Bye Bye Sri Lanka!

I left Sri Lanka with many a backward glance this week and now I am re-adjusting to life back in Bristol...my family had prepared the most rapturous homecoming and it was so good to see them...and gradually catching up with friends too, wonderful. What a fortunate woman I am, such richness, two homes and lots of wonderful people in both. I am going to put this blog to bed for now...life in the UK is not as curious as in Sri Lanka and I would struggle to find things to say. So thanks to all my friends and colleagues in Sri Lanka for making my stay there so brightly coloured.

Trincomalee

Just returned from visit to Trincomalee (10 hours each way!). I only went so I could say I’d been there really – well it is one of the best names on the planet, second only to Timbuctu and Piddlethrenthide....beforehand I was Warned about malarial mosquitoes and LTTE guerillas still lurking in the scrub, but I didn't see any signs of either. What I did find interesting was a report of domestic violence in the area which documented all sorts of cruelties and hypocrisies; in many cases women turned to the LTTE as the only source of protection when families and agencies had failed them. Reminded me of reports of Hezbollah in Lebanon supporting the pople when the government had failed...

Galle Face Cheek

Had an Interesting Night at the Galle Face Hotel in Colombo last weekend, the Galle Face being a Traditional Old Hotel of Character hotel where ancient crones hang out(so I felt at home). My room was huge, so was the bed (viz photo of Manurie posing in sari for effect)...whilst the bathroom fittings definitely fell under the description of both Traditional and Old, the view to the sea across the Galle Face Green was splendid and so was Breakfast on the Terrace the next morning. There I observed at close quarters two venerable gentlemen disposing of their Sri Lankan breakfast – rice and curry, they really can eat it three times a day with little variety - in the traditional way, using their right hand to squeeze it into little balls to pop in the mouth. I was intrigued to see, when it came to demolishing a piece of chocolate cake for afters, that they carefully turned the cake into crumbs before mashing it into little balls....extreme eating.

An Unwanted Guest

So what would you do if you came home to find this cute little chap on your doorstep? First thing, check the cat is still in one piece (OK). Then call the neighbours (and their brawny henchmen) to help you evict him.
He (or she, I didn’t stop to look, so let’s stick with it), had obviously lumbered over from the nearby lake to see what it could find for supper. It looks like it had found something, by the sluggish exit it made, in spite of being prodded and poked with many sharp objects and with many lashings of a vicious looking tail.
But I felt very sorry for all 6 feet of it. The ultimate unwanted guest; nothing the matter with it in its own environment, but do you want one as a garden pet?....I think not. Though it could do a good job of keeping the rats down.
Bless its cotton socks. I hope it made it back to the lake. In one piece.

Bovine Bathing Beauty

Fine, but once cows get the paddling habit, where will it end? Could we find ourselves coping with a mass bovine takeover of the beaches? Just imagine all those cows sprawled on sun-loungers, covered in Factor 15 and sporting their Calvins on their horns. And if you thought the Germans are adept at leaving their calling cards on the sunbeds, just think what those cows could leave....

Then there would be all those little calves gambolling in the waves; cute until you think that they definitely won’t be wearing Pampers under their swimsuits....what would that do our Blue Flag status...?

Whatever next? Surfing bullock-dudes, snorkelling heifers, wind-surfing steers....?

It just doesn’t bear thinking about. Somebody get it out of there...

Congratulations on being fat and old....

As we in the west bemoan our wrinkles and spreading flesh, it's good to know there places where they are considered to be a Very Good Thing. So in Sri Lanka, a greeting along the lines of "My, haven't you put on weight" is received with great satisfaction as it it means "You are doing well for yourself". And at New Year, my (youthful) Sinhala teacher presented me with a T-shirt (size 8 - she obviously thought I was going downhill fast!), saying " It is our tradition to give clothes to elderly people at this time of year". By this of course she meant people of maturity and wisdom, worthy of great respect...didn't she??

EX-PATS UNDER THREAT IN SERIAL CRIME RAMPAGE

WITH SINCERE APOLOGIES TO ANY BRITISH (OR OTHER) RESIDENTS OF GALLE WHO WERE THE SUBJECT OF ATTACKS FOR THE FRIVOLOUS NATURE OF THIS POST!

