Synopsis

Recently, Dana and I visited the eastern community of Batticaloa. This was a community that was caught in the middle of the war between the government and the LTTE. Then it was hit by the tsunami. Being in the east, it is often neglected by the government and other NGO's. And with tsunami relief, so much of the effort and rupees go to the south.

Through our church in Colombo, we arranged a trip with Vasantha, one of the women who go to our church. Speaking Tamil, Singalese, and English she served as our guide and interpreter. She is the real hero here.

Vasantha who does a lot of tsunami relief in Batticaloa.

Batticaloa is 240 km north east of Colombo and takes approximately 7 hours to get there. The roads are not like our Canadian highways.

We hired a van and driver and left 3:30 Saturday morning. We arrived at Passekudah Bay where we went to one of the beaches that was affected. We looked at several houses that had only their foundations remaining.

We then traveled to Batticaloa where we stayed with the nuns of St. Cecilia's before we left for the hill country.

Fig. 4. The coastline is now totally changed at Passekudah Bay. At one time, people could wade out for 100s of meters and only have the water go up to their chest. Now, they cannot do that any more. Most of this area used to be land.

Fig. 6. This cement cistern was picked up and thrown several hundred metres inland and left on its side.

Fig. 8. One of the gentlemen who received a net and weights. They catch shrimp with the nets. This gentleman also received a lagoon boat.

Fig. 10. Our friend Desmon (left) with a representative of the Eastern Human and Economic Development Centre. The church raised $800 dollars for his van that was crushed by the waves. The engine from his old van will be put into a used van's body (below). In the one van, he will transport 35 pre-school children back and forth from school every day.

Fig. 12. Desmond with his destroyed van.

Fig. 13. The body of this van will be "tinkered" with and used as a school bus.

Pick 18 members of your family. Any combination of parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers, children, uncles, aunts, cousins and then add several friends and neighbors while you are at it. Then imagine that in the course of 2 gigantic waves, they are all dead. That's what the gentleman (Fig 1) on the left experienced during the tsunami.

They live in the poor community of Passekudah Bay. There are numberous military bases around the area due to the presence of the Tamil Tigers in the area. They are also surrounded by fields full of land mines (Fig 2). If that wasn't enough, they were one of the hardest hit areas during the tsunami.

The gentleman on the right (Fig. 1) lost his fishing boat. The gentleman in the middle lost his lagoon boat and nets. They approached us and told us, through Vasantha, their stories. Vasantha told them that we were here to give aid to people affected by the tsunami and that they should meet us in Batticaloa in half an hour. They not only rode their bicycles there but changed into their best clothing and waited for us while we delivered aid to others.

They asked for nothing more than the basics to get back to work. They didn't ask for clothing or food or shelter; just the opportunity to get back to work. We're looking into getting them some lagoon boats and nets so they can return to fish. Many fishermen were lost during the tsunami.

We then drove to Batticaloa where we met with the people of the Eastern Human and Economic Development Centre. They helped to locate worthy recipients of the money raised through the church. Every person had to sign (Fig. 7 & 8) for whatever they received. During the afternoon, we handed out barber equipment, nets with weights, sewing machines and some lagoon boats.

One gentleman could neither speak nor hear. He kept coming up to us and giving us the thumbs up and then signing O and K. Vasantha is looking into getting a used wheelchair for his little sister who is confined to a bed.

The sewing machines that were given out.

Some of the recipients of the sewing machines.

Again, none of the people asked for anything other than the opportunity to get back to work. They were all very grateful as well.

Some of the children whose relatives got sewing machines.

We spent a lot of our time with the people of the Dutch Bar community. Dutch Bar is a Burgher community (that is, a mixed Sri Lankan and Dutch community although everyone looks Sri Lankan). They lived on a small peninsula that, if it were in Canada, would be worth millions of dollars for the sand is perfect, the water is blue, and to the east it faces the Indian ocean. 100-200 metres to the west of the ocean is a beautiful lagoon where the fishermen fish for prawns.

When the tsunami hit, people ran west from the ocean saying that "the sea is coming, the sea is coming." They couldn't run any more because the lagoon was there. They were trapped between the lagoon and the ocean with a wave bearing down on them.

"Tsunami Boy" saved himself by climbing a tree (Fig. 9). His father drinks a lot now for he lost his little 2 year old girl. Every night, the mother sings lullabies to her lost daughter.

Marvin (pictured above) lost his entire house but his family was safe. Before, he owned his own computer and printed out documents for the community. His son also had open heart surgery in Chennai, India. He needs further surgeries in Sri Lanka but all of the x-rays and other documents were washed away by the waves.

Marvin and Desmond (Fig. 10) served as our guides during our stay. We tried to give Desmon money for spending so much time with us. He refused saying that we were already helping him get his van fixed and all he wanted was to return to work. Out of his refugee camp, only he and Marvin were not yet working. Most of the men in camp were carpenters who already had received carpentry sets from the church. There is no shortage of work in the area for carpenters.

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