Slightly Overdue!

But better late than never. This is a first time project for me so I'm feeling optimistic about the possibilities. The future will be bright :)

So anyway, lets cut to the good stuff. Most of you know about my recent trip to my beautiful hometown island Sri Lanka.

"The Pearl of the Indian Ocean", nothing less. I had two sole purposes for my visit. Firstly, to see my grandad (Seeya) and family, which was amazing. My only wish is that we lived closer to each other. Secondly, to visit and work within a few orphanages based across the island.

I kept a daily journal with notes and pictures which I will be presenting here to give you a taste of how life changing my trip was. 

A thirst for knowledge.

Budget Expenditure.

£700 was raised in total by all you wonderful people. You all know who you are and we managed to do this within a week and a half. 11 DAYS! 

£700 at the rate of Rs.210 exchange rate worked out to be a lot of rupees.

So here’s what the money was spent on:

BUDDHIST VILLAGE TRUST FOR SRI LANKA

Hikkaduwa, Balapitiya, Ambalangoda Tsunami Trust –

• 36 Vouchers @ Rs.1,000 each for the 36 children from Hikkaduwa and Balapitiya areas.
• 16 Vouchers @ Rs.1,000 each for the 16 children from Ambalangoda area.
• 3 Vouchers @2,000 each for specialised sports shoes for 3 children.
• Rs.10,000 for the children’s utilities for dancing and tsunami talent group.
• Rs.6,000 for 6 months tuition fees for young girl from Sooriya Wewa for her last A Level examination.

SRI YASODARA BALIKA NIWASAYA

• Thusitha Bookshop (PVT) LTD – Rs.9,925 for necessary stationary.
• Lak Sathosa Food Store – Rs.21,335 for food and household provisions.
• Electricity Bills and Transportation Costs – Rs.36, 800.
• Wasanthi – Rs.1,000. Wasanthi is a volunteer at the orphanage, and was a resident their when she was a child.

SHILPA CHILDRENS TRUST

• Food Dane: Breakfast meal for all girls in the home – Rs.1,500.

• Food Dane: Dinner meal for all girls in the home – Rs.2,250.

• Excess of Rs.250 added towards more food costs.

Heathrow...

7th March 2008

Checked in and had too long to wait before boarding…. Couldn’t stop myself from grinning. Cheek to cheek!

Cockroaches in FLIGHT :O

9th March 2008

Negombo. Arrived at my cousin's house yesterday afternoon. Flight came in 20 minutes earlier at 3:15 pm so I hung out at the airport with my new American flight homie, as I awaited my family and he awaited his fiance “sugah”.

We got to my cousin's place and reunite after years. My nephew is so grown up! Relaxed and caught up… felt good. Mosquito’s. Damn, forgot about them. Had a shower... COLD. Forgot about them too. Outside temperature was just over 32 centigrade so the cold shower is appreciated. Simplicity of my surroundings and a slow pace, what used to be a part of my own life has now become so foreign. 32 degrees again and I am a bag of emotions, new and old.

As I’m sitting out on the veranda with my cousin and nephew there is a domestic going on in the tree’s, parrots v's squirrels v's woodpecker. Later in the evening we drove down to another cousin's in Colombo, Pellawatta. What a reminder of the chaos on the roads. Firstly it was pouring due to early monsoon. This resulted in flooding of the main road (near airport) and bad visibility. People are huddled under the aluminium sheet covering of roadside bus stops standing in approximately a foot deep muddy water, some waiting for buses, others trying to get shelter. Seven years later and the drainage systems have gotten worse. It rained heavily for about half an hour and people walking about on the street were soaked to the bone. As if the rain wasn't bad enough, general driving discipline has not changed. Or lack off. The same can be said for the road conditions. Between the airport and Colombo alongside the main road is a McDonald’s drive thru, KFC, and a Domino’s pizzeria inside of a bank building. Do the people who live in the surrounding areas really eat these foods? Things have definitely changed. It is apparent that government spending is still being channeled into the war, and a newly developed priority investment of foreign king pin western businesses. As always, our money earnings within our country is flowing straight out and being lost abroad.

