Sri Lanka Journal: Entry Number 1
I left for Sri Lanka on Monday night, June 13 at 11 p.m. I was very lucky to have Ward Tomlinson, the husband of Katie Poole who is on this trip, volunteer to drive both of us to JFK. I went to Ward and Katie’s house in Princeton. We packed our things in the car and Katie said goodbye to her two daughters Kristen and Deidre. We were met at the airport by the other member of our team, Dr. Betty Belasco. The rest of the trip was uneventful except for all our luggage being left in London and only arriving two days after we were at the Continental Hotel in Colombo.

It was almost unbelievable to be back in Colombo, having been here only in March. We stayed at the Ceylon Continental Hotel having gotten a good rate through my friend Rifky Noordeen. The time from our Wednesday arrival until this writing (Sunday June 19) has been spent making our arrangements to go to the tsunami areas.

On Friday Katie made contact with a women's organization named Zonta which has been helping to rebuilding in the tsunami areas. We had lunch at the old Cricket Club with three of the very energetic Zonta members who told us all about their work. Renuka Fernando was joined by two of her colleagues, Manthri Perara and Shireen Anton. We got a great deal of information and encouragement for our work from them.

Friday evening, we went to Rifky’s house and had dinner with Rifky and his daughter, Zeenath On Saturday, Ruwan Fonseka and his Driver Brian came by our hotel to help us plan our trip to the tsunami areas. Ruwan is providing a free car for our time here and Brian will be acting as driver and translator. We plan on hiring another translator when we get to the tsunami areas.

Today, Sunday June 19, we are leaving for Unamantuna which is just beyond the Galle Fort. We will be staying at a hotel there and using that as our base of operations for our work in the camps.

After spending these last few days in Colombo, we are anxious to get into our work. Betty, Katie and I are very enthusiastic about the coming days working with the survivors of the December 16, 2004, tsunami.

Charles Flood, D.Sc.