The
advertising sign is lost in a sea of rubble. On it is written
‘Tsunami Hotel’ in big letters, a picture of a giant
wave breaking over it. It was a favourite place to stay for
surfers from all over the world - until 26 December.
Now the sign rises up in the sky like a monument. In a cruel
irony, the tsunami has taken the hotel named after it.
Mohammed Ali passes by the remnants with slow steps. The disaster
has made an old man out of the 52-year-old. The wave washed
away his house like a sand-castle, his brother-in-law will never
return with his boat from fishing.
Heavy bruises cover the body of the fisherman. Every breath
hurts. Deep inside his heart, there is a stronger pain. It will
stay for a long time. Mohammed Ali knows it too well.
Along both sides of the road there are long rows of destroyed
houses. Not long ago they used to be guest houses, small pubs
and shops. Pottuvil was well known as a paradise for holiday
makers.
For Mohammed Ali that now seems a lifetime away.
“Sometimes I do not know whether this sea of rubble is
reality, or if I am just dreaming. When I wake up, will I again
see the bustling city with all the tourists and restaurant owners,
who are buying my fresh fish,” he says softly.
The leg of a plastic doll juts out of the rubbish that was swept
up by the tsunami. Next to it lies a baby bottle. On a wall
nearby a painting depicts a surfer riding a wave. Mohammed tries
to walk faster.
He tries to avoid thinking about something for which he is unable
to find an explanation.
A young man waves from a roof of a destroyed house. “Is
everything okay with you?” he asks. Mohammed Ali nods
and the man continues to throw down the roof tiles that are
still unbroken to another man who catches them cheerfully.
In Pottuvil, like everywhere else alongside the coast of Sri
Lanka, people are starting to clean up, and even sometimes to
rebuild.
Marie Mauret, a psychologist with the French Red Cross basic
health care unit in Pottuvil has been impressed with the coping
mechanisms of the local community.
“People are really brave here. And there are so many volunteers
to help us. Despite the sorrow, everybody is working hard to
cope with these terrible times. People are proactive. They do
not wait until someone comes to help them,” she says.
The Red Cross has erected a basic health care post in a hotel.
Plastic sheeting covers holes in walls damaged by the tsunami.
Mohammed Ali takes a seat on a rickety chair. Like so many others
he is waiting patiently to get treated.
News of the Red Cross health post spreads by word of mouth.
An island of safety in the sea of rubble. The Red Cross mobile
medical team has also been established to cover the scattered
temporary shelters south of Pottuvil, to provide services to
patients who would find it difficult to get to the centre.
Mauret says the psychological impact on the community cannot
be stressed enough. “Many of them are deeply traumatized.
It is especially hard for children to understand what happened,”
she says.
Children are finding it difficult to sleep. When they do, their
sleep is blighted by nightmares. Unable to understand what has
happened to them and their families, they react with tears,
like the weeping girl who is being treated by a doctor at the
centre.
The Red Cross worker smiles at her, speaking calming words.
Where the town of Pottuvil ends, a green paradise stretches
as far as the eye can see. In the sunlight, lush green rice
fields are shining. Between them, palms and huge trees grow.
A road winds through the landscape and next to it are a couple
of big blue water tanks. Here the German Red Cross emergency
response unit is purifying up to 120,000 litres of drinking
water a day for more than 15,000 affected people.
“Without our friends from the Sri Lanka Red Cross we would
have had great trouble becoming operational. With a group of
young Red Cross members we have been able to install everything
fast. It is a good feeling to work in a strong team together
with our local colleagues and friends,” says Dieter Matthes,
the experienced leader of the German Red Cross team.
Heavy rain in this region since the tsunami struck means reaching
the water pumps requires a trudge through the mud. Many centres
for displaced people are situated around the water-purification
unit. Some of the fishing families who escaped from the beach
found shelter here and receive water from the unit.
A few kilometres away there are the big white tents of the basic
health care centre established by the Finnish Red Cross. The
unit also makes home visits and together with the centre, providing
vital health services to affected communities.
“In addition to delivering basic health care, we are promoting
hygiene and health education which is vitally important for
people who have lost everything,” says Red Cross doctor
Ilkka Mikkonen.
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The
clean-up operation has begun in the tsunami-hit town of
Pottuvil (p-LKA0076)
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The
Tsunami hotel in Pottuvil, a haven for surfers, was devastated
by its namesake (p12463)
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Children
receiving medical attention at the Finnish Red Cross basic
health care unit in Komari, just north of Pottuvil (p12464)
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A
villager receives treatment at the French Red Cross basic
health care unit in Pottuvil (p12465)
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Sri
Lanka Red Cross volunteers help a member of the German
Red Cross emergency responce unit to set up a water and
sanitation facility in Pottuvil (p12466)
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