Deep in the Lahugala Wildlife Sanctuary on the Siyambalanduwa – Pottuvil Road, lies the ruin of an ancient temple built in the 2^nd century BC by King Kavan-Tissa. According to historical records, the temple was built on the exact location where the King married the Princess Vihara Maha Devi, the much beloved mother of the famous King Dutugamunu and King Sadda-Tissa.

According to legend, King Kelenie-Tissa from the western sub-kingdom of Maya Rata had been tricked into killing a holy man and had his body tossed into the ocean. The sea gods unhappy with the king for the murder unleashed a tsunami whose waves surged over the land killing many people. The king was advised to make a sacrifice of the most beautiful virgin in his kingdom to appease the gods. The damsel who was chosen happened to be his beautiful daughter Devi. The king was stricken with grief and refused, but the lovely Princess Devi bravely volunteered accepting her fate. After saying goodbye to her father she allowed herself to be strapped down in a golden boat and pushed out into the stormy ocean. The storm eventually ended after a few days and the boat was pushed by the tide to the nearby realm of Ruhunu.

The soldiers of King Kavan-Tissa who had been patrolling the shore were astonished by the arrival of the golden boat and by the beautiful maiden they found unconscious within. They carried the princess to the royal palace, where she finally opened her eyes. Dazzled by the opulence and grandeur of the King’s court, the princess assumed that her sacrifice had been accepted and that she was in heaven. King Kavan-Tissa, who was smitten by the beautiful princess, asked her to be his bride and they were married soon after.

On my way back from the east coast I visited the Magul Maha Vihare which has only recently been partially restored.  Leaving our vehicle by the side of the road we approached the temple by foot, joining pilgrims using a causeway to cross a lotus-filled reservoir surrounding the walled enclosure.

The entrance to the complex is through a solidly built stone wall about 3-4 feet in height that surrounded the entire area. The vihare which is in an attractive and peaceful forest setting,  covered a very large area. It has the ruins of a royal palace, a Buddhist monastery, a bomaluwa (enclosure of the sacred tree), stupas, ponds and the statue of a headless limestone Buddha. The foundation of the ‘magul maduwa’ where the kings wedding ceremony took place can still be seen in the premises.

Children dressed in white played among the ruins of the vihare.  Walking around the enclosure we came across a moonstone which had been excavated from the ground. It was roughly 3-feet wide and 6-feet long with three half-circles of elephants, serpentine forest creepers and a row of lotus petals carved into it. The elephants, some with mahouts on their back was unique and it is said to be the only one of its kind in the entire country.

Amongst the ruins are rock pillars similar to the ones in Anuradhapura.  The ruins of an ancient stupa about 30 feet in height stood on a raised platform. Three rows of steps led up to the stupa on three sides with impressive guard stones (murugal) flanking the top of the stairs.  A bodhigara (bodhi tree shrine) with a rock inscription protected by an iron railing stood close to it. The ruins of a chapter house and a raised platform with carved monkeys around its base could be seen in the enclosure.

There are reputed to be ancient caves in the jungles around this temple where Buddhist monks still go to attain a higher status of life through meditation. The Magul Maha Vihara is thought to have housed some 12,000 monks and occupied ten thousand acres so there still seems a lot left to be discovered in this wonderful place chronicled by myths and legends of a bygone era.

As a teenager growing up in Colombo, the eastern coastline of Sri Lanka had always seemed distant and remote. The annual family holiday, when we packed ourselves into the family car and escaped the heat and humidity of Colombo for a fortnight, was always ‘upcountry’ in the cool and misty central highlands. As I grew older and travelled to other parts of the country, places like Kandy, Dambulla and the popular beach resorts to the south were more attractive and accessible.

On this trip, without actually planning for it to be that way, we drove up and down the entire east coast of Sri Lanka, from Point Pedro in the north to Pottuvil in the south east. During this journey we traversed the country when it took our fancy, visiting locations we had heard about but never visited. On our way north to Jaffna we drove up the A9 highway from Anuradhapura, turning towards Mullaitivu on the north-east coast at the junction at Puliyankulam. The road took us through the arid shrub jungle of the eastern Wanni. The road had seen fierce fighting towards the end of the war but showed little signs of the conflict, having been completely resurfaced the entire distance. Almost every major culvert and bridge we crossed had been rebuilt by army engineers and army camps every few kilometres showed that that the military had firm control of the area.

