katherine's community challenge

The build

Sunday 2 April (continued)

We drove inland to see one of the new housing estates built on land given by the Sri Lankan government. Many of the families living here have had to move from their communities. Some are a long way from their livelihoods as fishermen. Although the houses are modern, they are crammed into small spaces and the estate felt quite isolated - maybe a function of its newness?

We had a brief stop on the way back to the hotel to see cinnamon being harvested and prepared. We also saw a still for extracting cinnamon oil from the leaves - the smell was wonderful. To prepare cinnamon, each branch is scraped clean of the green outer skin, then the layer underneath is cut off - this bark is rolled into 1 m long quills, dried for about 2 weeks and then packed. Cinnamon peeling can take ten years to master and has traditionally been done squatting on the ground. Because of a shortage of workers in the cinnamon industry, some producers are now introducing chairs and tables in an effort to attract staff. Sri Lanka produces 90% of genuine cinnamon, the Seychelles and Madagascar grow most of the rest. Much of the 'cinnamon' available in the UK is actually cassia produced by Indonesia and China.

New housing development

The school at the new development

Scraping the outer skin off the cinnamon branch

Peeling the cinnamon

Cinnamon oil still

Back to the hotel for another shower, red ActionAid t-shirts donned and group photos done. After another briefing session during which we met some of the Habitat for Humanity staff, we had our evening meal - all 20+ of us sitting at one long table.

On Monday we were to start at 7.15 with yet another briefing, then off to the site to work on three houses which now need foundations building.

Our group - all shiny and clean!

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