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Sherry's Diary

A Time for Reflection

Dr. Sudiati and Nana entertaining the children

in Sri Lankan refugee camp

 

Sherry Grant

Sri Lanka

6 February 2005

 

It feels good to be back to my journal – there has been absolutely no time to write.  The days somehow begin at 5:30am and end around 1:00am.  The days go so quick with so many different hats to wear, but I am in my element – for sure.

 

In order to accomplish everything I want to do I have drafted Ken (my husband) as my HQ person.  He does the many things that are impossible to execute from the remote locations where I am working with minimal or no communications.  I also recruited, Piper, my 20 year old daughter who took this quarter off from UC Santa Barbara,  as my assistant.  This close support has allowed me to focus on moving the HSI disaster relief into phase two, Disaster Recovery in the affected areas that were targeted during the initial assessment.

 

 

Today, February 1, will be the first day off for the HSI Field Clinic team. I thought I would be sleeping in until 7:00am, getting an early start at 9:00am to go assess the Kamari #1 and #2 refugee camps; where I want to move the field clinic to in the next 14 days.  This was not to be.  My first phone call came from Dr. Eric Davis, a RAV veterinarian, who had just departed the field.  He had just traveled by mini bus through the night back to Colombo.  He was calling from the airport at 5:30am to check-in one last time, curious how the previous day ended up and to follow-up on a couple of things we were working on.  We said good-bye, but not really good-bye because I will be seeing him soon in California with Nana, the Bali Street Dogs Vet Technician, who will be working with his team on an Indian reservation somewhere in the Western US.  Something both men are looking forward to.

 

The next call came at 6:00am and it was a long awaited call from Neil Trent, HSI’s executive director, who I have been anxious to talk to since I have moved to Arugam Bay on the east coast of Sri Lanka. There are no phone lines and only an occasional signal for the mobile phone so we have had no contact since I left Colombo almost two weeks ago.  The day had officially begun so I put on my sarong to go outside and stand in the open area in hopes of getting a stronger mobile phone signal.  This is an area where there once was a swimming pool and I now frustratingly pace because the mobile signal gives us only 10 minutes before our conversation disappears over the ocean someplace. We talked about everything - from what other organizations are or aren’t doing to the success of the HSI Disaster Recovery programs we have launched in Aceh and next in Khao Lak, Thailand.  We talked about the great collegial work that my partners Dr. Listriani Wistawan and Ken have been coordinating in Aceh while working with Animal People, ProFauna and The Bali Street Dog Fund Australia.  By the time we hung up we had shared some good laughs and I watched the sun come up. As I said good bye I assured him that I would get a journal entry to him now that I had access to the internet through a local travel agent.

 

It was a beautiful sunrise a perfect beginning to a new month, Tuesday, February 1, 2005.  I have been completely immersed in the tsunami relief efforts for one month now.  It is a morning of reflection.  In some respects it feels like a year - when thinking of what has been accomplished, what I have seen, and the new network of colleagues and friends that have been forged by this disaster.  I am amazed by the fortitude of the human spirit of both victims and volunteers whose lives have taken an irreversible fork in the road after 26 December.  The hard work now is to rebuild, to look forward and to join together with hopes that this might be the first step in making this world a better place.

 

 

I speak for myself and am sharing my personal observations and experiences.  These observations and experiences have brought me to an arena where warring factions, religions, race, countries, and governments are willing to look at new ideas and solutions.  I am working with people who are tireless, and though we all look a little worse for the wear, given the chance to hang up our hat, we would not.  As early as the first week after the tsunami struck there were signs of lives and communities rebuilding. I can’t help but wonder that if I was in the shoes of the victims, would I have this immediate strength to go forward – or would I be paralyzed.  I have been humbled

 

I have been humbled by the dedication of the people who know and love me and have given me everything I have asked of them and more.  I have pushed them to their limits and I have pushed those who have signed on as volunteers - everyone working together with only a few complaints.

 

Phuket

 

The team from the Bali Street Dog Foundation has been working very hard since they were first deployed to Phuket to join up with the HSI’s RAV and Dart volunteers and with Soi Dogs, an already established dog foundation in Thailand.  Over two days we spayed and neutered dogs in the coastal villages north of Phuket.  This area, called Khao Lak, was once home to several little fishing villages.  But now these villages are completely wiped out and only a few buildings still stand.  Commercial fishing boats sat high and dry in what was once the center of a bustling little village.  Many now ownerless and homeless dogs and cats roam free.  Our mission was to vaccinate and sterilize as many dogs as possible in an effort to stabilize the population and lessen the possibility of rabies.  The people were so happy to have us working there to treat their dogs.  But I also suspect that we provided some much needed distraction from the burden of rebuilding their lives.

 

Working with Margo Parks and John Dalley and their Soi Dog team was remarkable.  Our relationship was forged a few years ago when Ali Montgomery the director of the Atigaro Project, another dog foundation in the area and a HSI member society, was looking for a new director.  Margot was chosen and from that time forward Margot and I developed our relationship via emails. 

 

Even though some of the Atrigaro protocols were modeled after the Bali Street Dog Foundation, I learned a few new tricks from Margo which I later implemented in Sri Lanka.

 

Working in Khao Lak was full of contrasts.  One of those contrasts was seen driving to our hotel, which sat relatively untouched on a hill.  Driving along the coast it was very difficult to comprehend that the vast wasteland between the road and the sea was once full of luxury resorts.  It felt very eerie and out of place as we drove through the wasteland and rubble and then turned up the hill to our hotel,

 

On the other hand I cherished these few days in the hotel, as I had just come from Banda Aceh where I had been sleeping on a tile floor wrapped in a sarong for the past week.  At that time the tile floor was a blessing because the original plan was to stay in a tent at a refugee camp.  We were fortunate that the relatives of some members of our reconnaissance team took us in.  So once again another humbling moment was tucked away and my gratitude to that family who was so generous to let us take up all of the floor space in their tiny little house will forever be etched in my memory.  The contrasts abound and continue even as I belatedly write this entry.

 

Dr.Leo Egar, Consi van Gontard and Melissa Forberg spent another week neutering and giving rabies vaccinations in the coastal villages while Piper, The Bali Street Dog team and I headed off to Sri Lanka.

 

Sri Lanka

 

We arrived in Colombo on the 23^rd of January and started collecting equipment and supplies for the field clinic.  This effort was coordinated by Bob Bloomberg and Anusha David who have been heaven sent and managed to fulfilled my numerous emails for everything from Adrenalin to Xylazine. 

 

We spent the next three days in Colombo assembling the gear and piloting two field clinics in areas south of Colombo.  Though the clinics were not in the affected area, it was a chance to do a shake down to see what more we needed.

 

 

The first field clinic was in a very poor village and we sterilized dogs and cats. The people came from all over with their dogs for vaccines and sterilizations, sometimes carrying them in homemade cages or even wheelbarrows.  They were the sweetest villagers we have ever met and coming from Bali we work with a lot of very lovely and appreciative villagers.  They prepared us a meal and invited us to eat in one of their homes at the end of our day. 

 

The following day we ran another field clinic, vaccinating 50 dogs and sterilizing another 35.  A local TV station and newspaper covered the work and were mesmerized by the dog catching talents of Bali Street Dogs’ Nana Prayoga and Ketut Artha.  It was during this field clinic that we met Ishan Fernando.  Ishan, a Sri Lankan, watched our work and asked if he could volunteer.  When we said yes, he quickly went to pack his rucksack and within hours joined us as wse departed on a grueling 10 hour ride to Arugam Bay on the south eastern coast.  This was to be our home for the next two months.

 

(more to come)

 

 

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