Same problems except they have been supersized.

My cousin has a beautiful house… I’m so happy for her. Was re-acquainted with the flying cockroaches which wasn't so happy. Forgot about them too.

Reality Strikes...

10th March 2008
Didn’t get much sleep because I thought I saw a cockroach on my bed, until I eventually realised that I had in fact dreamt it up. Was woken up at 6:30 am to the birds chirping. Heard an owl hooting so I thought to myself “something bad is going to happen today” (me and my aunt were having a discussion about superstition the night before). Concluded that I was being paranoid and went back to sleep. Once I did eventually wake up to join everyone else downstairs, I see my aunt watching the news in her room next door to mine. Headline news, bomb blast in Wellawatta early morning on the main Galle Road, during rush hour. School kids injured. Very close by to my aunt’s main house. The sick feeling in my stomach is a familiar one.

Spent the rest of the day visiting my grandfather, and other family and friends. By the end of the day the official story had been released. An elderly male beggar, on spotting the unusually placed roadside bag, went up close and grasped onto it, thus taking the main impact of the explosion and saving a few other lives. Four school children were seriously injured.

“You cannot travel the path until you have become the path itself”, Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.

11th March 2008

It STARTS!

Fresh coconut rotti for breakfast. I am so happy, and savour this meal.

Afterwards, went straight to a Ratmalana orphanage “Sri Yasodara Devi Aramaya & Balika Niwasaya”. Entrance is via an air force checkpoint as it is surrounded by air force military grounds. The home is part of a temple and nunnery run and lived in by “sil maniyo” (female Buddhist monks). It was founded in 1986 after Rev. Mahagoda Sumeththa Sil Matha, known as Loku Maniyo (Chief Monk) visited the refugee camps in the north as well as in the hill country, witnessing the everlasting sufferings of the people and young children, created by poverty, landslides and the attacks of war. The home started with 25 young children, and now accommodates 60 females between the ages of 1 to 23 years old. Living space is clearly not enough and presently accommodate over capacity, having to refuse new arrivals everyday. Loku Maniyo is making consistent efforts to raise funds to expand the building. She has seen the importance of keeping the establishment running. 

Girls are accepted from both sides of the civil war and from mixed religious backgrounds, and there lies a peaceful co-existence.

On our arrival Loku Maniyo tells us a bit about the Hostel she opened up in Welligama called the “Sri Yasodara Devi Shanthi Niketanaya”, in aid of post tsunami victims, where again 22 girls were sheltered, educated, and generally taken care of. The hostel cost the equivalent of £750 per month for total costs, which eventually they could not afford to continue, so the hostel was closed down.

After explaining my interest, Loku Maniyo took me to the main multi-purpose hall area and asked some of the girls to join me.

They were extremely shy but very respectful of my visit, each dragging each other out to come sit down. 15 girls in total came out to have a chat. Ages ranging 7 to16 years old, they all treat each other as sisters holding hands, whispering and telling each other off. They told me that their youngest sister in the home was 1 years old. A baby. It was heart warming to see how close they were to each other; a true family.

We talked about hobbies, studies, languages, and about other visitors. They were very inquisitive about my family, and throughout our time together this made me very conscious about the things that we all take for granted. I showed them a picture of Gayan, my not so little anymore brother which I keep in my wallet. I then showed them the pictures I had stored on my phone. I asked if they would write a few lines in my journal to show my friends back in England, which thirteen of them eagerly did. And they asked me to write in their own autograph books.




I learnt that the girls all cook meals, take part in cleaning and up keep, and have extra classes for English, French, and Sinhala, all held in the home itself. They love and adore their Sil Maniyo(female monks). 2 hours whizzed by and i didn't feel a minute of it. Even the girls couldn’t believe it as it felt like a much shorter time. Before we left one of the little one's came out to say hello, staring at me with an intensity probably thinking that I looked a bit odd.

