we have been pushing for completion of sixty shelters by the second of March, few workers are left for the preschool. We tell him that the preschool is also important, because we will be leaving in five days, and would like to see the trusses assembled. He bobbles his head.

We drive to the third camp site, where several carpenters are waiting for our arrival. Roy points to one of the carpenters and says with a smile, “His name Prabhakaran!” This is also the name of the leader of the Tamil Tigers. Is this carpenter one of his sons, or possibly a nephew? “No, no worry about that.”