Went to the funniest meeting last week - British residents called together by the High Commission to talk to the local police about "armed" robberies in the vicinity (guns probably toys but you can't be too careful). Having secured the office, mobile and home telephone numbers of most of the senior police officers in a hundred mile radius, the ex-pats happily spent the rest of the evening quizzing the police in detail as to just how far they could go in self-defence before they fell foul of the law (it's all about proportional force, apparently; and you could find yourself in trouble if you shoot someone who is threatening you with a water pistol....).
The Chief of Police responded by suggesting that most ex-pats were so sozzled by the time they went to bed they wouldn't hear an armed robber if he was swinging from their mosquito nets. And anyway we are all so well-off why don't we have 24 hour security guards? What fun, much better than my local neighbourhood watch gathering in Bristol. Hic, pass me the gin bottle and by the way where's my Kalshnikov....

crocodiles, elephants and peacocks - in no particular order

Last week was New Year in Sri Lanka, a time when everyone here takes time off work, visits friends and relations and eats too many sweet cakes and lumps of jaggery (a solid sugar thing made from the sap of the kitul tree). Those of us with no relatives, few friends here and teeth which drop out at the very mention of the word jaggery have to find other things to do, so a fellow-volunteer and I set out on a wildlife adventure. As I'm sure I've already mentioned that Sri Lanka is one of the world's top 10 bio-diversity hotspots though as with everywhere it is getting less diverse by the day. In brief, we went into the mountains and forest of the wet zone then down to the plains and scrub of the dry zone and saw (just a sample of, in no particular order), giant squirrels, wild fowl (look just like our cockerels),Indian peafowl (peacocks to you), crocodiles, elephants, green beeeaters, boar, a cobra and lots of painted storks and other wonderful birds. The leopards were feeling shy that day and our safari tracker, suffering I guess from loss of face at not having tracked them down, was so mortified he almost declined his tip ....but recovered his wits just in time, and instead declined to collect the money his boss had paid out for our lunch. Which I guess made sense at the time but wouldn't have done much for corporate relations. Anyone have any experiences of safari to share?

About time I wrote about work....

The other week I attended one of the introductory workshops put on by my organisation. The workshops gather disabled members of the community, together with their families and caregivers, and start the process of improving their lives. They form community self-help groups which, supported by a field officer, are encouraged to demand rights to better housing, mobility, training etc. This can eventually lead to disabled people getting jobs, getting micro-finance, starting businesses - and to increased respect within their families and social standing in their communities. Quite a powerful process.
I found myself comparing the workshop with the planning sessions I run for small exporters. So, in place of the Marriot or the Hilton, picture a bare and scruffy breezeblock outhouse in the grounds of a Buddhist temple. No bottles of sparkly mineral water – if you’re thirsty there’s a tap in the yard. Around 70 impoverished and disabled people and their families gather on ancient child-sized chairs or sit on the ground. And lunch (and let’s face it, this is what many of them are here for), is a newspaper packet of cold curry and rice delivered in a 3-wheeler from the local take-away.
Yet there are remarkable similarities with our exporters’ workshops. There is a clear process which the delegates are asked to engage with. It is highly participative and over the course of the day, a lively team of field officer offer the delegates a personal challenge: in their case to move from incapacity to: “Hey, I can actually do something about my life!”

Motorbike health & safety, Sri Lankan style

Sri Lanka has stringent regulations about riders of motorbikes and scooter wearing crash-helmets, and these are clearly inforced and adhered to. But no such strictures appear to apply to passengers, leading to the unsettling sight of whole families - pregnant mums, toddlers and babies - all squeezed precariously onto one motorbike - with Dad in the middle the only one whose brain is protected in case of an accident. Maybe he doesn't think the rest of his family have one between them worth protecting...

CURIOUSLY FRANK, OR FRANKLY CURIOUS?

I don't think anyone tells Sri Lankan children - or adults for that matter - it's rude to stare. Strangers' sidelong glances or downright open-eyed stares follow me wherever I go, (and no, it's not just me..!). Yet Sri Lanka has enough western visitors for a white woman to be something less than a rarity.

