|
It might
not seem much when weighed up against the immense scale of this devastating
natural disaster but the salvaging of a single sunken fishing boat
turned out to be a wonderful event.
Amidst
all the destruction and suffering in Sri Lanka, here was a story
of hope and the triumph of human spirit...
We were working down by the edge of the beach and we saw two guys
snorkelling about three hundred yards off the shore. When they came
to the shore we asked them what they were doing. It turned out that
they were local fishermen; they'd managed to find one of their fishing
boats that had been sunk and then swept back out to sea. It was
about three hundred yards off the shore.
 The fisherman was crying.
 |
| Stefan
Hopkins |
They
gathered various lengths of rope, tied them together and swam back
out again. [They] actually tied the rope to the boat, came back
to shore and tried to pull their boat back into the beach. The two
of them just couldn't manage it so we gathered the team together
and we all started helping as well.
Slowly,
more people came. Sri Lankans, Dutch, French, German, Japanese,
Americans, Australians; as many nations as you can think of. All
came together and eventually there were about 60 or 70 people, pulling
on this single rope. Slowly but surely, the boat started to move.
Eventually,
after quite a tiring effort by everybody, we managed to get the
boat to the shore. The fisherman was crying. He was crying because
he was so happy. He'd managed to get back one of his possessions.
He [would be] able to repair his boat and he would be able to get
his livelihood back again.
Together
we managed to achieve quite an incredible feat.
|
| Stefan
Hopkins |
I feel
that there's a message there, really, that so many different nations,
some many different people who didn't know each other were pulling
on that one rope. Together we managed to achieve quite an incredible
feat, we managed to retrieve that fishing boat from the depths of
the ocean.
For
me that symbolises the huge relief effort that has now been put
into motion in Sri Lanka. It's happening in India, Thailand, Indonesia
and the Maldives, and all the other countries that have been so
affected by this tragedy.
If
only the nations around the world could continue pulling on a rope
together in the future, what a wonderful world we would live in.
But for now it's just heart-warming to know that, for once, the
world is united and despite the terrible, terrible tragedy that
has befallen this area it's wonderful to see everyone working together.
AUDIO
Listen to Stefan's story of the boat 
(SARAID photo gallery)
To
listen to audio content on the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ you will need to have a
program called RealPlayer installed on your computer.
|
If
you would like to comment on this story get in touch at gloucestershire@bbc.co.uk
or have your say on our
|
Gloucestershire's Stefan Hopkins went out to Sri Lankan to provide
support in the aftermath of the tsunami on Boxing Day. Stefan tells
us the story of how one fishing boat was rescued from the ocean...
