Serving by all ways possible

After 3 days of tiring muscles, sweating bodies, and bruised and bloody fingers from building temporary houses we have seen the fruit grown from this labor. Through a series of extraordinary events we have seen our team of 4 US students and 1 US college professor complete 30 houses in 6 days.

A Sri Lankan commander stopped by the Morotuwa housing worksite asking " what could be done do move the process along" - even though we had only been on-site 3 days. I communicated the need for local help even at the cost of paying 1 dollar per day per worker, and the government constraint of not being able to use local workers because they are not skilled enough to build safe houses. At that point he made the decision that if the workers could not be gathered from the school and camp we are building for; that he would bring soldiers. The next day the campsite was changed! The 3 paid contractors were very upset because they get paid per day but at that point a process was determined and we have not looked back.

In a perfect example, we started showing the women to help by sorting wood and leveling panels. Then, after a failed attempt to hammer a nail into a panel, a village woman took the hammer and finished in 2 hits, less then the typical American 3 or 4. The next step of showing the other women was easy.

When the men returned around noon from fishing, they were quiet and looked a tad discontent. After watching the women for a few minutes a male village leader took one of the hammers from his wife, causing loud speaking from all the women. At the thought of female humiliation in front of his friends he retreated to using the electric saw, taught to him the day before.

Who would have thought women’s equal rights could be taught from the foreigner students.

Now we don't know if in the evening there was unrest in the camp. But if unrest existed, it would have been outweighed by the pride now displayed by the 52 families or 300 people living in the Morotuwa school house.

Since we have worked our way out of hands-on jobs in Morotuwa we will remain on site for a week or two to help where possible. We have been asked to work on a short term need for food and clothing sorting with a group that has just started. This may happen in the evenings, if we are not too exhausted. The team’s expertise in previous food distribution and the efficient American way is sure to raise question but show others another way of doing the same thing.