Lee & Daz : Diary Update 3

Sri Lanka : 10 - 15 June, 2005 .

10/6/05

Had the day off and went surfing, nice swell!

11/6/05

Seniors surf comp, decent waves all day, everyone had a good time, really close final. Prize giving and movie/slideshow of the day was held at 'Sun and Surf '.

Richard, who runs the shack on the point took the 1st prize, a brand new Spider surfboard sponsored by Yaluwa through Kay.

Daz with 1st prize winner Richard.

Yaluwa also rented a P.A. system for a children's parliament today, which was run at the local college in Potuvil to help the kids understand how a democracy works and make some decisions for the local younger generation.

13/6/05

Finalised plans with Richard at the point for the new café/shelter, agreed design and construction.

Visited the Muslim school to check progress with the temporary classroom and interviewed Faru, the organiser. The framework was up and we were told the whole operation would be finished around Wednesday.

Temporary classroom framework.

Muslim schoolkids.

Helped the local rotti shop boys with financing their replacement tuk tuk, as they needed a little more than they had saved to qualify for the loan to get them back in business. Had a call from Ameen today saying they were up and running again ready for the season, well happy.

Met Haleel who runs the college in Potuvil, bought another 2 bikes for the childen we missed, then bought and made up 15 schoolbags with books, pens, math sets, etc.

Daz bagged up.

All the children involved from the camps were waiting at the college, Darren distributed the bags and we had a lucky dip with the boy's bike keys they all wanted the Raleigh models but it was all happy faces at the end of the day.

Lee with the kids and their new bikes.

The college still needs computers, a projector and more English writing books, but all we could do was take the details for the next visit.

After a long day we set off with Lal in the van back through the national park, giving some friends a lift to the south, meeting families of wild elephants along the way.

Arrived at our house in Ahangama at 3am, to sleep on the floor for a few hours, really need some beds! Bought the neighbours a cooker instead.

15/6/05

After recovering from the drive at Easybeach hotel in Ahangama, we met up with our friend Asoka who took us to a village badly affected by the tsunami, where we distributed food parcels to the poorest families with no income.

Here we also did the Santa bit with all the toys contributed from Jersey and put a lot of smiles on a lot of kid's faces.

Asoka was well handy here as he explained that so many families are abusing the aid workers good intentions, stock piling goods to sell on, whilst still pleading poverty.

At least we know that everything we have done so far has reached the people who really need it as this can be a daunting task when everyone you meet has a story to tell and a pleading hand outstretched for help.

Off to Hikkaduwa and Peraliya tomorrow to see how things are since our last visit.