The current tour diary is at http://childrensworld.pbwiki.com

Arabella has just sent this message:

Peat has spent another 17 days in Sri Lanka at the invitation of IOM who were running a Children's Festival in Batticaloa. Peat did lots of shows and games sessions around Batti and also up north around Jaffna, and also made lots of useful new contacts for the Autumn Tour, which was great. He is just writing up his diary.

We should get the diary on line soon.

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I think the tour was a complete success. We made contacts, have a better understanding of the situation cultures/religions, and likely problems that may be encountered. Even the mistakes we made and problems we met on this tour are good, as now that we are aware of them, we can work on minimising them on the next tour.

I've yet to add up the number of shows, games, children reached etc, but I am not disappointed, neither do I believe that our backers will be disappointed.

I am now intending to spend a week or so in contemplation; then I will write up my report which I hope will be placed here on the web site.

I'd like to finish this diary by thanking CIRCUS 2 IRAQ (also known as BOOMCHUCKER CIRCUS) for their financial and moral support, without which my part in this tour might not have been possible, and MOHAN who first sugested the idea of a mini recce tour and without whose practical on the ground help we could not have reached half the number of children that we did.

I would also like to show my respect for the indigenous volunteers in numerous local N.G.O.'s who have put their own trauma to one side so as to help children, and the hard work and dedication of western people such as M.C. and David Innes. Many of them are new to this type of work, many have been shocked and shaken by events surrounding the Tsunami. All of them have shown a dedication to their work that far exceeds exspectations. They have my full respect.

I'd also like to thank you for taking the time to read this diary, and ask you to spend a few more minutes looking around our web site at the other interesting projects of our sister charity CHILDREN'S WORLD, whose 25 years of knowledge and expertise is fully available to the CWI team.

Finally, I'd like to send my condolences to Indonesia, the site of the latest earthquake. I have friends in N.G.O.'s who are based out there and whose safety I have so far been unable to ascertain. It is my sincere hope that this is because they are too busy with emergency work, or because of damaged and busy phone lines etc. For now, I must wait, cross my fingers and remind myself that in this type of work, no news is good news.

<B>Note (December 2005): This web journal is being bombarded with advertising in the guise of comments. Please disregard. The offending entries are removed as often as possible.</b>

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Wednesday 30 March

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I arrived back in the UK tired and jet-lagged. Because I've been travelling for several days on the trot, I haven't been able to charge up my phone, so I couldn't enter the contacts section to retrieve the phone numbers of people such as Bella (who is France temporarily) or my girlfriend, to let them know I was home safe and sound. Luckily my sister-in-law works at Gatwick so I was able to inform my family, and I had the phone number of our head office in my head, so I left a message on the answer phone, requesting that they call Bella and let her know that I was back in the UK and that the Mini-Tour was safely and successfully completed.

In Columbo I met up with our good friend Mohan Samarasinhe of the Child Development Foundation who had so kindly accompanied Bella and me on our journey along the south coast, rang family, Bella in England, and my girlfriend, etc., to reassure them that I was OK. (There had been a Tsunami alert during the night - due, I later learnt to an earthquake in Indonesia.) I could not do this before as there was no signal on my phone.

I then spent the day shopping, holding phone meetings and debriefings with various local and international N.G.O.'s, and sitting in a large park with huge trees, from which hung thousands and thousands of large bats.

Shortly before I was due to head for the airport, I was contacted by the country office of I.O.M. They asked if I could meet with them in the next couple of days to speak about the idea of me returning to Sri Lanka for the Childrens Festival they will be running in May. Because of my flight leaving later this evening, we were unable to meet and I asked them to contact Bella via e-mail as Children's World International is interested in the idea as long as IOM can cover at least some of the costs. I feel very pleased that their head office contacted me - it shows just how successful the contact-making side of this Mini-Tour has been.

Eventually my time was up, and I had to head to the airport and my flight home. I flew with Quatar airlines, one of the best I've ever used, and spent the flight in quiet contemplation of the last few weeks.

Monday 28 March (Easter Monday)

Monday morning was spent running around town and meeting with the Trincomalee division of Child Vision. I got the feeling that the Batticaloa division had spoken to them about Children's World International's work - always a good sign. They asked to take me to a camp that afternoon - I willingly agreed and arranged to meet them at my hotel at 3p.m.

