Back in SL again!!!

For some pictures and Dutch click onto my Dutch blog on the right side of the page

Here an update on the projects in Sri Lanka
I have been here now 3 weeks and time is going fast. Now only 2 more weeks to go, before I have to go back to Holland. I still have to do a lot of work but luckily I have manage to do quite a bit also.

First of all I want to thank the people that have been putting money to the projects. Thank you very much!!!

Museum
The museum is doing fine. More and more people get to know the museum and the drivers and tour guides who know about the museum come there more often. The public that comes to the museum are locals and people from abroad countries from all over the world. After one year of being opened the reactions of the public are very positive and they really want is to be maintained and developed for the upcoming generations.

Kamani, who runs the museum, has been reorganizing the museum because of her experience with the public. Also she has been adding more texts to the exhibition, because the public want more background information.

We have experienced that the museum has a big effect on people that have been in the Tsunami themselves. Not only for the local people but also for the foreigners. It is not unusual that tears are coming because going to the museum brings back a lot of memories to them. But it also helps them with dealing with the emotions for the longer term. Also there is space for the people to their own stories and the museum is becoming a place where all these stories are coming together. Not only by the photo's but also by the public.

We found out that the local people as well as the foreign people put money in the donation box in the museum. But the reality is that most of the amount is donated by foreigners as they put more inside. We are now planning to make a leaflet and a poster which can be spread to the hotels in the area and can be given to the drivers that come to the museum with people. By spreading the flyers we hope to get more (foreign) people to come to the museum and that the donations will grow so that the monthly expenses can be covered and that the museum will be maintained. We don't want to use an entrance ticket, as we find everybody should be able to go inside the museum.

The temporary parts of the museum are hard to maintain. The wood that is used for this is getting more worn out by the day (understandable as the wood is from the temporary shelters, which where supposed to be temporary!!). So it is important we try to find sponsors who will help us build those parts permanent. In the mean time we bought some new plastic to cover the wood on the outside so it will keep a bit longer, until we have enough funds to build it permanent.

The laminated photo's are in quite good condition after one year, the only thing that they have to be cleaned a lot because of the sea breeze that is there. It makes everything damp and dusty. The nails that are used to put pictures on the wood part rust after one month so they have to be changed every year. Also this is the thing with the blue tack which is used to put the photo's on the permanent walls. After one year the sticking is lost and it has to be replaced as well. Printouts from the printer and texts written also slowly dissolve after some time, so these also have to be replaced. Any way this is a point for me that I have to find solutions for in the near future.

Since last year I got to know an English photographer Clare Allen. She was also here during Tsunami and has taken a lot of photographs since then. She has also started a foundation since then ( www.rebuildingsrilanka.org.uk ). She has already donated some photo's to the museum and she is going to try to collect more photos from people she knows and also she will try to get some extra publicity for the projects in England.

Monument
I am working on this project together with the Dutch monk Devamitte and his novice Ariyadhamma. Also I can do my office work in the library and I am very happy for that. A local man Sanath is helping me arrange the meetings.

The monument project is getting clearer by the day. The land is measured and the designs are adjusted to the land size. On Monday the Bulldozer will start to clear the land. The people who live in the houses around the land have been informed about the project and they have no objections. They are happy that the monument will come there.

For the meetings we made the designs and plans on A-2 size so we could hang them on the wall and show them to the people. Also we have prepared lists that we ask the people, who attend the meeting, to fill in.

We have had already one meeting with the locals from Telwatta about the project. This weekend we will have two more in the new estates where a lot of the people are living now: Amphegama and Galagodawatta. About 40 people attended the first meeting and they are very positive about the project. They all support the project and also they filled in the forms where they write the names of the family members they have lost through the Tsunami and who they like to be remembered in the monument.

After the meeting also some people come to us to fill in the forms because they want their family members to be remembered. For us this is a good sign, cause it means the people talk about it and inform each other about the project.

I am very astonished by the number of people that are still missing. From all the people that have filled in the list about 90% of the people didn't find the bodies of their deceased familymembers!!. I find this amount very High.

Also I managed to get the list from the A.G.A. office in Hikkaduwa with the names of the deceased in Hikkuduwa area. In total from Ambalangoda bridge until Gintota bridge about 1050 people died. Our monument will be for the 400 people of this area (Parelyia, Telwatta, Deluwathumulle and Gadagamowa). From this figure we see that this area was very badly hit in the Hikkaduwa division.

I am very happy with being able to get the lists as it took me about one and a half year to get these lists!!!!!! One of the field officers working for the A.G.A. office was very positive about the project and thinks it is very important that projects like these are started. Because he said that still a lot of people are mentally suffering from the Tsunami, but nobody is doing anything for that.

At the moment I am working on the estimations will local people and contractors in the area. The idea is also that we want to involve the people who lost there family members in building the monument. If there profession is relevant for the building process.

This is it for now, cause I have to get on with my work here, but will inform you soon again about every thing.

Jacky