A
Anonymous
Guest
It was posted by Steve on the Views forum. His sister just got back and the story is very interesting and to boot, she is a great writer.
It is long but worth the read, I think!!
------------------------------------------------------
A final report for those of you who followed my sister's relief trip to the tsunami striken area in north Sri Lanka.
Hi Everyone:
Sorry I have been so delinquent in e-mailing you. This is a long e-mail but I hope you have a few minutes to sit down and read about my experience
I arrived home safely on Jan 26 after a 36 hr trip. We were about to land in Calgary when suddenly the pilot pulled up and before we knew it we were headed back to Vancouver. It was disappointing to be so close to home and then due to fog head back to Vancouver, refuel, get a new pilot and then take off again for Calgary.
The trip was amazing! We flew into Colombo, Sri Lanka with practically no details of where we would be going.The team consisted of 3 nurses from Calgary(myself included), Dr Jeff Way who is a trauma surgeon here in Calgary, 2 nurses from Edmonton and a O.T who had also worked in a pharmacy. All we knew was that we would be running medical clinics for the Tsunami survivors. Asia Span had personnel all ready in Colombo making plans for us with a local Pastor and a business man named Samson.
Samson is an amazing man who manages a company called Medi-Call which is like a 911 service in Colombo. He is a Tamil who has lived in Colombo all his life and has many contacts there. We sat down as a team on arrival and determined what medical supplies we would need and he had them for us in a day!
Before I go on let me give you a bit of history about Sri Lanka formally known as Ceylon. The south of Sri Lanka is populated by the Singhalese and the north is populated by the Tamil people. These 2 people groups have been involved in civil war for the past 20 years. In 2001 a peace treaty was signed and has been in effect since that time. The south is governed by the Sri Lankan president and army and the north is governed by the Tamil Tigers (LTTE).
The LTTE are known politically as a terrorist organization and are not supported by any democratic countries. The Tamil tigers invented suicide bombing! What else can I say.The war is over language and the fact that the Tamils want to govern their own land. The war has been fought in the north on Tamil land and virtually everything there has been bombed by the Sri Lankan army. The LTTE is very suspicious of everyone and hardly anyone gets across the border into their territory. Virtually no relief has gone there again because no other gov't will support a terrorist organization.
That being said when we arrived it was confirmed that in fact we were getting special permission to go into the North of Sri Lanka to work in the camps where the displaced tsunami victims were living. Needless to say after hearing all the history of the North we were a little shocked but at the same time very excited.
The Pastor that was taking us is a superintendant of 35 churches in the Tamil region. During the war, the church that he was pastoring and his home in Kilinochchi was bombed twice. There is nothing but rubble left. He moved his 3 children to Colombo where they could go to school, but he and his wife continued to pastor in the North. Because he stayed during the war he has great respect from the LTTE and because of this he was able to take us to Kilinochchi and then out to the northeast coast to work in the camps.
After 2 days in Colombo geting supplies and making final preparation off we headed at 0430 a.m on a wild ride to Kilinochchi. And I do mean WILD. The roads are like 1 lane of our roads, however apparently are 2 lanes. The drivers weave in and out passing whenever they feel the person ahead of them is going to slow. We decided that there are no road rules. It is one big game of chicken and may the best driver win. We were white knuckled and driving the British way, on the wrong side of the road, had us nervous to start. Between dodging vehicles,potholes, bikes, pedestrians on the road, dogs and cows it made for never a dull moment.
Our first bathrooom stop was shocking as well when we were introduced to the "porceline hole".It's squat and go the bathroom over the hole. These toilets are usually outside and are always wet due to the spray nosil on the wall ( I didn't want to know what that was for I could only imagine). They are not clean by our standards, but if you have to go you have to go. It didn't take us long to learn to always have that roll of toilet paper in our backpacks.
