Busy, Busy, Busy

It is Friday night 9:45 pm and Jasper and I are in the internet cafe recommended by Bob after he heard of my troubles. Much better Bob, thanks.

Well, lets see. Thursday was our day off and it was great! 13 of us arranged to visit Yala National Park. It was amazing. After work on Wednesday, we had 2 vans pick up 13 of us and drive us to just outside of Yalla where we split 6 rooms. It was a 5 hour drive each way and we had a blast on the way up there. Lots of laughs and jokes that you can only understand in Sri Lanka. This one's for Bob:

There are 4 headlights, 6 turn signals and 3 horns coming at your van in the dark as you try to decide which way they'll swerve and how close it will be. Are they:

A. 2 tuk-tuks and a bus
B. 1 tuk-tuk a bus and a motorcycle
C. 1 tractor, 1 tuk-tuk, 1 moped, and 1 car with half a headlight
D. All of the above

Anyway, on the way to Yalla in the dark we nearly ran right into a wild elephant that had made his way onto the road. We stopped completely and watched as it bore down on an old wooden gate blocking it's path. You could hear the wood splinter into the silent night as this huge wild elephant nonchalantly pushed it open with his head. The silence was soon cut short by the lone cries of the man who lived at that house trying to shoo away this elephant wrecking his property. I don't know what he said but I'll never forget the urgency in his voice. I got one good picture and can't wait to share. (I know I know. Soon.)

After we arrived at our hotel that evening we had a preordered dinner and then we all scrambled to bed because we had a 5:00 am wake up call. The rooms were great. Hot showers and AC. Ahhhh, the simple pleasures of life. Up at 5 we grabbed our pre-prepared to-go breakfasts and loaded into 3 Land Rover jeeps for the 30 minute ride to Yalla. You have to get up early if you want to see the animals and boy did we see some.

There were 4 in our jeep plus a guide/protector. We saw monkeys, crocs, green pea pickers, water buffalo, elephants and those huge things are sneaky! One minute there's 3 of them and the next minute they've quietly dissapeared into 5 feet of brush. Beautiful birds and on and on. However, the best part was the leopards. We saw leopards. This is apparently not a common thing at all. Kingsley, the owner of Tiny, has been over 25 times and never seen one. Our guide has been 251 times and seen 5. We saw 4. They were up around a small creek drinking and over the course of about 1-2 minutes they leaped over the creek and walked into the bush. Wow. We were no closer than 100-200 yards and I think I got a few good shots. I can't wait to see them larger. The leopards are why everybody goes to Yalla but not many see them. Smiles all around.

We went to a local lunch at Refresh restaurant and then half of us went in one van non-stop back to Galle and the other van went to a temple and then shopping. We made the better choice it seems.

Today was a tough day. We went to work and I got into laying the brick this time and enjoyed that as well. A local mason was following me with the filling and said, "Good, Good. It's ok." And nodded his head side to side. I liked that. The Sinhalese will nod their heads side to side as a gesture of "It's ok" or in agreement with something. I do it all the time now without thinking as do others. Smiles and nods all over the work site all day.

After lunch we visited the refugee camp for who we are building these homes. Ken and Carolyn, a lovely older couple from the UK, visited on their day off and urged us to check it out as well. They suggested we pull together our resourses and purchase tables for each of the 49 familes living in tents here. So, we of course readily went. Ah, it was so tough.

They were so happy to see us. They couldn't wait to invite the 15 us to sit in the 4 or 5 plastic chairs they had on what was left of a tile floor in their makeshift headquarters. It just so happened that today was the day of the lottery. The lottery was to choose who got the first available homes we were building and we were the lotto number drawers. There were 12 families who were the worst off and they were in the lotto for the first 6 homes. We each drew a number and name. Mine was #9 and the name I don't remember but they stopped at 6 anyway so mine would have to wait another month or two or three of living in a tent on the dirt in what used to be your home and community. Anyway, the first name is read and everyone breaks into cheers and applause. It was all the same to us but they were very happy. It was a woman but I don't know her families story. Another man had lost his wife and daughter and had several small children with him. I believe an orphaned child will be living with him as well. I just don't have the words right now. This just happened 9 hours ago and it was tough on all of us.

