I did not go to Sri Lanka as planned in 2005. It was clear that the time was not right yet. So I continued to hold healing circles each month for about 6 months.
I arrived in Sri Lanka on Christmas 2006 morning - the day before the second anniversary of the tsunami. I immediately received clues that pointed me in the direction I was to go to find the kids I was supposed to work with.
On January 5, I was referred to the director of the Children's Resource Center (CRC) - an after-school program for kids who lost parents in the tsunami in Hambantota a severely affected area on the South East Coast of Sri Lanka. He invited me to a meeting in Colombo at which I could present my proposal to his boss, the Founder of CRC. To my surprise, this turned out to be Ashan Malalasekera, whose wedding I had been to a few weeks earlier!
I left for Hambantota by taxi the next morning - with Mr. Wanniaracchi (Wanni) the administrator hitching a ride with me. We had 6 hours to get acquainted, and discuss details of my project and the ins and outs of CRC.
I arrived late afternoon at the Peacock Beach Hotel that had been recently re-opened after being devastated by the tsunami, and booked a room for 10 days. The following morning I was picked up in a tuk-tuk (motorized tricycle) by Madhu -a young woman of 26 - the Psycho-Social Coordinator at CRC. In the mornings I was to train the staff who worked with the children. In the afternoon, I would observe and supervise them in the holistic self-care activities with the kids.
Each day of the five-day week during the school year a different group of 25 - 30 kids were picked up by bus from area schools and brought to CRC. First they would eat a free hot lunch of rice and curries - their main meal of the day and after-school activities: computers, English conversation, Arts and Crafts, sports and Leadership Activities. My Holistic Self-Care activities were a special offering which I hoped would catch on and become one of the regular activities of the program.
I invited all members of the staff who wanted to come to the morning staff workshops. I didn't expect that everyone from the Administrator, to the accountant, the cook and the bus driver would show up, but I was delighted that they were interested in learning holistic self-care practices.
I scheduled the workshops as follows:
Day 1: A simple visualization and breathing exercise to experience connecting to the energy of ones own heart and of the earth and the universe.
Day 2: Accessing and using energy for self-healing.
Day 3: Finger-holds for emotional healing.
Day 4: Creating Mandalas for the highest good and healing of oneself and all beings.
Day 5: I facilitated a self-healing workshop for parents who had lost spouses and family members.
On the weekend, I made home visits to meet the kids and their families in their homes.
Every morning before I went to work, I took a long walk on the beach - often chanting the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic to the winds and the sea, sending healing energy for myself, the entire country and all the areas in the Indian Ocean that had been devastated by the tsunami.
Having grown up in a westernized household in Colombo, this was my first real exposure to rural life, and actually speaking in Sinhala (my mother tongue) continuously for 10 days straight for the first time in my life. This was also my first experience of the predominant Buddhist culture of Sri Lanka.
As time passed, I was able to understand the meaning behind the experience. I realize now that this journey was the beginning of reconnecting to the roots I had severed when I left Sri Lanka for America. What followed over the next two years is a gradual healing of my root chakra issues - most notably a decrease of lower back pain /stiffness, arthritic hip and knee pain, and strengthening of leg muscles. In addition, I have made significant discoveries of my place in a lineage of traditional healers in Sri Lanka that I knew almost nothing about except for a few threads that we the keys to opening a window into my family's history via the rabbit hole of the internet. But that is not just a blog entry, but a book or a movie script at the very least.
The whole experience was full of unexpected joy, healing and blessing for me, and I am humbled and deeply grateful for the profound learning and insight I gained from it. This episode is part of a more involved healing story that I will share someday in another forum.
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