In Lanka, the killer waves also bind

A couple of days before, Muttiah Muralitharan, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara were here, distributing relief and words of encouragement. Murali is a Tamil, Jayawardene and Sangakkara Sinhalese, but they were here to help cement the new fellowship that has been brought about by people working together for the good of the community.

A widowed Tamil mother, Sharmila, caring for two orphan boys: one Muslim the other Sinhalese is one such story.

Only the Singhalese boy, Champika, comes from this eastern seaport town.

Sharmila arrived from Batticaola to visit relatives with her husband and two young sons. Through an interpreter, Sharmila, explains that she has lost her two boys and husband, sister and mother-in-law.

While searching for them, she came across Dastaquir, whose father was out fishing while his mother was caught in a rush of water with his brother. Champika was visiting his uncle and aunt and had gone for a walk. When he returned the house had disappeared. The three are being moved into a camp in the next twenty-four hours, but they share a bond of family loss and at this stage don’t want to be separated.

Sharmila may go back to Kandy or return to friends in Colombo. If she does, who is going to take care of the boys?

Yet in this part of Sri Lanka, where the Tamil Tigers operate, weapons have been put aside and, as local shop-owner Dhamika Ratnaweera indicated, rebuilding a life together is more important than arguing about territory rights and the independent self-governing authority (ISGA) that has allegedly stalled the peace talks.

‘This catastrophe has made all of us realise how we need to work together and build a better nation where there is trust and understanding,’ he said. ‘‘Having said that, we are achieving that by creating goodwill in helping each other in everyway we can. We are in this together. We need to share and work together; it is as simple as that. We have to be as one.’’

Both sides are seeing that aid is being fairly distributed, that medical treatment is reaching all and that buildings are being cleaned up and where needed, repaired before the restructuring starts. As Ratnaweera sees it, it is at least a start.