Hi,

It’s been while and I didn’t know that you have revamped your site very nicely :-)
Been so busy that got no time to browse it all up. And you didn’t reply to the mail
I’ve got from you last time..

R
Chan
http://www.dreamsmademe.com

I am desperately trying to find out if my friend Ianthe De Alwis and her family at 160 Inner Flower Road, Kollupitiya are OK after the tsunami. Ianthe’s parents are named Mendis and live at 119 Inner Flower Road.
I am in Cairns, Far North Queensland, Australia.

Indi,
We have lapsed in our staying in touch, but I just want you to know how relieved I am to hear you are ok. My family and I are making a donation to the red cross, but wish there were other things we could do. I send my love, missing you very much.
Becky (in washington, D.C.)

hey indi…have been thinking of you constantly, hoping you’re ok, so as soon as I had a chance, checked your website and had a huge sigh of relief….but still, it’s really devastating, everything i have seen on the news and i can’t imagine being as close to it as you are, but am happy to hear you’re ok….
what are people doing? how do you even begin to pick your life up after something like this…after losing everything, i keep seeing people that are the sole survivors in their family. i’m speechless.
am now living in brussels, am going to go to sri lankan embassy and see what i can do, unfortunately not in a position to help financially, but certainly have time and care to donate.

like i said, i’m speechless.
take care
lexie
xo

Dear Indi,

I visited Sri Lanka twice, once in 94 once in 99. Both times I loved it. The first time I went on my own, on my parents’ recommendation – they still speak of their stay at Arugambay with affection – the second time with my wife. I travelled the usual tourist circuit: Colombo, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Sigiriya, Dambulla, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Ella, Buduruvagale, Galle, Bentota and back to Colombo. Wherever I went I was struck by the kindness, dignity, courtesy of the people I met – doubly so in the country side, in spite of the evident material poverty of many. It all made the state of war in the North and East seem incredible. I remember those trips as two of the most enriching of my life.

Now this dreadful tsunami has destroyed so much and caused so much suffering. I think your site, documenting events from near to the stricken areas and your pointer to an established local charitable organisation who can and are working directly to alleviate the problems of the people there are excellent. I hope the worst fears for the future, relating to the lack of drinking water and other basic resources, will prove to be unfounded or at least less bad than now seems.

My thoughts with all the poor people struck by this disaster.
Amenon

There will be other, perhaps non-obvious problems. For example asbestos contamination from construction materials. People will need safety and medical advice.

Hi Indie,
When we heard the news we immediately thought of you and your family and called Shannon. We were so grateful too hear you were ok. Every day the news is hard to comprehend, I can’t imagine how the people keep their spirits up. We are so fortunate to have so much. Our family is making a contribution to Catholic Charities to help those hit from the tsunami. Keep up your endeavors . Our thoughts are with your homeland.
Jennifer

Dear Indi,
After reading your recent post-ups, I was relieved to find out that you and your family were unharmed. It seems like things are on the way to organizing itself from what seemed like hell only a few days ago. I am truly amazed by what you are doing amidst all of the chaos. I hope for the best for you and your loved ones. Please take care.
Aki

hello my special indi

i am merit and sarah’s buckley’s mom and enjoyed meeting you at graduation!!! you and all the survivors of this horrific disaster are in my daily prayers. i live in a tiny house in holliston massachusetts and the when merit moved her stuff in from montreal, she tucked a small banner (flag?) that s says sri lanka in the closet..so i have thought of you on many occasions over the past year..

i will donate to the site that you mention.

you are blessed with all the wonderful friends from mcgill…

i will visit your site for updates.

fondly,
ali walsh

Hi Indi
Tamil rehabilitation Organization (TRO) is a front organization for LTTE which is designated as a terrorist group by UN and countries like USA, India and Malasiya. Please take their name from your web site. If you need more info please visit CIA, Canada Intelegence agency, Canada Mackenzy Institute websites or contact me.
Thank You
Sam

If you want to donate to the TRO do it, their website is at http://www.troonline.org. If you look at Sarvodaya’s Interactive Map you’ll see that they have handed over most relief responsibilities to the TRO in the north.

The North-East is controlled by the LTTE. If you do not interact with the LTTE those people will not get any aid at all. I have no particular affection for the LTTE. They’ve killed off any Tamil opposition including the great and peaceful Neelan Tiruchelvam. However, they are the ones providing aid in the North-East, often more competently than the Sri Lankan government.

I am not qualified to tell anybody anything about this thorny issue. Do your research and try to help people.

