Chaminda

Chaminda lives in the fishing village Totamuna, near Matara. He is one of a family of seven brothers. His brother Vipula and brother Chandrasiri’s family feature in the portrait entitled ‘Totamuna’. Chaminda, his wife and their daughter were saved by climbing onto the first floor concrete slabs of houses that remained standing after the waves had hit. Chaminda wrote down his story, which has been translated below:

Chaminda’s story

I am Chaminda Priyankara of Wellawatte in Totamuna. I will tell you a brief history of my life. Since I was a little boy, I always wanted to succeed in life. There were eight brothers and two sisters in my family. Even as a little boy, I always helped out my father to sell fish. I lived in a house built with coconut leaves (cadjan). With the efforts of my seven brothers and the income we had from my father’s fish mongering, we managed to build a stable house where we all could live. It was I who had the biggest motivation to build the new home.

Deep sea fishing had been a part of my life since I was a little boy. I used to go to school in the morning and go to sea in the evening to earn money. Time went by like that for a little while. I had just taken my ‘O’ levels. So, I was fishing day and night until I got the results from the exams. Since then I had given up on education and devoted my life to fishing in the sea. I managed to save up enough money to buy my own fishing boat. That was when I started to get a decent income. I was getting ahead in life. I also got my own “jack” catamaran.  My success was rapid. I also got married during this time. I had a daughter,
and we were living happily. Then everything began to change. With this descent of darkness, I had become a poor helpless man. I will try and explain how it all began.

On the fateful day of  26th of December 2005, the vicious waves took away my brother and his two children, my mother in law and the father in law including eight members of my family. It also completely destroyed my house. The boat I got after so much hard work is gone along with the catamaran. All my fishing gear had completely disappeared. All my brothers and sisters had lost their homes. I have not received any boats or fishing gear
from the government or any other organisation. Now I live in abject poverty. Now I live in
my father’s house and sell some fish to earn a living.

Chaminda.