Thursday, March 30, 2006
News from our Man in Sri Lanka #4
Hello all.
Thank you for all your emails - am getting through the replies...
Hope all is good with you all - thought a little email might be nice...
Gaelle, the French girl I have been working with since I got here, finally left on Tuesday so am doing my bit of the project on my own now! 13 schools have got me to look after them… can you imagine… the poor things! The team is as lively as ever, helped by the arrival of an American girl, Devon, at the beginning of the week, who seems pretty lively and up for a laugh.
A lot of the team are off on a big shopping trip for the schools to Matara tomorrow – a fairly large town up the coast from here so that will be fun, even though Matara is loud, hot and extremely busy. Shopping there takes forever. Sri Lankans are never in a hurry to do anything.
Went to a place called Unawatuna this weekend which was great fun – a very lazy place where the beach is just calling out for you to lie on it and the Arrack (a very popular dink here, a bit like very strong Vodka) is just crying out to be drunk! Lots of nice places to eat and we also did lots of swimming. The water is so beautifully clear and warm – so relaxing!
Stopped off at Mirissa on the way back to Tangalla which is one of Sri Lanka’s nicest bay – a little secluded area wrapped round with palm trees. Again, very beautiful. Makes a lovely contrast to the chaos and danger on the roads!
The local elections are today – some say there will be trouble as the new President is already deeply unpopular, but we are all hoping their won’t be trouble! We are just keeping our heads down for today, just in case. The schools are shut in any case becasuse of the elections so its office work!
My parents and brother are coming out – seems to be quite spur-of-the-moment, but it will be really nice to see them. They are here for 10 days including over the Buddhist New Year on 13th/14th so it’ll be good to do some traveling with them then.
Chris (Pyatt for those of you who know him - some don't I know! lol) arrives at the end of next week so as really looking forward to that. The plan at the moment is for Chris, Jo (another Monmouth friend who is working in Colombo) and me, along with my parents and brother to go up to the mountain town of Kandy for the New Year where apparently some of the best celebrations are. But am hoping to give my parents the slip I think…
Jo is actually down on the south coast this week so we are hoping to meet up in Mirissa on Friday and spend some time there, perhaps over the weekend. It’ll be nice to see her, though I think we’ll both find it quite weird seeing each other in such a different situation from what we are used to!
The whole situation in Sri Lanka still gets to me sometimes - you keep being jolted into the situation of a particular local and you realise that this is how they live, and its a world away from anything a Western person could even imagine living that way. I visted a school for deaf children a few days ago - the kids all board there yet there is no running water facilities and thus food and hygine is very difficult, not to mention drinking water in this heat... the water they have is from a dirty well which is just not suitable for 120 children and teachers. Yet they keep smling and make the best of it. I was shown their dorms - again, not enough beds, so many kids have to sleep two to a bed, in a bed thats not really big enough for one.
The people out here are tough - perhaps the kids especially. I am constantly being amazed by them and they keep making me remember just how lucky the developed world is.
The internet is becoming dodgy so I shall sign off and let you get back to doing something more important!
Keep in touch with all your news!
Love,
Humph xx
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