Depending on your mood, it can be amusing or exasperating. One thing is certain - meet the glance or gaze with a smile and you will be rewarded with the famous Sri Lankan beam which lights up your day.

How I nearly climbed Adam's Peak....

On Saturday, 7 of us set off at midnight to climb all 2243m of the holy mountain Sri Pada (Adam's Peak), with the aim of seeing in the dawn from the summit. In the event, the pilgrim crowds of all ages and (lack of) abilities were so dense that, in spite of clambering round and over the aforementioned pilgrims of all ages and (lack) of abilities we got completely hemmed in within 10 minutes of the top and had to sidle back down again. In spite of the disappointment, it was nevertheless quite an experience: more physically challenging than anything I have done before (remember those pilgrims....)and my legs have never hurt so much for so long.

I just have to try again.

The Night of the Cockroaches....

(With apologies to those of a nervous disposition!)
Now I am not averse to a cute spider or a nifty beetle as a rule, but there's something about cockroaches which really makes my skin crawl. It doesn't seem to matter that at 4 cms (the cockroach that is) I have something of a size advantage, and that I come armed with WMD such as stout brooms and cans of Certain Cockroach Death. So picture 2 grown feisty women the other night screeching and flailing at the sight of 4 large cockroaches partying harmlessly in our bathroom around 11pm.

Actually the one in the picture escaped and hid slyly at the bottom of my mosquito net for 3 days, for which courageous piece of guerilla warfare I chucked it out the door rather than down the shower hole.

I must say that there are only 3 forms of insect life I deal death to without mercy -the mosquito, the slugs in my garden and cockroaches. I wonder which one I will come back in my next lifetime - I'll give you 3 guesses.

Galle Literary Festival

The Galle Literary Festival last weekend was a great success. Colin Thubron (The Silk Road) was elegant and erudite and attributed his stoicism to his years at public school, Edna O'Brien was still beautiful and spoke lyrically, and Thomas Keneally (back of head seen here signing books - it was too hot to move to the front!) was funny and wise and an all-round good guy. I almost offered Germaine Greer a lift in my tuk tuk (she was haggling with a seedy-looking chap and I was going her way) but she looked cross and flustered and given her reputation I thought I'd leave her to get on with it :-)

Michael Morpurgo the children's author was moving about his childhood and discovering his father. He and his wife are staying at the hotel where my Sinhala teacher works and taking the opportunity to get to know the island a bit better. She thinks he is a wonderful man and treasures a signed copy of one of his books he gave her for her little boy.

Romesh Gunasekera, the Sri Lankan writer, talked about the Arab traders' name for Sri Lanka -Serendib - apparently it was Horace Walpole who from it coined the word serendipity. Gunasekera gave the example of finding your long-lost keys when looking for something entirely different. And of course, many scientific discoveries - amongst them Archimedes' Principle and Newton's Law? - could be described as serendipitous . Me, I just like the sound of the word!

The Purple-Faced Leaf Monkey

This rather noisy, cross-looking and quarrelsome creature is very common in the gardens of Galle; I have been told that the locals do unfriendly things to it like set their dogs on them (though quite how the dogs swing through the trees in pursuit is beyond me). Anyway it turns out that this monkey is an endangered species. Not sure the locals are that bothered though.

Adopting a kitten

My housemate Julia, has been hankering after a pet for a while. A friend has offered her one whose siblings have been eaten by a monitor lizard - a new twist, I suppose, on selecting your pet from Bristol Cats and Dogs Home. Should I be slightly nervous about its state of mind after this experience, (never mind the fleas)?

Coming to Sri Lanka

....from Sri Lanka, a first tentative wave to all my blogreaders from Sri Lanka!

I'd like this as far as possible to be a little piece of entertainment, a reflection on some trifles and quirky things I come across. Always happy to hear back from you!

On the plane between Doha and Colombo I found myself sitting next to a rather elegant elderly Scandinavian gentlemen who told me that in the past he had run a restaurant in Funchal, Madeira, and in addition had been the Swedish consul there. He said the main problem was that people would insist on coming to Madeira and then inconveniently expiring there, and to add insult to injury, the family were often reluctant to come and collect the body, leaving him to make all the necessary arrangements. I surmised he must have found those catering fridges useful at times.