http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/ en Copyright 2006 Wed, 28 Sep 2005 07:27:00 -0500 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.2 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss A new life has begun for Chathura Madhushanka and his dad, K.M. Sarath. Chathura lost his mom and sister to the 2004 tsunami, but on June 9 gained a new family when his dad married Chamari Nisansala, 20. He also recently left Sri Lanka for the first time to take a trip to Greece. Chathura's new step mom brought her child from a previous marriage to the household. Seven-month-old Kaushika Sandamini is a beautiful baby girl about the same age as Chathura's sister was when she died. Chathura couldn't be happier, and Sarath says their life is complete again. "I am happy about my new life. The baby looks just like my baby," he says. I asked Sarath how he and Chamari met. He told me that two months ago he and Chathura went on a trip to Wellawaya to visit Sarath's uncle. His uncle introduced him to Chamari. They http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/09/chathuras_new_l.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/09/chathuras_new_l.html Chathura Madhushanka Wed, 28 Sep 2005 07:27:00 -0500 Around 11 p.m. Sunday, July 24, the news hit Sri Lanka: an earthquake near the Andaman and Nicobar islands. When Thailand started evacuation procedures, the people of Weligama became restless. Some of them immediately moved to higher ground. But others decided to remain and wait. I got a call from a friend immediately after 11 to turn on the TV and watch the news. Then, I found out about the happenings in Thailand. I remained in front of the TV. Luckily, the earthquakes didn't trigger a tsunami, as many expected. After midnight, an announcement went through that the coast was clear. No tsunami. Some of the people who evacuated returned shortly after the news got to them. However, most of them were awake the whole night, listening to the radio for more warnings. There wasn't as much panic in Weligama as when the March 30th tsunami alert came -- a http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/07/a_slight_tsunam.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/07/a_slight_tsunam.html Sascha Gerbracht Fri, 29 Jul 2005 04:06:08 -0500 Six months have gone by since the tsunami, and the people of Weligama are complaining about the stench. The sewage system -- a network of open canals leading to the sea -- became filled up when debris from the tsunami was added to the tons of garbage that had been dumped there over the years. Instead of flowing out to the sea, the sewage has just been sitting in the canals, the biggest of which is about two meters deep and three meters wide. A group of German sewage experts arrived in Weligama in May to clear the canals with the help of some locals. They had come from Frankfurt-on-Oder, Weligama's sister city in Germany. The local people were happy to see them, saying that it was noble of the "white men," as Westerners are called in Sri Lanka, to do such a dirty job. But the German experts stopped http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/06/sewage_woes.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/06/sewage_woes.html Sascha Gerbracht Tue, 28 Jun 2005 05:00:00 -0500 I got a dispiriting e-mail from Dr. Enoka Wickramasinghe recently. She is the mental health officer for Weligama. We used funds raised in the U.S. to buy her a computer so she could keep track of people mentally affected by the tsunami. Enoka writes that people are getting discouraged because, nearly six months after the tsunami, it is still not clear when their permanent houses will be rebuilt. Most tsunami victims are staying in refugee camps or other temporary accommodations. Fishermen are still without boats. Since their own boats haven't been repaired in most cases, they are without work. Their only hope is to work as day laborers on the boats of richer fishermen.In Enoka's opinion, all this is going to have a negative impact on the psychological health of the villagers. There is little a psychiatrist can do to help people who are without work and without houses. As http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/05/needs_not_met.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/05/needs_not_met.html Enoka Wickramasinghe Tue, 31 May 2005 09:11:49 -0500 Six months have gone by since the tsunami, but memories of what happened on Dec. 26, 2004, are still very fresh and raw here. The mention of the word "tsunami" can send a shockwave of fear through the normally quiet town of Weligama. Some Weligama citizens still look at the sea as if the killer wave will return at any moment and take away everything they own. The most recent tsunami scare happened a couple of weeks ago. A school child had been killed in a traffic accident. When she heard the news, the child's mother ran along the beach and then the main road, sobbing and crying. Some bystanders ran after, not knowing why she was crying. More and more people joined the run, spreading a wave of panic and fear through the town of Weligama. I went to talk to Dr. Enoka Wickramasinghe, the medical officer for mental http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/05/tsumami_trauma.