Next stop, “Shilpa Children’s Trust” in Narahenpita, Colombo, founded in 1987, to help young girls displaced by ethnic conflict.

We met Chandini who introduced me to a few other ladies working there. She took me on a quick tour of the administrative department and showed me a few vocational rooms where they perform sewing and art classes. The main administrative room was very well kept in appearance with necessary amenities and air conditioning for the staff. A large amount of work goes on from this small room. Niranjala, the chief administrator, runs a database with all the girl’s details (roughly 50 girls on average). Lunch was being served so I sat down with Niranjala and we had a lovely meal. The girl’s are served vegetarian dishes for main meals on a daily basis, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I got a chance to have a chat with Niranjala to learn more about her background and how she came to be working at this home. The girl’s were constantly making quick shy glances in my direction and I couldn’t have been happier to smile back just to get a shy but genuine smile from each of them. Their warmth was overwhelming.

After lunch I sat in for an English class held by Ms. Ruth Thompson. Ruth and her partner had sold up their property in the UK to settle in Sri Lanka. Throughout the class it is very clear that this occupation is her passion and her objective is to improve the lives and prospects of these young people. There were five pupils present, each quite shy at first but gradually plucking up the courage to speak to me. The most striking quality about all the girl’s I had met so far were their absolute thirst to learn, something I had never witnessed within my own educational experiences. How refreshing. I felt inspired! These pupils loved their Ms. Ruth dearly and Ms. Ruth loved them. After the class Ruth suggested I come back to help with the English classes as the girls required practice by vocalising what they were learning, which was an effortless help I could provide.

The Shilpa Children’s Trust also were heavily engaged in community rehabilitation projects immediately after the devastating tsunami hit the shores of our beautiful island. Hambantota, on the southern tip of the island, was one of the worst affected areas. Many children lost their families as parents travelled to Hambantota to trade in the large marketplace, which many of them relied on for their livelihood. In this area, Shilpa runs a community sponsorship programme for 300 children who lost their parents. It also assists other affected family members, in particular women, by enabling them access to livelihood programmes. Through art therapy workshops many of these young children have managed to express their emotions, vital for recovery from their own trauma.

Take a look at their website: www.shilpa.org 

By request of Shilpa Childrens Home, I have not included any photo's of the residing girls due to privacy issues.

Ended the day by visiting my grandfather and eating some more great food. Feels like I'm only just starting the beginning of my trip.

Real People.

15th March 2008

The last couple of days were spent visiting my father’s extended family on the south coast of the island. Everyone has many accounts of the tsunami and individual experiences.




The train carrying the 1,700 passengers that was thrown inland a mile's length was actually found on one of my cousin’s owned land. It has now been relocated to its original location.




Now it is nothing more than a Ghost Train...


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/dec/29/tsunami2004.srilanka

During my visit I managed to eat something dodgy so while travelling around I was unfortunately fighting down a spell of untimely food poisoning. But still, I sucked up the pain and kept going as I was determined not waste a minute while there.

So it starts again. 15^th March, it’s a Saturday, very early morning.

We met Ira and Nisanka of the Buddhist Village Trust for Sri Lanka (BVTS) accompanied by Manel Piyasena of the Sahanoda Foundation who voluntarily assists with the coordination of BVTS, and start our journey to Hikkaduwa. We arrived at the Sri Gnanananda Ramaya temple within 2 hours, due to our crack of dawn drive and our excellent driver.

A few classrooms and a hall is situated next to the temple, within the same grounds. Once the majority of the kids had arrived we held a Boddhi Pooja (Buddhist offering). The sole residing monk told us his life story and advised the children not to waste their lives and take anything for granted. He also asked the children not to keep sadness or anger in their minds about the occurances of their parents, siblings, grandparents, and friends. He had a lot of character and delivered his message clearly with no confusion. It was evident that I, and every other person present were completely absorbed into his words.