We had 2 cargo vans and 2 passenger vans for our equipment and team. After our vehicle overheated we were back on the road, but not for long. I had just nodded off(I don't know how) when there was sqealing of tires and our van was fishtailing around corner. It was then we saw the huge bus coming at us. It sideswiped the back end of the van, knocking out the back window and spraying Anne(nurse) and I with glass. Thankfully we were not cut or injured in any way. Just a little shaken. It certainly could have been much worse.
Out of the blue a new van showed up at the police station with a new driver and we were off again. We stopped around 1:30 for some lunch in Vavunya at the Nelly Star Hotel. The sign outside says "No firearms, explosives or grenades allowed inside this hotel". We were a bit worried at this point and we hadn't entered the Tamil territory yet. By the time we finished lunch the leaders decided we should stay there for the night.
Everyone was pretty shaken with all that had happened that day and we still had 3 hours to the Tamil border. We did not know how long it would take us to get across and the border closed at 4:30. We were all so tired and jetlagged and were in bed sleeping by 3:30 p.m.
The next morning we were up bright and early and headed off to the Tamil border. When we got to the border Samson and Pastor went to to talk to the Tamil soldiers with our passports in hand. We were allowed to get out of the van and directed to sit in some lawnchairs. After about 45 min we were handed back our passports and with permission letter in hand we went on into the Tamil Tigers territory.
When we arrived in Kilinochchi we had no idea where we would stay. There are no hotels and no tourism there due to the war. There was one place that had 2 rooms but they were taken. We thought we would have to sleep on the floor of the church there which was nothing more than a roof and some side posts with some canvas along the sides. This made us women folk a little nervous since there are lots of pythons and cobras lurking every where. There are dogs everywhere as well that all look the same. We were told there are lots of dogs because they kill the snakes. We were glad to see those dogs around after that.
Samson decided that he would go talk to the Tamil police about finding us a place to stay. Off he went and told them that we had come from Canada to help the Tamil people and that they needed to find us some place.
Next thing we know we are pulling into a Church of Ceylon orphanage. They had an empty dormitory that they would allow us to stay in. We all jumped out to check it out. There were 2 dorm rooms that had beds and matttresses, real toilets(they only lfushed with a bucket but we didn't care) and showers that trickled cold water sometimes. There was electricity that went out at 11p.m. on the dot or when ever it wanted to.
Compared to the church floor we thought we had landed a 5 star hotel. After about 3 nights we finally figured out the bites we had weren't from mosquitos but from the critters living in the matresses. Oh well we were exhausted everynight and by that time it was to late to care so we just carried on.
Breakfast and lunch consisted of powerbars,granola bars ,trailmix and bottled water which we had brought with us. I don't think i will ever eat any of those items again. There was a restaurant in town that we ate supper at everynight and there was always Coke and Sprite thankfully.Supper was the same everynight. Rice, a chicken dish which was good but more bone than chicken, a beef dish, but after seeing the cows wandering the streets eating garbage that meat was a bit hard to get down. They would also serve boiled vegetables carrots,cabbage,green beans, potatoes.
The vegetable were really good. The soil in Sri Lanka is red like PEI soil and their produce is amazing. In the south it is plentiful , but in the North the fields are full of landmines from the war and so farming space is limited. During the day you would see men in the fields de-mining them so they could be used again. You would not dare step off the road very far for fear of stepping on a mine. Danger Landmine signs line the 1 main road in the North.
We went out to different camps during the day and held medical clinics. We had to get permission from the Tamil leaders at every camp to go in. The camps we went to were around Pt Pedro and Mallaitavu. Approximately 400-600 families were in every camp.
The devastation from the tsunami was unbelievable! What you have seen on TV does not do justice in showing just how much rubble and how much destruction the tsunami caused. Every once in awhile while walking thru the rubble you would smell something bad and know it was rotting flesh.
The pastors wife told us that a lot of the bodies in this area were found naked. The force of the water had ripped their clothes off. Because of this the families would not view them for identification. We took pictures outside Pt Pedro where the bodies had been stacked and burned at the side of the road because there were too many to bury.
