News from afar . . .

Occasionally on this blog I’ve posted amusing stories which I’ve been forwarded by Sister Anastasia.

Today, I thought I’d share something received recently from her of a more serious nature.

Sister Anastasia who is based in the capital Colombo, has recently been to the North of the Country to visit others of her community in the area and to see what progress has been made since the ‘end of the war’ and to assess the situation for herself.

I was moved by the letter she sent and thought I’d share a few extracts with you.

‘It was nearly a year after my last visit to Jaffna. On that occasion, the war was over in the east, and the Sri Lankan military was battling it out in the north. Late in the night we could still hear the thunder of artillery firing in the distance. There were hardly any visitors to Jaffna. The tension in the air was palpable and the people melted from the streets by 5 pm.

On this occasion when I visited Jaffna the war had been over more than four months. The streets had people on them well past 9 pm and the tension was much less with the sound of thunder being only caused by lightning . . . .

One of my purposes in travelling to Jaffna was to find out how life there had changed with the end of the war apart from being with the sisters.. The first encounters, however, were not favourable ones . . .

In a manner that was similar to the physical travails of travel to Jaffna, the outer appearances in Jaffna were also unfavourable. There was the appearance of a run down town with ramshackle roads and the fearful scars of past battles in the form of massive physical destruction of buildings.

On the positive side, conditions also have improved. There has been a reduction in the level of tension, and people feel more secure about their safety. The last time I went to Jaffna people showed me where someone had been shot and another had been abducted. That was a time of great tension when half a dozen or more such incidents could occur in a day. This had all stopped . . .

The resilience of people was to be admired with the Saraswathi pooja being celebrated the schools and the children had daylong programmes for a week. It was a happy time for them. Also catechetical day fell during my stay. All the young ones are being encouraged in many ways but one cannot forget the cloud that hangs over them from the past and the long awaited bright future.

So, some signs of hope at least, thanks be to God, but oh boy, doesn't it make you think? It's reading things like this that puts it all into perspective for me. How fortunate we are with not much more to complain about than the weather and the price of our weekly supermarket shop!

The photos above are of Holy Family Convent in Jaffna.