The road was long and empty, thick jungle only a few metres away on either side of the road kept us from seeing much. The only signs of life were the occasional vehicle travelling in the opposite direction and wild cattle straying on the road. Occasionally the jungle would give way to swathes of thick grassland bordered by lush jungle where colorful wild peacocks and families of grey langurs watched us pass.

The town of Mullaitivu located on a spit of land between the Nanthi Kadal Lagoon and the sea, looked just like another Tamil town. Other than the occasional desolate bullet-scarred house there was no signs of the war that ended just a few kilometres away. Crossing the narrow causeway which zigzagged across the lagoon entrance, signs of the recent conflict was more evident.  The headless trunks of coconut trees severed by shelling dotted the landscape and a war museum of captured Tiger sea craft stood next to a large statue of a victorious soldier carrying a Sri Lankan flag.

After spending a couple of hours looking around we drove north-west, joining the main road to Jaffna south of Elephant Pass, the isthmus of the Jaffna Peninsula. On the left dominating the entrance, stood a memorial to a soldier of the Sinha Regiment, who had single-handedly destroyed an armored bulldozer used by the Tigers during a human-wave attack on the Elephant Pass army camp. This is the only place on the island where you can watch both the sun rise and the sun set on the both horizons.

Crossing into the Jaffna peninsula was like entering another world. Its palmyra fringed lagoons, coconut plantations, open grasslands, crowded vegetable gardens, busy fishing villages with fish drying on gunny sacks in the hot sun and women in colorful saris riding bicycles was a world away from the crowded and noisy areas of the south.

After spending a few days in Jaffna and then in Mannar, we headed east and joined the coast road south of Mullaitivu, near the bird sanctuary at the Kokkilai Lagoon. Pulmoddai, well known for its dark mineral sands, had many mosques dotted throughout the town. We found this a characteristic of the entire east coast where large communities of Moors had settled over hundreds of years. We followed the east coast road south, passing beautiful beaches pounded by rough seas caused by the prevalent north-east monsoon. The beach resorts at Kuchchaveli and Nilaweli looked empty during the off-season, a few hardy tourists wandering around their desolate beaches.

The magnificent harbor town of Trincomalee with Fort Frederick guarding the deep inner harbor was a major staging point for the British during WWII and was one of the frontline towns during the civil war. It’s sleepy backstreets lined with colonial villas dotted with mosques, churches and dozens of little Hindu temples showed the diversity of the people living there. Circling the enormous natural harbor which could hold the largest ships in the world, we crossed over a number of new bridges built over the headwaters of  the Mahaveli Ganga and headed south towards Batticaloa.

The road took us past shallow tranquil lagoons and vast acres of green rice paddies stretching as far as the eye could see. Fishermen in their narrow canoes sold freshly caught lagoon fish and crabs directly from their boats to passersby’s on the road. Further south, we passed the beautiful clean beaches of the fast-growing resort town of Passekudah where the flat sandy bed of the bay extends 150 metres from the shoreline.

Further south was the town of Batticaloa, located on a narrow peninsula surrounded by a large winding lagoon. Many bridges connect it to the main landmass, the biggest bridge being the Lady Manning Bridge located at Kallady. This bridge is also famous for its ‘singing fishes’ which is a local phenomenon caused by the incoming tide running over shells buried in the sand. Remnants of the towns colonial past were evident by the 6m thick walls of the old fort which commanded the entrance to the lagoon. It was first built by the Portuguese and then captured by the Dutch in 1638. The isolated beach-edged peninsular still showed signs of the tsunami which devastated the area not so long ago.

The road past Batticaloa towards Pottuvil was one long stretch of bustling enterprise with town after town filled with shoppers and traders. When Muslims in Colombo were expelled by the Portuguese in the 17th century, they fled to Kandy and sought refuge with the king in Kandy. The king resettled these Muslim refugees in the royal farm in Kalmunai and other coastal towns around it. The one and only Muslim-majority municipality in the country is found in this area.

We completed our journey down the east coast of Sri Lanka at the lush coastal town of Pottuvil located just north of Arugam Bay, famous for its surfing and unspoilt beaches. On one side of the small town was a large lagoon while the other the magnificent Indian Ocean. This area bore the brunt of the tsunami that hit Sri Lanka and residents still talk about the wall of water that took many of their friends lives.