The Tamil survivors are living in tent cities or old schools which are basically big open rooms. They are being looked after fairly well in the north. They had been provided with large tarps. These tarps had been provided by the UN High Commission. Other than that we saw no other relief in the north.
Medically we saw lots of old wounds, bad chests with pneumonia starting. The asthmatics are suffering and everyone has a "cough and phlegming" as the Tamils would say. Purely viral so nothing we could do about that. Lots of ringworm as well and we were thankful we had treatment for that. To be honest I think that you either died in the tsunami or you got away and had minimal injuries. The acutely injured had been treated and were O.K. or had all ready died.
The people are grief stricken as you can well imagine and we heard sad story after sad story . There is lots of survivors guilt. We had a Mental Health Councillor with us who with the help of a translator would do group sessions with people we identified at triage as wanting and needing some help. Their losses were so great.
The Pastor who took us up there had lost 37 immediate family members including his Dad, Sister and neice. We seldom had dry eyes when we heard the stories from mother after mother tell of losing their children,babies being ripped from arms and fathers who had lost wives and children.
The whole of the north was bombed during the war and the army took what people had to support their war. Not only that but their children as young as 12 were forced to be soldiers and suicide bombers by the LTTE. Compund that now with the devastation of the tsunami. I'm not sure here in North America we would cope, but they seem to. Sadly they have few of resources we have here in North America.
On the whole the survivors were not critically ill, but the fact that someone had come and listened to their childs chest, held their hand and listened and reasssured them that they wouldn't die because they had swallowed water seemed to bring smiles to their faces. We had also brought boxes of flip flops in every size and in all the camps we handed them out to the children and adults. They were delighted to receive a gift. I wish you could have seen their smiles.
The Tamils including the LTTE soldiers were very kind to us. In fact in one of the camps they informed us at lunch time that they had prepared a meal for us. Although this was very kind we had seen the outdoor kitchens with the huge pots over fires that they used for cooking, but at that point we didn't have any choice but close down our little clinic and go and eat.
They apologized for only having plates and no cutlery. They always eat with their hands and we had no choice but to do the same. My stomach was rolling at the thought of eating but we all managed to eat a little. The meal consisted of rice,canned salmon in some sort of red sauce, vegetables and flat bread. Again thankgoodness there is always that bottle of Coke. The food didn't taste bad, it was just the thought, although I did spend that night, ALL night, in the bathroom on the luxury toilet with no running water. I'll say no more about that.
The only day we were a little worried was one morning we were leaving for the camps and when we came out of the orphanage onto the main road there were Tamil soldiers in full uniform with guns and grenades strapped to their bodies. They wore black bike helmets with tinted visors so you couldn't see thier faces. There were army helicopters flying over Kilinochchi and suddenly we started to worry about the fact that we had no plan to get back to Colombo if gun fire or bombing started.
We figured that the one road south that led to Colombo, which was the same road North to Jaffna would be the first thing to be bombed and we would be stranded. We had spoken to some of the Canadian Dart team members before we left Colombo and told them where we were going. They looked at us in surprise and said they weren't allowed to go where we were going. We asked them if something happened if they would come and get us. They just laughed and we took that as a big NO.
Anyway we learned later that a Norweigen diplomat was meeting with the infamous LTTE leader not more that 2 blocks away from the orphange and so the security was protection around that meeting. When the meeting was over all the soldiers were gone and we saw no other military presence again until we crossed the border back into the south.
The next day, we are still not sure how we got in, we visited a Tamil Tigers Veterans camp. Apparently there were 350 Veterans living here. The story was that they were receiving training in computer skills and learning English so they could get jobs. This was not evident by the few huts we saw, nor did we see any computers. The leaders brought out about 20 veterans. It was quite shocking to us to see their veterans were all 25 and under. Some missing feet,legs, hands even faces.
The Tamil army is mostly between the ages of 12-25. It was really heartbreaking. One of the leaders gave us the propaganda spiel about why they were fighting a war and the fact that they aren't "terrorists". It was all very interesting, but we were glad to be back on the road and out of there.