Hey Indi,

I’m glad to see you and you’re family is okay! Good luck with everything.

Thinking of you,

Leah

Hi Indi,

Thanks a lot for your wonderful services your work makes a huge difference becasue of the updates and photos. I sent $500 donation to Sarvodaya directly with help of some kind people here about a week ago through the paypal (probably you setup) and I am planning to give more financial support independently and with help of others as well.

My name is Vishaka Smith I was born and raised in Sri Lanka. Now, me, my husband, and our son live in Seatttle, Washington State, USA. We are planning to visit Sri Lanka for a couple of weeks on Jan. 17 to visit my family and take part in the relief efforts. We are also planning to gather information and photos of orphans and other children/people who need help desperately.

I saw the comments posted in the orphanage page and would like to find out whether you could forward my information to the people who are responding to the orphanage webpage so that if they decide they could contact me or could you forward their info to me so that I can get in touch with them to make this effort more comprehensive. Or I could take responsibility of networking with people in USA who are interested in helping the orphans. My e-mai is vishakaws@hotmail.com

Thanks again for your kindness!

Hi Indi,

Phew — so glad that you’re ok!! (Not that I imagined you’d be living on the beach, but one never knows!) I really like the site you created for Sarvodaya.

We’re all missing you here in Montreal, Indi. You were – for sure – our favourite “office geek”!! Keep in touch….

Snowy hugs & icey double-cheeked mtl. kisses,
jane (nicholls)

Hi Indi:

Your blog is very well put together. Did you design it yourself or did you get professional help? I am trying to build my own blog but the Typepad designs are pretty ulgy overall. How would you recommend giving it a makeover? Dreamweaver? I’m especially interested in how you made two columns for your posts and how you developed the preview paragraph.

I am a bit of a web publishing newbie but I did sign up for Typepad Pro, so I can use advanced templates.

Thanks
Mike

hi,my name is sara sadrolashrafi i am student in last term of irrigation drainage engineering and i’d like to continue my field in malasiya in putra university i was searching abt water resource managment that i see ur blog .wish u the best.
sara

Dear Jit,
A friend and I are organizing a gift for Rosemary Conroy’s retirement and are asking former students to e-mail memories, conratulations, best wishes , photos for us to bind and present to her. I hope you can participate. She would love to hear from you.
Thanks, Carolyn

Hey Indi,

Maybe U are born in Canada. But that doesn’t give U any God given power to underestimate, Sri Lanka. May be U can sympothise a terrorrist propogandist, like Tharaki. But as people both born & living in Sri Lanka we know too much about the LTTE terror. I don’t know if U R a Buddhist or not, but please try to pay some respect to a Buddhist monk. Don’t think of them as people with mental problems. U don’t even seem to know the difference between Facism, Communism & Death Metal. Probably Wimal doesn’t listen to Death Metal and he is no Facist. Maybe it is O.K for a rich boy like U to private Uni.s R O.K, but remember majority of students in Sri Lanka are poor, they can’t afford them. Remember the web isn’t really the world, why don’t U just go outside and C what real Sri Lanka is. It seems taht U gotta lot to know about our country.

u gonna respond to this indi? i look fwd to reading ur response… hope u oblige.. :)

this lady needs to be pointed in the direction of my blog and my post ‘the freedom of blog-spression’ too, it seems.

and god how i hate it when people write ‘u’ and ‘c’…i mean how lazy can you get? its just three letters each in both words…-y–o-u, and s-e-e….and ‘r’…a-r-e is just three letters too.

ps – indi, just as a point of information. you actually have your mobile phone number down here. has that been ok? people havent been making a pain of themselves?

why Electra did u just call me a ‘lady’.. lol… thank U..

and just so u no.. i cudnt give a fuck that u prefer ‘you’ and ‘see’ and ‘are’ to u and c and r… freedom of blog=spression and all.. i dont need to read ur long winded article thanks v much :)

savithri – i was not referroing to you in that comment at all. either by saying i hate the ‘c’s and the ‘u’s, or by saying lady. i was referring to that thulitha abaywardena who had a lot to say about certain topics that indi chose to blog about. if you had maybe taken the time off to read my comment thoroughly, you may have noticed that there was no way on earth that it was addressed to you, or your comment. i couldnt give a fuck if you went on some long winded assumption about who i was trying to diss either, but its only a little annoying when you mistake it to be you when its totally NOT. try not to flatter yourself so much. :)

again ELECTRA… give it a rest woman.. :) ur way too LOUD !!

um, all right, that’s the end of comments here. If you want to contact me just email me.