I arrived in the States for what was to be a two week stay at the end of July. The pace of my schedule while in the States was mandated by the brevity of my visit there. I am used to a fast-paced schedule, but this time it was less forgiving; after returning to Seattle following a series of meetings in the Bay Area, I collapsed with shortness of breath, and thought I had come down with a bad flu. Two days of trying to slug through it with over the counter medicine seemed to have no impact, and finally, with a soaring temperature, I went to UW Med Center where the doctor on call admitted me immediately after x-rays revealed double pneumonia.

The past several days are a blur, with today being the first opportunity to send out an email. I'm not yet fully recovered, but I'm working towards it. I have also decided the pace I have been running at both in Sri Lanka and in the States needs to somehow change; this is the second “wake up” call for me in less than 4 months… I need to start listening.

I'm not sure what the change in pace is going to look like as yet, but I will explore options that will ensure all the work we are involved in continues uninterrupted. Under normal circumstances, I am a good judge of when I am in overdrive too long; these days have been different with the urgency to complete the many tsunami related projects that carry significant impact. I will keep all of you informed of any changes to our current plans as I continue to work through this.

I want to tell those who have helped us worldwide by reaching out to a cause that is bigger than any one of us alone, but that together, we are seeing tremendous hope and progress. It is precisely that hope and progress that propels me and all of our team at AED to work tirelessly during this time; I will find a way that we can continue the pace, but hopefully one that does not extract quite so much from me in the process.

The distribution of new furniture and building materials took place in the Katugoda Village with my friend, Dr. Koen and his wife Ashanthi, who are from Brussels, Belgium. They have been helping in Sri Lanka with medical relief work in many of the affected villages, and have a special interest in the Kaguoda Village, so we invited them along.

Further, we broke ground on the new Safari Boys Village; the wall around the nearly 5 acre compound is starting to come up. This is very exciting, and we had a small ground-breaking ceremony with a large building team from Houston, Texas. They will be here for a week, and all appear very excited and willing to jump right in. One of the team members works for NASA in Houston, and brought special equipment to make contact with the International Space Station; some of the older children were able to communicate with the ISS.

Long day; went to a shanty on the edge of Colombo to hand out education materials to street kids. This is one of the steps we take before starting an AED school in marginalized communities. We did an assessment, and it was decided by our team that we will indeed attempt a school in this community. We did run across two children that have lost both parents; the aunty they are now staying with asked if we could take them; I would rather find a way to help her keep these boys with her, but the conditions are pretty bad; once the Safari Boy’s Village is completed, we should have room.

Today was quite exciting; the minister of parliament, the honorable Mahinda Amaraweera (he sent a helicopter to bring me to Colombo after my accident in March) came out to Samudra Sri to have lunch with the children. He also gave a very strong endorsement for AED, and the help we have been to the people of Sri Lanka during the tsunami relief efforts. We had previously given him one of our Tsunami Photo Journal books, that he apparently gave to the president of Sri Lanka, Mrs. Chandrika Bandaranayake Kumaratunga. She has apparently asked for more copies of the book to hand out to all members of parliament.

Today we were joined by Dr. Lesly a psychiatrist from Carmel, California, along with his wife Ruth who came to Sri Lanka to help assess AED’s work with traumatized children. They were introduced to me by Dave Bochen, a family therapist from Santa Cruz, California, who has been working with Assist International.

Dr Less and Ruth were a great help, and in fact are planning to return to Sri Lanka by the end of this year to do staff development training for AED. Further, Dave Bochen came up with a great model for our cabanas at the Safari Boy’s Village that utilizes his years of experience working with families and children.

Things have been fast and furious over the past several weeks; the team from the Seattle and San Francisco chapters of Engineers without Borders joined us, along with Seattle based engineer Donna Pacanovsky and a team from the Seattle chapter of Architects without Borders led by Robert Humble from Capital Hill. The engineers were led by Seattle based engineer, Chad Newton, along with San Francisco based engineers Brady Nadell, Mei Kuen Liu and E. Morley John.

The teams spent a great deal of time at the new location for the Safari Boy’s Village; all seemed excited, with ideas being shared about how to best utilize this land for the children that have lost so much and will soon be living there. Later, the engineers went down south to visit our school sites to begin preparation on designs that AED will implement for the schools destroyed by the tsunami.

Each day on the island appears to be busier than the day before. This morning I bid farewell to Dr. Robert Houlihan, president of Compassion Alliance, an NGO that has to date sent us 28 forty foot containers of relief supplies from the States and Australia; Bob—I just want to say once again how grateful we are for all that you have done for Sri Lanka—we wish your organization success as you continue facilitating emergency relief around the world.

Later this weekend we welcome the team of Engineers Without Borders from both the Seattle and San Francisco chapters; they will be with us for a couple of weeks assessing our rebuilding efforts and assisting us with technical advice, planning, and financial assistance. Joining the team will be several architects from Seattle led by Robert Humble, who is going to be spearheading the design team for the new Safari Boy’s Village.

The country has been thrown into somewhat of a political mess with the resignation of the JVP party this past week, leaving the president of Sri Lanka without the majority she needs to rule the country. There has been rioting in the streets of Colombo the past several days, and anxiety island wide appears significantly heightened. Today I saw the military and the police using water cannons and rubber bullets on the crowds of demonstrators.