Its not Lebanon but….

It certainly has not been so good here lately. It seems that the powers that be are hell-bent on tearing this country apart. I am doing fine and have been keeping safe. I have just come down to Colombo and am taking a long overdue, and long planned leave starting tomorrow. I will travel to beautiful Bali for two weeks of R&R. Yippie!

In the last few weeks Sri Lanka, and specifically Trinco (district), has seen some pretty heavy fighting. Those of you who have been following this mess at all know that the recent flare up has been the result of a water dispute in the southern part of Trinco district, about 40 miles south of Trinco town. The Sri Lankan Armed Forces (SLAF) have been bombing, shelling, and attempting to advance ground troops in this area for weeks. In addition to this, the LTTE launched an attack on the town of Mutur, just on the other side of the harbor. 100’s of civilians, SLAF, and LTTE cadres have been killed in the recent fighting, including 17 local staff (Sri Lankan nationals) of another NGO working in Trinco. The later being a tragedy that I cannot even begin to process.

Following the attack on Mutur, nearly 70,000 people have fled the area and are now living in several makeshift camps located a about 20 miles away. Most of them walking the distance with out water and at great risk of being caught in the crossfire. Both arties agreed to a brief ceasefire to allow the civilians to leave but I can assure you this, the ceasefire was not well observed.

What this has meant for life in Trinco is that there has been daily (and seemingly endless) shelling and bombing of the LTTE controlled area on the other side of the water. Trinco has not been spared from retaliation though and received incoming artillery fire directed mainly at the several SLAF bases in and around town.

I have been working almost non-stop through this period both trying to assist with the ongoing relief efforts for the tens of thousands of displaced people, and trying to complete some time sensitive project work for our housing project. Of course we are making an evaluation of what work we can continue in this environment.

There are so many things that I could write about regarding things that have happened: things that I’ve experienced (both good and bad), and things that are not appropriate to discuss in this venue. I can say that I am feeling significant guilt about leaving right now when so many people are suffering and while many of my coworkers and colleagues are up in Trinco. But, I would be lying if I said that I am not relieved that I am taking this break. Like I said, I am doing fine but certainly am a little burned out.

So, Bali here I come!
I’ll be back in Colombo in September. Ciao!

Temple Hike

The morning after the Pera Hera festival, we got up at 430am to hike up to this temple located on a high hill. It is about a one hour hike up to the top and you are required to do it barefoot! Needless to say, my feet were pretty sore by the time we got to the top. The views from the top were quite nice, although it was hazy on this day so we could not fully enjoy the sunrise. Thanks again for the pics Tom!

(Photo by Tom Ramsson)
Some of the volunteer (pilgrams) and Raja on our way up.
(Photo by Tom Ramsson)
Colorful hindu priest we met on the way. I was struggling to keep up with these guys on the way down because my feet were so sore.
(Photo by Tom Ramsson)
Another hindu priest. Great pics Tom! 

Kataragama and Pera Hera Festival

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I recently made a very quick trip to the southwest of the island to join 275 other Sewa Lanka people as they ended their one-week pilgrimage to Kataragama. The actual pilgrimage starts in Jaffna (northern most province) down the east coast to Kataragama and obviously takes much more than a week to complete. The pilgrimage is enjoyed by both Hindu’s and Buddhist as Kataragama, the deity, is believed to be a son of Shiva that came to Sri Lanka from India and now resides in the town with the same name. The Pilgrimage ends the Night before the Pera Hera Festival begins. So, unfortunately I wasn’t able to join on the pilgrimage due to work commitments, but it was nice to join in for the festival. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. Big thanks to Tom for sending me these pics!

(photo by Tom Ramsson)
Raja (my boss) and I at the festival.


(photo by Tom Ramsson)
No I did not sneak off to Burning Man... These kids were actually pretty good fire-spinners.


(photo by Tom Ramsson)
They like to dress up the elephants for the festival. This one reminds me of El Nacho, the Mexican wrestler… There were two that were magnificently adorned with rich tapestries and decorations. One elephant was sooo tall with huge tusks that nearly touched the ground. This was an intimidating animal. Before the festival the walk the elephants down to the river (which is, of course, sacred) and lovingly bath them. Then the elephants are marched to the temple grounds and they will bow to various shrines.
(photo by Tom Ramsson)
I just like this pic looking down the parade route on the temple grounds. It really was a nice setting.

Housing Project

Ok, this might not be too interesting to all you, but I thought I would throw this up here anyway. As I keep saying, our housing project is getting under wa,y finally. We have built 20 foundations so far and my goal is to build all 100 foundations and 3 model homes by October 1st, the official start of the rainy season. To do this we need to hire 50 skilled masons and ~ 50 laborers. The trick is to find these guys and keep them on site. Everytime the conflict heats up, they want to leave for obvious reasons. So, my goal may not be achieved but you have to have goals, right?

Before computers, everything was drafted by hand. And in Trinco, everything is still drafted by hand... This a draft drawing for our house design. I designed the structure with input from several people here and gave a sketch to A. Swaminathan, one of our experienced engineers. He drew this up in about 3 hours. Pretty good I'd say. There are many mistakes on this draft but I think it hs a lot of character (the sketch, not the house design). This is the first house Ive ever designed. It was a challenging process to incorporate things that are important to villagers. We actually had to dull-down some aspects of the house because the people will reject too much change.


Here is a site photo of one of the foundations brought up to the DPC level (where the wall begins). Our design has 4 reinforced columns located on the corners. Tsunami proof??? more likely bomb resitant...