Diary: Aiding Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka was one of the countries worst hit by the quake tsunamis

Timmo Gaasbeek and Natasha Cassiere are a married couple who live in Batticaloa in eastern Sri Lanka where Natasha works for the charity Save The Children in the region.

Timmo has been keeping a diary for the BBC News website, describing how they are helping the youngest victims of the quake-triggered waves that lashed the island.

1530 Wednesday (0930 GMT)

Thank God for instant coffee, mobile phones, internet and the Landcruiser. They make life so much easier.

Life is hectic, but I realise how easy my work is. I only do abstract stuff now: data collection, making a database for all aid organisations in the area to map all aid that is being distributed, talking and thinking about assessment forms, and meeting other organisations to ensure smooth co-operation.

I hear stories about parents who have lost their children fighting over a child, because they so desperately want to have a child to call their own.

I hear ghastly stories of bodies on beaches, I meet friends who have lost close family.

I had seen many people standing at the waterside the past few days looking at bodies.

Today I realised that probably many of them are not just curious onlookers, but they are looking for loved ones.

0710 Wednesday (0110 GMT)

What is going to be really hard over the next few days will be fatigue.

Sometimes reality hits hard for a few minutes before you put your feelings away and continue 'The dead are lucky'

You can only be functional for so many days on four hours of sleep a day.

The initial stress is gone and we're in smooth operation now because we've been trained for emergencies (though nobody has ever done anything like this), but now it's endurance that is being tested.

For now, nobody is dying anymore, but we need to work hard to prevent infectious diseases from starting to spread.

If that happens we'll have a whole new disaster to face.

0700 Wednesday (0100 GMT)

A new day has begun half an hour ago.

Birds are singing, the office is still quiet. Well, the phone just started ringing.

A quick bath, and sometime today I need to go home to fetch some fresh clothes for Natasha and myself as we have worn the same clothes for several days now.

I realised we're lucky to be able to go home and collect clean clothes. Okay, off to work now. Lots to be done before 0830.

0130 Wednesday (1930 Tuesday GMT)

I'll soon be able to hit the sack. Natasha (my wife) lies next to me on a mat in the office (she's exhausted as she has had only six hours of sleep in the past 72 hours), while I am finishing an assessment form that all the organisations will use to collect information on the camps in the district, so that we compile detailed information on what is needed where.

In less than five hours, a new long day will start.

Today was mainly spent with assessments and distribution of food.

My wife co-ordinates the emergency response of Save the Children in Batticaloa and Ampara Districts, and I assist her and her team.

It is impressive to see how many people from all over the country contribute by sending food and clothes, but the needs remain enormous.

Yesterday Save the Children was able to provide 9,000 people with food, and today we distributed food to 8,000 people.

We are now looking at providing mats, plates, drinking water and emergency latrines.

Very soon, people will have to go home to their destroyed villages and shelter will be needed.

The various organisations working in the area have come to a sort of division of work, based on each organisation's logistical capacity and expertise.

This works quite well. My guess is that most of Batticaloa is now being covered, and Ampara should be pretty much covered by tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

The initial disbelief made way to a mad rush to save the survivors on the morning of the disaster.

Now the initial emergency is over and everyone works 16 to 20 hours a day to provide the help needed for the coming two weeks.

Sometimes though, reality hits hard for a few minutes before you put your feelings away and continue working.

Bodies floating in the lagoon have become a fact of life. But seeing the empty piece of sand where some friends lived until Sunday morning, or receiving a caring e-mail or phone call from abroad, can work like a hammer.

With time passing by, the names of more known people who may be dead come to mind. I hope some of them are still alive.