ABDF

Wednesday, June 26, 2008

Hi everybody!

Well first let me say that today is the halfway point in this year’s season in Sri Lanka.  I arrived on February 26, and I leave October 26.

I have had time to reflect on my stay here, and how things are going so far.

Thus far, Sri Lanka has not driven me crazy.  Part of this, of course, is that I’m in a familiar place with familiar people.  Culture shock is much, much worse if you are in a foreign country for the first time.  Also my past experience here has given me a set of expectations about this place that are fairly reasonable and realistic.  This too has helped lessen the culture shock. 

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Hi everybody!

Well, I’ve had an interesting last few days.  I thought I’d tell you about them.

Monday I went with Thiru to see some schools to the north of Batti.  Thiru, as you may recall from my last dispatch, is the woman in whose house I live, and she works for People in Need.  She was going to make some school supply deliveries in the Valanchchenai area and then see some potential project sights in the Vahari (va-HA-ree) area.  Vahari is an area that until last year was under LTTE control, and had been for more than ten years.  It was also severely affected by the tsunami, being a perfectly flat area with an overall elevation of just a few feet above sea level. In addition, there is even less vegetation than you find generally in the district, so when the water came it reached very far inland.  I have never been that far north before, so of course I jumped at the chance to go.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Hi everybody!

It’s about 8:30 in the evening.  I just got back home from a very pleasant evening, which I want to tell you about.  I mean, given all the bad news I’ve been writing about, it’s time for something pleasant, n’est pas?

First, I took all the family kids out for dinner.  I live in a house that’s really part of a larger family compound.  My Sri Lankan family lives on the first floor, but the family next door, and which shares the same compound, is headed by the brother of Siva, the guy who built my house.  There are two boys; Vihas, 12 years old and Nic, who is 11.  Next door to that lives an uncle who has a boy, Dilakhan, 13 years old and the sweetest little girl, Darshikka, who I think is around 11.  This extended family is actually huge, and so there are always sundry other relatives in and out of the three houses.

Monday, June 09, 2008

Hi everybody!

It’s been about a week since my last dispatch.  I was in Colombo for most of the time.  I had to get my visa extended, and do some other errands as well.

I hate going to Colombo.  There is no pleasant way to do it, without spending a lot of money.  That is if you can get someone from Batti brave enough to take you.  Right now is something of a low point in Tamil/Singhala relations, and Tamils are increasingly being targeted by the security forces for harassment.  Thus it’s hard to find drivers to go to Colombo. If you can, it’s about $200 for the trip.  That is to say, $200 just to get to Colombo, and the driver will immediately take his van back to Batti unless you pay daily for him to stay while you conduct business. So that’s not really a viable option.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Hi everybody!

First, I want to let you know that things have been quiet and calm this past week.  In fact when I went down to Kattankudy two days ago I even saw Tamil women walking the streets, presumably to do their shopping.  (more...)