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/05/tsumami_trauma.html Enoka Wickramasinghe Wed, 25 May 2005 08:46:02 -0500 The monsoon season is underway, with its heavy winds and long rain showers. It has made life more miserable for tsunami victims who haven't been able to find homes of their own and are living in Weligama's temporary camps. For Chathura, the rain isn't the only problem. The Sri Lankan army stopped guarding the camp he lives in two weeks ago, and security has deteriorated. The camp was built by the Ministry of Fisheries in the Pelena neighborhood. Chathura and his father moved in about a month after December's tsunami destroyed their home, and considered it a step up from the camp where they had been living near Weligama's school. The Pelena camp's temporary homes have a gap between their corrugated metal walls and sheet metal ceilings. When the rains started, camp residents tried to keep dry by sealing the gap with mats, plastic sheeting and even bed sheets. It http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/05/monsoon_season.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/05/monsoon_season.html Chathura Madhushanka Thu, 19 May 2005 05:00:00 -0500 I went to find Sujith Nambukara, the fisherman who lost his wife and child during the tsunami and he brought me up to date with his news. He has completed repair work on a boat that was given to him by Michael's brother, Geoffrey, and has been going out to sea for the first time since the tsunami. He told me that he had a couple of good catches, but is still frustrated because he hasn't received the fishing nets from Geoffrey that he was counting on. For now, Sujith is able to borrow nets from a friend whose boat is being repaired. Once the repairs are finished, he'll have to return the nets. Geoffrey says the nets have been ordered and he plans to check with the supplier this week to see when they will be delivered. In addition to returning to work, Sujith reports that he has moved http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/05/waiting_for_net.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/05/waiting_for_net.html Sascha Gerbracht Wed, 18 May 2005 05:00:00 -0500 I got a dispiriting e-mail from Dr. Enoka Wickramasingherecently. She is the mental health officer for Weligama. We used funds raised in the U.S. to buy her a computer so she could keep track of people mentally affected by the tsunami. Enoka writes that people are getting discouraged because, nearly six months after the tsunami, it is still not clear when their permanent houses will be rebuilt. Most tsunami victims are staying in refugee camps or other temporary accommodations. Fishermen are still without boats. Since their own boats haven't been repaired in most cases, they are without work. Their only hope is to work as day laborers on the boats of richer fishermen. In Enoka's opinion, all this is going to have a negative impact on the psychological health of the villagers. There is little a psychiatrist can do to help people who are without work and without houses. As http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/05/news_from_dr_en.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/05/news_from_dr_en.html Enoka Wickramasinghe Tue, 17 May 2005 18:40:11 -0500 Travis Fox, a washingtonpost.com video journalist, joined Michael Dobbs in Weligama earlier this year and interviewed many of the people whose stories have been covered in this blog. Please join Fox as he discusses his experiences online at noon today. -- Travis Fox http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/05/videos_and_pano.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/05/videos_and_pano.html Travis Fox Thu, 05 May 2005 10:21:19 -0500 Good news from Weligama. It took much longer than I expected, but I was able to help resettle seven families from the little enclave of Sathniwasapura, next to the place where I was swimming on the morning of Dec. 26 when the tsunami struck. As I clung to a fishing boat, I could hear the screams of villagers drowning in their homes on the other side of the road. For weeks after the tsunami, the survivors were living in tents on the ruins of their former houses. Although the government promised to provide permanent housing for all tsunami victims within six months (by the end of June), nothing has happened yet. It's still not clear where people will eventually live, as the government has imposed a ban on any new building within 100 meters from the sea. The solution was temporary housing. With funds raised in the U.S., I was http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/05/some_good_news.