From this place we went to an orphange that housed war orphans. Approximately 200 orphans lived here. I have to say they all seemed happy and were very well cared for. We saw their school books and they sang for us. Their living conditions were minimal but clean.
We went to 3 separtate buildings to see 3 different age groups. The older group were age 8-21. This group was really the hardest for me to see knowing that when the war starts again these girls and boys if they are 12 or older will be front line soldiers after 6 months of training. They are all ready indoctrinated to believe that to die as a suicide bomber is brave, and that they are fighting for a worthy cause.
Suicide bombers are memorialized in this culture. I guess these boys and girls are prime soldier material as they have no one in life that cares for them other than the orphanage workers. Can I say here we have SO much to be thankful for. I can't imagine the pain of having soldiers come to my home and take my children and force them to be soldiers at any age let alone age 12.
Dr Way also did some work in the hospital in Kilinochchi for 2 days. All us nurses would have liked to have gone there to workas well, but we all really felt we needed to be in the camps. We did get the grand tour though. The hospital there is pretty much bare bones. There are beds at least,some outside, but still they are beds. Families of pts sleep under the beds while their loved one is hospitalized. There are puppies wandering thru. Maybe they eat the snakes I don't know.
Beds and the steel stretchers with no mattresses are just wiped down with water. They wash their gloves and reuse them. Jeff(Dr Way) did an appendectomy the one day. The nurse had to hold a flash light so he could see what he was doing. In their small O.R they have these really nice big new OR lights but they don't work(typical for there). He had 7 traumas come in all at once and they were just all layed out on the floor of the small ER with no collars or backboards.They all survived. It was an eye opener for sure.
The Medical director told us that the day of the tusnami they had 900 casualties show up at the hospital. He pulled out an envelope and inside were literally hundreds of pictures of dead people. They just layed the bodies out on the floor and snapped pictures hoping that some one would eventually identify them. I'm not sure how they coped. They have no resources and very few staff.
The last day we were there we took all our left over supplies and left them at the hospital. We had lots of boxes of gloves, medications, wound care supplies, and a bit of IV equipment left. They were very appreciative and told us they would like us all to come back and work in the hospital with them. All of us would love to go back!
Our trip back to Colombo was uneventful compared to the trip there. We did get to see some Sri Lankan elephants which was enjoyable.
We had a day back in Colombo and I can't tell you how happy we were to have a much needed hot shower, crawl into a clean bug free bed, and feel that air conditioning.
The next day 5 of us jumped in a van(just what we needed was another road trip) and drove the coastal highway from Colombo to Galle to see the damage in the south. If it was possible the devastation there was much worse. This area is much more touristy and because of this more heavily populated. The rubble was absolutely unbelievable !
We saw little evidence of clean up there although Samson said he couldn't believe how much cleanup had been done since he went down there on Dec 30. He said at that time there were cars in trees and on roofs of houses that were left standing . They lilterally had to plow the sand off the road to make it passable.
The disturbing thing was that all the relief money is in the south,supposably being distributed by the Sri Lankan gov't and other relief organizations, but in Hikadoowa people were begging for food on the side of the road. Wonder where all the relief money is going??? Lots of rumours in Colombo about that including the gov't using money to buy arms and the army selling food on the black market. Who knows. I hope organizations are made accountable for the money given by the world.
Well this has been way to long and I could go on and on and on. we really wished we had been able to stay another week to organize some food distubution in Hickadoowa.
I want to say THANK YOU to everyone of you for your financial and prayer support. Your generosity was beyond belief!! I still can't believe I had the priviledge of going! It WAS a privelege and such a blessing to me. It all happened so quickly. Within 5 days I had a passport had raised $5000.00 and was on the plane.
Your gifts allowed a pair of human hands to touch the wounded in body and spirit. While I got to be the pair of hands that physically touched some of the tsunami survivors, you were as much a part of this as I was.
I hope that some time in the near future I can show you all my pictures(16 rolls,yawn) and tell you more about the trip and my experiences.
Thanks again.
