Aragum Bay

These are views of the beach at Aragum Bay, the best surfing beach in Sri Lanka, the waves are mainly at the point, top left picture end of bay, and weren't that big but bigger waves were expected. You can just see two guys on boards in top right picture. The locals had caught a ray, it took all of those in the picture to land it.

Kalmunai stone laying

A stone laying ceremony at a Mosque in Kalmunai and the beach behind the Mosque, as a westerner you are seen as an important person and expected to attend lots of ceremonies. This will inevitably end up with a meal of some sort.

Haartal

A peaceful Haartal in Ampara, held after the bus bombing. The shops and offices were closed and people stayed at home for much of the day. The fires are tyres burning in the roads. This was the first time this has happened in Ampara

Orphanage with Nathalie

Arranged to go to an orphanage with Natalie, a Dutch girl. The orphanage is a good twenty minutes outside Ampara by motorbike and she cycles every day both ways. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but she told me some pretty awful stories. Also seems that kids can just end up there, it’s meant for handicapped but can be just used as a place to send people. Also supposed to be for kids but some of the people are over twenty. The place has a beautiful location and is quite big, a walled garden and two long single storey buildings at right angles. There has been some aid work done. A whole new toilet and shower block stands empty as there isn’t enough water to work it, they continue to use a really dirty old toilet with no door and shower at the bottom of the garden. The children and adults are a mixture of mentally and physically handicapped with some non handicapped girls there too. We sat in the garden and played with the kids, drawing in the sand and playing games. Some just like to hold your hand, one who is in her twenties is dressed like a five year old. It’s very sad, there is one old lady looking after them who only gets five days off a year! I will go there again it’s crying out for some wall art and bright colours.

Hill climb again

Climbed the hill behind the temple again this time with some French friends, not so hazy so clearer pictures. We climbed faster this time, practice makes perfect.

World Cup starts

Saturday morning, I watched the opening world cup game last night, about twenty five of us, some Germans so it was fun, especially when Costa Rica scored. Been down town and bought a pair of trousers for work, dark blue, hope that hides the dirt! They were a bit long so went to a tailor, they have shops along the street here, and he did the alterations there and then, stopped what he was doing, measured me, cut and hemmed the trousers, 40 rupees-20p. There is a wedding here in hotel at the moment, music so loud can’t hear BBC world service. I am sitting on the balcony outside my hotel room. Usually a peaceful place to be.


Out till 3am last night, watched the England game at the GOAL house, which was dire, the match that is, then Chinese restaurant with friends. I found out that GOAL isn’t an abbreviation, must be the only INGO with a name not an abbreviation. Anyway we headed for Bill’s house after dinner, the only transport being my motorbike, so I took one girl on the back whilst the others set off walking, the plan that I would go back, unfortunately the directions weren’t that good. The others rang to say they had been picked up by TDH (Terre Des Hommes), took us ages to find the place about 25 minutes arrived at half time in the Sweden game. Stayed there and watched Argentina too. Traveling through Ampara at night is odd, nobody about and no street lights. I am climbing the hill again this morning with Claire from TDH, need the exercise.

Badminton was a laugh, hotel only had three racquets and no shuttle, one of the racquets had several strings missing. I took a quick trip into town and managed to find a kids badminton set, two racquets but only one shuttle. When I went to check the court at the back of the hotel somebody had parked there! Why? So had to find the driver and move him. When we started the shuttle was too light so we put a weight in it. Then the kid’s racquets were too loosely strung so when you hit the shuttle it got stuck in the strings! I had some duck tape so put some across the strings and we managed to play. The sweat poured off us, Claudia, Ben, Sabina and I, it was good fun though.

