By Andrew Plemmons Pratt

The December 26, 2004, tsunami that swept across Southeast Asia devastated many coastal communities. Among the some of the hardest hit areas were the fishing villages of Sri Lanka, where impoverished families that had little to lose saw what they did have swept away by an unsympathetic wall of water. Fortunately, selfless volunteers from around the world traveled to those places wrecked by the disaster ready to help.

Dave Skurky, Civil Engineering 2002, was one of those helping hands that dropped what he was doing and flew to the other side of the planet to pick up a hammer and trowel. "It wasn't one particular event or story" that compelled him to volunteer in the rebuilding effort, he says, "just an overwhelming feeling that I should help in some capacity." For two weeks in March, he helped build a new home for the Kalansuriya family in Galle, Sri Lanka.

Jeeva Kalansuriya lost her husband to the tsunami, along with the family's only source of income, his car, which served as a taxi. Neither Jeeva, nor her three daughters, Anushka, Chamori, and Shani, had jobs, and the women were living with Jeeva's sister, Swarna, in an already crowded house. Global Crossroad, one of several groups organizing relief efforts in the region, singled out the family for assistance because of their extreme hardship.

Skurky, who works as a civil site design engineer at the AECATL firm in Atlanta, Ga., started reading articles on the Internet early this year about volunteer organizations. Whereas some organizations required medical or disaster relief experience, a USA Today article endorsed Global Crossroad, a group looking for any help they could get. "They just needed bodies to help build," Skurky recalls. "Simple as that." His family and employer were encouraging and supportive. His boss and co-workers offered to handle his workload, and the company offered him extended time off and spending money for the trip.

Eighteen volunteers filled the spots for Skurky's trip, which took place March 1-15. The group members ranged in age from 24 to 72 and came from the United States, Canada, England, Australia, Germany and Switzerland.

Global Crossroad hired a local architect/engineer who spoke English and had a crew of four to five workers who handled specialized construction tasks. These local workers were teenage boys who wore flip-flops and worked two construction jobs—earning between $6 and $10 a day—and had no conventional safety equipment such as hard hats, gloves, or boots. "When we offered our boots and gloves," Skurky says, "they refused, either out of pride or because they didn't see the use."

The 450-square-foot house went up on the back of Swarna's property. "We dug the footings, poured the foundation, built the block walls, installed windows and doors, poured concrete floors, dug an outhouse pit, and put up a roof," says Skurky. After two weeks, the project was nearly complete—without the help of a single power tool, level, concrete mixer, or any sort of measuring device. "I actually knew more than I thought regarding concrete mixture ratios, slump tests and general construction from my U.Va. civil courses," he adds.

The tropical heat necessitated several breaks throughout the course of the day and provided the grateful family with ample opportunity to express their appreciation. As Skurky recalls, "They consistently showed their thanks by offering us teas, treats, or a clean chair to rest on."

Chatting with the Kalansuriya daughters during breaks and at dinner in the evenings, Skurky picked up a smattering of Sinhalese, the Sri Lankan language. In an ongoing joke, the girls would say, "Dave, are you tired?" and much to their delight, the reply they taught him clumsily translated to, "Nah, energy I have much."

Halfway through the trip, the volunteers hosted a dinner for the family at the hotel where the group members were staying. They feasted on pizza, lasagna, salad, garlic bread, and Coca-Cola—all foods the Kalansuriyas were not accustomed to eating. "We presented them with gifts for the new home and played games, danced and had a wonderful evening," Skurky recalls, "The family later told me how much the evening meant to them and how they would never forget it for the rest of their lives." But the generosity of the volunteers did not stop there. According to Skurky, the group members donated thousands of dollars toward land purchases for new homes in the area. "Some extended their trips by weeks to continue reconstruction," he says, "and some even quit their jobs to stay for the long haul."

Ridma, a young relative of Jeeva who speaks English, informed the volunteers of her hopes of receiving a scholarship to attend an American university to study medicine. Inspired by her ambition, group members bought her a computer, and Skurky, with financial support from his employer and family, paid to have a phone line and electrical power installed. The family is still waiting for reliable Internet service to reach the area, but when it does, Ridma will have access to the Web and to email to help her in her college search. According to Skurky, he and other volunteers are committed to helping her obtain a student visa and raising money for her education expenses.

He talks often with the Kalansuriyas, who have since moved into their new house. "They like to pass the phone around the room to speak with me," he says. "The conversation is usually limited because of the language barrier, but I can say, 'Hello, how are you, I am fine' in Sinhalese, and they can say 'What's up buddy' in English." Skurky plans on crossing that language barrier by taking Sinhalese lessons before returning to Sri Lanka—possibly next spring. "I have offers to stay with many of the people I met," he says, "They have so little but are willing to share so selflessly."