Please pray for PEACE in Sri Lanka.
Love
DEBBIE
It is long but worth the read, I think!!
------------------------------------------------------
A final report for those of you who followed my sister's relief trip to the tsunami striken area in north Sri Lanka.
Hi Everyone:
Sorry I have been so delinquent in e-mailing you. This is a long e-mail but I hope you have a few minutes to sit down and read about my experience
I arrived home safely on Jan 26 after a 36 hr trip. We were about to land in Calgary when suddenly the pilot pulled up and before we knew it we were headed back to Vancouver. It was disappointing to be so close to home and then due to fog head back to Vancouver, refuel, get a new pilot and then take off again for Calgary.
The trip was amazing! We flew into Colombo, Sri Lanka with practically no details of where we would be going.The team consisted of 3 nurses from Calgary(myself included), Dr Jeff Way who is a trauma surgeon here in Calgary, 2 nurses from Edmonton and a O.T who had also worked in a pharmacy. All we knew was that we would be running medical clinics for the Tsunami survivors. Asia Span had personnel all ready in Colombo making plans for us with a local Pastor and a business man named Samson.
Samson is an amazing man who manages a company called Medi-Call which is like a 911 service in Colombo. He is a Tamil who has lived in Colombo all his life and has many contacts there. We sat down as a team on arrival and determined what medical supplies we would need and he had them for us in a day!
Before I go on let me give you a bit of history about Sri Lanka formally known as Ceylon. The south of Sri Lanka is populated by the Singhalese and the north is populated by the Tamil people. These 2 people groups have been involved in civil war for the past 20 years. In 2001 a peace treaty was signed and has been in effect since that time. The south is governed by the Sri Lankan president and army and the north is governed by the Tamil Tigers (LTTE).
The LTTE are known politically as a terrorist organization and are not supported by any democratic countries. The Tamil tigers invented suicide bombing! What else can I say.The war is over language and the fact that the Tamils want to govern their own land. The war has been fought in the north on Tamil land and virtually everything there has been bombed by the Sri Lankan army. The LTTE is very suspicious of everyone and hardly anyone gets across the border into their territory. Virtually no relief has gone there again because no other gov't will support a terrorist organization.
That being said when we arrived it was confirmed that in fact we were getting special permission to go into the North of Sri Lanka to work in the camps where the displaced tsunami victims were living. Needless to say after hearing all the history of the North we were a little shocked but at the same time very excited.
The Pastor that was taking us is a superintendant of 35 churches in the Tamil region. During the war, the church that he was pastoring and his home in Kilinochchi was bombed twice. There is nothing but rubble left. He moved his 3 children to Colombo where they could go to school, but he and his wife continued to pastor in the North. Because he stayed during the war he has great respect from the LTTE and because of this he was able to take us to Kilinochchi and then out to the northeast coast to work in the camps.
After 2 days in Colombo geting supplies and making final preparation off we headed at 0430 a.m on a wild ride to Kilinochchi. And I do mean WILD. The roads are like 1 lane of our roads, however apparently are 2 lanes. The drivers weave in and out passing whenever they feel the person ahead of them is going to slow. We decided that there are no road rules. It is one big game of chicken and may the best driver win. We were white knuckled and driving the British way, on the wrong side of the road, had us nervous to start. Between dodging vehicles,potholes, bikes, pedestrians on the road, dogs and cows it made for never a dull moment.
Our first bathrooom stop was shocking as well when we were introduced to the "porceline hole".It's squat and go the bathroom over the hole. These toilets are usually outside and are always wet due to the spray nosil on the wall ( I didn't want to know what that was for I could only imagine). They are not clean by our standards, but if you have to go you have to go. It didn't take us long to learn to always have that roll of toilet paper in our backpacks.
We had 2 cargo vans and 2 passenger vans for our equipment and team. After our vehicle overheated we were back on the road, but not for long. I had just nodded off(I don't know how) when there was sqealing of tires and our van was fishtailing around corner. It was then we saw the huge bus coming at us. It sideswiped the back end of the van, knocking out the back window and spraying Anne(nurse) and I with glass. Thankfully we were not cut or injured in any way. Just a little shaken. It certainly could have been much worse.
