Shelters

Most of the areas provided for the IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps are pretty bleak and desolate. We will be doing our best to make them as comfortable as possible with whatever ideas we can come up with (and feel free to post any and all ideas you might have!), but it is a reason why the focus is now on getting as many people as possible back to their own land, with providing them with shelters there.





The materials for the shelters arrive by truck from Colombo, and are stored by the YMCA. All hands on deck when the truck arrives...





...though some "hands" are a little more intoxicated than others, and needing to be escorted from the premises for their own safety despite their drunken enthusiam to contribute.



Apparantly there was quite a drug and alcohol problem in the community immediately preceeding the tsunami. I guess not so hard to understand, when your world's been washed away. However, things have been improving, due in no small part to time itself, but hopefully also some of the community work and programs the YMCA and other NGOs are implementing... and perhaps even to our day to day interactions with the locals, who knows?