NOVEMBER 2004 : SRI LANKA : Memories of a volunteer : Arriving in Kilinochchi

BECOMING A VOLUNTEER

In 2004 I took a semester off from teaching to undertake a Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL) course at the University of Canberra. At the completion of the course, I was able to use the remainder of my leave as a volunteer in Sri Lanka. I had a contact working in Kilinochchi in the north of Sri Lanka. Margaret, from Sydney, and her Sri Lankan husband, who had returned to his native town to help establish a community college to teach English. I was able to stay with Margaret and her family.

Margaret promoting the English college, established in September 2004.

“Margaret is wonderful with a zest for life and a genuine interest in the community. She is not a teacher but an excellent administrator and has created a very professional and creative environment on solid foundations for a very good school. It will be a pleasure working with her as I know I will learn so much.”

Kilinochchi 

Kilinochchi is a 100 kms south of Jaffna. It was established in the 1930s as Jaffna expanded and Tamil residents moved south. It is a mainly agricultural town, with rice being the main crop. 

I flew to Colombo and then it was a six hour drive by car north to Kilinochchi.

The township

The local markets with limited produce on offer

Rice paddies

Traditional house

Here are some of my early impressions from emails sent home

“I am living with Margaret and family in a very simple bungalow - 2 bedrooms, bathroom (normal toilet) and a shower rose on wall for a cold shower. It is 10 minutes walk from the college. We have simple meals delivered to a hut in the middle of the courtyard. There are about 6 huts with a well and generator for power. A few mangy dogs and clucking chooks wander around the compound. The roads are all dirt, mud actually because it is raining so much. There are huge potholes full of water which also floods the rice paddies and flows on to the road. It is challenge for cars and bicycles   The hut is solar-powered but not so much in the last few days, as there hasn’t been much sunlight but the generator does come on for a few  hours at night.”

Living in the compound

There was no electricity or running water but there was a generator, which worked most of the time.

Flooded roads

It was obvious from the onset that this was a community living very frugally.Unfortunately there was much to test them in the coming months and years with the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 and the continuation of the civil war, which ended in 2009.

Meanwhile, for my month’s stay, the students at the English college were an inspiration.

M