TSUNAMI DIARY: First stop today was an orphanage for the mentally and physically disabled in Galle, Sri Lanka. I was delighted to find a fellow Irish person working in the medical centre there, especially on St Patrick's Day. Of the 101 children who used to live there, 42 were killed by the tsunami.
Some of those we saw today are new to the orphanage.
There was one old woman in particular who has been severely affected by the disaster and, despite not having any physical ailments, talks about nothing else except "the big waves".
Another older woman, who speaks good English and is in a wheelchair, was sitting by a sewing machine.
Laid on the table were colourful threads, a couple of pairs of tights of various colours, and some wires. We sat and watched her as she made petals by bending the wire into an oval shape, wrapping them with light pink nylon from the tights, and tying about five of them together. The end result was a beautiful pink flower with a yellow centre which she gave to one of the volunteers.
Recently the orphanage has been bringing in a small therapy dog for the blind, deaf or withdrawn. As we entered, on the left hand side a man, about 30, sat on the floor, wrapped around a chair.
He didn't move once in the three hours we were there. The administrator informed us that he calls himself the security guard. He did not react to touch or sound, in complete contrast to the faces and actions of the other residents who were overly excited by our presence.
Some of the smaller children gathered around when they saw me using my digital camera. They were fascinated by the fact that they could see themselves on the small screen once I had taken the photo. One of the small boys took my sunglasses off my head and strutted around with his hands on his hip.
At about 10.30 the children are brought into the school hall where they paint and learn some English.
We headed to a smaller building, which we were asked to clean up. Inside were old metal cots, bed pans, tyres and rubbish of all descriptions.
With our work gloves on we dragged out all of these items to the front, in splintering heat, and managed to clear the entire three rooms of rubble and dirt.
At one stage I picked up a pile of items which revealed a foot sticking out of the rubbish, causing much panic but it turned out to be a prosthetic foot, one of many that we found. Some other nice surprises waiting for us in there were two rats and lots of cockroaches.
I had told the other volunteers earlier that cockroaches were my pet hate, so one of the girls decided that rather than tell me about the pests inside, I should find out for myself. What a lovely experience!