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!