T-13 (Thirteen Days Since the Tsunami)
I arrived in Colombo the capital of Sri Lanka this morning at about 6:30 am, flying in from Washington via Paris, where I had a 24 hour layover, then by way of Bahrain and Abu Dhabi. The airline flying from Paris only allowed 7 kilos of carry-on luggage so I was forced to check in one of my two carry-ons, which made it to Colombo without incident, but my luggage checked in Washington, including all my special equipment for the project and my survival equipment, missed the connection in Bahrain. Included in the missing luggage were several requests from Tod Bruning, the U.S. Fulbright Scholar in Colombo who would be my host for the first few days as I got my feet on the ground.
Luckily, my extensive international travel experience had got me in the habit of keeping several changes of clothes in my carry-ons, so I was taken care of for the immediate future. I also had the most important request from Tod in my carry on - he has been in Sri Lanka since October and asked me to bring him some Hershey Chocolate.
After I got through customs in Colombo, the first thing I did was get a SIM card for my cellular. I then hired a taxi at the airport and got directions from Tod on how to find his place - I found out later that this was his first real nights rest since the disaster struck as he had been helping with the response.
We were able to find Tod's house but only after a little wandering around: he lives relatively close to a main thoroughfare, but the side streets are rather twisting and confusing; even taxi drivers have difficulty unless they are from the area. Tod is renting an apartment joined to a larger house from a Sri Lankan family whose son's family had lived in the apartment before moving out. It is a beautiful apartment - it is on the second floor of the house, with all the sides open to the air, which allows a nice breeze to flow through the rooms, shaded by the looming trees in the yard. That is one thing I have liked about Sri Lanka since I arrived – the natural beauty and lush greenery that can be found here.
After I got to Tod’s we sat down and chatted for a while, a little to catch up, but mostly for me to get a feel on what was going on, what Tod had been doing, and how I could be helping in the next several days as I got ready to head up to Trincomalee in the North – East. Tod brought me up to speed and filled me in on what he had been doing since the disaster struck. As a Fulbright Scholar, Tod has been working with the ICTA ( ), on a project to help develop communications infrastructure and access in rural areas.
But when the disaster struck, Tod fell into a facilitator role, getting the people who had skills and assistance to offer in touch with the people who needed that assistance. He volunteered for a while with Sarvodaya, a local Sri Lankan organization that has an extensive network on the ground and an initial responder to the disaster. At Sarvodaya, Tod met Juan Bossicard, a Microsoft employee who flew out here using his vacation time to see if there was any way that Microsoft could be of assistance (Microsoft is a supporting partner of Sarvodaya).
Juan had identified several existing needs, including the need for a management system to be set up to coordinate the influx of volunteers spontaneously arriving to assist in the disaster response. From this meeting and the efforts of many people since, was born a new organization, VolunteerSriLanka.org, which hopes to coordinate local and international offers of volunteer assistance and match them up with local organizations that do not have the same resources of the large international NGOs, but all the same are assisting in the disaster response.
Also, Tod is hoping that VolunteerSriLanka.org can promote Sri Lanka as a destination for “Relief and Reconstruction Tourism,” bringing in volunteers to assist in the reconstruction effort who will be able to help rebuild the sectors of the economy, particularly the tourist industry, that have been especially hard hit by the tsunami.
Tod had to run to a quick meeting after a while, so I showered and changed my clothes while he was out. As soon as he got back, we headed off in a Rickshaw three-wheeler that Tod has been hiring almost nonstop since the disaster started. I actually dropped Tod off at the Centre for National Operations (CNO) where he was looking to get the needed signature of approval to set up a welcome desk at the airport to meet and greet volunteers arriving in Sri Lanka who were not already partnered with a particular organization. Then I went to the World Trade Center with the instructions to find the Microsoft Office on the 31st floor, introduce myself and meet everyone there, and get to work doing what I could.
Being Saturday, no one was manning the reception desk at Microsoft so I let myself in and wandered back following the voices emanating from a conference room. The volunteers working there warmly greeted me and set me to work. I was battling jet lag the entire day but I managed to keep up a fast paced effort. At Tod’s request, I drafted an e-mail response to the more than 100 e-mails that had come in three days that VSL had been organized, and let them know that we had received the e-mails, were interested in their offers of assistance, and just needed a little more time to get the show off the ground. I then helped the website development team draft text for the website.
VSL is currently staffed by volunteers, and Microsoft is loaning the use of its facilities to create a “war room.” By the afternoon, approval had been received from the appropriate authorities to go out and establish the welcome desk at the airport. The first group of volunteers headed out tonight, with shifts rotating from 8pm until 6am!
When Tod and I finally headed out, we headed over to an informal dinner of humanitarian aid workers, a very hodgepodge eclectic collection of individuals from Tod and me to professional aid workers, UN employees, and concerned citizens. It was a relatively small group but very interesting – there was even one guy from an Israeli NGO that had flown four 747 cargo planes of materials over in the first few days after the tsunami.
