Thursday, March 16, 2006
News from our Man in Sri Lanka #2
Hello all!
Apologies for group email - am trying to work in lots of groups of people for emails to make them as interesting as pssible - if you think you're in the wrong group let me know! lol.
Am settling in well, the guesthouse is nice and the people are incredibly friendly. The effects of the tsunami though are still everywhere - many people seem to have spent the last 15 months just sitting around waiting for help to come, help which may in fact never come. The locals put Whites into one of two groups - you are either here for "holiday" or for "help".
The work is going to be a bit different from what I expected - I shall be working with about 14 schools that are at the moment twinned with UK schools and assessing their needs, coordinating their donations and supplying what they need with the donation from their UK twin school. Have spent the first week beginning to familiarize myself with the schools and the various projects with Gaelle, who I am working with for the next three weeks and from whom I shall be taking over properly at the beginning of April.
The others in the Adopt Sri Lanka office are friendly and include a British woman and two Sri Lankans. Sadly, one couple who are working here are off tomorrow, so the group will become a little smaller - c'est la vie. Am looking forward Chris coming out and joining me in a few weeks and have already been in touch with another friend (Jo Bounds - have I mentioned her?) who has been out here for 5 weeks already working at an elephant orphanage.
Tangalle is a nice, quiet town with most of the necessities - however it is quite likely that I shall never make it back to the UK as the roads here are as dangerous as a pool of petrol and a naked flame! Riding in a tiny tuk-tuk (taxi) is a time when I am particularly prayful!
Apart from work have already managed to get to the local Rock Temple (a huge mountain of rock with temples set into it) and, as today is a Poya Day (a Bank Holiday) some of us here in the office have been invited to celebrate with one of the Sri Lankans that works here - they celebrate by visiting the temple to offer sacrifices to Buddha and then going home and eating lots with their family and friends!
Have had loads of amazing experiences so far and have met some very interesting people. My journal is already pretty thick! Do email - be great to hear from you all. Interent not great though, so apologies for any delay in replying!
Love, Humph xx
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