At the end of the ceremony the children made an offering of a traditional robe to the monk and we all proceeded into the big hall.

There was easily over 100 people in the hall, 60-70 of them being young boys and girls, all from the regions of Hikkaduwa, Balapitiya, and Galle. The BVTS works with regions situated all around the island and with communities of all religions. They have helped 600 children in total affected by the tsunami.

“Miss Diana”, the affectionate term used by the children for their teacher, gave a short speech explaining that this meeting was to 'check in' and share an update of how everyone has progressed, but also to welcome me and my father as their guests. These meetings are held every couple of months and the main topics of discussion include the children’s progress and the foster families care. The BVTS makes their assessment's by closely watching and corresponding with the children through school reports and regular weekly meetings. Ira, Nisanka, Manel and Diana know each child like their own.

About ten children stepped up onto the stage to present us with beautiful and colourful flower bouquets that they had prepared for us as gifts.

We all, including one of the kids lit the oil lamp, a very traditional start to any special Buddhist Sri Lankan ceremony. A symbol of hope and new beginnings. 

This particular project has been running for 3 years since the start of March 2005. When the tsunami hit these shores on the 26^th December 2004, all hell ran loose. The majority of the children in the hall had lost their entire families within minutes of the waves engulfing the land. Mothers, Fathers, Brothers, Sisters, Grandmothers, and Grandfathers. Friends and family friends. In some cases few had survived, in others all had been taken. I tried to imagine waking up one morning and not having anyone or anything familiar to my life. Ira announced that I wanted to give each child a gift voucher of a particular value so that they could go to their local allocated departmental stores and purchase necessities.

To get a better idea about each individual young person, myself and Ira interviewed each child asking them about their interests and noted down individual talents. All discussions took place in Sinhalese, and the kids were very understanding of my rusty vocabulary! As each came up to us to have a chat more and more home made thank you cards and happy New Year cards were presented, which they were all so happy for us to accept. After the interviews were completed, 3 girls sang a song about their love for their late mothers.

In sets of two, pre-prepared dances were performed in our honour which were all applauded heavily by the hall of people.

Whilst sitting amongst the children watching these dances and other performances, I got chatting to a few girls sitting in the front row. One of the girls Iresha was showing a book to her fellow students, using an I.D. card as a bookmark. She explained that the I.D. card had belonged to her grandmother, but seemed quite shy to talk about it. I guessed that it was one of the few items she had managed to keep from her previous life.

We later had a group picture taken, followed by a lunch organised by the BVTS for all the children, foster families and carers. During this time we had a chance to chat to many of the new parents and care givers. I was told of one little boy’s case from a caretaker working on the grounds of the temple. His son had a severe life threatening respiratory condition caused by the tsunami. Another lady told me about her situation, where she had fostered a young girl whom had lost her entire family to the sea. This lady already had five children of her own, so life was already a constant struggle. Another case about a girl whom had lost her mother and siblings leaving behind her father and herself. Her father remarried and abandoned his child. The young girl had no where to go until a distant aunt heard about the situation and took her niece into her own personal care. These foster families and extended family members were poor people themselves, and it was an amazing thing to be present amongst these real human beings acting like REAL people. People of all religions and races acting together as REAL human beings.

The children and families left and I told them I would leave my address details with their teacher Miss Diana. The rest of us sat down and had a meeting about the events of the day and I discussed how I would like the money to be spent on behalf of all my friends and family back home in the UK. It was a day of success and we were all knackered so the 3 hour ride home was much appreciated.

