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03.08.05 - Since arriving in eastern Sri Lanka in mid-January, Sonoma Valley volunteer Cayenne Smith helped manually move seven tons of rubble and debris from a preschool site where 117 children died in the Dec. 26 tsunami disaster.

She met with mothers to help ease the return to school for about 60 elementary students who survived in a heavily damaged area. She trained 40 local volunteers on how to run activities with trauma victims in refugee camps. She also set up Saturday activities in a hospital psychiatric ward for children ages 9 to 12 who were injured and lost their families in the tsunami. Details on the tsunami tragedies in South Asia may have faded from most media outlets, but not from the minds of Smith and the founders of Sonoma Tsunami Relief, who are committed to providing the ongoing support - from one community to another - that is needed to rebuild the region and its people.

"I drove through hundreds of miles of coast, and there is no way to even begin to describe what has happened here. ... I have smelled the bodies and I went to the place where those children were holding hands and swept away," Smith wrote in an e-mail message home on Jan. 30. "Kids tell me all about the ghosts. Parents tell me about their missing children. It is all so overwhelming. ... Things here are hard, but I know that I am doing something meaningful. I am part of a great team. I had forgotten what it feels like to not be disappointed in people." Smith is spending six months as a volunteer with a nonprofit organization called Service Civil International. She is also looking for the best way for Sonoma Tsunami Relief to make a community-to-community connection in Sri Lanka, so that every dollar donated makes a difference.

Sonoma Tsunami Relief is asking Valley residents to commit to contributing $25 a month for two years; so far approximately 30 individuals or families have signed up. In addition, the group has collected more than $6,000 in one-time contributions from local individuals, groups and businesses.

"The response has been really good. We didn't know what to expect, and at first we were just trying to encourage people to give $25 a month. Then we started getting larger checks from people, so that was really great," said Rose Murphy, one of several locals who help to set up Sonoma Tsunami Relief. Smith's father, City Prosecutor Bob Smith, and her 17-year-old sister, McKenzie Smith, will be leaving the first week of April for an eight-day visit to Sri Lanka.

Bob Smith plans to help with the relief efforts, but Cayenne Smith is also making appointments for him with the various nonprofit groups working in the area.

"I hope to meet the people and see how the work is being done and how the money is being spent firsthand for these various charities," Bob Smith said. "I'll bring that information back to the Sonoma Tsunami Relief committee so they can decide where to have their dollars flow."

Cayenne Smith is already about halfway through her six-month volunteer commitment. Previously she worked in Peace Corps projects in Turkmenistan and refugee camps in Kosovo.

Her father reports that so far she has been accepted to two graduate schools - Boston University and Simmons College, both in Boston - to start work next fall on a master's degree in sociology with a focus on refugees.

Bob Smith and the other founders of Sonoma Tsunami Relief want to make sure that after Cayenne Smith is no longer in the area, the Valley's money will go where it will do the most good.

"All these wonderful people who have given money to the committee, I want to make sure their dollars are spent the best way possible, dollar-for-dollar in Sri Lanka," Bob Smith said.

He and daughter Mc-Kenzie are traveling to Sri Lanka using frequent-flyer miles, and will pay all their own expenses on this trip. The are packing only a few items for themselves, and both have empty bags just waiting to be filled with relief supplies.

"We're going to take whatever Cayenne tells us to bring," Bob Smith said. "I'll bring as much as I can of whatever antibiotics or other medicine or other things they tell me they still need. We'll load up with as much as we can."

He's also looking forward to seeing his daughter and making sure she really is OK.

"My number-one reason (for the trip) is to check on her; that's what a dad's role is wherever they happen to be. ... Where she's been is so remote that we haven't been able to have much communication except for a few cell-phone calls."

One of the next big projects for Cayenne Smith and the volunteer team she is working with will be rebuilding 75 houses in a completly devastated area. They spent the last month manually clearing the area.

"Do you know how long it takes to move just one house worth of bricks in a potato sack to a dumping site? A LONG time," Cayenne Smith wrote in a Feb. 13 e-mail. The cost of rebuilding each house will be about $2,000.

"We will begin with five pilot houses," she wrote. "The families of each house work as a commune with the volunteers until all the houses are finished."

She reported that she had been clearing hospitals and temples in her spare time.

"Things are completely overwhelming and totally frustrating, but very, very good. ... A special 'thank you' to all (the Sonoma Tsunami Relief) contributors ... This is a sad place sometimes. I am glad I am here."

To participate in the $25-a-month campaign, send an e-mail to kctlmm@comcast.net with name, address, telephone and e-mail. For one-time donations, send checks to: Sonoma Tsunami Relief, Box 1463, Sonoma, CA 95475. For special in-kind donations or questions, e-mail murphy@vom.com. Additional information is online at www.sonomatsunamirelief.com.

Two performance readings of "A Skull in Connemara," a biting, contemporary Irish comedy directed by Kate Kennedy, will be held at 7 p.m. today, March 8, and Friday, March 11, at Murphy's Irish Pub, 464 First St. W. Admission is $10 in advance or $15 at the door, with all proceeds going to Sonoma Tsunami Relief. Seating is limited. For more information, call 996-4359.

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