Archive: Michael Dobbs
Needs Not Met
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...
By washingtonpost.com | May 31, 2005; 09:11 AM ET | Comments (6)
News From Dr. Enoka
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...
By washingtonpost.com | May 17, 2005; 06:40 PM ET | Email a Comment
Some Good News
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...
By washingtonpost.com | May 3, 2005; 05:00 AM ET | Comments (3)
How to Speak Sinhalese
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...
By washingtonpost.com | March 22, 2005; 11:43 AM ET | Comments (13)
Tsunami Jitters
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....
By washingtonpost.com | March 18, 2005; 08:55 AM ET | Comments (3)
Not So Crazy
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...
By washingtonpost.com | March 15, 2005; 05:00 AM ET | Comments (6)
It IS That Simple
Here's some interesting reaction to my recent Outlook article from a group of people in the Washington, D.C., area who have made several trips to Sri Lanka to help tsunami victims. They are probably fairly typical of the many people...
By washingtonpost.com | March 9, 2005; 05:00 AM ET | Comments (3)
Girls Don't Swim, Part II
My posts on swimming, "Swimming in Sri Lanka" and "Girls Don't Swim," produced a lot of reader reaction. I estimated that four out of five tsunami victims, particularly women and children, were killed because they were unable to swim. As...
By washingtonpost.com | March 8, 2005; 05:00 AM ET | Comments (3)
Planning Some Changes
Now that I'm back in Washington, we're planning some changes to this blog. We will continue to keep track of how the relief effort is going in Weligama through contributions from local people, both Sri Lankan and foreign, in addition...
By washingtonpost.com | March 7, 2005; 09:10 AM ET | Email a Comment
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...
By washingtonpost.com | March 4, 2005; 11:00 AM ET | Comments (1)
School Uniforms
View Enlarged Photo and CaptionI've written (here, for example) about the difficulties of distributing aid and the envy and animosity it can sometimes provoke. But here is an example of a gift that is useful, appreciated, and economical -- and...
By washingtonpost.com | March 4, 2005; 05:00 AM ET | Email a Comment
An Old Russian Proverb
I have had some interesting reaction to my Outlook piece last Sunday, which you can see here, describing some of the unexpected challenges I ran into in Sri Lanka. Readers experienced in development work said they could relate to my...
By washingtonpost.com | March 3, 2005; 05:00 AM ET | Email a Comment
Tsunami Video Shows Chaos, Theft
The day after the tsunami, I traveled with my family from Weligama to the nearby town of Galle. More than 200 people had been killed at the bus station alone, a scene I described in an article I wrote for...
By washingtonpost.com | March 2, 2005; 05:00 AM ET | Email a Comment
Celebrity No Show
Of course, one man's celebrity is another man's nonentity. On February 17, Sting and Mrs. Sting lunched at Taprobane. A week before that, everybody here was very excited because Shane Warne was expected at a charity dinner in Galle to...
By washingtonpost.com | March 1, 2005; 05:00 AM ET | Email a Comment
Heat and Loss
View Enlarged Photo and CaptionIt was through Enoka that I met Chathura Madhushanka, a slim, serious-looking boy with deep brown eyes. He is 13 years old, but suddenly has become an adult. In just 15 minutes, he lost his mother,...
By washingtonpost.com | February 28, 2005; 05:30 AM ET | Email a Comment
Coping With Crisis
View Enlarged Photo and Caption"Americans are accustomed to seeing psychiatrists," says Dr. Enoka Wickramasinghe. "Sri Lankans aren't." That all changed with the tsunami. Dr. Enoka, as she prefers to be known, was appointed psychiatric specialist for Weligama last November, a...
By washingtonpost.com | February 25, 2005; 05:00 AM ET | Email a Comment
Kicked Off the Island
There's been a late-breaking twist to Survivors, the reality show from Taprobane. The Sting family rented the place. They fell in love with the island when they came for lunch last week, and my brother Geoffrey offered them a special...
By washingtonpost.com | February 24, 2005; 05:00 AM ET | Email a Comment
The Lace Lady
Weligama is known for its lacework. Before the tsunami, tourists used to line up outside Leela Lace, on the main coastal road, to buy delicately woven tablecloths and napkins. A full-size tablecloth could take up to six months to weave,...