After a night spent at a wonderful little resort on the bay we turned away from the coast towards Monaragala and the central highlands to the west. The trip down the beautiful east coast with its pristine beaches and serpentine lagoons, vast acres of green rice paddies and a string of Tamil and Muslim towns that line the coast was unforgettable.

It has been said that Sri Lankan cuisine is one of the most complex cuisines in South Asia. As a major trading hub on the spice route for thousands of years, traders from around the world brought their native cuisines to the island resulting in a rich diversity of cooking styles and techniques. The island has also drawn from its regional neighbors and the colonial powers that ruled it for 450 years.

Having spent the last week in the northern province of the island, it was obvious that Sri Lankas proximity to India has influenced many of its northern dishes. However, the combination of freshly ground local spices and fresh coconut milk gives the food a distinct flavor and the dishes were much spicier than its northern neighbors.

In Jaffna, steamed rice and spicy curries are normally consumed for lunch, dinner and on special occasions. While local dishes like idiyappam, pittu, dosai, idly, chapatti and uppuma prepared from rice flour or wheat flour are eaten for break-fast and sometimes for dinner.

My favorite has always been idiyappam or string hoppers as they are known in English, eaten with a sothi which is made by boiling different types of vegetables in coconut milk. The lacy idiyappam and watery sothi is eaten with pol sambol made from a mixture of freshly grated coconut, red chillie powder, sliced green chillies, salt and freshly squeezed lime.

Jaffna chillie powder is not the traditional red chilli powder made from grinding dry red chillies to a fine powder found elsewhere on the island. A Jaffna chilli powder consists of dried red chili, coriander, cumin, little bit of turmeric and fennel, all roasted and ground together which gives it a unique flavor.

The red crab curry I ate in Jaffna was spicy and tasted wonderful. Knowing that the crab was caught only that morning in a lagoon not more than a few kilometres away gave it a very special meaning. Dishes in Jaffna tend to have lots of gravy and this dish was no exception. The next day we ate a delicious fish curry known locally as ‘charakku’ curry made with roasted coriander, fenugreek, mustard, cumin, fennel, black pepper, garlic and ginger which has medicinal qualities that helps the digestion. Many Tamils are vegetarians and some of the vegetable dishes we ate while in Jaffna were well prepared and tasty.

But the highlight of our northern culinary adventure came not in Jaffna but in the coastal town of Mannar about 100 kilometres to the south. The crab curry we had at the Palmyrah Guest House was simply out of this world. The spicy dish was prepared the traditional way with chopped murunga leaves to cool the digestive tract when eating the ‘heaty’ crustacean. Other dishes like a local chicken curry, isso thel dhala (tempered chilli prawns) and a mustard pumpkin curry prepared by the Muslim chef made me feel I had died and gone to culinary heaven.

This variety in regional preparation is why Sri Lanka is considered a gastronomic paradise. The differences are so distinct that flavors can vary even from village to village. Having sampled the food in the north, I just cannot wait to head down south where Sinhalese cooking with its fiery curries and freshly prepared vegetables just take your breath away.

The islands off the coast of the Jaffna peninsula have always intrigued me and I promised myself during this trip that I would visit as many of them as I could. Anchored by coral, these sandy islands are surrounded by shallow seas and lagoons not more than a few feet deep. Beaches of sand and coral surround each island whose semi-arid hardy vegetation grows in isolated clumps. The people living on these islands are predominantly Hindu with small Christian and Muslim communities scattered throughout.

No natural streams or ponds are found anywhere on these islands but there is water everywhere. Silvery slabs of brackish groundwater from recent monsoon rains fill the low lying areas, the grey, partly grassy soil soon to be exposed by the relentless sun. Hardy local residents use water pumped manually from deep natural aquifers which provide an endless supply of sweet fresh water.

Narrow causeways connect many of the larger islands but others require a journey by boat. The islands are controlled by the Sri Lankan navy and everyone has to go through a checkpoint when using the causeways. The lagoons surrounding the islands are abundant with small fish and crustaceans, the fishermen forced to share their bounty with local and migratory birds who demand their take insistently.

Fishing nets and traps lined both sides of the road as we entered the causeway next to the Jaffna Fort. The old Dutch fort which is the second largest fortification on the island was used as a military base for centuries and had been almost destroyed during the civil war. It’s currently undergoing major restoration with help from the Dutch government and visitors climb its wide ramparts every evening to watch the red sunset over the lagoon.