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/05/some_good_news.html Kapila Jayasekera Tue, 03 May 2005 05:00:00 -0500 We got the news around 11 o'clock in the evening. It spread like wildfire. The radio reported that an earthquake measuring 8.2 on the Richter scale had happened near Sumatra. The president of Sri Lanka warned of an "impending disaster" and ordered all coastal residents to evacuate to higher ground, at least 2 kilometers away from the coast. In Weligama, all hell broke loose. People took all they could carry and ran inland, seeking refuge in temples. Belgian soldiers drove along the main road shouting, "Tsunami coming!" and telling people to move to higher ground. By the time the Sri Lankan police showed up to warn of the danger, most residents had already fled to temples and other places far away from the coast. "As soon as I heard the news, I secured all our things, took my wife and ran as fast as I could to the temple," said http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/03/fear_of_another.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/03/fear_of_another.html Chathura Madhushanka Wed, 30 Mar 2005 07:53:46 -0500 View Enlarged Photo and CaptionLife is looking up a little bit for Chathura Madhushanka, a 13-year-old boy who lost his mother and two siblings during the tsunami. For weeks after the tsunami, he hung out around the refugee camp, not wanting to play with other children and not wanting to go anywhere. At night, he was wakened by nightmares of other tsunamis. There were days when he didn't even want to go to school. The other day, I brought Chathura a new sports bicycle presented by an anonymous donor, along with some masonry tools for his father, Sarath. They are both delighted. Sarath takes his son to school every day on the bicycle. He has also repaired a little tractor-trailer that was his main means of livelihood before the tsunami. When I went to see him, he had just earned $3.75 for a day's work, compared to $4.60 a day http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/03/a_new_bike.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/03/a_new_bike.html Sascha Gerbracht Mon, 28 Mar 2005 11:26:06 -0500 View Enlarged Photo and CaptionWhen Sri Lankans hear Sascha Gerbracht talking their beautiful, lilting language, their first impulse is to grin widely. The spectacle of a six-foot-tall German high school student with blazing red hair speaking fluent Sinhalese seems utterly incongruous to them. They assume -- correctly, in most cases -- that foreigners will never take the effort to learn Sinhalese because it is a very difficult language with practically nothing in common with European languages. I first met Sascha on Christmas Eve last year, the day before the tsunami, when he came to Taprobane with his parents for a drink. When I returned in January, I hired him as a guide-interpreter. His knowledge of Sinhalese, and his wealth of personal contacts, made him absolutely invaluable to me. When I left, I asked him to keep us up-to-date with the news from Weligama. The reason why Sascha speaks such fluent http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/03/how_to_speak_si.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/03/how_to_speak_si.html Michael Dobbs Tue, 22 Mar 2005 11:43:00 -0500 Sascha Gerbracht has agreed to keep us up-to-date with what's happening in Weligama. He is the 17-year-old son of Tom and Heike Gerbracht. He attends a Sinhalese school, and speaks fluent Sinhalese. I'll tell you more about him next week. In the meantime, here's his first piece of news: Although nearly three months have gone by since the tsunami, Weligama residents are still very jittery about another big wave engulfing the town. Panic broke out yesterday after the radio announced that a tsunami had hit India, and there was a possibility that Sri Lanka would also be hit. "It was total madness," said Sunil Padmasiri, a 54-year-old Weligama citizen, who was caught up in the chaos outside a local school, as teachers climbed onto rooftops and parents fought their way into the building to retrieve their children. "Some people even enjoyed the chaos and started fights with other people, just http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/03/tsunami_jitters.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/03/tsunami_jitters.html Michael Dobbs Fri, 18 Mar 2005 08:55:43 -0500 View Enlarged Photo and CaptionI want to introduce you to the Gerbrachts. A one-time nightclub owner in Germany, Thomas Gerbracht arrived in Weligama 12 years ago and has since become one of the most successful organic farmers in Asia. Together with his wife, Heike, he now heads a company with a $10 million annual turnover that buys certified organic produce from 15,000 smallholders around Sri Lanka and markets it in America and Europe. He is also a man with a dream. He sees the tsunami not just as a tragic natural catastrophe but also as a unique opportunity to reverse decades-old economic development patterns that have had a devastating impact on the environment. Along with other local businessmen, he has become part of the Weligama relief effort, as reported here. But he doesn't want to simply build new houses for tsunami victims. He wants to turn them into organic farmers. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/03/not_so_crazy.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/weligama/2005/03/not_so_crazy.html Michael Dobbs Tue, 15 Mar 2005 05:00:00 -0500