A Visit to Jaffna: 12th-17th April 2010  part 1

For most of our stay in Sri Lanka the northern city of Jaffna was cut off by the government as part of its plan to weaken the LTTE  by denying it supplies of material and people.  The people of Jaffna suffered many hardships in this time.  We were finally able to get a pass to travel in April and, even better, to take our own vehicle - a rare privilege for foreigners.  This sign, photographed on the way, shows the distance between Kandy, where we live, to Jaffna and also the distance to Mullativu where the war finally finished.  Mullativu is still strictly out of bounds. Here is the Welcome Arch to Jaffna.  The roads were not too bad but nowhere near as smooth as they now are in much of the rest of the country.

We saw many ruins of buildings and homes destroyed during the war.  How long does it take a ruin to become picturesque?  This government office has been a ruin for thirty years.

To the south of the Jaffna peninsular are a series of islands joined by long causeways.  There are many cows wandering around these under-populated areas. In the war years, only the cows remained in some areas and now they are in reality wild cattle.

We were taken around the island area by Jegathas and visited a Methodist Church in Allapidy to hear some of the stories of the people there.  Many had returned from the camps for internally displaced people.  They are all trying to scrape a living from what looked like very thin soil.

The symbol of the Jaffna area is the Palmyrah tree.  The leaves are used to make roofs and fences, the fruit is eaten, the oil is used for cooking and the wood is used for construction. 

Here we see Palmyrah trees that were on the wrong end of an artillery barrage a long time ago.

 Here we see bullet holes above the door to a Methodist Church.

It is likely that our pass to Jaffna was made easier by the fact that the Methodist Church had organised a prayer convention there.  We  joined  their Peace march which went through the town centre.

Wednesday late afternoon April 14th 2010

A  Methodist Church in Jaffna, St. Luke's. Putur

Sue Palmer worked in the Hospital attached to this Church (2002-5)

Click here for photos of the students we visited in Jaffna.

 

 

 

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