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Kalmunai, Sri Lanka,
by Jenna Barnett

Dear Friends, this is an interesting letter from one of the nurses Ken went to Sri Lanka with. I do not think they are working in the same village, though.. Jo

November 13, 2005
The drive from Colombo on the west side of the island to Kalmunai on the east coast took all day. Here are a few of the things I saw along the way:

The landscape is tropical and lush. Palm trees with yellow coconuts abound. Everywhere there is vegetation. In places where the jungle has been cleared there are rice paddies. In some places there are stakes in the ground with string around the stakes and pieces of white cloth fluttering on the string. Stenciled in red on the strips of cloth is “caution land minds” in both English and Tamil.

Each little town has its own Buddha. They are usually white. Once I glimpsed the Buddha through the trees sitting on a a hill above the town. Another was just beside the road on a pedestal base perhaps four feet square with the seated Buddha about six feet tall.

Most towns also have Hindu shrines or a Hindu temple. These range from crumbling gray cement Ganeshes to more elaborate affairs with multiple Hindu dieties painted bright colors. Some towns also have a mosque, recognizable by the domes on an otherwise flat roof.

Three wild elephants were leisurely crossing the road. Elsewhere another small herd was off in a field eating grass. These wild elephants are opposed to “house elephants” which people keep to do heavy work like carry logs for construction or pulling a plow.

One of the staff traveling with us had dysentery which necessitated frequent stops. At one stop a raggedly dressed man with yellow teeth and a monkey on his shoulder and two round covered baskets, each about ten inches round and five inches deep asked us if we wanted to see his snakes. “Sure,” we said.
At that he spoke to the monkey who was dressed in long pants and a neck scarf and the monkey jumped out into our little band of onlookers causing us to gasp and take a step back. We did not realize the monkey was on a string and could only go so far. Then the monkey took the lid off the first basket.

The head of a cobra peeked out of the basket. As the man and the monkey jabbered back and forth the cobra uncoiled going up about three feet. He was as fat as my forearm and the head was about six inches across. It struck out at the monkey and the monkey jumped back onto the man’s shoulder! Sounds tame here, but it was pretty dramatic to watch! The hiss of the cobra was enough to send chills up my spine. Our driver translated that the man said he had removed the venom from the cobra. I still did not want to get too near. The fang looked sharp as the cobra hissed and struck out at the man. Now the lid was off the second basket. The cobra in it was a bit smaller. The two snakes lunged at each other while the monkey squealed and jumped here and there. What a show! The driver gave the snake charmer a few rupees as we piled back into the van.

Yesterday upon return from work we found a man from Holland waiting for us along with his wife. He was awaiting treatment for an infected mosquito bite on his ankle resulting in full blown celluslitis complete with fever.
The man is a retired engineer and is in Kalmunai supervising the building of 350 houses for tsunami survivors. Each 500 square foot house has two bedrooms, a cooking area, a “bathroom,” and costs $5000 (USD). The laborers get $8 a day. Before tsunami they reportedly earned $4 a day.
Today we passed by his housing development. The houses are neat white washed cement with heavy wood window frames and doors.

So what are we doing here in Sri Lanka? Every day we load up two Toyota Land Cruisers with trunks of of medicine and dressings, water, folding tables, chairs, lunch and a crew of workers; driver/interpreter, medicine dispenser, registrar, health educator, nurses and doctors. Each vehicle is a team. Some days the teams go to different locations and some days both teams go to the same location. We head out and drive one to three and a half hours into the country.

Most days after driving between one and three hours we stop at a settlement of people displaced by the tsunami. These people are living in temporary housing usually made of cement floors and corrugated metal siding. Each settlement has a water tank that is filled weekly or a pump. Water supply has been provided by an NGO. These camps are usually located far from where the people lived before tsunami. Many are unemployed and with few prospects for work. Food has been provided weekly by NGOs, but that supply is decreasing as time goes on.

One day a week we go to a village not affected by tsunami, but so very far out in the country that they are unable to access medical care. The people in this village are rice farmers. Their poverty is evident in their dress, nutritional status and diseases present. They live in dirt floored mud huts with thatched roofs.

Upon arrival we set up our tables and chairs, put antiseptic and water in a bowl on the table, take out our stethoscopes and start seeing the patients lined up outside the door to the home that has been turned into a clinic for the day. The bowl of antiseptic water is to wash hands and otoscope tips in between patients. In another room or on the front “porch” the girls unpack the pharmacy. Usually under a shady tree the registrar gives each patient a number, records their name, weighs each patient and writes their number and weight on the card they bring to the examiner. After the nurse assesses the patient the doctor makes the diagnosis and writes the prescribed medication on the patient’s card. The patient then proceeds to the dispenser to get their free medication(s). Some patients are referred to the hospital in town. The flow of patients continues until all are seen.

Today after driving two hours the road was washed out. We watched as a man got off his bicycle and proceeded to walk across the washed out section.
Ankles wet, then knees. OK the vehicle could do this. As he continued across he lifted his bundle over his head. The water eventually came to under the man’s armpits, and we turned around. Now we had to find another way to get to the village. Our driver asked the banana seller. He pointed in a general direction. For the next hour and a quarter we asked about anyone we saw until eventually we arrived at the rice farmers’ village. It was way out in the country over dirt paths where no map had probably ever been. Thank goodness for four wheel drive!

From Kalmunai, Sri Lanka, Jenna Barnett

Letter From Sri Lanka by Ken Magee -- Home from Sri Lanka by Ken Magee