I’m just sitting here grinning like an idiot…

Today was the first really big distribution of tools to the carpenters at the Playground camp in Moratuwa. Finally, after all the price checking; visits to Pettah; ordering the bags and tools; sorting the tools; endless interviewing…just…everything! Our old friend, Bongo the Mazda van, came out of semi-retirement to get us and the tools to Moratuwa. It wouldn’t be a day with Bongo without car trouble, so he obligingly crapped out on us on our way to the Molpe temple. It was to be our first stop of the day, but Bongo had other ideas. Once we were underway again, we collectively made the executive decision to bag the temple visit and proceed forthwith to lunch at our favorite Sri Lankan buffet place. Hey, that’s why we get the big bucks! Simone wisely observed that since we were reunited with Bongo for the day, we should only do happy things, like give out tools.
We were able to distribute about forty sets of tools to the various family members in the camp. Our information gathering jaunts served us well and we came with a list of those people we wanted to receive sets of tools. Each set was signed for by either the carpenter him/herself, or a member of their family. We worked closely with the straw boss type leaders of the camp to ensure our efforts would not create a rift or conflict of any kind. You see, it’s difficult to arrive at a camp with something for only some of the survivors. Those who get nothing, feel left out and before we even indicated what we were going to do, we asked if this would present a problem. These are really great folks and they worked it all out amongst themselves. We now plan to follow up with more interviewing and as quickly as possible, help out those in different professions. Some will require more funding than others. For instance, there is a welder in the camp and we need to find out which type of welding he does; arc welding or oxy-acetylene. Either way, the funding needed to bring him up to speed will be greater than what we need for a bicycle repairman. Several of the women could work as seamstresses, and sewing machines are going to be more expensive for us to procure than the tools for a glazier. Our other goal as we move on to these other tradespeople, is to try to foster an atmosphere wherein they are incentivized to teach their trade to a young person in the camp.
The next step is to commission our carpenters to build vendor carts for the dozen plus would be vendors in the camp. These ubiquitous carts all have a basic design and materials list and can be modified with spidled racks to sell toys; tiered shelves for fruit and aluminum sheeting on the base and lights for fish vendors. (In all honesty, some fish vendors would do better without the added illumination.) I drafted plans and will provide the stuff they need directly to the carpenters.
I was trying to put some pictures here, but Blogger appears to be in cahoots with Bongo and has decided that I won't be uploading squat in the way of pictures this evening. Reminds me of something one of my profs once told me, "Don't anthropomorphize computers, they hate it." Whatever. I'll try again later, but it has wiped some of that silly grin off my face.
It was a great day and thanks go to all the volunteers who have come and gone who all helped in one way or another: Chris, Dani, Kyle, Phoebe, Nina, Deana, Dave, Shalina, Shane, (Shane's cousin, damn I wish I could remember his name) Luise, Kenney, Simone, Nikki, Jayantha, Linda, Christina, Maria and especially Lino, our own straw boss.