Out of the blue a new van showed up at the police station with a new driver and we were off again. We stopped around 1:30 for some lunch in Vavunya at the Nelly Star Hotel. The sign outside says "No firearms, explosives or grenades allowed inside this hotel". We were a bit worried at this point and we hadn't entered the Tamil territory yet. By the time we finished lunch the leaders decided we should stay there for the night.
Everyone was pretty shaken with all that had happened that day and we still had 3 hours to the Tamil border. We did not know how long it would take us to get across and the border closed at 4:30. We were all so tired and jetlagged and were in bed sleeping by 3:30 p.m.
The next morning we were up bright and early and headed off to the Tamil border. When we got to the border Samson and Pastor went to to talk to the Tamil soldiers with our passports in hand. We were allowed to get out of the van and directed to sit in some lawnchairs. After about 45 min we were handed back our passports and with permission letter in hand we went on into the Tamil Tigers territory.
When we arrived in Kilinochchi we had no idea where we would stay. There are no hotels and no tourism there due to the war. There was one place that had 2 rooms but they were taken. We thought we would have to sleep on the floor of the church there which was nothing more than a roof and some side posts with some canvas along the sides. This made us women folk a little nervous since there are lots of pythons and cobras lurking every where. There are dogs everywhere as well that all look the same. We were told there are lots of dogs because they kill the snakes. We were glad to see those dogs around after that.
Samson decided that he would go talk to the Tamil police about finding us a place to stay. Off he went and told them that we had come from Canada to help the Tamil people and that they needed to find us some place.
Next thing we know we are pulling into a Church of Ceylon orphanage. They had an empty dormitory that they would allow us to stay in. We all jumped out to check it out. There were 2 dorm rooms that had beds and matttresses, real toilets(they only lfushed with a bucket but we didn't care) and showers that trickled cold water sometimes. There was electricity that went out at 11p.m. on the dot or when ever it wanted to.
Compared to the church floor we thought we had landed a 5 star hotel. After about 3 nights we finally figured out the bites we had weren't from mosquitos but from the critters living in the matresses. Oh well we were exhausted everynight and by that time it was to late to care so we just carried on.
Breakfast and lunch consisted of powerbars,granola bars ,trailmix and bottled water which we had brought with us. I don't think i will ever eat any of those items again. There was a restaurant in town that we ate supper at everynight and there was always Coke and Sprite thankfully.Supper was the same everynight. Rice, a chicken dish which was good but more bone than chicken, a beef dish, but after seeing the cows wandering the streets eating garbage that meat was a bit hard to get down. They would also serve boiled vegetables carrots,cabbage,green beans, potatoes.
The vegetable were really good. The soil in Sri Lanka is red like PEI soil and their produce is amazing. In the south it is plentiful , but in the North the fields are full of landmines from the war and so farming space is limited. During the day you would see men in the fields de-mining them so they could be used again. You would not dare step off the road very far for fear of stepping on a mine. Danger Landmine signs line the 1 main road in the North.
We went out to different camps during the day and held medical clinics. We had to get permission from the Tamil leaders at every camp to go in. The camps we went to were around Pt Pedro and Mallaitavu. Approximately 400-600 families were in every camp.
The devastation from the tsunami was unbelievable! What you have seen on TV does not do justice in showing just how much rubble and how much destruction the tsunami caused. Every once in awhile while walking thru the rubble you would smell something bad and know it was rotting flesh.
The pastors wife told us that a lot of the bodies in this area were found naked. The force of the water had ripped their clothes off. Because of this the families would not view them for identification. We took pictures outside Pt Pedro where the bodies had been stacked and burned at the side of the road because there were too many to bury.
The Tamil survivors are living in tent cities or old schools which are basically big open rooms. They are being looked after fairly well in the north. They had been provided with large tarps. These tarps had been provided by the UN High Commission. Other than that we saw no other relief in the north.
