On December 26th, 2004, I was spending the Christmas holiday with my family in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The desert is magical in winter months because only the truly strong survive; but what we consider strong and what Nature considers strong rarely turn out being the same. When I awoke to news of the Tsunami, everything in my being froze like the ground in the neighboring pecan orchard

Only days prior I'd returned from another trek around the world as a producer on the adventure television series THE AMAZING RACE. In back-to-back races, we'd taken teams to Sri Lanka and India. Reports and images of a train headed to Galle hit and destroyed by the water sent me back to memories of our teams on that very train. What if our teams had been there on that day? What about all our crew from Sri Lanka and from India?

Relatively quickly, word came back that everyone we'd met and worked with in both countries was fine. Their families, too. Yet, as other news grew more distressing, a voice inside me grew louder. I had to do something. Somewhere. Somehow. I contacted relief organizations in the States, offering my services. They didn't think my skills as a producer could benefit them so they politely thanked me for my interest and suggested that I make a financial donation to their cause.

Disappointed but not dissuaded, I contacted Race colleagues in the affected areas to see if they knew of any organization I could assist. Sohan de Silva, the Colombo-based producer who facilitated our Sri Lanka show, graciously accepted my solicitation of help.

Sohan and his wife, Rashmini, were working with Kushil Gunasekera and his Foundation of Goodness, rebuilding Kushil's village of Seenigama, which was all but destroyed by the Tsunami. Sohan mentioned my interest in volunteering and as the Foundation needed people, Kushil said yes. He'd never heard of my show, but he figured a producer must be able to produce. What's produced is secondary.

And so I was on the road again, this time to help the Foundation of Goodness. The Foundation of Goodness???

When I arrived in Seenigama and met some of the Villagers and Volunteers, I began to feel the weight of those words. The images I captured were seering. The devastation was heart-wrenching - nearly six weeks after. Tents and half-standing houses lined the roads and water's edge. The beaches eerily empty of Life. Yet quiet smiles and shy eyes caught mine as I walked along the dusty main road of the Village. Soon, those smiles and eyes became faces and friends. They knew what I was discovering - Seenigama is a special place where Life refused to be drowned by rushing water.

Within minutes of arriving, I heard laughter - from children playing in the back yard at Kushil's village house, Lahiru - the kind of laughter that meant Life. Following that sound, I discovered various other people like myself who had just appeared, offered assistance and been welcomed by Kushil and his Foundation Staff with open arms. Thrown in the mix were doctors from North Carolina and New York, builders from New Zealand, volunteers from Germany, France, England and Scotland all making Seenigama their epicenter. It's hard to say who was benefiting more - the Villagers or the Volunteers - but special bonds were forming.

After being intoxicated by the energy of the Village, I returned to Colombo to assist with the Foundation's long-term planning. Attending my first Wednesday night Volunteer meeting at Kushil's house, I'd stumbled upon (or been led to) a place where an incredible team of people were giving their time and energy to help the eccentric, ever-smiling Kushil simply because he'd sought their assistance. The ideas flying around the table that night got my adrenaline pumping more than any film or television project ever had. Talk of creating jobs, rebuilding hundreds of houses, financing schools, educating children, cleaning-up the environment, offering on-going medical assistance. Seenigama was to be the first; a model village of sorts. As that came together, the surrounding villages would benefit as well. The ultimate goal - developing the country's entire rural region and linking to the North.

There were those words again "Goodness" and "Unconditional Compassion." OK, I was getting it.

Everyone has a front row seat in this interactive project that is the Foundation of Goodness. If they wish to participate, there is plenty that needs to be done. No idea is a bad one, but you must be willing to put forth the effort to see it through. Plans and dreams to empower the rural villages seem doable when one walks through Seenigama. Doable because Kushil has the uncanny ability to manifest those plans and dreams into reality again and again. People from across Sri Lanka and the globe show up with a desire to help because word has spread that Kushil and his team make things happen.

During my first weekend in the Village, I met Eric Shapira, a fellow American, fellow Californian, and his son, Zane. Eric, District Governor of the San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties Rotary Clubs, was on a fact-finding mission and delivering water purification systems throughout the country. He was prepared to donate funds for new homes, but first he had to find the right person to entrust his district's money. Everywhere Eric and his team traveled, people told them new houses would cost a minimum of US$5000. Kushil promised his team could do it for much less. The three of us kept in constant contact since that Sunday in February and in mid-June, Eric's District 5150 donated $75,000 to the Foundation. We also brought the San Francisco Rotary Club on board to donate another $46,000.

After a conversation with several of the builders from Operation Phoenix, I wanted to organize a comprehensive clean-up campaign. Only days later, a team from Mercy Corps arrived and expressed an interest in financing just such a project. In May, the Foundation received a grant to employ villagers to clean up their land, canal, temple grounds and schools. Even those who didn't directly participate caught the clean-up bug and put their individual spaces in order.

Shortly after the Tsunami, the motto was "we ate the sea; the sea ate us," now it's "rebuilding villages rebuilds lives." Color is returning to the village as houses are built. Computer training classes and English language classes are in full swing at the Foundation. Laughter is louder and healthier than ever.

I returned to Los Angeles in late March, but through internet, text messaging and Skype, sometimes it's as though I never left Sri Lanka. As my day finishes, theirs begins so across the miles, we discuss proposals, projects, fundraising ideas and the ever-improving website. As another Race approaches, I know that I am in yet another world; a world where I must work diligently to incorporate "goodness" and "unconditional compassion." It takes some doing, but those faces and smiles of Seenigama and the Foundation are inspirational.

As much as the lives of those in Seenigama have been changed since that fateful day last December; so, too, have the lives of those of us who found our way there. And, as everything comes together, it will be on to the next village for Kushil and his Foundation. I intend to be there with them because that's what the Foundation of GOODNESS is all about.

Cynthia Palormo
Los Angeles, California
June 19, 2005