The old causeway road was bad but yellow markings by engineers indicated that plans were well in place to expand and re-carpet its surface. Flat shallow lagoons and long sandy dunes capped by groves of palmyrah palms greeted us when we entered Kayts, the largest of the dozen or so islands. Small herds of goat and cattle wandered aimlessly through the open fields cropping at the short grass. The occasional house surrounded by plantain trees and vegetable plots, and a few cyclists on the road were the only signs that people actually live in this remote place.

In the town of Kayts, the crumbling Fort Eyrie built by the Portuguese when they ruled the coastal areas of Sri Lanka lay in ruin. In the distance, on a man-made island in the middle of the channel, the perfectly preserved Fort Hammenhiel built by the Dutch a century later controlled approaches into the Jaffna lagoon and city from the sea. The old but well maintained churches which dominate the town was proof that fishing folk on the island still followed Catholicism, brought into the country by the Portuguese in the 16th century.

Colorful Hindu temples dotted the landscape as we island hopped on causeways built many years ago. Reaching the pier where the road ended we joined dozens of pilgrims from the mainland and crossed the narrow channel to the island of Nagadeepa on a wooden boat which had seen better days. Only the presence of smartly dressed naval personnel who ensured that everyone was issued a life jacket, gave us some confidence that a visible authority was watching over us.

The island of Nagadeepa or Nainativu as it’s known locally is sacred to both the Hindus and the Buddhists. I couldn’t help but think that with its famous Buddhist temple, a Muslim mosque, two Christian churches and fifty two Hindu temples and sanctuaries, that this small island had to be the most religious place on earth!

Sun-burnt fishermen outside the temple gates sold conch shells harvested from the sea, the intricate and expensive shells used by both Buddhists and Hindus for their sacred rituals. The vividly colorful Nagapoosani Amman Hindu temple was in stark contrast to the gleaming white Nagadeepa Buddhist vihara just a kilometre down the road where the Lord Buddha stopped on his second visit to Sri Lanka. Barefooted Hindu pilgrims filled the temple courtyard while Buddhist pilgrims dressed in white walked from one temple to the other, reverently praying at both to the individual deities.

There is no doubt in my mind that these remote islands are a national treasure of Sri Lanka and should be preserved as such. It was unfortunate that I was unable to visit the furthest island of Delft named after a Dutch city, with its wild ponies and Baobab trees brought by Arab traders over a thousand years ago.

Perhaps at another day and time.

North of the city of Jaffna is a land criss-crossed with small country roads, lined with palmyrah fenced gardens and smallholdings in which the peninsulas famous mangoes are grown. This belt of fertile land produces a wide variety of cash crops including chillies, onions, bananas, jackfruit, tobacco and grapes. Vegetables such as brinjal, tomato, long bean, okra, snake gourd, bitter gourd and other leafy vegetables are cultivated throughout the year with the help of irrigation from the approximately 28,000 wells found in the peninsula. Other more exotic vegetables like cabbage, leeks, beet, beans, and carrots are also cultivated in large plots.

Herds of goats and cattle wander through large open tracts of lightly grassed land usually watched over by a herder wielding a long stick. The ubiquitous palmyrah palm seems to grow where it will but large orderly groves of coconut palms provide food, coir, thatching and timber to the local inhabitants. Coconuts which are common in Sri Lankan cuisine, are the main source of dietary fat and can be found throughout the whole country.

To the north of Jaffna on the Point Pedro Road is the Nilavarai Well. The well is believed to have been the work of Rama himself, who created it by sticking an arrow into the ground to relieve his thirst. Its waters are said to be bottomless and appear to be somehow connected directly to the sea; the water being fresh near the top but increasingly salty the deeper you go. To the west at Kantharodai, reached only by driving down narrow winding country lanes lined with palmyrah fences, are a collection of ancient Buddhist stupas which once served as a monastery for Tamil monks.

The sunny coastline of the peninsula is lined with palmyra palms leaning into the wind, busy fishing villages with their boats drawn up on the sand, technicolored Hindu temples and old Catholic churches. In the west, Shiva devotees from all over the peninsula and beyond come and make their offerings at the Naguleshwaram temple and bath in the Keerimalai pond hoping for good health. It is long believed that the water in this pond has healing powers, especially for giving fertility to those that bathe in it.