I walked around the camp a bit to take pictures and a family urged me inside their makeshift wooden shack with a cot, dirt floors and a few possessions hung around the L shaped structure. They say "American?" "Yes, American." I said and they smiled big. Not much English with this family but they showed me the pictures of the older mom and dad who were killed and had a broken English statement about what happened to them along with their police report. I gave them some chocolate and told them we were meeting right then to help them. And they wanted to make sure we helped the whole village and not just a few. These people stick together because it's all they have. Before and after the tsunami. They are an amazing example of grace and kindness.

I met a man who saved his whole family by scaling a wall and pushing them onto the roof while his home was destroyed but he was, "Very lucky." He offered to climb a tree to get me a baby coconut and I politely said no thank you. All they want to do is invite you into their tent/remaining few walls of home and meet you. I had a few more addresses given to me there. One apologized for not having more chairs so that we all may sit.

I'm thinking of staying a bit longer. I just can't fathom returning to the States right now. It's too much too soon and I need to gradually come to me own acceptance of things. A few people are staying over like Jasper, Ken and Carolyn to smooth the transition between groups as others have done before them. Maybe we'll take a few days to visit Kandy before coming back to work and then maybe some different relief type projects. These people's kindness makes it so hard not to do all you can. This is it's own reward and I can't say that enough.

We went for a swim at Unawatuna beach late this afternoon before a few drinks and dinner. I'm off to catch a tuk-tuk back to Tiny. Talk to you soon.

Chris

Work Has Commenced!

(note: blogger is acting horribly and not accepting my emails. when pasted in their site's editor it adds characters and basically self edits. Ughhh.)

It is 12:40 pm Tuesday April 5th and I am in the same Galle internet cafe. We were able to begin work at around 8:00 am Sunday morning and let me tell you it's hot here. Not just hot but the humidity is oppressive. I've never felt anything like it. That combined with trying to catch up on sleep leads to shear exhaustion but it's fantastic exhaustion. On Sunday we dug two foundations for 2 more homes in some very saturated land. It's like digging in a swamp. Tough tough work. We also built up more walls in 2 already started homes and some did some painting there and at another job site which I haven't visited.

There are 5 homes started and our 2 new foundations at our site with moreplots planned which we will start digging soon. GC is looking to build 50 total houses by the end of the year. Our group due to timing, chemistry, and forward thinking seems to be doing quite well in terms of work completed. We caught up the 4-day behind project in our first day. We were quite enthusiastic and glad to get our hands dirty. It was an awesome feeling to grip the heavy stones and wheelbarrow them across the wet muddy land to the new foundations on which houses will stand. We worked side by side, hand in hand, with local masonrys and workers. Every time they catch your eye a smile from ear to ear is not far behind. Occasionally local children will come by the site and someone will give them a sticker or plastic football. I had a toss with two boys and showed them how to throw a spiral. I think they're better than me now. Look out McNair, you've got company!

Sunday, I mostly wheeled large quarry blasted stones from the decentralized dump spot to smaller piles around the foundation footers where they are placed to form a sturdy foundation. Gravel is laid upon that and then sub walls are built using more stone for filler built up into 3 equal sized rooms using concrete blocks near our sizebut they aren't the hollow type. About 8 x 12 and only 5" deep or so. Monday, I did a bit more wheel barrowing as did others. This is very tiring work. The work load is increased several times over due to them being smaller than I am used to and having to muscle them thru the mud and swampy land. We set wooden planks up to cross the depressions in the ground and this didn't so much speed up the process as it just made it possible. I only did about an hour of this work on Monday as it is one of the more exhausting jobs.

