Dale In Sri Lanka
These are taken from group e-mails sent to various people from Dale in Sri Lanka
Letter 1
Well, I'm here! Flew into Columbo and headed straight down to Hikkaduwa that night, on the west coast, which is where Bree was when the Tsunami hit. There's still a little rubble in the streets there, but its mostly been repaired and rebuilt. We're still waiting on one friend to fly in and the ship with some of our aid hasn't arrived yet so we came straight over to Arugum Bay on the east coast to see the damage. Things here are still a long way from what they were. I'd say maybe 15% of the housing has been rebuilt or repaired to a livable standard. One because virtually no aid has made it down here, with it being a trek from any major centre, but also politics. Dad, you said not to get involved in anyone elses politics, but please, read that Naomi Klien article I left you, the first 2 conversations we had here that people instigated were both about politics, and about the same thing the article says. The governments are actively discouraging aid and rebuilding to beachside and foreshore land, instead reserving what was once someones place of living or livelihood for foreighn investors to develop "liesure resorts" for $200 a day tourists. no-one is allowed to rebuild within 200 metres of the foreshore, umder the pretence of "job opportunities" for the locals. destroying their sustainability and self-sufficiancy in order to offer them the chance to slave for someone elses gain. There are rocks put on the beach to sayb that the land has been reserved. obviously they're not going to develop now, its not commercially viable, so instead they've just plonked huge rocks on the ground to warn people off restoring what they once had. Down the west coast on the way here we saw the damage get worse to the villages further down too, which was what I expected. Unfortunately instead of helping these people rebuild, the government has seen that aid agency's etc have helped set up temporary housing and left it at that. This means that many villages we travelled through are still just tent cities, or houses made of wooden planks scavenged from the wreckage nailed straight to failing framework, which is obviously no good in monsoon season, rains coming soon. There's a lot of good work been done, but still a hell of a lot to do, and a lot of burocratic walls to pull down in order to do it.
Theres a lot of good things still going on, people are still happy and confident that their lives will return to how they were. Food is awesome, way to many curried vegie rotti's today. Traffic is also a fun thing instead of a hassle, flying down narrow roads in a tuk tuk overtaking people on pushies and in busses around blind corners with the drivers hand on the horn never seemed like much fun, but it actually feels safer than our traffic does, everyone knows where everyone is and is much more aware and alert of their surroundings. Anyway, i miss you all, see you when I get back.
Dale
Letter 2
Been here about 12 days now, we picked up Bree's friend Michelle yesterday, and we're changing our visa's (they only give you 30 days) and picking our stuff up from the docks tomoz. It's good to be finally doing something, It was starting to feel a little to much like a holiday, as we went down to Arugum Bay to have a relax before our stuff arrived on the ship. Met a lot of cool crew during our time here, many of which have been here over 4 months helping with the rebuilding. What has happened now though is that many of these people are falloing into a complacency, or getting ready to ge home. After the initial round of immediate rebuilding, and supply of temporary housing was out of the way, the beurocratic walls started to go up, and its actually hard to find too much to do as far as direct aid, and working through NGO's (non government organisations) The UN and UNICEF are still driving around in thier brand new Range Rovers, but a lot of the NGO's are finding it very difficult to get anything done, with government regulations blocking them at every step. We at least are lucky in the fact that we are not working for, or controlled by anyone and can set our own agenda for what we want to do. The only problem we are encountering is finding an orphanage, an idea we may have to abandon. A lot of the orphanages have closed down, due to lack of numbers, and amalgamated with other small orphanages. What happened following the tsunami was that families and parents who had lost children simoply adopted children who had lost parents, so the actuall number orphans is very low. Also, one of the only remaining large orphanages left saw a rush of help early in the piece, our friend Kitty from England was working there, but the american man managing this orphanage was discovered to be a child sex offender, and ever since that the orphanage, and many others have been closed completely to any outside contact, especially in regards to white/western people.
The 200 metre rule on the coast that I mentioned in my last email hasn't actually gained any ground yet. The week before we got to Arugum Bay, one of the main targets for the plan, there was a locally organised, locally and tourist run protest, complete with fires in the steet and blockades, on the day the developers were due to come into the town, and measure up and place rocks in the places they wished to claim. The protest successfully blocked off both the bridge into town from Potuvil and the road at the other end of town, the only 2 roads in, and actually sent the developers running in the opposite direction at the sight of the completely militant dissent, and havn't tried to enter the town since, so maybe the developement won't go ahead after all. Despite this, no local rebuilding is going on on the foreshore, with the loxcals still unsure whether their buildings will later be torn down if they do rebuild, so both sides are at a bit of a legal impass at the moment.
Its good to get out of Arugum for a little while though, we're on the road at least the next 10 days down the south western coast and then back up thew east coast. Arugum has turned into a bit of a party trap for all the aid workers with nothing to do, and those relaxing before heading home, plus the usual season goers and locals. Mambo, who we have been staying with, and the Mambo boys as they are known are notorious for throwing large parties, on any and every night of the week. So much for drastibcly reducing my drinking while here, I've seen at least 2 sunrises already, and woken up in a hammock on the beach at least 2 more. Bree stayed up all night the other morning and went straight out surfing following her last beer at about 9:30 in the morning, the sun having been up over 3 hours already. This week and a half of escape will be the best thing I think. Mambo flies out to indonesia for a month today, 5 of our 7 Norwegian friends went back home yesterday, and a lot of our swiss friends are winding up their stay, as well as some of the mambo boys leavin Arugum to head back west to families etc in Hikkaduwa on the west coast, so mI think by the time we get back, at least a small amount of the acid and pills will have stopped flowing with the regularity they were through camp, and we can actually concerntrate on working and sleeping. hahaha Instead of Kye (one of the Noways) and Kitty coming into your hut at 5am off thier guts on acid requesting that you come out and dance, and dragging you by the ankles if you refuse.
