Henry Warren from Braga, Portugal My two daughters and I with Shantha and Ramani and their children Hello, My wife and our two daughters were having breakfast with Shantha and his family when the tsunami hit us on December 26th 2004. My youngest daughter, Ana Luisa, would not be alive today if Ramani had not picked her up and ran with her to safety. My wife Ana, elder daughter Katarina and I did not think so quickly and we were carried away by the waves. We were separated and only met up with each other again many hours later at the hospital in Ranna. Shantha and Ramani found us there and brought our Ana Luisa with them. We were overcome with gratitude as you can imagine, as we had thought we had lost her. Conditions were not that good at the hospital so Shantha took us all to Ramani's brother's house in Ranna for the night along with an Israeli couple, who were staying in the next cabana to ours. Ana, Katariina and the Israeli couple, Roie and Hila, were quite badly injured and needed treatment at a more sophisticated hospital that had x-ray facilities. Ramani's brother offered to take us to the hospital in Embilipitiya, 100 or so kilometers away, which he did the next day. Shantha came along with us and didn't leave until he knew that we were being attended to. If you would like to read a fuller version of this click on http://www.bugbog.com/travel_stories/travelogue/sri_lanka_tsunami.html When we returned to Portugal, we like many others, became involved in collecting money for those who had suffered in the tsunami. I returned to Sri Lanka in April 2005 when we bought the land on which Shantha's new house now stands. We also helped financially with rebuilding Shantha's New Sunshine Café and the cabana. We all came back to Sri Lanka as a family a year after the tsunami. We wanted to say thank you to Shantha and Ramani and see how the rebuilding work was going on. The house still had some way to go, but the the New Sunshine Café and cabana had more or less been completed and was ready to open. Unfortunately, hostilities with the Tamil Tigers started once again and Shantha has had few people staying since then. Now the conflict is over and Sri Lanka is a safe place to travel. He hopes that the travellers and tourists will return, which is why we have helped him put this website together.  My two daughters, Katarina and Ana Luisa, with Peppi and Asalya Shantha and Ramani are good and hospitable people. Conditions are not the same as a three star hotel, but I don't think you are coming to Sri Lanka to stay in posh hotels. You want to see something of Sri Lanka, its culture and its people. You could not do better than stay with Ramani and Shantha. They are a wonderful couple and have two playful and mischievous children, who you will adore. Ramani's mother, who you are sure to meet, is the grandmother we all wish we had. She will for sure tell you that you are looking thin and need to eat more rice. Have a jolly good stay. Scott from Los Angeles, USA  With Peppi and Asalya One day I will write a story about Shantha and his family - at least more words than the following account. He is quite a character, an old friend, and his family is very dear to me. But for now, just a few paragraphs.... I first met Shantha in 1991; little did I know I would be meeting him 15 years later, working to help tsunami survivors like him recovery. Back in 1991, Shantha, like me, had a very different life that what was to become. I was on my way back from India to Thailand, before I ended my walkabout back to Taiwan, (where I was living and working at the time). Backpack and sandals, I headed south, in search of that elusive beach, empty of tourists and filled with sand, surf, and open sky. I found it on the southern tip of Sri Lanka, in Tangalla. Shantha and his mother ran a small, two cabana guesthouse. About the same age as me, he and his buddies was into Bob Marley, as was I, and I spent some good days connecting with him. I remember helping to paint a sign for his café, “Sunshine Café.” I left Asia in autumn ’92, and began graduate school at UCLA in ’93. As my life evolved, I kept in touch with Shantha, and his life evolved too. He got married to Ramani, and had a daughter, Peppi, and then another, Asalya. I used to mail them a box every year or so, filled with discarded items, like walkmans, cameras, purses, shoes, that I knew would have a lot of value for them over there. Shantha sent me pictures of his family, and the guesthouse operation, which they moved further east to an even less traveled and more spectacular coastline (in Ranna). The guesthouse grew to three cabanas and a fine café, right next to the beach under the shade of the palm trees. It looked like paradise, but with my life as busy as it was, I did not know when I could find the time or money to make it out there to visit Shantha again and meet his family. The tsunami swept everything Shantha and Ramani had build away. Everything with the exception of that which is most important; his family thankfully survived, as well as the family staying at the guesthouse from Portugal, as well as the couple from Israel. But it was close. Luckily Ramini whisked away the younger children (including one fro the Portuguese family) to high ground at the first sign of danger (very indicative of this woman’s incredible role at holding the family together with her quiet yet firm wisdom, resolution, and love). The others got swept away by the water into the lagoon – first the flood of the initial wave, then the crash of the larger, second wave. I never really expected to be visiting Sri Lanka again, but in autumn 2005 I found myself working for the Tsunami Recovery Program (TRP) of the American Red Cross. In November I did my first work trip to Indonesia, and in January, 2006, my first trip to Sri Lanka. Thus, after 15 years I met Shantha again, and his family for the first time. It was rough for them when I first showed up. Certainly they were better off than many of the survivors, rebuilding their home and life with support from the connections with “foreigners” (like me). But everything was indeed swept away. Imagine having everything you build suddenly washed away – not just the “things” but the whole life that went with it. Everyone has their tsunami survival and recovery story, but I had front row seats for Shantha and his family. In my 3 years working with TRP, one year with work trips to Sri Lanka from Washington DC, and another two years based in Sri Lanka, I regularly visited with Shantha and his family. In a way, I adopted them, and they adopted me. It was easy. I was going through significant changes in my personal life, following a sudden divorce that left me feeling uprooted and afloat, as if a wave had come in and washed away the home and lifestyle I had build. Shantha’s family, the laughter of the two girls, the ever-patient love of Ramani, offered me a beautiful reminder of what is important in life. Many of the pictures on this site are memories from my time spent with Shantha’s family. Ramani and Shantha would cook the most delicious meals when I visited them, often with the help of Ramani’s mother if she was around. Shantha and I would swim in the rough ocean, playing in the waves. The beach was pristine, not even pollution to be seen, and an lovely lagoon drained down into it at one end of the beach, where we would often go swimming in the calm, warm water with the girls. Several times they came up to my apartment in Colombo – a 7 hour trip. I remember the first time the girls ever got in an elevator to go up to my 6th floor apartment; their eyes big with curiosity, and Peppi wanted to push the elevator buttons. We had a lot of fun, and I miss my Sri Lankan family dearly. I want to go back and visit some day soon. |
