Espy's Journal: June 2006

Monday, June 26, 2006

Unrest in Sri Lanka - Senior SLA Commander Killed in Bomb Blast

[TamilNet, June 26, 2006 02:59 GMT]

A senior top official of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Major General Parami Kulatunga, who holds the third position in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) high command was killed in Pannipitiya, 15 km southeast of Colombo, in Homagama police division in Western Province, in a suicide bomb attack around 7:45 a.m. Monday, Police said. Maj. Gen. Kulatunga, Deputy Chief of Staff, has served as SLA Commander for Vanni High Command of the Sri Lanka Army.

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Thank God for Another Sabbath

Shmile

Steve and Paul doing their funny pose

Bin lah (Fly high in Thai)

Polly, Kurt's wife

The whole gang on our walk to our usual lake

Kids reciting memory verses for the 13th Sabbath

Polly trying to hide, cartoon style

Little afro-sri lankan kid, good mix, huh?

More memory verses

Friday, June 23, 2006

More on Tangalle Trip

Last week on Wednesday 21st Steve, me, and a small group of other ADRA staff went down to a project location about 6 hours' drive from Colombo, the capital city of Sri Lanka. Our mission was to finalize the closure of a tsunami relief operation in the town of Tangalle (pronouced as Tango). My work down there included double checking that the material present in the office matched the invetory list that was given to ADRA and to make sure that any other equipment or material that was sent to another project was noted down and accounted for in the inventory. There was also a lot of manual labor involved as you will see in the pictures. Over all it was a great learning experience and a fun activity.

We drove along the coastline and saw beautiful beaches and others that were kinda sketchy. We also saw buildings that had been damaged by the 2004 tsunami. It's amazing to see how high the waves must have been in order to create the kind of damage that I saw.

Initially God created man to "have dominion over all creation". In the book of Psalm we're told that humans, referred to as man, were made a little lower than the angels. We were created to have power over nature but because of our lack of wisdom in taking care of nature, we are suffering the consequences of an overpowering natural world. The sea just don't convey the same message to me that it did before the tsunami.