By washingtonpost.com | February 23, 2005; 12:24 PM ET | Comments (2)
Complaints
I've heard through the grapevine that the Germans from Munich who distributed mattesses and fishing nets in Pelena were unhappy with my reference to them as "disaster tourists." First, if anybody disagrees with anything I have written here, there's a...
By washingtonpost.com | February 23, 2005; 12:05 PM ET | Comments (1)
Girls Don't Swim
View Enlarged Photo and CaptionAs I was traveling down the coast, eastward from Weligama, I stopped at a pretty little fishing village called Sudawella, which was hard-hit by the tsunami. (Geoffrey has a project to rebuild boat engines there.) Here...
By washingtonpost.com | February 23, 2005; 11:00 AM ET | Email a Comment
Swimming in Sri Lanka
I have been swimming in the ocean for the first time since the tsunami. For a long time, I had no desire to go. The water had all been churned up by the waves and was dirty. I have also...
By washingtonpost.com | February 23, 2005; 05:00 AM ET | Email a Comment
Cleanup Precedes Former Presidents
Talk about a Potemkin village. In the two months since the tsunami, there's been no outward evidence of USAID relief operations in Weligama. The leading players in the relief effort here have been foreign and local businessmen, assisted by the...
By washingtonpost.com | February 22, 2005; 05:00 AM ET | Email a Comment
A View of Sathniwasapura
View PanoramaTo help you get a better feel for the people and places I am writing about in this blog, washingtonpost.com sent staff video-journalist Travis Fox to Sri Lanka. Travis is here with me now, and we are working closely...
By washingtonpost.com | February 21, 2005; 11:01 AM ET | Email a Comment
Sujith's Story
View Enlarged Photo and CaptionThis is the story of Sujith Nambukara. He is a fisherman with a lean face and slim, muscular body. Prior to the tsunami, his family shared a three-room house in Sathniwasapura with his parents and his...
By washingtonpost.com | February 21, 2005; 05:00 AM ET | Email a Comment
An Aid Worker
When I was looking for someone to help me find temporary housing for the villagers of Satniwasapura, I did not turn to a foreign aid worker. I needed a local who could talked to the villagers and bureaucrats in their...
By washingtonpost.com | February 18, 2005; 12:37 PM ET | Email a Comment
The Other Side of the Road
I have been spending a lot of time in a little section of Weligama called Sathniwasapura. It's just across the road from the fish market, which is where I ended up when the tsunami interrupted my morning swim on Dec....
By washingtonpost.com | February 18, 2005; 05:00 AM ET | Email a Comment
Mr. and Mrs. Sting
You meet the darnedest people here. One day, it's a fisherman whose house has been wiped out in the tsunami. The next, a big-time local politician. The next, a Buddhist monk. The next . . . View Enlarged Photo and...
By washingtonpost.com | February 17, 2005; 12:35 PM ET | Email a Comment
Government Promises
At a charity dinner in Galle two evenings ago, I was seated at the same table as the governor of the Southern Province, Kingsley T. Wickramaratne. That's the Sri Lankan equivalent of a governor of a U.S. state, except here...
By washingtonpost.com | February 17, 2005; 11:30 AM ET | Email a Comment
Loadstar Helps in Pelena
View Enlarged Photo and CaptionAfter the problems with the fishermen, it was good to visit the Pelena district of Weligama, which was the hardest hit by the tsunami as it's right by the sea. Around 130 people were killed here...
By washingtonpost.com | February 17, 2005; 08:36 AM ET | Email a Comment
Hearts and Minds
View Enlarged Photo and CaptionI went to see the local JVP organizers in their Weligama headquarters, where they have established a clinic and a makeshift office. Volunteers were beavering away in the corner as one of the local Weligama leaders...
By washingtonpost.com | February 16, 2005; 11:30 AM ET | Email a Comment
Political Tsunami
A struggle is underway for the hearts and minds of the people of Weligama -- and it's not at all clear to me who is winning. There are many different groups and individuals operating here, from a variety of ideological...
