Baldaeus Theological College,
Disaster Relief Update, Jan 9, 2005
Dear Friends,
Today we sent two teams out visiting camps, distributing supplies and
assessing the needs. One went south, across the water to Mutur and
Sampur and the other north to Kuchchaveli. The former team will
return tomorrow. The road to Kuchchaveli has just reopened after the
repair of a bridge broken by the tsunami. However, the road was still
really bad -- bump bump all the way.
The Muslim community to the
north of the Kuchchaveli had far more substantial homes than all the
other folk we have previously visited, their houses were made of
bricks and cement, painted inside, they had lovely gates, wooden
cupboards, beds...all of that is now rubble. Financially they have
lost far more than many of the other folk and they have also lost
more people than the Tamil folk south of the 'town'
It was good to simply sit and talk to many of the ladies in the
various camps. This time Mahilyes, my youngest son, came along too,
and brought a smile to their faces. ICRC were also going around with
telephones so that people could talk to their relatives abroad,
mainly in the Middle East. That also brought smiles to many faces.
Medicin Sans Frontier were also there, giving out tents in all the
camps. Each organisation is playing their part to alleviate their
suffering, loss and grief.
We gave some relief supplies, soap, toothpaste and underwear, but it
seems the greatest need is now cooking pots, so that will be our next
consignment! In a couple of the camps, the individual families were
cooking for themselves.
Three of the camps were in schools close to
the 'home' areas so the people are able to visit what's left of their
homes during the day, some have already made quite an attempt to
clean up and make them 'livable' again. However they have to move out
of the schools in the next few days so that schools can reopen and
that will probably mean a move further away from their actual 'home'
area.
Some were asking whether it was safe to eat fish again. At
least they are thinking of geting back to something of their 'normal'
life now, which is a very encouraging sign.
In His service,
Jaqui
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