Galle onwards

Whilst in Galle Duncan caught up with his UN Habitat colleague Katja, who kindly took him around one of the villages' that she has been working with on restoration efforts. According to DY (unfortunately I didn't get to go) the villagers were incredibly receptive and grateful for the UN Habitat approach of encouraging their own participation in the rebuild. Particularly pleasing to both Katja and myself is the amount of involvement women are taking in the village councils and therefore being really enabled to make decisions that incorporate the whole community including the most marginalised (usually women and children). We went for a drink that night in a hotel overlooking the whole of Galle - fantastic. Katja kindly put me in touch with the main recruiter for UNDP in SL so finger's crossed.

From Galle we commenced onwards down the coast in the eternal search for surf! No really the surf is just the icing on the cake, our decision to cover the south coast was to get a good idea of the tsunami effect and problems still being experienced. So after two more hours of "chicken driving" we reached Dickwella where we were based for the next 3 days.

Staying at the Dickwella Village Resort was like being in a Monty Python film. I kept expecting either John Cleese or a candid camera crew to jump out of the bushes, and was sure that I could hear the sultry cry of "Basil, Basil, come here Basil". It's hard to describe why we felt like this as the actual resort is beautiful, located on a peninsula, with nice enough rooms, but it just didn't quite work. I'd have to put it down to the combination of characters working there - from the eccentric Italian owner Enzo (who claims to be a Mussolini supporter - Mamma Mia - but I think this may be for effect), wandering the resort looking like some beatific figure with a long white beard and local garb; to the waiter who was straight out of Benny Hill (SL version) to the 12 year old (actually 19) pizza chef who burnt every pizza that he went near. Dinner every night was 'fixed menu" and I reckon the chef had been drinking too much Arak (local paint stripper) because he was coming up with the weirdest concoctions. There was a beautiful young waiter (Mamma Mia) who kept trying to practice his English with us but getting ushered away by the Maitre'D - there is a rigidly enforced management structure here (in SL) and multi- tasking is definitely not encouraged! Oh by the way, did I mention that it rained for 3 days straight?

Whilst there we took the opportunity again to visit the local village and were treated to a display of how the women make coir rope - which is from the coconut; weaving instruments have been donated and enable the women to make quite a livelihood for themselves as it only takes about 3 minutes to make one length of rope. It really is amazing how much can be gained from the palm tree and coconuts - literally every little bit is used here - coconuts (obviously), a whole range of by products including rope; brooms; roof's; matting; baskets; ARAK; ornaments; it's astonishing.

One of the more disturbing side effects of the tsunami has been the increase in the number of "tourist scams" and just a general change in attitude to working. Enzo was bemoaning it. He stated that 28 fishing boats were lost on their beach but 126 were replaced and he claimed that the downside of this is a complete loss of work ethic. Every single member of his staff comes from somewhere else - not one of them is a native of Dickwella. Unfortunately we were to hear this many more times as we journeyed on.