Monty's Guest House Ampara

The view from my balcony at Monty's GH Ampara, I sit and watch the chipmonks run about in the trees, very peaceful.
I will eventually get a good photo of these carts! By the time I have stopped the motorbike got my camera out of my rucksack, taken my helmet off, switched the camera on, they have arrived and passed by. I obviously think they are slower than they really are. They travel at set times of the day going to and from the paddy fields.
The FCE office at Nintavur, the Ampara office is closing and this will then be the main office for Ampara District.
To give you some idea of how flat it is between Ampara and the coast, this is looking east about ten kilometres from Nintavur. There are paddy fields on both sides of the road and the area evidently produces 24% of the rice in Sri Lanka. The photo doesn't really do justice to the variety of greens, rich and lush colours. I didn't deliberately get an INGO vehicle in the picture, they travel this road a lot.
The balcony at Monty's GH, where I sit in the shade and read, work on the lap top, listen to the BBC world service or just watch nature. The jungle is always active, never still or uneventful. The mozzies are a bloody nuisance though. There is a table I use, don't know where it was when I took this photo.

Tsunami damage

Some photos of people affected by the tsunami, the girls are orphans, eldest in purple on the right aged 18, they are living in the temporary shelter which is on the site of their old home whilst some permanent accommodation is built. The lady on the left is a neighbour. They are very patient eighteen months on. You can see the construction which will evidently take another two months to complete. I spent a day looking at some of the reconstruction, a series of site meetings to discus progress so far. There are many families still living in temporary shelters. This location was one kilometre inland in Tirkuvil.
The build is simple, either 500 sqft or 750 sqft depending on family size, most are block built and single storey. Water comes from wells and overhead electricity if any. The finish is very basic with an outside toilet.

Nintavur

This is the beach at Nintavur where I am working, about 300m from the office. I came to the beach at the weekend with some friends and these boys eventually joined us in the sea, wearing what they have on in the picture.
The tsunami damaged the beach and lots of homes, the picture on the left is of one house, the damage best seen when you are there, but it is just a shell as are lots of properties all along the coast line. It seems somehow wrong to photograph the damage so didn't take many pictures. It is after all somebodys home and represents their suffering.

Just spent the day getting used to my motorbike, had a general ride around Ampara, very quiet here, not like Colombo, I keep forgetting to cancel indicators. Still trying to find the office I will be working in on Monday, no luck so far, the name and numbering system here is a complete mystery, even to the locals. I have found the area, New Town and can find A400 and L 350 but am looking for A195/14 New Town, frustratingly have found all the other NGO’s. Nobody knows where the FCE office is and can just give me a square mile location. Looks like I will have to ring up on Monday or try a trishaw. I caught the sun on my hands and arms on the bike, less pollution here than Colombo so will have to be careful.
After breakfast had a last look for the FCE office and finally found it, I went down all the dirt roads and by chance stumbled on the office. Then spent half an hour going backwards and forwards to locate it, difficult with no reference points. Took a ride out to far side of lake and checked out large white stupor, evidently elephants go there at dusk so will check out again later. Quiet afternoon reading then off to wait for elephants, waited for an hour, quite a crowd in the end, alas no elephants. Ride back in pitch black with no road markings and cyclists with no lights made life interesting, also being splattered by insects made for a difficult journey.

Hill climb

The boys are from a temple at the bottom of a big hill, five of us climbed the hill one sunday morning, views are spectacular but climb was hard. the views overlook the national park at Gal Oya and the lake in the previous blog. We had tea with the head monk afterwards. It's a good place to visit and not far to go. Afterwards we went back to Ampara and had a swim in a local lake, alledgedly no crocodiles there, depending who you talk to!

Just got back from temple where we, several INGO workers and I, were waiting for the elephants, no show again! I have had a good day though, went with Claudia, Mike and Ben to climb a mountain, very big hill, in this heat it is a mountain. I haven’t sweated as bad as I did this morning, must have lost pounds! Views from the top were good, afterwards we had tea with a Buddhist monk in the temple at the bottom. Then back to Ampara where Riosh the driver took us to a swimming lake, now I know where it is will go again. I have had colder baths than the water in the lake, but good to have a swim.
Tonight was planning to watch a DVD but power is off, has been for a while, generator is running but doesn’t seem right so have disconnected lap top from mains. The fan is a good guide to electricity supply and at the moment it goes from off, and no light, to tick over with dim light, then takeoff speed which is quite scary as it looks like it could come off the ceiling, with bright light. It never goes that fast on mains power. The lights are usually dim anyway but glow nicely on full generator throttle or whatever is happening.