Sam and I travel to Payagala in a hired van. The last time we went there the driver- Bandara was reluctant to even charge us our fare because of the work we were doing.
The second time we went to Payagala Sanjay Gunaratne was our driver.
While chatting to him we found out that Sanjay is from Galle. Reluctantly he told us his family's story. Sanjay had not been home on December 26th, but his two aunts and parents had got caught in the flood. His parents had fled to the last room in the house and as the flood waters almost reached the ceiling his father had managed to grab his mother and make her cling to the ceiling beams. He had also had to 'fish' for her a couple of times when she could not hold on anymore. They both survived. One of his aunts perished when a wall collapsed on her.
Sanjay explained that it was hard for him to ask for any help because he seemed so much better off than his neighbours. When we told him that we understood his dilemma. We then asked if he needed anything he could not come up with a 'list' and seemed reluctant to do so anyway.
In the past few weeks we have realized that the tsunami victims we met are not used to handouts and that it is extremely difficult for them to accept them.
Sanjay's family lives off of his mother's pension as a school teacher. Since we felt that he and his family were caught in the middle-class category where they probably would receive no help at all we ended helping him out.
He promised to send us pictures of his re-built home.
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