Medically we saw lots of old wounds, bad chests with pneumonia starting. The asthmatics are suffering and everyone has a "cough and phlegming" as the Tamils would say. Purely viral so nothing we could do about that. Lots of ringworm as well and we were thankful we had treatment for that. To be honest I think that you either died in the tsunami or you got away and had minimal injuries. The acutely injured had been treated and were O.K. or had all ready died.
The people are grief stricken as you can well imagine and we heard sad story after sad story . There is lots of survivors guilt. We had a Mental Health Councillor with us who with the help of a translator would do group sessions with people we identified at triage as wanting and needing some help. Their losses were so great.
The Pastor who took us up there had lost 37 immediate family members including his Dad, Sister and neice. We seldom had dry eyes when we heard the stories from mother after mother tell of losing their children,babies being ripped from arms and fathers who had lost wives and children.
The whole of the north was bombed during the war and the army took what people had to support their war. Not only that but their children as young as 12 were forced to be soldiers and suicide bombers by the LTTE. Compund that now with the devastation of the tsunami. I'm not sure here in North America we would cope, but they seem to. Sadly they have few of resources we have here in North America.
On the whole the survivors were not critically ill, but the fact that someone had come and listened to their childs chest, held their hand and listened and reasssured them that they wouldn't die because they had swallowed water seemed to bring smiles to their faces. We had also brought boxes of flip flops in every size and in all the camps we handed them out to the children and adults. They were delighted to receive a gift. I wish you could have seen their smiles.
The Tamils including the LTTE soldiers were very kind to us. In fact in one of the camps they informed us at lunch time that they had prepared a meal for us. Although this was very kind we had seen the outdoor kitchens with the huge pots over fires that they used for cooking, but at that point we didn't have any choice but close down our little clinic and go and eat.
They apologized for only having plates and no cutlery. They always eat with their hands and we had no choice but to do the same. My stomach was rolling at the thought of eating but we all managed to eat a little. The meal consisted of rice,canned salmon in some sort of red sauce, vegetables and flat bread. Again thankgoodness there is always that bottle of Coke. The food didn't taste bad, it was just the thought, although I did spend that night, ALL night, in the bathroom on the luxury toilet with no running water. I'll say no more about that.
The only day we were a little worried was one morning we were leaving for the camps and when we came out of the orphanage onto the main road there were Tamil soldiers in full uniform with guns and grenades strapped to their bodies. They wore black bike helmets with tinted visors so you couldn't see thier faces. There were army helicopters flying over Kilinochchi and suddenly we started to worry about the fact that we had no plan to get back to Colombo if gun fire or bombing started.
We figured that the one road south that led to Colombo, which was the same road North to Jaffna would be the first thing to be bombed and we would be stranded. We had spoken to some of the Canadian Dart team members before we left Colombo and told them where we were going. They looked at us in surprise and said they weren't allowed to go where we were going. We asked them if something happened if they would come and get us. They just laughed and we took that as a big NO.
Anyway we learned later that a Norweigen diplomat was meeting with the infamous LTTE leader not more that 2 blocks away from the orphange and so the security was protection around that meeting. When the meeting was over all the soldiers were gone and we saw no other military presence again until we crossed the border back into the south.
The next day, we are still not sure how we got in, we visited a Tamil Tigers Veterans camp. Apparently there were 350 Veterans living here. The story was that they were receiving training in computer skills and learning English so they could get jobs. This was not evident by the few huts we saw, nor did we see any computers. The leaders brought out about 20 veterans. It was quite shocking to us to see their veterans were all 25 and under. Some missing feet,legs, hands even faces.
The Tamil army is mostly between the ages of 12-25. It was really heartbreaking. One of the leaders gave us the propaganda spiel about why they were fighting a war and the fact that they aren't "terrorists". It was all very interesting, but we were glad to be back on the road and out of there.
