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A Visit to Vavuniya, 19-21 February 2010, including TCL Sunday


TCL Sunday sees groups of Faculty and students head off around the island to conduct Sunday services and fly the TCL flag. This year we went to Vavuniya in the north, the town around which the camps for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) were created in the last phase the war a year ago. From left to right: Rosemary, Rukshi, Chithrika (a member of the office staff who has never been to the north or east), Athiskaran, Rohan, David, Pradeep, James. Friday afternoon February 19th 2010.	The road north (A9) was very good until a few kilometres south of Vavuniya. This is the furthest north we have ventured and a year ago it would have been impossible to get here and very dangerous. On Friday 19th we weren't stopped at any checkpoints at all - a simple fact that speaks directly of an improving security situation. We were hosted by Rev. Ravishankar, the Methodist minister, and his wife Naomi who looked after us all very well. We tried to drive north of Vavuniya to visit another Methodist Church but were stopped at a checkpoint at Omanthai. As foreigners we needed a special pass to go any further. As James was driving most of us l had to return to Vavuniya while Ravishankar and one of our students continued the journey on a motor bike..

To the west of Vavuniya is the Ramanathan IDP camp in the Menik Farm area. We visited here on Saturday morning February 20th. Here about 85,000 people are said to be living. This photograph shows the bus stop outside the main gate (to the right. We were advised not to take pictures of the camp itself. When we eventually got passes into the Camp our phones and cameras were all taken. See our newsletter (March 2010) for more.	At the bus stop a large number of people were waiting for one of the free buses to take them into Vavuniya where many hoped to find casual work or trade in some simple items. Some traded in local produce and some in relief supplies that were surplus to requirements - some rice, razors, sanitary towels.

Here are some traders from the camps in a street in Vavuniya. We all did some shopping here. The area is closely supervised by the local police but the trading is all above board and a certain area is assigned for it.	Another group from TCL was visiting the Anglican church in Vavuniya. We joined them to visit the mother of one of the students, Sutha, who had been released from a camp a few months ago. She now lives in a room in a friend's house and helps her friend farm an acre and a half of land. The house was not big enough to hold the two groups. They were very generous and fed as all with cake, local sweets and tea.

On the Sunday the students led worship in the Methodist Church in Vavuniya. This included a short drama.	Rosemary preached in English - her one Tamil sentence learnt from Rukshi was apologising for not speaking Tamil! The Reverend Ravi translated into Tamil.

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