Fig. 1. Dana enjoying the boat ride of the lagoon at Batticaloa. It was a beautiful evening as you can see in the picture below.

Fig. 2. Sun setting on the affected shoreline of the Batticaloa lagoon.

Fig.5. More boats thrown about.

That evening, we were taken on a boat ride around the lagoon that trapped the residents of Dutch Bar. We paid the captain of the small boat $10 US which made him extremely happy.

Figures 1 through 5 show our boat tour of the lagoon at Batticaloa. After the boat ride, we stopped to see 2 gentlemen throw out their nets for prawns. They would fish all night for prawns. During the day, they worked on the larger fishing boats where they used the prawns for bait. That left little time for sleep and any sort of a life. Furthermore, the nets, weights and lantern (to attract the prawns) that they were using that evening were rented. That means, that they had to scrape together $3 US to rent the nets. That is a lot of money for these people and if they didn't catch enough prawns then they would be in the hole.

Vasantha gave them a lantern to use and we told them to meet us at the convent the next morning. They arrived, bright and early after a night of fishing, dressed up in their best clothes. We took them to the Muslim section of town where we bought them a net and the weights so they could fish on their own without having to rent the equipment. The total cost was 3475 rupees (roughly $35 US). They were incredibly happy with this small gift. See Fig. 6.

That evening, we returned to see if they were fishing in the same spot. They were using the lantern that they were given but not the net. It would take three days for them to put the weights on the net so they were renting until then. Regardless, the gentleman on the left in Fig. 6 was very excited for that day they made 1500 rupees ($15 US) out at sea. That is a lot of money.

If you figure that out, that's a 43% return on the investment. Of course the money doesn't go into our pocket but we're OK with that! The next step is to get them a lagoon boat so they can fish during the day and not have to stay up all night.

It's amazing to think of how a random stop by some strangers who were interested in how they fished has changed their lives.