Anyway, have fun without me, I assure you I'll do the same without you, hehehe, I miss you all, and I'll see you when I get back, which is now actually looking like the first of August or so, as we might extend for 2 weeks and head to India. I'll be back in time for the August 7th Sydey convergence on those bastard CEO's though, and I'm actually looking forward to being able to wear pants and a hoody, and black in general, as strange as that may sound. I'm sure I'll get back and wish to be too hot in shorts again though. Until such time as that however, over and out. Keep the greed from your hearts and remember: The flower punx still fuckin' love you.
Snapdragon.
Letter 3
....but heres a bit of an update. Internet is real expensive over here on the east coast so I havn't had that much access. We've (bree and I) started a couple of financing and aid programs with schools here in Aragum bay and pottuvil, all three are teaching at least 2 classes each on the sand with a blackboard propped up against a coconut tree at the mo. One doesn't even have drinking water or toilets for the kids, so they have to run home to drink or go to the loo, and theres been a few of the kids having bike accidents on their way home. We're financing and helping build some toilets for them.
I've finally made up my mind as to what i"m doing as far as when I'm coming home etc. The plan is that I have 2 more weeks here, then hopefully 2 wqeeks in India, assuming we get visa's, apparently India is real hard to get visa's for, takes about 3+ weeks in some cases, so if we don't get them we might go to Vietnam instead. Then I'm coming back to Sri Lanka for 1 extra week and flying back home after that. Bree may have lined up a job drining jeeps on surf tours around a-bay and working in a restauraunt with this guy names sammy who's a fucking classic, so she's extending her flights until her visa runs out, which is somne stage in sept, and staying at least until then. I should be back about the 2nd wek of aug or so, in time to head to sydey for the protest, then I think off to korea in oct with Jane for a korean/Japanese punk frestival, so a good hectic schedule to keep me occupied until about summer or so, yippee! You'll hear from me again before I get back, and I'll see you all in about 5 weeks!
Love always, snapdragon flower punk.
Letter 4
Because things never work out exactly the way you think they might, and thats why instability is so much fun.
So we've left Aragum bay for the moment, the last week was pretty hectic, trying to work with 4 different schools at once, with different projects going on at all of them, and trying to organise the treehouse business which I'll explain later, all on Sri Lankan time. Sri Lankan time basicly means that if you set plans for 10am, it MAY get done at about 2 or 3 that arvo, that if someone says they'll be ready in 5 you can safely go off, order food, (which in itself takes about half an hour) eat, grab a cup of tea, go for a surf and then come back, lay in the hammock outside this someones room, and talk to their freinds for 15 minutes, and THEN step inside to see if they are ready yet. I've never been to anywhere that goes as slow as this place in my life. To extend your Sri Lankan visa, you have to go to the office in Colombo, wait at one counter in a que, fill out a form, go to another line in a nother room, sign something, go back the first, wait again, take forms to another counter, get them stamped, drop them at another counter, take a seat, wait, and then go to another counter again to pick your stuff up. The quickest time we heard was 45 minutes, to sign three forms. It's exactly because of this our plans have changed.
For a week we've been chasing down officials to find out how long it will take to get a vise for India. Everyone told us 2 days. We booked tickets, left A bay, and arrived in Kandy to discover that not only was the Indian embassy only able to accept visa applications from 9am to 11am each day, but that it would in fact take at least 5 days to get a visa. Our freind Janine knew the high commisioner personally, and even though he'd said he could push us through in a day, once we gotr there he said it would take, even for him to pull all strings, at least 2 days to push us through, and that was a maybe, which means MAYBE we'd make our flight. So, screw India, myself and Bree are now heading for Thailand for 2 weeks.
the last week and a half in Sri Lanka has been a blur, trying to get as much stuff done a possible. I wanted to help out with the new music centre a few of our freinds have been helping build, but by the time we finished with schools each day, everyone had decided to knock off work for the day and go surfing/swimming/smoking weed, whichever took their fancy. Initial plans and talks have also been put in place for this treehouse. The deal is, that seeing as bree has a job over here now, and will be living here until at least sept, She's going to help, along with a south african/British lady Kay who has also moved here for the mo and a few others, finance and build a house for a local family who's entire village got wiped out in the tsunami, and who havn't even been provided TEMPORARY housing by the govt. The deal is, the bottom story is for the family, the second story is basicly theirs whenever they're in Sri Lanka, and can be rented out as guest house the rest of the time. Hopefully this will expand into help for the rist of the village as well, for instance the generator that someone has pledged can help surrounding houses, because even if they do get connected to mains power, there is a black out at least once a day, every single day alomg this stretch of the east coast.
I've got one last week back in A bay after Thailand, to tidy up a few loose ends and have a bit of a relax bofore I head back to Aus. I'll see you all when I get back, flying back into Melbs on the 10th August. Miss you all, but then again, how good is it to be away? Hahaha. Anyway, see you all in the not too distant future. Love always,
Snapdragon