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Published: March 8th 2005
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beautiful Sri Lankan shore
hopefully someday i will make it back to this beach. I hope that you are all well. I am in Bangalore, with the Henson family (friends from my home church in California that I visited during New Years) and plan to stay for nearly a month volunteering at a local school for children with (mostly physical) disabilities. I left the north about 4 weeks ago, visiting Shishu Bhavan (the orphanage where I volunteered in Kolkata) as well as my friends from villages in Maslandipur. When I visited Shishu Bhavan, one of the boys that, was to me, ‘the jewel of Kolkata’, was in the hospital due to respiratory problems. I ask myself WHAT was it that made me so attached to this little boy -- that has never said a word to me, probably doesn’t know my name, for that matter -- soo much that I search through hospital admittance records for 2 different hospitals to find him, and when I finally do, spend an entire morning by his side. People say that Kolkata is the hardest place to start out traveling alone - but not when you have a little boy like him with whom to share the morning, and when you have a smile to look forward to.
:(
tons of boats were washed up on the Indian Coast. i forget that the ocean can be this strong... I left the hospital while he was sleeping and caught a southern bound train.
I met up that evening with the university guys I met in Darjeeling at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur. We had a great time chatting about the where the past two months had brought us, and I had an excellent tour of their campus. A few of them are getting ready to graduate, so it was AWESOME hearing their plans and what they were looking forward to, and I had a chance to meet some of their fun girlfriends!!
Since my visa expired at the end of February, I had to exit the country. So, I made a brief visit to Sri Lanka. After a day at the consulate in Colombo, I took a 3 ½ hour bus along the coast to Galle, which is an area that was severely affected with the tsunami. We drove by tons of tents donated by various international relief services that serve as houses for several thousands of displaced people. It didn’t take me long to find a group to volunteer with the first ten minutes I was there, so I spent a day stuffing bags
school in Vellangani
we distributed shoes to these children at their school. they lost one or both of their parents:( with medical supplies for families. (Which, I’ll put in a plug for Project Galle for those that are traveling around and wondering what they can do to help- this NGO was started by some expats who own an art gallery within the Galle fort. When the tsunami hit, they completely turned the entire place into a base for tsunami relief. They take anybody and everybody willing to help - which is evident in the amount of volunteers from so many different parts of the world, different specialties. Some, like me, that just gave one day, and others that quit their jobs to spend months to help rebuilding)
I walked along the most gorgeous shore and saw people rebuilding their beachfront restaurants and diveshops, and saw a couple restaurants still at an angle, waiting to collapse. While waiting for a bus, I met a Sri Lankan gentleman waiting for the same bus. It was ‘poya’ (full-moon day is a holiday) and he said that each poya he would visit the sea that took his fiancée away. He occasionally walked away and returned to apologize for his crying and continue his story. And yet, he thanked me for being in Sri Lanka. With so much tragedy, I couldn’t imagine how he could even feel thankful. But, he was not the only one. As I was walking past houses that were destroyed, I saw people with such beautiful smiles and thanking me for being there. unbelievable.
I flew back to India on the southeastern coast of Chennai the next day, and caught an overnight bus to meet up with a youth group from Bangalore who were in Vellangani, visiting and distributing various goods to tsunami affected villages. I heard more sad accounts from parents and children who were only 100 meters or less away from saving their loved ones. Very sad...
It is nice to be in one place for a while, and to have a somewhat permanent home. I even have a designated night to make dinner at the Henson's home!! (I made Malai Kofta and paneer parathas my first night, but I don’t remember it taking nearly as long in my cooking class!!)(it wasn’t surprising that ‘hamburgers’ made it on the menu my second night). I am having a great time with the children at the nearby school. They have so much energy and they don’t let their leg braces get in the way of running from me and jumping over tables when I am trying to get them to sit down. It just adds to the excitement.
Alright…stay warm and take care....
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Meredith
Meredith
That is so cool!
How did you get involved in volunteer work in India? I'm living in Japan doing the JET program right now and looking for something new...all the volunteer programs I've seen online cost a lot of money. If you can clue me in that'd be awesome! Good luck with all your travels. - Meredith (maglaser@gmail.com)