By washingtonpost.com | February 16, 2005; 05:00 AM ET | Email a Comment
Clans Turn to Fishing Fleet
Today was the day of the big "coordination meeting." As I've mentioned before, the aid business is divided into competing clans, all ostensibly working toward the same noble end, but with different agendas and philosophies. It would take a sociologist...
By washingtonpost.com | February 15, 2005; 12:30 PM ET | Email a Comment
Replacing Fleet No Easy Task
Since coming back to Sri Lanka late last month, I have found myself swinging from optimistic to pessimistic and back again on an almost daily basis. Sometimes hourly. It all depends on who you talk to, and when. Let me...
By washingtonpost.com | February 15, 2005; 05:00 AM ET | Email a Comment
Official Has Cards, Few Answers
The instruments of his authority are recognizable all over the former British empire: a desk, a telephone, a rubber stamp, and a metal bell for summoning subordinates. As divisional secretary for Weligama, G.D.H. Thilaharathna is the lynchpin of government power...
By washingtonpost.com | February 14, 2005; 11:30 AM ET | Email a Comment
Surfers Survive Big Wave
View Enlarged Photo and CaptionThe foreign tourists who were here during the tsunami have long since fled -- with the notable exception of the surfers. They're a hardy breed, lean and sinewy of body, as tough in their own way...
By washingtonpost.com | February 14, 2005; 05:00 AM ET | Email a Comment
A Note on Sri Lankan Names
Sri Lankan names can be extremely difficult for westerners to understand. Often, people have two or three long surnames, inherited from their parents. Picking which one to use is arbitrary. Since these names can become extremely complicated, I plan to...
By washingtonpost.com | February 11, 2005; 11:00 AM ET | Email a Comment
A Present and a Smile
View Enlarged Photo and CaptionYou don't have to spend thousands of dollars to make a difference here. The other day, I was walking through a district known as Main Street, Weligama, with Antonin Kratochvil, a talented Czech-born photographer from New...
By washingtonpost.com | February 11, 2005; 05:00 AM ET | Comments (2)
More on Disaster Tourists
Aid agency officials have a disparaging expression to describe the thousands of foreign volunteers who showed up here independently in the weeks after the tsunami. They call them "disaster tourists." It's true that many of the volunteers contribute little to...
By washingtonpost.com | February 10, 2005; 11:00 AM ET | Email a Comment
Ownership Matters
I have been spending a lot of time talking with fishermen whose catamarans line the beach next to Taprobane. My brother Geoffrey and I were washed up against one of these catamarans when the tsunami struck. Fortunately for us, the...
By washingtonpost.com | February 10, 2005; 05:00 AM ET | Email a Comment
When It Happened
Having survived the tsunami myself, I have been curious to know the exact time it arrived in southern Sri Lanka. This afternoon, I found out. As I walked along the beach at Matara -- a dozen or so miles south...
By washingtonpost.com | February 9, 2005; 02:00 PM ET | Email a Comment
Disaster Tourists and Professionals
After meeting with the Belgian divers, I went to see the local supervisor of an Irish relief group called GOAL, the most effective of the traditional non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in the Weligama area. Over the last few weeks, GOAL...
By washingtonpost.com | February 9, 2005; 11:30 AM ET | Email a Comment
Volunteers Need More Than Good Intentions
Like most days here, it's been an interesting day. But before I describe it to you, I want to tell you a true story that perfectly illustrates the risks of outsiders blundering into a country like Sri Lanka with the...
By washingtonpost.com | February 9, 2005; 03:00 AM ET | Email a Comment
Back in Weligama
View Enlarged Photo and Caption I am back in Weligama, the Sri Lankan fishing village where I was swimming on the morning of December 26, 2004, when the tsunami hit. I have come back here to piece together the story...
By washingtonpost.com | February 8, 2005; 11:30 AM ET | Email a Comment
About Rebuilding Weligama
Washington Post education reporter Michael Dobbs was vacationing near Weligama, Sri Lanka, when a tsunami devastated the village on Dec. 26, 2004. His first-hand news accounts appeared in The Post in the days following the disaster. After returning to the...
By washingtonpost.com | February 8, 2005; 10:30 AM ET | Email a Comment
