Lost and found.........in Batticaloa

Hello reader, remember me?

Sorry, but Internet access here is a little sporadic so I am not able to keep you up with all the latest news from Batti as regular as I would like.

Those of you from Uni, who appear to have created a new commune in Kabul, from what my spies tell me!!!!! will be pleased to know I have tracked down Steve. He is alive and well and lording it up, here in Batti. He has the biggest desk and chair I have ever seen complete with his own computer with Internet access , his own car and house and is THE BOSS.

Me, jealous, heck sure I am as we sweat in our office, queue up to use the only computer in the TRO and go back to our dingy room (with no windows) in the back of a pickup truck!!!

So, other than that what has been happening. I went down to Ampara earlier in the week. Unfortunaltey, there was a Hathal (strike) by the Tamils for 2 days, due to a little misunderstanding between the Tigers and the Army, which happened to coincide with our visit. Ampara is pretty tense at the best of times, but with the remains of the burnt out tyres in the roads, the heavy army presence and numerous roadblocks/checkpoints we had an interesting journey. Fortunately for us a smile and a European face helps at the checkpoints and we got no real grief.

The road along the coast is very badly damaged and bridges have had emergency repairs and tend to be very narrow, only for 1 way traffic.

Went to 3 IDP camps and spoke a lot to the people down there.

On a lighter note, the boss at TRO is President of the local "Flying Fish" footie team. anmd we were invited to join the practice last night. The practice was at the Weber Stadium and we had a load of fun. Unfortunately I had no boots so played barefoot, which was OK on the grassy bits, but pretty painful on the gravel and stones. The teams consisted of a number of Army players so, as ever, there was a heavy army presnece complete with Kalashnikovs etc. We were searched on the way in, but the moment of the day was right at the end. Yours truly was playing at lefft back, marking the right winger. Unbeknown to me a couple of soldiers (fully armed) had begun to walk onto the pitch behind me to declare the game over. Now, as you know I am quite heavy and Sri Lankans are quite small, so when my winger made a run down the line I turned and in full flight bowled straight into a fully armed soldier knocking him flat to the floor!!!!

Fortunately he saw the funny side of it (as did the rest of the platoon!!) and we alkl escaped with our lives after picking hikm up and dusting him down.

Not much else to report, have heard from Paola and she is stuck down south in a place I can't pronounc, but apparently saying there are 2 dogs and a cat may be overstating the population.

Dear old CAFC have managed to squeeze a last gasp equaliser against Ciy and, for those of you who understand, I am becoming an expert at hovering!!! For those of you who don't, don't ask.

I now have a project to work on, which is also good news, except I was thinking of leaving here this week to go to Kilinochchi, so I will see how it goes, but TRO has signed a deal with the Govt for Communal buildings in 37 coastal villages, and they need some help sorting out the Project.

Nothing else to report, how is Sudan, wee lassie and I haven't heard from lara, is she in Uganda???

BFN