you're a mystery yourself

Friday, June 24, 2005

5:22 PM

The Odac Room...

hey pple!
its my first entry!! goodness.. hha.. was tinkin i can use tis to tell u all bout sri lanka since i'm tired of repeatin to everyone who asks. heh.
we lived bout 50-100m in a hse frm the coast in kahawa(a small village) where the massive waves struck bout 6 mths ago. kahawa's near hikkaduwa which is bout 30min frm galle city. yep..we hav a toilet, a kitchen, 2 rooms n a hall. lucky us. the walls stil hav the mark with which the sea water remained stagnant before it subsided. water pipes were either destroyed or infiltrated wif sea water. so we bathed wif sea-green n saltish water for 2 wks. other hseholds wif no water supply hadta collect water wif pails frm black plastic water tanks situated every 100-200m along the roads. the tanks were donated by the germans.

our objective there was to build beds n shelves for the internally displaced pple (IDP) camp and for pple livin in the temporary shelter homes (TSH). these pple either slp on the grd or on mattresses. in view of the approachin monsoon season in sri lanka, beds were essential. the hses along the coast or rather 50m onwards frm the coast were either torn down by the waves or half standin. some walls remained. some only the stairs to the 2nd storey. the concrete hses were either wiped out leaving huge piles of bricks on sides of the hse platform or the hse stil stands wif all the furniture destroyed/ swept away.

our materials (wood - planks n ply) din arrive until 2 days later so we visited the camps n pple living in the shelters. pple affected by the waves live in either tents or makeshift shelters made from crate wood n zinc sheets. families of at least 3 havta eat, slp, cook n do everythin in tt very small space! (smaller than half the odac room)

the pple there were v hospitable. despite livin in shelters, dey invited us into their little space/ homes n served us tea. the ceylon tea rawks! the place was infested wif houseflies wif no electricity n water supply yet the locals were stil cheery. i gues they've all moved on. the mood was jovial n the kids all bubbly tho some were so shy!

the situation in sri lanka i feel is qt fustratin. the govt is stil tryin to control the aid given to the pple and how much aid is provided. they're stil administering the overflow of aid from all over the world cos when disaster strikes, everyone wants to help!!!! we figure the sri lankan govt wil take many more mths or mayb years to organize everything outside of the developed cities.

the workin days were jus... pure labour. i figured my aim is to help churn out as many beds/ shelves as possible so the hammerin seldom stopped. we all put in our best but its fustratin once again when u see pple gettin distracted. hard to explain k. i thought i learnt nothing frm the trip besides the interactin wif locals part but tinkin back, i tink i did learn smthg. u noe when we go climbin/ expeditions, although we're exposed to tough terrains or challenges we're still surrounded by pple whom we can confide/ complain to n simple rely on but for tis sif trip, i hadta work wif a grp of 13 tt is extremely diversified in character n backgrd n wad hav u. its extremely fustratin! hope u all roughly understand wad i'm tryin to bring across. it's like i dun understand how some pple can act n speak in such a way u least expect them to! many a times durin the trip i was in my own world, introspecting. haha.. on a lighter note, havin defined my purpose of the trip, the 14 days was a breeze. ahha.

so i gues i learnt to appreciate n treasure the tings n frens i hav back home. really :)
oh back to the trip - we only built slightly more than half the no. of beds n shelves we intended to cos of the lack of wood sent to us. when we distributed the beds n shelves it was a scary sight. suddenly we were surrounded by villagers! every one wants a bed/shelf/dynamo torchlight. yes, we brought dynamo torchlights to give out too. its kinda scary so we girls climbed onto the lorries n watch the scenario frm high above. the play packs we packed for the kids which includes a bag, a kite, colour pencils, pencils, pencil cases, erasers, stress balls, art scissors, soft toys etc hadta be packed equally so tt the situation wil not turn ugly when some hav more than the rest. really the situation is so.

we visited the dutch fort in galle, a temple/monastery in hikkaduwa and 5 of us girls extended our stay in Kandy (a tourist must-see in sri lanka) the 5 of us took our chances n went on to visit the nuwara eliya highlands where the tea plantations are. the temperature's bout 20 deg c can u believe it? when it's like a burnin 30 plus in the day at ard 10am when we were at kahawa. the scenery was breathtakin but i wld say mt kinabalu was more heart-stoppin. yes. we ate fried chicken/seafood/mixed noodles/rice ALL THE TIME. cos its the norm dere besides their rice n curry. n their spicy food is really SPICY! HOT! i almost died. bet some of u all wish i had eaten more of their curry rite. but their curry isnt hot at first sip. it slowly creeps in! even their vege cooked by the locals tasted spicy long after chewin! tt's when i almost died. lethal weapons dey hav dere. we din hav leafy green veg for 14days n e only fruits were banananananananananananans. i shat i tink only 2-3 times out of 14 days n its cos i ate laxatives. no milk cos the cows were skinnier than me n milk comes in the form of powder in supermarts.

yes yes. tt's about it. anyway when we had like facilitation during our trip an issue bout YEP trips was raised. did we pay to buy a once-in-a-lifetime experience tt's based on pple's misfortune? cos the 14 days we spent there seemed to hav benefitted us more than the locals? afterall the locals can fix the beds n shelves themselves given the materials rite? dunno. smthg to ponder. for now i wld say the money bought me the opportunity to witness for myself sri lanka (be it the bustling cities or the OTOT countryside lifestlye) n also to really be outta my comfort zone for 15 days at least.

finality. i tink i stil hav problems adjustin back to s'porean lifestyle. all the sale n everything. n wearin a watch whenever i go out. takin a bus wif ezlink etc. (pple simply hop onto buses n pay the fare before they jump off at their destination. no, the buses dun stop at all. unless a woman boards the bus. n pple often havta cling onto the sides of the bus cos its so bluddie crowded hahaha) i wake up on some mornings tinkin i hav laundry to do. qt a scary thought actually. hahah.. i wld say i hav a semi time of my life haha.. odac days r stil the times of my life :)

tc pple
ya

&the beauty.