While resting against the minivan window, stuck in steady traffic, I started thinking about the young girl from Sooriya Wawa, Hambantota area that Ira had been telling me about during our morning journey. Hambantota is famous for their banana produce but also for the large fresh produce market and the active shipping harbour. Many children from areas safely inland to Hambantota had lost their parents to the tsunami at this market place. BVTS had accounted for 120 tsunami families from these areas. The girl had lost her mother to the wave, but her father had survived only to be left severely ill. She has two younger brothers, of which the oldest is boarding at a school for educational purposes (education still remains free for most parts of Sri Lanka). The youngest brother was two years old when the tsunami hit, so this young girl has been bringing him up as her own son while looking after her sick father. She had planned to sit for three A’ Level examinations last year, two of which she completed and passed. The third she missed due to terrible illness, which unfortunately hindered her passing into higher education. They live in complete poverty stricken conditions. The last time Ira met up with the young girl she had a very suspicious looking black bruised eye. She claims she fell, although many other fellow villagers believe she is being abused, and too frightened to talk out about it. She needed Rs.1,000 per month for 6 months of tuition fee’s to resit for the missed A’Level exam, and after Ira's persuasion she agreed to try again for the last paper. It’s her only way out. The BVTS had agreed to take responsibility for the fees, which I donated on behalf of us all.
http://www.bvts.org.uk/

Shopping for 60! Where do I start?!

18th March 2008

After a chilled morning, I head off to the Sri Yasododara Balika Niwasaya. The cab company had sent me a young guy called Chamara, who had a small mini van. He explained that the cab drivers are responsible to bring their own vehicle for the taxi work, and that his mini van comes handy to transport his family around. We arrive to the home quite fast, the girls are all out at school, which I'm glad about as I won’t get distracted from the work that has to be done. Loku Maniyo is very happy to see me, but she also seems very busy so I try not to take up too much of her time. We spoke for a short while about the necessities of the girls and what the monthly expenses are.

For example,

• Each girl is given two pieces of soap per month, which they will use for bathing and other personal washing.
• One packet of milk powder is stretched over one meal for all 60 young girls plus extra for the few staff and monks.
• Average Electricity bills per month ranges between Rs.18,000 - 20,000 (£86-95).
• The water bill per month is Rs.25,000 (£119).
• Due to the very serious security threat involving public transport the girls have stopped using public buses to get to and from school, so money is now put aside for school vans etc.

I inform Loku Maniyo that I would like to go to the shops that very day to buy what I can with the money I have. She called for Wasanthi, one of their care takers, and asked if she would kindly escort me as I knew I would need help. So we grab Chamara and head first to Thusitha Bookshop down Galle Road, which is the biggest stationary and book outlet that will sell in bulk. From there we purchase;

• 2 x A4 White photocopy paper packets.
• 2 x A4 Coloured paper packets.
• 24 x Drawing books. (Art Books)
• 12 x Single ruled CR books (200 Page).
• 12 x Squared books (400 Page).
• 12 x Single lined books (400 Page).
• 1 x Carbon paper packet (100 Sheets).
• 72 x Pens (Red, Blue & Black).
• 12 x Typex pots.
• 12 x Sellotape.
• 24 x Small erasers (15cm).
• 12 x Binding glue bottles.
• 2 x Big scissors.
• 2 x Small scissors.

One thing I hadn’t contemplated was how difficult it was to decide what to buy for 60 young people. Luckily Wasanthi knew each and every one of them as she knows her own daughters, so she helped me with the bulk of quantities. It took a while for everything to be collected and bagged so I got chatting to Wasanthi. She had been working at the Children’s Home for 25 years. She travels by two buses and a taxi ride to get to and from work, taking over two hours each way. She is a mother of two. I don’t need to ask if her salary is what keeps her working here.

We help the bookshop guy to load everything into the van. Next stop Lak Sathosa Food Store, a government subsidised shop. I remembered being at the local government school in Sri Lanka that I attended for a couple of years of my childhood. Every student would receive food vouchers of a certain value to exchange for quantities of food supplies from the school Lak Sathosa outlet. I remember this being what some of the pupils eagerly awaited for, as their own families depended on their kids to bring certain supplies to the family table. Being kids, merely 10 to 12 years old, all of us wanted to buy sweets and Milo malt drink powder that we would share out and ration small amounts in each of our palms, and lick the powder loving the sweet taste! Most of the time this is what me and a few friends used to spend our food vouchers on, and we would share our stuff out with everyone around us, as majority of our classmates were using their vouchers for rice, lentils, sugar, salt and various other staple foods. They would barely have the strength to carry the weight of their foods home in their school backpacks on top of the ton of books that were required for classes.

