The Third Wave_ A Volunteer Story - Alison Thompson [29]
During our first week in Peraliya, the Sri Lankan trade and commerce minister, Mr. Jerarj Fernandoupulle, visited our camp to examine the tsunami damage. He said that he had been all over the country and that this was the worst area. He inspected our camp and then sat talking with us in our fly-infested hospital. Jerarj said he was impressed with our camp structure and gave us his blessing to continue running the show. He then gave us his private cellphone number and told us to call him if we needed anything. If things got stuck in customs, one call to Jerarj and the problem would be solved. Oscar loved the guy and referred to Jerarj as our godfather. The minister even assigned policemen to the village, saying they would watch over the villagers and the volunteers. Jerarj was a great man who crossed the line from official to volunteer. Throughout our time in Peraliya, he made regular trips to the village, which we always appreciated.
Every day, I would be greeted by cats and dogs that jumped all over me, anxious for a feed. Pregnant cats walked around with no food in their tummies and puppies looked like walking skeletons. They were my new friends, yet they were slowly starving to death. Each morning, I would stop on the way to the village to get them food, and I’d administer eye drops to the cats that had lost their eyes.
In that part of the world, animals were typically beaten to death by rocks and treated atrociously. I once came across a small child who had kicked a puppy to death just for the fun of it. The locals had behaved that way for generations; it was nothing new to them. But I loved and fed the animals, and soon I had a tribe of loyal subjects following me everywhere. Some of the dogs were vicious junkyard animals that had been beaten by people their whole lives. All they needed was a kind, loving hand, and soon they were purring at my side like kittens. They became great guard dogs, too, since nobody would dare go near them.
One shaggy dog in particular stole my heart. I named her “Tsunami” at first, but that didn’t turn out very well. Every time I called her, the villagers would start running in fear. I changed her name to Tsunami-dog, spoken really fast. She was possibly the sickest being I had ever come across. When we met, Tsunami-dog was extremely underweight and had mange, worms, parasites, bleeding ears, fleas, and just about every other thing wrong with her. But once you got past the revolting exterior, she had a perky personality, and we grew more in love every day. She had a permanent smile on her face. I located a vet to give her injections, and her coat slowly grew back. Soon, she was even cute.
Tsunami-dog followed me everywhere, not just for food but also for companionship. We went for walks on the beach and cuddled in front of the hospital, and she spent many hours humping my leg. At night, when I left Peraliya, she would run after my motorbike. In the morning, she was there to greet me at the front gate. She loved me unconditionally.
However, I often wondered if she would have been better off without me because after I had cleaned her up, she became quite the village tart. Every dog in the village wanted to have sex with her, leading to many difficult pregnancies.
Upon awakening one morning, I noticed that one of my kittens was missing. I found out that some of the villagers had cooked her up in a pot for dinner. This wasn’t customary, but they were very hungry. The village people had no food or money and were too scared to go back onto the ocean to fish. Clearly the food we were providing wasn’t enough. Earlier on in my emails, I had prayed for angels to come help us. Now I prayed for everyone in the world to come to our village.
In late January, James