Betty Webb - Journal
Read Betty Webb's News & Observer Op-Ed piece on rebuilding in Sri Lanka at http://www.newsobserver.com/663/story/383051.html
Entry 1 - December 30, 2005
Students arrived after spending time on route in Windsor, where they toured the Castle and shivered in the cold, looking remarkably rested.
We had dinner at the Colombo rowing club and set out early for Pinnewela elephant orphanage, where we saw over 70 elephants (including lots of babies) bathing in the river. Great fun! We then visited Dimbulla Caves and saw the famous 1st Century BC reclining Buddha.
Last night in the lovely Sigiriya Hotel we had our sleep disturbed by monkeys cutting—what else?—monkey shines on the roof. The waiters told student this morning there would be crackers for the monkeys--and we were all surprised to realize they meant fire crackers, used to scare them away so we could have breakfast in peace.
On the schedule this morning is a hike up the amazing fortress, of which we have a beautiful view from our hotel. We are all fascinated by local life viewed from the coach window and the friendliness of the people. We are having a wonderful time—full of new experiences for all of us.
Journal Entries from first trip to Sri Lanka: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
Today we got up early to see the students and Gail off to Pinnewala, the elephant orphanage, and Kandy, where they will visit the temple of the tooth and one of south Asia's finest botanical gardens. It will be a long day but one that will give them insight into two important aspects of Sri Lankan life—the role of the elephant and of Buddhism.
John, Roz, and I went with Father Noel Dias, a Professor of International Law at the University of Colombo, to meet Father Vikram, who is working on fishing cooperatives 30 kilometers south of Colombo.
Father Dias is a friend of Tony Andrady's—one of Tony's many, many helpful contacts. He is slender, intense, warm, resourceful, and respected. I suspect he is also brilliant. I know he is incredibly busy but when we met him yesterday and told him what we hoped to do regarding the fishermen of Lovigahawaththa, he immediately said, "There is a priest you must meet" and began to make plans to ensure that that happened. He met us at the hotel at 8:00. We also learned yesterday that he knows Sister Alex and shares our high regard for her—but more about her later, when I begin to play catch-up. I have given my energies to an op ed article for the N&O and neglected my journal writing, but now that the article has been accepted, I intend to catch up. The basic message is that Father Noel, with his knowledge of the law and respected position in Sri Lanka, is a godsend. He will be an excellent resource for Sister Alex.
Father Vikram looks like St. Peter—a big man with broad shoulders and a full beard. It is an appropriate look for his post tsunami role with the local fishing community, where he has had to learn everything about the trade--about the different kinds of boats and the sort of fishing for which they are suited, about the myriad of nets, and about the traditional way boats and profits are shared. He suggests a better plan than the one with which we left Galle. The plan now is that each boat will be temporarily "owned" by Father Noel. The 50% that the boat owners normally take will then be increased to perhaps 60% or 70% and that money will be shared among the entire community so that all benefit. This will give each fisherman 20% less than he made before, but enough. When the community is back up on its feet, the ownership of the boats can perhaps be transferred to the fishermen. This is an excellent proposal because it will provide some income for the widows of fishermen and the few who did not fish but have lost their livelihood as well. We hope some of the money can be used for start up grants for women who have lost their husbands and now must work--as well as for young people who want to do something other than fish.
And Father Noel can and will do the legal documents. We await the word from Sister Alex about how this plan went down during the community meeting last night.
More later — we are off to meet the Business Faculty at the University of Colombo.
Tsunami alert. It is 2:25 A.M. and I have just walked downstairs to the pool area to see if I can determine if anything is going on. Four Italians are there already, staring out at the sea. It is incredible that I am again standing where I stood on the 26th of December, when I watched the beach restaurant for the hotel get washed away. Tonight nothing seems amiss, however. 3:00 A.M. is the time we have been given for a possible all clear. It is unbearable to think of the people we have met over the last three days having to abandon their meager possessions and head for high ground. It is consoling, however, that now there seems to be an evacuation plan in place. I am sorry I have been a poor journal keeper of late, but my excuse is that we have been in motion 12-14 hours a day while operating out from Galle. I have also been working on an op ed article I finished today and will send the N&O tomorrow in hopes they will print it. I promise now to turn my attention to catching Meredith up on what we have done.
We are here—and only slightly the worse for wear. As we exit the airport, emerging into the hot, humid throng, I wonder what the students are thinking. John says contrast is what makes life interesting and this couldn't be more different from the carefully regulated perimeter we now have around US airports. Our driver is amazing as he negotiates the challenges—TATA buses that respect no one, pedestrians who bolt unexpectedly, fearing they will never get across the road, tuktuks that weave in and out of the traffic going up on the sidewalk if necessary--four lanes of traffic jockeying for position in two. But we get to our hotel in an hour—a miracle.
This is my favorite hotel in the world. Its position on a promontory above the sea is unsurpassed in my experience. And in the aftermath of the tsunami, the staff carried on heroically, accommodating floods of displaced tourists on the ballroom floor, hosting weddings that had been scheduled long before the disaster, and serving incredible meals all the while. When I stopped the manager to tell him that he should just boil us eggs and tell us to look after ourselves, he said, "Looking after people is what we do best, and we shall continue to do it as long as we can." I was delighted to see him as we were checking in and to be able to tell him again how impressive he and his staff had carried on, one waitress working twelve hour days while she waited to hear if her parents in Galle had survived. They had.
We check in and sort ourselves out, some napping, some exploring, some lounging. At lunch Tony Andrady and a friend joined us. He could not sit still for ten minutes without his cell phone ringing, our plans taking shape all the while. This afternoon, some will go to a camp for victims who lost their homes here in Colombo when the wave came in.John and I will go in search of our friends who survived.