While the northern and eastern coastlines were badly affected by the tsunami that took many lives, life on the western coastline and southern islands have continued relatively unchanged for centuries. Glorious temples filled with worshippers and colonial era buildings in desolate ruin are scattered everywhere.

All along the northern coastline, from Valvettithurai to Point Pedro which is the northernmost point of Sri Lanka, fishing villages sit behind man-made coral breakwaters in tiny harbours. Whole families huddle around the boats sorting the fish caught that morning in buckets while others sit in groups untangling and mending the long nets in preparation for the coming nights fishing.

The peninsula which has emerged from a 26-year civil war has vast areas of untapped potential for investment. Tourism is growing fast and the future of the region looks good for economic growth.

Going back to Jaffna after 32 years was something I was looking forward to. I remembered it as a sleepy place, quite different to what I was used to living in Colombo, and it was a world away from New York, where I was staying at the time.

The intervening years has seen Jaffna and it’s people subjected to a vicious civil war, occupation by two armies and by militant separatists. It has been subjected to economic blockades and military offensives and cut off from the rest of the country at various times. It’s people have been shelled, bombed and forced to evacuate at the height of the troubles. Whole communities were displaced and their homes destroyed.

Despite all these traumas and hardships, I found Jaffna to be a vibrant and growing place, full of life and activity. I spent four days in the city, talking to its people, visiting its outskirts and the towns surrounding it.

The heart of the city around the bright yellow central market, is alive with vendors hawking their wares. Busy crowds of local residents shopped at the well stocked shops and hundreds of people moving around the central bus station indicated to me that life is coming back to normal. In the afternoon, the streets around the city are filled with school boys dressed in white shirts and blue shorts, who cross the roads in droves, and school girls wearing gleaming white uniforms, ride bicycles in groups back home from school.

The railway line connecting the peninsula to the rest of the country which was destroyed during the war, is now under construction just a few kilometres from the city centre and the neglected roads and bridges around the peninsula are all marked for expansion and development. Communities that were displaced during the war are returning and it was heartening to see young Muslim women in their hijabs mingling with ladies dresses in colorful salwars and sarees.

There is undoubtedly a military presence, not so prominent in the city perhaps but clearly visible around the peninsula and residents are reluctant to talk about what happened during the war.

But one thing I came away with from my visit was that the people of Jaffna are happy that life is almost back to normal and they want it to stay that way.

Today the page went past 21,000 Likes which for me was something I had not expected. Looking at the demographics of my fan base, the majority of the Likes have come from the sub-continent, the most coming from India although there is a healthy percent from Pakistan. Eighty percent are in the 18-24 age group of which twenty six percent are women. This is close to the percentage of women on Facebook. What’s interesting is there are a significant number of fans from Malaysia, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan and the Philippines amongst other countries.

What, if anything can I ascertain from these numbers? Obviously over twenty one thousand Facebook users found the Sacred Tears book site interesting and relevant. I believe the book cover and it’s title is appealing to many fans. Some have even used the cover graphic as a picture on their own Facebook site.

What did surprise me however was the age group who were Liking the book. When I was writing the story I expected it to appeal to an older audience, an audience of baby boomers who have experienced famine and war and have seen great changes in lifestyle and expectancy over their lifetime. But Baby Boomers are a generational group that are not well represented on Facebook and while I still may be correct in who will want to read the book, I believe we are beginning to see a change in the attitude of Generation X and Y who want to learn more about the world they live in.

One thing Facebook does well is to let you reach just about any group of people you can imagine. But it does not come free. Facebook admits ‘we expect organic distribution of an individual page’s posts to gradually decline over time as we continually work to make sure people have a meaningful experience on the site.’ Which to me means that Facebook wants us to consider paid distribution to maximize delivery of our messages in news feed.

It’s a big shift from the stance that Facebook have taken before. It has put out a three page document which repositions how marketers should think about fan acquisition. It wants us to use it as a tool for making paid advertising more effective. While free distribution of content is mentioned, it’s the third business benefit listed after improved advertising effectiveness and lower cost for paid distribution.

To be fair, Facebook makes it cheaper to deliver ads with social context and it seems that acquiring fans isn’t just about building a free distribution channel for content; it’s to make future Facebook ads work better.