Jasper from BC is a work animal. He is our team leader who just makes sure we know what to expect each day but he pretty much was all over the digging part. He's done the work of 2-3 people but EVERYONE is pulling their weight and finding suitable work when something becomes too much. I've had to take many breaks in between loads or the simplest of tasks. If I had closed my eyes for more than 20 seconds while standing or sitting I would have easily gone to sleep on the spot. I drink water constantly. Once you start sweating you are wet all day. It's not bad once you accept it and I think everyone looks beautiful all muddied up!

After quitting the rock moving I moved on to mortar work. I haven't been trained on laying the block yet but filling in the vertical cracks between the blocks after they've been laid. It's quite fulfilling work watching the walls go up in front of your very eyes not to mention much much easier than any heavy work. A work load here is exponentially increased due to the energy sapping humidity and only a breakfast of bread, jam, a banana, a pineapple slice, and a cup oftea. The power bars I have brought are the bomb.

Lunch is brought 12:00 - 12:30ish and we eat for no set time but everyone finds there way back into their gloves within an hour or so. It's usually a bag of good rice, vegetable mix cooked in oil, a baked? chicken leg or meat, a sweet salad type of mix and something else I'm forgetting. I like it pretty good and it's the quietest moment on site every day! They eat with their fingers but some tear the corners of their styrofoam containers and use it as a scoop. I brought my titanium spork and some do the same. After work each day we take a van or two back to our hotel and the other group of 10-15 is taken to theirs. After the first day of work we were so exhausted when we were picked up by the van and Ah-Ha's"Take on Me" was played on Ravi's loud radio speakers we broke into temporary insanity. We basically had a rolling disco thru the streets of Sri Lanka with everyone looking at the van of 12-15 crazy westerners singing at the top of our lungs and doing our best to dance in our seats. They must think we're all mad but their wide smiles showed approval.

I thought I would go to bed immediately that first night, but the singing and delirium did me good so we all showered and went into Galle to dine at the Lighthouse Hotel. Wow. What a beautiful place. You enter the drive-up entrance and walk the large wooden circular staircase wrapped around elegantly made copper/metal statues encircling a fountain. It lands on the second floor which is a very open and large space which opens to the elements thru large double doors which overlooks a magnificent patio, rolling grass which leads down to large boulders into which the Indian ocean waves crash into over and over. Beautiful sunsets.We dined on the patio by candle light around low-slung tables and deepchairs. It's a scene where ever we go. I had beef tenderloin for 675 Rs .

After dinner, about 8 of us walked down to the beach and swam underthe moon in the Indian ocean. I'll never forget that night. Zach, Krista from Michigan, Loddie (sp?) from UK and I braved the warm waters and played in the surf for almost an hour. We took several tuk-tuks (3-wheeled taxi/golf cart type vehicle - pron. "took-took"not tuck-tuck) back to the hotel. We all work very well together and I think I've had a pretty decent conversation with just about everyone there. I know my house pretty well and love them all. Fantastic people and I've never laughed so much in my life. I was wondering what the general mood would be here and am pleased it is very upbeat yet serious when it needs to be. There never seemed a reason to explain ourselves to each other. We all understand why we are here and have deeply clicked. I believe the lightheartedness you find all around is taking care of us. We need the laughter and at the same time it's automatic. There are some very smart people here with huge hearts and I have great faith in them all.

The monsoon this morning didn't allow us to work but sleep in and it was appreciated. I was just told we are leaving Tiny House at 2:00 for a few hours of work as the monsoon has stopped for now. I am going to grab a bite to eat upstairs and then it's back to the site. It is a good days work over there and a great "job well done" feeling at the end of the day. You just can't get that satisfaction in front of a computer. I hope to post pics soon. I have them burned but there is no cd-rom in my computer at the moment. I'll try better next time to find one.Take it easyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

-Chris