John and Tony and Rebekah and I get a taxi and head for Maligawatte—a Muslim neighborhood about 30 minutes away. We find our way to their house amazingly easily, John leading the way. Fatima greets us, surprised, but there is no phone so we cannot warn them of our arrival. Tony is helpful, asking questions that will help us know how best we can help the children—English lessons, tutoring, a refrigerator? It is not clear but at least we have begun the process. We as before, are accorded great hospitality—cream caramel and a fruit drink. Fatima's handicraft work should be easily sold—but where? We cannot stay long since we have to meet the others for the trip to the orphanage.
And an amazing trip it is. We meet a man who, when his wife died, decided to redirect his life and set up an orphanage for boys whose parents were killed by Tamil rebels retaliating against Singhalese minorities living in the north. He set up the orphanage on the south coast, only to have to evacuate after the tsunami hit. This man, this place, are amazing. He is his own benefactor, rising daily at 6:00 a.m. and working until midnight, ensuring a home and an education for these boys. And they are amazing. Poised, polite, curious, lively—they live together as brothers in a huge family. His principal therapeutic tool is chess, believing that concentrating on it is useful to focus minds driven to despair by trauma. His daughters, one a Montessori teacher, help him. And he looks serenely happy—as do the boys. Gail already sees Meredith students teaching English there.
And back at the hotel by 7:45—we have not stopped since lunch—we meet John's friends Shrema and Nihal, who are as surprised as we to find us back. They give us helpful advice—and invite us to dinner on Tuesday, when we return from Galle so, he says, the students can see a Sri Lankan home. It is 12:37 A.M. here and we rise at 6:30 for a 8:00 departure—so I must sign off and go to bed. We've only been here a day and already we have in our sights a place where we can see ourselves making a connection.
Flight over was uneventful—my favorite sort. We had intermittent turbulence that quieted just as I was thinking about worrying. I do not like to fly—funny that since I do it all the time. I had three seats to myself across the Atlantic so I slept more than usual. I got caught up from the pre-trip deficit so now I am just dealing with the regular sleepinesswith being in Switzerland in the daylight sitting upright when in fact my body knows it is 2:00 A.M.
Lovely students, all three. We had to divide up for lunch so I sat with Rebekah, whom I know least. Now I know her better. They will be a good team. Laura and Kelly have been with me on summer programs and Laura worked in our office for 3 years. We used to tease her on the program about her sleeping ability—i.e., any time, anywhere. I hope she hasn't lost it. Kelly has worked furiously on homework. Unlike the rest of us, she is tiny enough to be able to find somewhere to put her legs in the restrictions of coach class. I am jealous.
The next flight will be more interesting—my first on Air Lanka, an airline John loves.
More interesting and so,so long. We are now less than one hour from Colombo—so I can let myself think about what a difficult and tedious trip it has been, the most cramped seating I have ever been, the back seat of a section, beside the bathroom and the galley. We were delayed out of Zurich so our strangely perverse routing back to Frankfurt seemed even more so. We had to deplane there before we were packed like sardines onto this airbus. Grace notes—excellent food and smiling service. Thought I would be able to work but the space is so tiny that I cannot use my computer without typing an angle impossible to sustain.
John and I take to serious perambulations around the plane—which looks to have a bit more than half Sri Lankans on it. He, of course, meets and talks with everyone so we learn that tourists are beginning to return. The two for the price of one offers are obviously paying off. Many are traveling with children. We are always struck by how well-behaved most of the children in the world are, in contrast, it seems with US kids. Maybe they are used to small spaces and are more soothed by physical contact than western children, having always had so much more.
I left Sri Lanka reluctantly in December, feeling I had little to contribute to the rescue effort other than money and did not want to be in the way. I knew, however, that I would have to return soon to see what I could do to help a country I had come to love. Three months out seems the right time to go back.
Accompanying us will be Tony Andrady, the President of the NC Sri Lanka Friendship Association. We feel lucky indeed to have come to know him and to have his assistance. While there we hope to identify a number of small projects in which both Meredith and the local communities might be involved -- $25, $50, $100, $250, $500 – and find someone to administer those projects with integrity at a cost of only 1% or 2%. We want to identify several particular projects that can be the focal point of learning for our students. We would also like to lay the ground work for a partnership with a local university.
This is not going to be an easy trip. We will be thirty hours getting there and only a few less returning. On this journey, we will circumnavigate the globe – something I am thrilled about for our students. If in their early 20's they can have flown around the world, the world, I think, will look different to them for the rest of their lives. And on the ground, I expect we will see again and again heart wrenching scenes made tolerable only by the courage of those who are now engaged in rebuilding their lives and the resourcefulness of those who are trying to help them. I could wish for all Meredith students a first-hand encounter such as this with our next year's theme – Our World, Our Responsibility.
And John and I do have two more personal things we hope to do on this trip. We hope to make some arrangements to enhance the education of the young Colombo friends we made on the beach at Galle who had headed north for home just minutes, literally, ahead of the tsunami. We will also look for the youngsters we met who were not so lucky because they lived on the beach in Galle. Their faces are etched in our memories. If they survived, we will find them. If they did not, we will find others who did. In a country where $1.00 buys 7 loaves of bread, we can all make a real difference in the lives of these` people.
John and I reflect on the randomness of the fact that in a lifetime of travel we happened to be in southeast Asia when this unprecedented disaster occurred. It has, as they say, been a life changing experience, one we, of course, can never forget. And it is one which leaves us committed to seeing that others who have less reason than we to remember it do not forget it either. We plan to return at Christmas and would be happy to talk with any of you who might like to join us.
