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!”