Tamil Tigers: Pioneers of the Suicide Bomb Jacket

In the spring of 2005, about 5 months after the tsunami hit the island, I was part of a Habitat for Humanity Global Village trip to Sri Lanka. We flew into Colombo, drove down the west coast of the island, and spent a week working off the southern coast of the island. We spent about 12 days in the country. The only evidence we saw of trouble was the many machine gun placements in Colombo protected by walls of sandbags. There was a woman who worked with us our first day. The next day she was going to another Habitat project in the northeast of the island where the Tamils live because she could speak Tamil. There was not much going on up there at the time. I would love to go back. It was a great experience, but I wouldn't want to go right now. Things need to calm down first.

Tim Reynolds