Upon entering Sri Lanka one is overwhelmed by the poverty and very basic standard of living in the countryside, especially those affected by the tsunami, most of whom are still living in tents.
Most people are living on $1 per day and Richard tried this for a week to feel what it was like. He managed to live but was in a room infested with wildlife and found places to buy cheap but good food. Hard for a westerner but an everyday reality for most locals.
He also learnt to live off the trees, eating berries and coconuts, as well as learning some of the language and their customs, such as only giving things to someone with the right hand to avoid offence..
The beneficial use of plants was also brought home to him since he used Aloe Vera to heal a cut on his finger and it also removed a scar from a previous small knife wound on the same finger from months ago.
He got on very well with the local youths, who showed him how to prepare hair gel from the fruit of a tree.
Richard was acting as a labourer to the local builders and dug holes, made bricks, fitted woodwork and any other very hard jobs that were to do on the site.
The rule is that locals must do most of the rebuilding work and that no one is to move into a house until they are all finised, thus ensuring that no squabbling will take place and all houses will be finished quickly.
The government have banned all building within 100 m of the sea to avoid further disasters and they were building hotels and tourist shops and accommodation 300 m away from the shore. The 29 house village being built was 5km inland and evening and time off were spent swimming with the turtles in the sea. He found the Buddhist temples very interesting, especially those off the tourist trail and brought home with him a Buddhist flag and painting.
A thing which worried Richard, and worries us also, is the amount of corruption throughout the world which inhibits progress. He told us the Sri Lankan government were holding $83m of aid money and doing nothing with it, whilst people were living in huts and very substandard conditions and few jobs.
Oxfam had donated £1m worth of four wheel drive vehicles to be used by aid agencies to rebuild the area, which was over rough tracks, and these were still at the docks 1 month after arrival since the government were insisting on a further £1m in import duty, even though they were a gift to the country.
The local youths were very sport oriented and enjoyed cricket, a game at which they excelled and beat the volunteer youths soundly. Richard bought the boys some cricket bats before leaving.
Sri Lanka has a long way to go before normality is reached again, especially since so many perished in the disaster, and it will take years to achieve. Richard has ambitions to revisit next year along with some of his new found friends, and to buy bicycles, at a cost of £75 each bought locally, for each household in the village.
They also hope to buy a Tuk Tuk, which they will use for a few days touring before leaving it for the village.
Hopefully, they will then move on to Indonesia to do further work to help rebuild during the summer of 2006.
We wish Richard and his friends well in their very worthy endeavours to help the needy people of the region.