Ever since Sacred Tears was released online in October, I have been inundated by people from my past who have written or called to congratulate me on the publication of the book. Classmates from Sri Lanka where I was born, who I have been out of touch with for many years, friends and colleagues from all over the world, have all wanted to share in the excitement. The Sacred Tears Facebook page has taken on a life of it’s own in the last few weeks and has raced past 14,000 likes and shows no sign of slowing down.

Being a Sri Lankan born Australian writer, writing a story set in Sri Lanka, I couldn’t think of a better place to introduce my first book to the reading public than in the country itself. Ever since Sacred Tears was released I had been planning a trip to Sri Lanka to undertake research on the next book in the trilogy. It’s less than a month before I fly into the country and after spending a few weeks traveling around the island I will launch the book on 13th February in Colombo.

Finding the right location was relatively easy. Barefoot Ceylon is a store, bookshop, gallery, cafe, performance space and place to hang out. It has spent many years making a name for itself as a shop that sells the best Sri Lanka has to offer. Bright woven textiles are the hallmark of Barefoot’s wonderful collection of designer products and their store is filled to the brim of these delightful wares. The Barefoot Bookshop is known the world over for its specialist selection of titles by Sri Lankan authors, books on Sri Lanka, exquisite coffee table books on art, architecture and photography; beautifully crafted cutting edge novels, self-help books, travel guides and travel books all carefully chosen to make it a real book lovers bookshop. Out the back is a enchanting courtyard cafe where there’s always great music playing making it one of the most chilled out spots in Colombo!

If you are in Colombo in February, you are welcome to spend the evening with us.

Interactive websites, blogs, social media and networking sites are communication channels of choice. But the traditional means of communication such as print, radio and TV, although used less frequently, are not completely dead. AM/FM radio being one of the most common and affordable advertising media was a  place I decided to explore as a communication channel right from the very beginning.

I made sure that my publishing package with AuthorHouse included a live interview on a nationally syndicated, US business radio talk show in Boston hosted by Stu Taylor.  He uses the radio broadcasting medium to help people and organisations with their public relations, media relations and investor relations.

The interview was 1:00am in the morning for me (9:00am the previous morning in Boston) and I had to dose myself with coffee and sweets to remain awake and alert. The interview lasted about 10 minutes and Stu’s questions were well researched and to the point.

But what really interested me was a call I received a few days prior to this interview from the producer of the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), Australia’s multicultural and multilingual broadcaster. The producer had heard about my book being released and wanted to interview me on the Sinhala program which aired on AM/FM and Digital radio across the country.

The producer got quite excited when she realised that I could speak Sinhalese and wanted me to do the whole interview in the language. Not as confident in my ability as she seemed to be, I quickly convinced her that while I could speak the language quite well at a basic level, I was was not capable of handling a whole interview quite so fluently. She finally relented and the interview was recorded in English. She emailed me the audio package a few days later and I found the way it was handled on air to be quite interesting. While the actual broadcast was in Sinhalese, the producer used my recorded English responses to her questions as a background while she translated what I said in Sinhala. It was well done and I was very pleased with the end result.

I believe that authors should explore radio as a way to promote their books and build their brand. It’s a great communication channel that should be utilised more often.

In 1978, I was 25-years old and living in the US. I was single at the time, working in a permanent job at the United Nations Secretariat with many prospects in front of me. It was a situation that many people would consider fortunate, even privileged. I had manage to escape the constricted life I was living in Colombo and found my way to New York, the city  that never sleeps. I had found a good job and established myself. The future looked good. But I was restless! There was no purpose to my life.

Working at the UN was exposing me to many global problems. The world was trying to cope with change and my days were filled with Security Council meetings. My job as the Documents Liaison Officer required my presence in the Security Council chamber during the sessions and I got to listen to what was really going on in various parts of the world.

In March of that year, after a massacre of its citizens on a northern coastal road, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) invaded Lebanon to create a buffer zone and prevent further attacks on their border settlements. Following many late night meetings, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was created by the security council to keep the warring sides apart. As there was some urgency to have the UNIFIL deployed in South Lebanon, the UN called for volunteers amongst its HQ staff to serve with this newly created force which was forming in Israel. A part of the UNIFIL mandate was to extend assistance to help ensure humanitarian access to civilian populations and the voluntary and safe return of displaced persons.

I jumped at the chance to volunteer and a few weeks later found myself in the middle east. The short stories I have written cover my time with the UN Peacekeeping Forces. They can be found under the menu heading Background , Stories from the Field. I hope you enjoy them.