My Princess, Have Patience
There's an exception to every rule, of course. While I have had many reservations about giving to individuals, I don't for one moment regret my spur-of-the-moment decision to buy a cassette recorder for Shyamali.
View Enlarged Photo and CaptionIf you remember, Shyamali is an avid aficionado of a Sri Lankan pop star named Kingsley Peiris. But she was so disturbed by losing her cassette player in the tsunami that she would sometimes return to her ruined house in the middle of the night to rummage through the rubble. I replaced the cassette player and the cassettes for under $10.
Shortly before I left Weligama for Washington, I ran across Shyamali in a temporary refugee camp on the other side of town. She was carrying her new cassette player, still in its original box, which was itself wrapped up in the original shopping bag. When she saw me, she carefully unwrapped the entire package, took the cassette player out of its box, and pressed the play button.
The dulcet tones of Kingsley Peiris were soon blaring across the camp. "My princess, have patience..."
-- Michael Dobbs
By washingtonpost.com |
March 4, 2005; 11:00 AM ET
| Category:
Michael Dobbs
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Posted by: Heather | May 3, 2005 12:46 PM
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I have just returned from India with Tsunami Relief... I can't get the faces out of my head. The babies who have lost Mother's, and Mother's who have lost their families. I wish I could do more. I feel helpless in the fact that I can't give up everything and move there, being a single female I don't know how wise that would be. It breaks my heart to see the hurt of the people, The loss is worn into their faces... Deep lines and wrinkles show the hard road that has been travled~