May 19th - Our first full day of work at the site in Kalutara, AFLAC International's first new housing development for Tsunami victims. An adjacent field served as a refugee camp, with hundreds of people living in tents and makeshift shelters. We had our work cut out for us: 19 septic tank holes had to be dug, and 19 houses lacked paint and finishing. We set to work in the boiling heat.

Entries: Keith, Jason

So after the first day of work, I have realized that there was no reason to worry about working with the natives. Everyone here has been remarkably nice to us from the get go. Tom and I spent most of the day digging two holes to be used for septic tanks. They were circular 4 with a foot diameter and 3 feet deep (though we made the first one 4 feet deep). Everyone else spent the day sanding and painting doorways and window ways. The most satisfying part of the day was interacting with the workers even though we face the language barrier. Mansour, one of the most prominent leaders joked about me having “guts” or muscles.

Despite my “guts,” Tom and I were completely beat after digging the first hole, but with the help from the workers, improved our technique and worked through the pain. We had lunch at a nearby church and the kids went crazy when they saw us. They were so cute and came right up to us and screamed hi at all of us. They loved when I gave them high fives. After lunch, about seven of us walked back to the work site and managed to get really lost. The whole time that I was walking back, I was just taking in everything around me. I find it so fascinating to just look at the society of the Sri Lankans.

Besides our work at the site, the entire team has been bonding and getting along well, despite being “stuck” together for such a long time. It’s interesting to talk to all of these different people from different backgrounds. We spent the whole afternoon and evening together at the pool and beach just relaxing and talking. The trip has been just amazing so far.

On last personal note: I’m totally fascinated by being immersed in a new culture. Back in America, I automatically grab my cell phone before going out and can’t go a day without checking my e-mail. And when I’m bored I’ll watch tv. It’s so nice to be free from all of that technology and to just relax. Vacation is fun.

-Keith, 7:28 pm

After waking up at 7Am, I called home to wish Mom a happy birthday. I caught her on her way to dinner, and got to tell her of what had gone on so far. We ate breakfast and proceeded to embark to the building site.

When we got there we received many stares from both the construction workers and the local displaced persons vying for an opportunity to live in one of the houses. We began by sanding all the doorways and window-frames and were then able to paint what we sanded. This went on for about 3-4 hours and then we went to a nearby church to have our boxed lunches from the hotel.

We decided to walk back to the site and ended up getting lost on a main road in Sri Lanka ( which I later found out to be named Galle Road). It was busy with traffic and every block looked exactly the same! We stumbled upon an English speaking school and were told that we overshot the turnoff, so we began to walk back. A group of girls followed us for part of the way and pretended to be tsunami victims who could not speak english, when in fact, they were well off and could speak English really well. We finally made it back to the site and we got to work throughout the afternoon while speaking and interacting with the various workers on the site. Monsoor was the most outgoing and were all incredibly friendly and nice. His wife divorced him and took his two children to Saudi Arabia. The other workers were for the post part his brothers and nephews.

It's amazing how similar people are, even with cultural and class barriers to make things appear different. Monsoor cracked jokes about manly strength, family, and country of origin and it made us feel welcome. Everyone was so great and even the smallest things would make us all smile. For example, we exchanged our ages, and one of the guys also happened to be 19 and I said "yeah!" and gave him a high-five.

We all sat around and spoke and sang pop and disney songs that they somehow knew the tunes to, and they sang to us in singalese. We left on a good note and returned to our relaxing hotel. From there, we hung out, and eventually crashed.

-Jason