Blogs from Unawatuna, Southern Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 5

Well it's coming to the end of my time here in Sri Lanka so I thought I would head South and see what the Sri Lankan coast has to offer. Actually it was really wierd, I don't mean to depress you all but the coastline is still in disaray from the Tsunami. I found the drive quite sad, at times it was like driving through a war zone. The remains of houses with only a couple of walls standing or foundations where houses once stood. It made me wonder whether the owners survived, were these houses that had noone to return to them to pick up the pieces? Back in the UK I don't think we realised just how badly Sri Lanka was affected, 12,000 Sri Lankan children died when the wave hit, in Galle 8,000 ... read more

Reconstruction Work is progressing well, and as we move toward the second anniversary of the Tsunami it is good to see many projects are now complete or nearing completion. In the last month we have opened several housing villages including two villages funded by Cricket New Zealand and Cricket Australia with money raised from the World Eleven Charity Cricket matches played after the Boxing Day Tsunami. More recently we have opened a maternity health clinic and child centre. Construction was completed with assistance from a gang of skilled workers from UK, with the last five days of construction filmed by a UK TV company for a Tsunami Special programme which will air in UK on Boxing Day. My favourite project was the maternity clinic reconstruction, in the five days of filming it was transformed from a ... read more

Again at Una! I can't believe that I am home in 9 days I am actually getting a little nervous! I'm not sure that is because of the freezing weather or the thought of having to get myself a job but either way I really can't wait now I have my main suitcase packed and I'm now really worried about all the 'stuff' I have accumulated and I have just been told it will cost me about 10 pounds per extra kilo! Anyway I am at the beach for a couple of days now saying goodbye to Una one of my favourite places I have found out here. I have a few things to do before coming home buying presents etc…! See you in 9 days! xxxxxx ... read more

Wow, it’s been a week now since I first set off…and so far I’ve had some big ups and downs. I arrived into Colombo on Friday morning, and went straight to the guest house where Jess (my sister) is staying…on the way having the first of many conversations with Sri Lankans, in this case the taxi driver, about their corrupt government, under whom the poor are getting poorer, and whose strategy of dealing with the Tamil/Sinhalese conflict has (as you may well have heard) resulted in the end of the cease fire the previous government had secured... It's really sad, and a little scary - a bomb was found yesterday in Colombo, and 11 Muslim men were killed in the East a couple of weeks ago… But for me, other than occasionally noticing an armed-police presence, ... read more

Hello sorry i haven't written anything recently! Thank you for all your lovely e-mails as well sorry if i haven't got back to you all the internet is really unreliable here and so i it is a lot better for me if i just try and answer everyones questions and things on here! I do really like getting the e-mails though its nice to know whats going on at home! Well after the rainforest weekend i have been having a bit of a lazy time really on my weekends. I went to two beach weekends to Bentota and then to Mirissa. They couldn't have been more different though. Bentota is a beach resort where rich tourists go (we managed to find the only guest house for only a couple of pounds a night!) The beach we ... read more