"Hundreds of thousands of people live in tents or very small temporary wooden houses with tin roofs. They are hot and crowded," Mary Mechtenberg wrote in an email. "Despite what they have suffered, the people are generally upbeat and very friendly with beautiful smiles. We are hoping that during our brief stay here, lives will be touched by what we can do and share."
Mary and Tom Mechtenberg are working with the Crisis Corps in Matara, a city on the southern coast of Sri Lanka
Pair aids region still struggling with tsunami
Mechtenbergs volunteer for Peace Corps offshoot
By MIKE CONNELL
Times Herald
Caption: Mary Mechtenberg sits surrounded by Sri Lankan children in Matara, one of the Indian Ocean cities devastated by last year's tsunami.
A former chairwoman of the St. Clair County Board of Commissioners and her husband are in Sri Lanka, assisting victims of last year's Indian Ocean tsunami.
Mary and Tom Mechtenberg, who moved from Port Huron five years ago, are working with the Crisis Corps in Matara, a city on the southern coast of the island nation once known as Ceylon.
The Crisis Corps is composed of former Peace Corps volunteers who serve in disaster areas for periods of three to six months. After leaving Port Huron, the Mechtenbergs served two years with the Peace Corps on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia.
Last year's tsunami killed more than 31,000 people in Sri Lanka and ravaged the coastline. The Matara region was among the hardest-hit areas.
"Hundreds of thousands of people live in tents or very small temporary wooden houses with tin roofs. They are hot and crowded," Mary Mechtenberg wrote in an email. "Despite what they have suffered, the people are generally upbeat and very friendly with beautiful smiles. We are hoping that during our brief stay here, lives will be touched by what we can do and share."
They are splitting their time between six camps for the homeless. The camps are run by the International Organization for Migration, which is loosely affiliated with the United Nations.
"These people are living in pretty awful circumstances," Mary wrote. "Until they are able to get ... more permanent housing, our job here is to see that what they have now is safe and somewhat more pleasant. This week we had an eye clinic at one of the camps, and 160 people received glasses on the spot-donated by a German group."
She described a typical camp: "Some of the shelters are made of tarp material (nylon), others of woods, but all are very small, usually 10x10 for a family. Outside is a small covered kitchen. The latrines and showers are located nearby on the grounds.
"Many of the people were fishermen living near the Indian Ocean, and they have lost everything. Even if they had money, they couldn't rebuild at their old site because the government is not allowing reconstruction within 100 meters from the shore. (Amazingly, hotels and tourist establishments are allowed to build near the beaches.)"
The Mechtenbergs have a long history of volunteer service. Both worked for Catholic Social Services in Vietnam in the late 1960s. Tom, a priest at the time, helped oversee an orphanage in Saigon. Mary, then a nun known as Sister Mary Durm, worked as a nurse at an orphanage in Hue.
After the war, they met in Detroit, fell in love, left their religious orders and were married. In 1971, they moved to Port Huron, where they raised their three children - Marty, Molly and Michael.
Tom worked for 24 years as a school social worker, mostly at Garfield Elementary. In 1989, he was recognized as the Michigan Social Worker of the Year.
Mary became involved in politics, and as a Democrat represented Port Huron on the St. Clair County Board of Commissioners for 14 years, four of them as chairwoman. In the 1990s, she served two years as Port Huron's mayor pro tem.
In her e-mail, Mary said there are 268 children in the six camps where they work, "but we have seen almost no toys or books."
If people in Michigan wish to help tsunami victims, she suggested they send items such as "children's books, tennis balls, small rubber balls, coloring books, crayons, chalk, preschool toys, young adult paperbacks, games (Chutes and Ladders, etc.) and flower or vegetable seeds."
Sinhala and Tamil are the main languages, but she said many of the children study English in school and would welcome books.
Clothing is not needed. "A lot of the clothes you wear were made here," she wrote, noting local women work in garment factories from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. for about $2.50 a day.
The Mechtenbergs expect to leave Sri Lanka in mid-October, and donated items sent by regular mail should be mailed soon if they are to reach them.