Throughout the day there would be times when I would be asleep on my feet but then I get a little animo, wake back up, and get my stride going. An interesting day my first day in Colombo!
Luckily, my extensive international travel experience had got me in the habit of keeping several changes of clothes in my carry-ons, so I was taken care of for the immediate future. I also had the most important request from Tod in my carry on - he has been in Sri Lanka since October and asked me to bring him some Hershey Chocolate.
After I got through customs in Colombo, the first thing I did was get a SIM card for my cellular. I then hired a taxi at the airport and got directions from Tod on how to find his place - I found out later that this was his first real nights rest since the disaster struck as he had been helping with the response.
We were able to find Tod's house but only after a little wandering around: he lives relatively close to a main thoroughfare, but the side streets are rather twisting and confusing; even taxi drivers have difficulty unless they are from the area. Tod is renting an apartment joined to a larger house from a Sri Lankan family whose son's family had lived in the apartment before moving out. It is a beautiful apartment - it is on the second floor of the house, with all the sides open to the air, which allows a nice breeze to flow through the rooms, shaded by the looming trees in the yard. That is one thing I have liked about Sri Lanka since I arrived – the natural beauty and lush greenery that can be found here.
After I got to Tod’s we sat down and chatted for a while, a little to catch up, but mostly for me to get a feel on what was going on, what Tod had been doing, and how I could be helping in the next several days as I got ready to head up to Trincomalee in the North – East. Tod brought me up to speed and filled me in on what he had been doing since the disaster struck. As a Fulbright Scholar, Tod has been working with the ICTA ( ), on a project to help develop communications infrastructure and access in rural areas.
But when the disaster struck, Tod fell into a facilitator role, getting the people who had skills and assistance to offer in touch with the people who needed that assistance. He volunteered for a while with Sarvodaya, a local Sri Lankan organization that has an extensive network on the ground and an initial responder to the disaster. At Sarvodaya, Tod met Juan Bossicard, a Microsoft employee who flew out here using his vacation time to see if there was any way that Microsoft could be of assistance (Microsoft is a supporting partner of Sarvodaya).
Juan had identified several existing needs, including the need for a management system to be set up to coordinate the influx of volunteers spontaneously arriving to assist in the disaster response. From this meeting and the efforts of many people since, was born a new organization, VolunteerSriLanka.org, which hopes to coordinate local and international offers of volunteer assistance and match them up with local organizations that do not have the same resources of the large international NGOs, but all the same are assisting in the disaster response.
Also, Tod is hoping that VolunteerSriLanka.org can promote Sri Lanka as a destination for “Relief and Reconstruction Tourism,” bringing in volunteers to assist in the reconstruction effort who will be able to help rebuild the sectors of the economy, particularly the tourist industry, that have been especially hard hit by the tsunami.
Tod had to run to a quick meeting after a while, so I showered and changed my clothes while he was out. As soon as he got back, we headed off in a Rickshaw three-wheeler that Tod has been hiring almost nonstop since the disaster started. I actually dropped Tod off at the Centre for National Operations (CNO) where he was looking to get the needed signature of approval to set up a welcome desk at the airport to meet and greet volunteers arriving in Sri Lanka who were not already partnered with a particular organization. Then I went to the World Trade Center with the instructions to find the Microsoft Office on the 31st floor, introduce myself and meet everyone there, and get to work doing what I could.
Being Saturday, no one was manning the reception desk at Microsoft so I let myself in and wandered back following the voices emanating from a conference room. The volunteers working there warmly greeted me and set me to work. I was battling jet lag the entire day but I managed to keep up a fast paced effort. At Tod’s request, I drafted an e-mail response to the more than 100 e-mails that had come in three days that VSL had been organized, and let them know that we had received the e-mails, were interested in their offers of assistance, and just needed a little more time to get the show off the ground. I then helped the website development team draft text for the website.
VSL is currently staffed by volunteers, and Microsoft is loaning the use of its facilities to create a “war room.” By the afternoon, approval had been received from the appropriate authorities to go out and establish the welcome desk at the airport. The first group of volunteers headed out tonight, with shifts rotating from 8pm until 6am!
When Tod and I finally headed out, we headed over to an informal dinner of humanitarian aid workers, a very hodgepodge eclectic collection of individuals from Tod and me to professional aid workers, UN employees, and concerned citizens. It was a relatively small group but very interesting – there was even one guy from an Israeli NGO that had flown four 747 cargo planes of materials over in the first few days after the tsunami.
Throughout the day there would be times when I would be asleep on my feet but then I get a little animo, wake back up, and get my stride going. An interesting day my first day in Colombo!
posted by Jason A. Smith at 8:55 PM
1 Comments:
Hey MS Sri Lanka is pretty bare - they don't even have MS Frontpage - licensed copy to give out!
Anyways, i think the VSL team have been doing a grt job given the upz and downz we've been coming across, jason u take good care noe in Trinco & pls keep on with this blog of yours!
Cheers!
Strav.
Post a Comment
<< Home