At 2-30 my translator, Antony, arrived and told me that he has arranged for a tuk-tuk to pick us up at 3 p.m. The two members of Child Vision arrived on time and together, all 4 of us, plus my equipment, crammed into one tuk-tuk and off we went.

Upon arrival at the camp we saw that an N.G.O. called S.E.D.O.T. was already there. I remembered the situation in Batti and the inter-N.G.O. rivalry, so I introduced myself and told them about CWI, asked if they had a particular interest in children (which they did) and asked if it would interfere with their project if I ran some games here? They said that they were here dealing with housing conditions today, so my project would not interfere at all, and would I mind if they watched? Of course I didn't mind, and I started a performance and games session for over 70 children and around 15 adults.

Some of the adults joined in the games, always a nice thing to see, and Antony practically ran the games single-handed.

Renting a room in the St. Mary Hotel (which Antony's father runs and which is how I met Antony) was a very lucky move on my part.

Both S.E.D.O.T. and Child Vision enjoyed the games. I asked Child Vision if they wanted to come with us to another camp. They wanted to, but due to other commitments, were unable to - this did have the advantage of leaving more room in the tuk-tuk!

I am near the end of this tour, on the last day of field work. After today I will have no futher need of the parachute and it is my intention to pass it on to someone who I feel will use it and use it well.

The perfect person would be Antony, but he is not an N.G.O. Even if he wanted to play every day, he has to make money. And that's when an idea occurred to me. Of course, I would have to run it past Bella first, then I'd have to see if Antony and Child Vision were into the idea. I rang Bella and checked the idea with her, and she happily agreed. I then spoke to Antony and the two Child Vision workers, and they too agreed. And so it was that before the Child Vision people had left, they agreed to meet with Antony for two days of learning all about parachute games, for which we have paid him the same price as we did for translating. I do not expect them, or Antony, to be up to the same standard as Children's World or Children's World International workers, but Antony is far and away the best native games organiser I've found in this country, and it's far better than the parachute ending up as a sun shade. (We were very surprised in Hikkaduwa in the southwest, when, at one temple, we found the same make of parachute being used for just sunshade purposes. We enquired about how they came to have it and they said it was in amoungst a load of supplies a N.G.O. had given them. They had no idea what it was!!! Luckly our tuk-tuk driver/translator there (though I use the word "tranlator" fairly lightly in this instance) loved the games, and when we told him that he must visit the temple and show them the real use of it, he seemed to jump at the chance. Also MC, Neil Butler's administrator, has agreed to help make sure this happens.)

Child Vision and I then went our separate ways. Antony took me to the first camp that we had tried to work in last time I was in town - the one where the head man had been away. He was there this time and agreed to let us work. The camp was much smaller than most that I've worked in, and the only space big enough for parachute games was with in the grounds of the Hindu temple. I'm a practical sort of man (in this game,you have to be) so I always wear boots when going to camps, as you never know what sort of terrain you may have to traverse, So the excuse to remove boots due to holy ground was greatly appreciated.

I performed my show successfully, and then, instead of running the games myself, I asked Antony to. All I did was supervise. I was impressed. He really has learnt well - all I had to do was point out silly little things of no great importance.

It felt quite emotional, knowing that I'd finished the last show of the Mini-Tour - it seems a lifetime ago since that first show in a school in Hikkaduwa on 7th March.

On our way back to town we stopped at a British war graves cemetery. As an ex-soldier I feel strongly about our fallen heroes and paid my respects in a military fashion, marching smartly up to them, saluting, having 3 minutes' silence, saluting again and then marching away. It may have looked quite strange to any onlookers, but it felt like the right thing to do. The condition of the graveyard is a credit to both the War Graves Commission and the people of Sri Lanka.

Back at the hotel I packed, ate, showered and tried to contact Save the Children, who we have been trying to meet on the ground, unsuccessfully, ever since we arrived in Sri Lanka.

At 7 p.m. my tuk-tuk arrived and I headed off to the train station, where I had a last minute meeting with another local N.G.O. This meeting was far from satisfactory, being held through an open window as the train left the station.

It was a 12 hour overnight trip to Columbo, the capital of Sri Lanka.