The Curse of Aragum Bay

I went to Aragum bay again at the weekend, two hours in a van on a very bumpy road with a bad hangover. We got to the outskirts of Potuvil near aragum and the van started making really bad noises. Last time it was a puncture on the motorbike. Anyway got to hotel and sent driver to get van checked out. He phones to say van has broken spring and there is also a brake problem. The spring is no surprise at all! Anyway van heads back slowly with intention of swapping with another one. We had just had a swim and lunch when a call comes through, air strikes in Batti. We are at the beach with no vehicle and no sat phone, not good. So off we trot to find an INGO with vehicle and sat phone, this w/e is a quiet one but eventually we find the only other people from Ampara who also sent their vehicle back and have no sat phone. Luckily one of them is head of the security tree so if he can, we can! We are then told that the van will be sent back to Aragum first thing Sunday morning and we are to return ASAP. I have been here before! In the event we didn’t set off till about 1pm so only lost a couple of hours on the beach.

Football match

These guys live in the street where I lived for a short while. I met them every night and they kept asking me to play football with them. Eventually I turned up so did some other INGO's. Chris who is in the picture managed to get a football through his organisation and this was the presentation ceremony.

Tsunami temple damage

What is left of a Hindu temple just North of Nintavur where I work. FCE, who I work for are rebuilding the temple. I went to see how the work was going. When I saw the tower and the lone statues I had to go back and take a photo. The temple and church rebuilding is being done courtesy of a grant from the Norwegian government.

For volunteers, when you start looking at who is working and funding projects in the developing world you uncover a whole new world. A lot of the funding in Sri Lanka comes from nations who eat lots of fish and have a fish economy. Japan is a main funder, Sri Lanka has a lot of fishing waters and most fish are sold fresh. The Japanese are helping develop infrastructure to facilitate freezing the fish and exporting them.

Sunday Climbing

The mountaineers again, TDH, Solidarites and I climbed a very steep and difficult rock, the views were worth it and after we swam in the lake. No crocodiles around!

Highway Code

Just to give an idea of the driving conditions over here on an average day on the motorbike. They drive on the left as we do in the UK here. When turning left nobody looks right, it is just assumed that those on the road will make room for you. This applies to tractors as well as bikes, I do have the occasional close one as the bike I have tends to brake like an oil tanker, you need a bit of time so large vehicles pulling out are a problem.

If people in vans or buses coming the other way decide to overtake using the whole road you are expected, or should that be forced, to drive in the dirt off to the side of the road. Signaling is interesting, last night a van I was following indicated right and slowed, I went to pass on the left and he promptly turned left! This also happens in the UK occasionally but here it’s frequent.

Cows generally just wander across the road as and when they wish as do goats, occasionally though they are driven across the road and I have had to make my way through a heard moving at it’s own pace. Did have a close one at night, no street lights in or out of town, and a heard of water buffalo crossed, they are black so didn’t see till last moment.

Stopping is interesting, often the vehicle in front will just stop suddenly and for no apparent reason, no signals, no warning, you get a lot of emergency stop practice.

Then there is dust, if the vehicle in front has to go off road then you are covered in a cloud of dust and visibility goes.

There are junctions with no right of way so all approach with caution and work out their own rules. Most of the time all events are well natured, a smile and a nod, whoever is at fault. In its own way quite nice, anarchy in operation.

Horsing about

The horse racing game, kindly made by GOAL the Irish INGO, and intended for some team building workshops

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.

Skinny dipping

The lake at Goy Ola national park to the west of Ampara and my VSO motorbike, I went for a swim in the lake, never thinking about crocodiles, found out later they are in the lake! Oops!
There are supposed to be lots of elephants here but on the other side of the lake, you can hire a canoe and cross, but it looks a long way in the heat.

Knuckles range and ride!

These photos were taken as we went from Kandy to Ampara across the Knuckles mountain range. Home of 17 hairpin bends, that’s what it says on the sign, they are on the way down on the Ampara side, and 17 is what you get. The bends all have numbers and are all hairpins, no ‘not quite’ a hairpin here. The views are amazing but we were in a hurry it took nine and a half hours as it was. There are lots of monkeys who seem to like sitting on the mile posts watching the fun. As you climb the road gets narrower and the surface has less tarmac, in the end its one lane and a bit broken up. Alas if you get the speed and turn wrong you end up like this unfortunate driver, think he was alright.



It took nine and a half hours to get here, Ampara, what a journey! First the drive to Kandy, done that before, it’s just a manic ride in heavy traffic, one lane each way and the usual hairy moments whilst overtaking or just meeting a bus head on, but usually room for all in the end, average speed about 25kph, so not that dangerous. After Kandy climbed into the mountains, roads got steeper and narrower the higher we went. Then the roads got less like roads and more sort of tracks, however the volume of traffic, buses, heavy lorries, trishaws and motorbikes, remained constant. I took some photos through the windscreen we daren’t stop to compose photos, no room. It was amazing in the end a one lane track with two way traffic and once at the top a sign saying 17 hairpin bends, yes there are that many and all numbered to save you counting, every one a hairpin too, no half measures. As you go down there are monkeys sitting on the mile posts at the side of the road watching you, tried to get a photo but had to keep moving and the delay on my digital shutter is a bloody nuisance. Anyway did get a shot of a lorry which had toppled over. Some of the views across the plain to Ampara are spectacular, you have to see them to appreciate it. Once down we ended up on a straight, lightly trafficked road with army forts built on rocks, the whole thing was a bit Wild West, we then had boys on bicycles with rifles balanced on the handlebars, evidently they are civilians helping the police! So as we sped across the plain with our VSO flag flying it was a bit like a cavalry charge. Would have loved to get photos of the forts but it’s asking for trouble, same with the boys on bikes, pity really.

Horton Gardens, Colombo

My room at Horton Gardens, the relaxing veranda and a sunset at Galle fort, just realised the room photos weren't on the blog and I have sent out the latest update.
Will miss the ambience and omelette sandwiches you can get if you miss lunch.