The Lak Sathosa Food Store that Wasanthi directed us to was quite large, located on the main road. Slight problem, because it is a government subsidised shop there are specific quotas that cannot be exceeded when buying various items. After explaining the situation to the shop keeper she agreed to fix us up with several bills so that we could overcome this problem as a one off. From there we purchased:

• 20 x Anchor milk powder packets.
• 20 x Cheese packets.
• 5 x Washing powder packets (1.5 Kg).
• 20 x Soap pieces.
• 10 x Baby lotion.
• 20 x Salmon tins.
• 10 x Eau de cologne bottles.

When we got back to the Sri Yasodara Balika Niwasaya to drop off all the supplies, the girls had not still returned from school which I was kind of relieved about as I didn’t want to be around for too long. I was finding it very hard to say good bye. The last thing to do was to organise the left over money from the fundraising budget, which I donated towards electricity and transportation expenses. Loku Maniyo had expressed that those were the hardest monthly payments to keep up with, so they were all very grateful for this donation. Between me, Loku Maniyo, and Wasanthi, we sorted out all the paper work and I got ready to leave. As I was saying my farewells to the other monks and the other staff, I slipped some money to Wasanthi to use towards her children. She was caught completely off guard and refused a few times before looking to Loku Maniyo’s approval, who expressed that she felt it was ok to accept this as a gift. I felt so close to them and felt so envious about what they were doing all together as a family. As Chamara pulled out of the gate, some of the girls pulled up in their school vans. I could see that they were excited to see me and reached out of the windows waving and saying goodbye. I am glad I didn’t stick around because I didn’t want to cause any disruption to their daily routine, and at that moment I realised that I would have been an emotional wreck in front of them. They had the biggest smiles on their faces which made me smile the whole way home.

Miss Minali and Miss Delecia

19th March 2008

Early morning start again. My close school friend Delecia is in Lanka too and is up for helping out so my father picks her up and drops us both to the Shilpa Childrens Home at 8:50 am. The message that I left yesterday has not been communicated to Ruth, the English teacher, or to Niranjala, the administrator. Spoke to Ruth on the phone and she explains that as she didn’t know we were coming to Shilpa, and that she had organised for her class to be transported to her flat and her pupils were set to interview two of her fellow expatriates. The girls would then take their interview notes and prepare a fact file sheet for each interview candidate. She asked if myself and Delecia could help the girls with the fact files, assisting them to prepare a presentation. Sounded like a great idea. Once the girls got back we got started with our work. They were very shy at first but very appreciative to spend time with us, and was very inspirational. After the ground work was covered we got each pupil to step up to the front of the classroom and present their fact files. They were very supportive of each other and breezed through the task. We set them homework to print up their fact file sheets in time to present them to Ms. Ruth during their next class, and they thanked us for our time and visit. 

We had some lunch with some of the other girls and then Priyani the matron gave us the grand tour of the buildings and the girls sleeping quarters. Shilpa have a brilliant system where donations can be made in the form of meals (called a "Dane") for all residing girls. So all the leftover funds that we had raised were donated towards two main meals on behalf of me, Delecia and everyone else that helped back in the UK. We picked their favourite breakfast and dinner meal that served jelly as dessert. We had been told that jelly was a novelty that the girls do not get to eat very often. Made me think about how much jelly my mum used to make me and my brother when we were little, whenever we wanted it.

Jelly!

Our time was up, and I felt like I needed much more of it. So much more can be done with next to nothing effort being made. But this is only the beginning.