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The Indian Ocean adjoining Colombo, capital of Sri
Lanka, emanates a peaceful, mystic beauty in the undisturbed
morning. It is hard to believe that this same water
formed the killer tsunami that stole so many innocent
lives only a few days ago.
We gathered at 7 a.m. in the hotel. Tzu Chi volunteers
Stephen Huang and Chu Chang-lin went to visit the minister
of the Department of Health, accompanied by Mr. Graetian
of the Lion's Club. The minister expressed his deepest
thanks to Tzu Chi and expressed his full support for
Tzu Chi's relief plan.
Thanks to the arrangement of Mr. Graetian and brother
Chu Chang-lin's friend Anil de Silva, we had six vehicles
starting out for Hambantota at noon. We finally reached
our destination after seven long hours on bumpy roads.
We would have found the scenery along the roadside beautiful,
but our hearts were heavy with grief over the tsunami
damage. We thanked all the drivers; they never stopped
to rest, and their songs lightened our heavy hearts.
They are true bodhisattvas!
Brother Stephen Huang led the relief team to Hambantota's
most heavily damaged area. The sights were as scary
as on television; villages along the coastline were
nearly destroyed, homes had crumpled, trees lay uprooted,
and the homeless were wandering the streets all around
us. We saw many people with gloves and masks, digging
in the rubble for relatives.
There were 38 temporary shelters in the disaster area;
the largest shelter housed 3,000 people. All shelters
lacked electricity and drinking water. The relief team
first arrived at the shelter at a mosque. The sky was
dark and the disaster victims sat in circles with their
family members, reading the Koran together by candlelight.
It is understood that 75 percent of the town's residents
are Buddhists and 20 percent are Muslims, but all villagers
seemed to get along peacefully.
Brother Stephen Huang received information from the
Tzu Chi headquarters in Taiwan that they were planning
to airlift some 20,000 packages of ready-to-serve rice
products and vegetarian canned food next Monday. Blankets
and sleeping bags will also be shipped then. Brother
Stephen Huang reminded Tzu Chi volunteers in Taiwan
to buy sleeping bags with thinner lining so as to suit
the hot and humid local weather.
All team members returned to the hotel at 8:30 p.m.
to eat dinner. Hotel staff members had prepared a formal
European dinner for their guests. The disaster relief
team could not bear to indulge in such a feast while
disaster victims suffered food shortages.
As a result, Brother Chu asked the chef to prepare
a simple meal, allowing the relief team to finish eating
quickly and spend every valuable minute on the disaster
relief operation. After dinner, team members attended
meetings to discuss related relief issues.
Tomorrow will be an important day in determining the
success of the disaster relief operation. We will get
up at 5:30 a.m. and get ready to head into the village
at 6:30 a.m. All medical personnel will be standing
by, waiting to serve the disaster victims.
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