Going East and South

Lets try this again folks.
You see, I spent a good 40 minutes yesterday working on a long informative, if not riveting blog entry for your collective reading pleasure and it up and disappeared on me.
I sent it; I know that I am just not sure where it went. That’s all.

I won’t attempt to re create that momentary lapse of genius I had, I will just push onward.

Today, was my first day shooting with the IOM, we went to visit an area where a reported 900 families had not yet received aid. That’s not a typo. The IOM immediately began to work out emergency shelter situations for them and begin to coordinate the process to get semi permanent housing up, re-establishment of livelihood etc.
NOW, a few people have emailed me asking about the private vs. NGO group’s efforts and how they work specifically. My answer is: differently. This area for instance, as we arrived it looked as though some people had UNHCR (united nations high command for refugees) tarpaulins up. Which are really just all weather sheets of heavy duty plastic. but they keep the sun and rain off you. No one had sufficient housing except those who were either squatting in the ruins of their old home or the homes of others and those who scrapped together shantytown type lean-tos. Nothing really good for living in really.
Later we were up the road a bit; there were people who had freshly made temporary houses out of wood slats (cost about $150 US and 2 days to make) put up by private groups. They were still getting their food from the local Buddhist Temple but they had a house of sorts. So here you have the private groups, building a house for someone who needed it (made to last 2 years maybe 3 but not 4) but they are receiving no other support from them. Then you have the IOM approach. Where they locate land, clear it put up emergency housing up (water, sanitation etc) and monitor the conditions and goings on in the camp…meanwhile training the inhabitants to maintain the camp in the express efforts to turn over the camp to them as soon as is feasible. This is being done while attempts are made to get semi-permanent homes up outside the 100-meter rule area (I already explained that right?) and supplying food, water, education and livelihood re-establishment (giving tradesmen tools, fishermen boats etc)
One is a hell of a lot quicker but the other is more comprehensive and permanent.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing them blended but it wouldn’t work that way…permits, meetings, agreements, village, local and governmental politics etc would kill the immediacy in a heartbeat.

Where is the Government? I am not sure. Not to say they are not there, I know they are, I have heard that they have been responding to some areas with a vengeance. These areas though seem to be ones that are not sympathizing with either of the two rival groups the JVP (communists) and the LTTE (Tamil Separatists) so you can draw your own conclusions. This area that I was in today, Kolutara is a JVP area…so I am told.
Another thing to remember is that there are precious few areas that were not hit around the country. So it’s relatively easy to have been forgotten despite the amount of money and aid groups here. I don’t know, like any country, some people think highly of their government and others don’t trust them for a moment. Sri Lanka is no exception.


Friday, I leave for 10 days with a few IOM staff to shoot in several areas around the country: Ampara, Ullai, Komari, Matara, Kalutara and a few others. I am very much excited by the chance to work and travel finally. I have been in country for well over a week and really don’t feel like I did very much. This is going to change something fierce here on Friday.

I want to take a second and let every one out there now that I am in an Internet café in Colombo and the radio was playing “broken wings” and is now playing Whitney Houston’s version of “ I will always love you”. …Anyone doubt my need to get the hell out of dodge?
Yet I digress.
I wanted to write a moment about some of the people I have met here. I am meeting every day some of the most amazing people I have had the privilege to meet. Aid workers who do more in a day than I have done in a busy month. I met a 22 year old recent university graduate from England who is running about heading up projects for a small private group cleaning up schools, building well covers, helped place an orphan in s good home, and is looking to build 200 houses in Ampara over the next week or two. He’s 22! I was getting drunk and working in a bar…he’s building houses and facilitating clean up operations in a foreign country after one of the biggest disasters in memory.
I met an active duty Marine who came here on his leave, to distribute aid for a small Canadian private group that he has a connection with. He said he had to help out.
I have been talking to Save the Children workers, IOM, Care, you name them they are here, and it’s amazing.

Personally I am doing better than I was now that my days are full…well more full.
I am waging a personal war against insects, bugs and all things that want to eat my flesh or drink my blood. Savage little bastards. For every thousand I avoid two get me. Which is fine odds except for where they get me. I will spare everyone the imagery but I am not sure how he or she got there without me knowing.
Speaking of, I was in Mirissa (south of Galle) this weekend to get out and see more and meet a group of private aid workers, mostly French who were there to build houses and clinics. One of the men forgot to hang up his shorts when he went to sleep. He also didn’t shake them out in the morning, he just put them on. Well he said he felt something moving and then incredible pain very high in the groin. He shook out the shorts then and out flopped a 5 inch long centipede that had gotten him about two inches from his pride and joy. Now I generally hung up my pants anyway or take them off under the mosquito netting but you bet your ass I go Ringo Starr on the in the morning before putting them on, same with my boots and pretty much anything that I wear. So far it’s working pretty damn good.
Its definitely hot as it ever was in STL in the summer, So far I haven’t worn out the Rice and Curry or any other local food. I am told that this wont last long though soon I will want to kill someone for a burger. We will see. I was pointed to a pub that serves what the Brits would try and pass off as a burger and fries but they would be beaten elsewhere for it. Cheap local beer and world soccer coverage makes up for it though. I can go out and eat in an expensive restaurant (dinner, beer, coffee…well supposedly its coffee) for around $10. The realization has hit that I can get drunk and home in a Tuk-Tuk for under $20!!! Anyone that has ever been in Tuk Tuk though knows you don’t need to be drunk to appreciate the digestive affecting properties of a Tuk Tuk. I would put a Sri Lankan driver against any driver from any country when it comes to sheer balls and vehicular dexterity. A few people have brought me into a game called “sri lankan move of the day”
Basically it’s finding the one road move that is so outrageous that it’s the one to beat for the day. I have had the honor of being in the winning vehicle twice in a row. Good times to be had screaming white knuckled in a Three wheeler (tuk tuk) while you dodge a bike, motorcycle, bus and a monk…. occasionally it’s a cow but mostly its other cars coming at you in your lane while they pass another vehicle and honk at you to get out of their way.
As I said, Good times.

Wow, this is a long one.
I am likely to be out of email and blog use for the majority of the time I am in the field with the IOM.
Until I get back.
David