SURA MEDURA Residency, Spring 2019 – Blog post :

After more conversations at the fishing harbour, I was greeting by chatty fisherman Pala, who told me it was too rough to go out that afternoon, as a storm was approaching (although it seemed like the majority of boats were still leaving the harbour). He had been in the army, survived the Tsunami, but lost his house and all his belongings. He has been rehoused by the government 3km inland and has survived a lot of hardship. He told me many fishermen have died at sea, but less so nowadays due to better weather warning systems. I found this article online about a storm in 2017 with tragic consequences for some fishermen Dodanduwa, and it seems like it is still a high risk job.

Pala invited me to come to listen to a special rock that had an unusual sound. I wasn’t sure what this would entail, so I followed inquisitively. We walked to the next peninsula and tapped the large rock in many places, but were not able to hear the hollow echo. Apparently it was too windy.  I enjoyed the fact that a fisherman had invited me to share an unusual ‘sonic phenomena’ at the harbour, especially as that is my main area of interest!. I might return and try again.