From this place we went to an orphange that housed war orphans. Approximately 200 orphans lived here. I have to say they all seemed happy and were very well cared for. We saw their school books and they sang for us. Their living conditions were minimal but clean.
We went to 3 separtate buildings to see 3 different age groups. The older group were age 8-21. This group was really the hardest for me to see knowing that when the war starts again these girls and boys if they are 12 or older will be front line soldiers after 6 months of training. They are all ready indoctrinated to believe that to die as a suicide bomber is brave, and that they are fighting for a worthy cause.
Suicide bombers are memorialized in this culture. I guess these boys and girls are prime soldier material as they have no one in life that cares for them other than the orphanage workers. Can I say here we have SO much to be thankful for. I can't imagine the pain of having soldiers come to my home and take my children and force them to be soldiers at any age let alone age 12.
Dr Way also did some work in the hospital in Kilinochchi for 2 days. All us nurses would have liked to have gone there to workas well, but we all really felt we needed to be in the camps. We did get the grand tour though. The hospital there is pretty much bare bones. There are beds at least,some outside, but still they are beds. Families of pts sleep under the beds while their loved one is hospitalized. There are puppies wandering thru. Maybe they eat the snakes I don't know.
Beds and the steel stretchers with no mattresses are just wiped down with water. They wash their gloves and reuse them. Jeff(Dr Way) did an appendectomy the one day. The nurse had to hold a flash light so he could see what he was doing. In their small O.R they have these really nice big new OR lights but they don't work(typical for there). He had 7 traumas come in all at once and they were just all layed out on the floor of the small ER with no collars or backboards.They all survived. It was an eye opener for sure.
The Medical director told us that the day of the tusnami they had 900 casualties show up at the hospital. He pulled out an envelope and inside were literally hundreds of pictures of dead people. They just layed the bodies out on the floor and snapped pictures hoping that some one would eventually identify them. I'm not sure how they coped. They have no resources and very few staff.
The last day we were there we took all our left over supplies and left them at the hospital. We had lots of boxes of gloves, medications, wound care supplies, and a bit of IV equipment left. They were very appreciative and told us they would like us all to come back and work in the hospital with them. All of us would love to go back!
Our trip back to Colombo was uneventful compared to the trip there. We did get to see some Sri Lankan elephants which was enjoyable.
We had a day back in Colombo and I can't tell you how happy we were to have a much needed hot shower, crawl into a clean bug free bed, and feel that air conditioning.
The next day 5 of us jumped in a van(just what we needed was another road trip) and drove the coastal highway from Colombo to Galle to see the damage in the south. If it was possible the devastation there was much worse. This area is much more touristy and because of this more heavily populated. The rubble was absolutely unbelievable !
We saw little evidence of clean up there although Samson said he couldn't believe how much cleanup had been done since he went down there on Dec 30. He said at that time there were cars in trees and on roofs of houses that were left standing . They lilterally had to plow the sand off the road to make it passable.
The disturbing thing was that all the relief money is in the south,supposably being distributed by the Sri Lankan gov't and other relief organizations, but in Hikadoowa people were begging for food on the side of the road. Wonder where all the relief money is going??? Lots of rumours in Colombo about that including the gov't using money to buy arms and the army selling food on the black market. Who knows. I hope organizations are made accountable for the money given by the world.
Well this has been way to long and I could go on and on and on. we really wished we had been able to stay another week to organize some food distubution in Hickadoowa.
I want to say THANK YOU to everyone of you for your financial and prayer support. Your generosity was beyond belief!! I still can't believe I had the priviledge of going! It WAS a privelege and such a blessing to me. It all happened so quickly. Within 5 days I had a passport had raised $5000.00 and was on the plane.
Your gifts allowed a pair of human hands to touch the wounded in body and spirit. While I got to be the pair of hands that physically touched some of the tsunami survivors, you were as much a part of this as I was.
I hope that some time in the near future I can show you all my pictures(16 rolls,yawn) and tell you more about the trip and my experiences.
Thanks again.
Please pray for PEACE in Sri Lanka.
Love
DEBBIE
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