The ladies in our clearing team are applying extraordinary efforts. They work hard all day but with a sense of pride and determination when considering what has already achieved. The village has almost been cleared throughout and we have started to attend to areas surrounding the beach. Days are long and can be exhausting but the team pulls together and hardship is relieved through songs and companionship, offering a wonderful sense of light relief to each long day. Morning ‘tea time’ breaks are always well received.
We have started to visit some of the houses in the village to try and gauge an understanding of what they have been through and lost. This of course was extremely harrowing and brought home the severe reality of everything that occurred. Somawathi Edirisinghe spends much of her time locked away. The wave hit her house from an angle that ripped through the kitchen and although the remainder is standing well she has lost all electrical power and lives in darkness as there is little light reflecting through her boarded windows. Sadness is eminent in her face entirely and through her eyes you see the very weariness of her whole being. Despite losing her baby, which is the immediate grief she suffers, at 56 years old there is little way for her to support herself or to find support when she is older. Tradition dictates that children usually look after their elderly parents in later life. We hope to find Somawathi a job that she will enjoy both as a source of income and something to occupy her time and that might eventually lift her out of her present reality and the darkness reflecting what her world has become.
Komeighan (Kome) Edirasinghe’s father is pictured in his kitchen, which was ripped apart. Water level stains were marked inches above my head and according to Kome the house and possessions were submerged for approximately four hours. Although, thankfully, the six members of his own family survived, tragically a young child from a neighbouring house was swept through with the kitchen wall and died in an adjoining room.
Alongside the traumas there is a reaffirmed sense of hope and the locals are genuinely grateful and assured with what we are doing, especially as work is moving quickly. There are so many characters to be found residing here both young and old and their gentle intriguing natures make for a diverse and colourful village.
These machines pictured below have been part of Talalla's industry now for 25 years. We have ordered enough to equip the entire district with those that were lost.
