I received this in my e-mail this morning. It’s from a dear, dear friend of mine who I met at my last job. He’s an adventurous soul, a total flirt, and it appears, a super-human:
Dear all,
As the mail header indicates i am indeed in Sri Lanka. I was here on holiday and was on one of the worst hit beaches down south and was in my little treehut on the beach when the Tsunami hit.
I almost drowned am scratched, cut up, bruised and sore but miraculously still alive and kicking. Lost all my possessions but that is meaningless because what is more precious than life and i see now why near death experiences make you appreciate it a lot more.
I am sure most of you have been watching the news so i need not go into details about the scale of death and destruction in this little country. With most of their income from tourism and fishing , this catastrophe has effectively wiped out the present and future livelihood of most Sri Lankans.
and yet through it all the Sri Lankans have been absolutely amazing….i have experinced it directly and have heard many a tale from other survivors. Sri Lankans who had lost everything be it home, friends or family still put all their worries and losses aside and concentrated on helping every foreign visitor they found..they gave us the last bit of clothing from their backs, every bit of food and medicine they had and without exception all over the country they threw their homes open to all of us….many are the stories of Sri Lankans who put out mattresses and food for surviviors, who themselves hurt and bleeding still carried us to safety , fed us, clothed us and amazingly kept apologising for the calamity. I have travelled the world over and never ever seen such love, concern and sacrifice in the face of personal loss.
Given all this i have decided not to return home yet and have started a little bit of relief work at hospitals here in Colombo BUT IT IS NOT ENOUGH!!!!!!!!! I am now sending out this plea for help to all of you my friends, family and loved ones all over the world to do whatever you can to help this coutry and its people.
I am aware that many people have an instictive distrust of the effectiveness of relief organisations so i am planning to set up an account and an address where i can receive donations of medicine, clothing, blankets, money etc directly and then be personally involved in their distribution. I am working out the detials for actual execution so this is an intial mail to gauge how many of you would be willing to help.
I am sure each and everyone of you has already started doing something wherever you are based but i would appreciate any help you can give me. I plan to be here for as long as it takes and i hope and pray that atleast some off you will come thrugh in this time of dire need
God Bless and watch this space.
p.s. IF ANY OF YOU WANT TO VOLUNTEER THEIR SKILLS TO MAYBE SET UP A BASIC WEBSITE FOR ME TO BE ABLE TO EFFECTIVELY CO-ORDINATE ALL THIS I WOULD BE VERY GREATFUL.
I’m thrilled he’s alive. Words just can’t express. Though I feel so helpless, I’ve written back to see what exactly I can do and where I can send my help.
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