"I read about the tsunami devastation and the HelpSriLanka.us Foundation in the Star Tribune," she said, "and Nelson and I had a tug in our heart to go.  I called the number and originally they wanted a month's commitment, but that length of time would never work out for us.  Then Evan called before Christmas and said we could go for just two weeks."

Evan Balasuriva, the founder of HelpSriLanka.us Foundation and a resident of Minnesota, conducts trips for relief efforts on the Asian island, his former home.  Until 1998 he owned the Sri Lanka Curry House in Minneapolis.

"Evan has built 58 homes in this village called Deewara," said Audrey.  "It has a population of 400 with 120 of them being children.  Evan has been there eight times.  We sent letters out and helped him raise money to build the houses."
Audrey explained that Evan has three phases of work in that village - to build homes, educate the children, and empow-er the women to improve themselves by making and selling crafts and acquiring an income.  Clayton told how women are making whisks out of straw for brooms, for 35 cents a day.
"A lot of the men are absent," Audrey explained.  "Many men are involved with alcohol, drugs, or jail.  Some of the guys will make it though.  We met some of them!"
Said Audrey, "Evan pays for the village children to take English classes and swimming lessons."  Nelson pointed out, "They were afraid of the water after the tsunami." 

Sri Lanka has a population of 20 million. About 70% are Buddhist, many of them living in the south and west, speaking the Sinhalese language.  About 20% are Muslim, Christian, or Hindu, many of them living in the north and east, speaking the Tamil language.

"When we first got there I smelled burning trash," said Clayton.  "There were lots of bad smells.  I was thinking that I'd never make it a full two weeks."
"The tsunami went three to four miles inland," said Audrey, "so it affected a vast area of the island.  We could see the water damage lines across the land.  There were piles of rubble and gutting from the wrecked old houses.  You could see the houses had been makeshift, weathered, old corrugated material.  They are not wealthy people."
"It takes $3,000 to build a new house," reported Clayton.  "That's with no electricity.  Then you still have to paint and plaster and put in the cement floors."
"Only a couple of the homes in the village had bathrooms - which are holes in the floor," said Audrey.  "The rest don't even have the holes in the floor.  Yes, sometimes I had to use them out of neces-sity.  Our hotel had regular running water and facilities, although we only drank bottled water.  It was actually a 200-year old governor's palace.  We stayed there for safety reasons more than anything.  The country is involved in a civil war.  There's very much of a military presence."
"They are very poor and have very little," she said.  "They were ecstatic about little gifts that we brought them from the dollar aisle at Target."
Said Nelson, "They are the nicest people I've ever met.  They always greet-ed us and smiled."
Said Clayton, "We met this one girl, Nimna, who goes to bed at 7:30 so she doesn't get hungry.  Evan said that some people go for a couple days without food, and that people in town help them."
"The people have great teeth because there is no processed food or candy," said Audrey.  Food basics on the island include rice, coconuts, tea, and various other fruits and vegetables.
"We fed 20 people for only $5," ex-claimed Clayton.  His mother said the featured item of that particular meal was egg hoppers.  She explained the food novelty consists of large crepes with fried eggs rolled up inside of them.
Continued Clayton, the boy who flipped the coin to stay home in Victoria, "You can't describe with words how happy the people are.  I was shocked to see how happy they are.  You'd think they would be depressed because they're so poor.  They don't have TV so the kids have become one of three things -- dancers or draw-ers or singers."
"We did get a chance to connect with the people," agreed Audrey.  "They're just like us but happen to have been born in poverty.  It's the cards they were dealt, and then they still get hit with a tsunami."

It was a small group of only five people that traveled to Sri Lanka from January 26^th to February 7^th, 2007.  Besides Audrey, Nelson, and Clayton from Victoria, and Evan from Minne-apolis, there was Peter Maeck, a freelance writer from Boston who is collaborating with Evan on a book about the relief effort. 
The 30-hour flight from Minneapolis to Sri Lanka included layovers in Newark and Frankfurt.  The island, which is locat-ed at the southeast tip of India, is only 150 miles wide and 240 miles long.

"There was an arrest warrant for Evan as we arrived," said Audrey, "so we spent a whole week helping him get rid of the warrant.  Basically, as I said, there's a civil war in Sri Lanka and they work off bribes.  Evan had gone to the military for protection instead of to the police, so the police didn't get bribe money."

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