ABDF

Hi everybody!

It’s Saturday morning as I write this; still Friday night for most of you. When I woke up, I noticed that my mobile phone wasn’t receiving any signal. I asked the family downstairs and they, too, can’t use their phones. This means the communication system was taken down and the last time that happened when I was here it meant that Something Big was happening. That time it was a big LTTE attack on an airforce base in the north. So far I haven’t heard what’s going on now, but when Something Big happens, the government cuts the system in order to prevent communication and possible retaliation here on the east coast.

Since normal life must go on despite Big Things, I’m also doing laundry. I do it in a large bucket, which limits how much you can clean at a time, so I usually do a bucket every other day. It can get tedious, washing all the time, and now I get why the washing machine was greeted with such joy when it first came out in the 1920’s. I don’t use a washboard or anything, but still it takes time and a lot of energy. I think the hardest part is making sure all the detergent is rinsed out. If you don’t, it’ll form tiny crystals while drying on the line. When you sweat, the crystals feel prickly and gritty; very uncomfortable. Of course by now I’ve figured out how much rinsing it takes, but standing bent over a bucket sometimes makes my lower back hurt a bit.

Washing machines are available in Colombo. However, they are imported and the government slaps a 100% import tax on all such items, meaning that they are out of reach for all but the very wealthy and the tourist hotels.

Have I told you yet about Dog?

For two months, an Irish in-law of Siva (he built this house, remember) and his girlfriend lived here at the house, working in an Internally Displaced Persons (read: war refugee) camp nearby. They left for India the Saturday before I arrived in Batti. Anyway, at some point during their stay, they kinda/sorta adopted an adolescent dog and began keeping him as a pet. And when they left, they left the dog for the family here, and me, to take care of.

There really isn’t a pet culture in Sri Lanka. Animals generally fall into one of three categories: food, labor, and annoyance. Many Sri Lankans have heard of the Western habit of keeping pets and some of them try to imitate it, but it generally doesn’t turn out well. For example, pet dogs are usually kept tied to a tree and are never played with or walked. Cats are semi-feral and tolerated because they keep rats, mice, snakes, and large insects down. But they are never petted. In general pets at best receive table scraps; usually they wander around to scavenge what they can. Some folks keep fish tanks, but they are poorly maintained and the fish die at an alarming rate. When one of the boys in the family downstairs brings home a new duckling or rabbit or fish I generally give the thing a couple of months before something untoward happens.

I’m not judging or anything. I’m just saying that Western standards of pet care haven’t penetrated into Sri Lanka, for good or for ill.

Which makes the situation with Dog a little difficult.

I’m sure that the Irish couple had nothing but kindness and good intentions when they brought Dog to the house and began feeding and grooming him. But they were going to leave, and Dog was not. Poor thing, he’s sweet and affectionate and doesn’t go through the trash or anything. But he does need regular feeding and is dirty. And he’s got fleas. The family downstairs would just as soon put him back out where he came from, except that he’s so very sweet and has turned out to be a good guard dog at night. So now I feel that I have to take care of the fellow. It’s gonna take a lot of work to keep him clean, not to mention flea-free, and the only place to get flea powder or shampoo is in one particular market.

This is something that happens a lot here, and what I try to think about and avoid in my work. Foreigners often come to Sri Lanka (and other places too) not understanding local customs and attitudes and without thinking out the consequences of what they do. Dog is now a house pet, dependent on humans for food and especially affection. He would suffer greatly to be put back on the streets; more than he would he if had just stayed there. And since the family doesn’t want to take care of him, it falls on me to do so. I don’t really mind, as he is rather a doll, but I think you get my point. Good intentions and wishes are great, but if acted upon without knowledge…

But enough about Dog; he doesn’t know it yet, but he’s in for a good flea powdering after I have my morning tea.

Speaking of tea, it’s amazing here. I’m going to give you the recipe for Sri Lankan spice tea. The Indian version is called chai. This is for a small teapot:

A heaping tablespoon of tea

Sugar to taste (see below)

A piece of cinnamon about the length of your thumb

A half dozen or so green cardamom pods, crushed so the pods are open

A piece of ginger about the size of your thumb, peeled, cut up and mashed so the juices run

Milk (also see below)

Hot water

Put the water on to boil. Put everything except the milk into the teapot. Pour in hot water and stir. Allow to steep for a couple of minutes. Pour in milk. Pour a thin stream into the middle of the tea; when the milk comes back up along the sides, you’ve added enough. Stir and let sit for another minute or two. Pour through a strainer into a cup or glass and drink up. The tea will be a beautiful thick tea-green color.

I use whole milk, which is all you can get here. At home I’ve tried low- and non-fat and frankly it doesn’t taste as good. But use what you feel most comfortable. Some Sri Lankans use a lot of milk, but I find it dilutes the flavor of the tea and spices.

Sri Lankans like their tea super-sweet. You could even describe it as sugar with a bit of tea mixed in. It’s too much for me, although I do like it some sweet. For me, for the whole pot, I put in two heaping tablespoons of sugar, or a ratio of 2 sugar to 1 tea. Of course you should experiment until you find your own sweet preference.

Tea is often spiced with just cinnamon, or just cardamom, or just ginger. You can use the same recipe as above, but if you use cardamom only, double the number of pods.

One thing I have found to be rather interesting. When in the States I suffer from a lot of acid reflux and heartburn. It starts almost as soon as I get off the plane. Here the opposite is true: after a day or two my stomach troubles vanish completely. My friend Sushila tells me it’s due to the herbs and spices in the food and tea. Ginger and cardamom, for example, are supposed to be very good for the digestive track and both are found in almost all dishes. Is this true? I don’t know, but I do know that despite all the chilies (and tea, which is acidic) I never get an acid stomach!

Now that I’ve chatted about daily life stuff, I should tell you a bit about Projects, and where we stand.

I’ve received a lot of good feedback about our projects from last year.

The computer lab we put together at the school in Kaluwankerny is still up and running and very busy. There has been no need for repairs yet. I had given Balan, our partner on this venture, 5,000 rupees ($50) to hold in case any repairs might be needed. I’ve told him to keep it for now as it should cover most basic repair and maintenance work that might pop up this year. The school allows non-students from the village to use the computers after school hours. As the school is public facility they can’t charge users as that would make it a business. Instead they request a donation at the extremely low rate of 10 rupees for a half hour, which they use towards the electricity bill. This may bring in only 500 rupees a month, but it helps.

Our water tank in Navatkudah is a smashing success. It’s done a lot to provide the villagers with plentiful clean water. And it fills the neighboring villages with lust; thus far we’ve received verbal requests from two nearby villages for their own water tanks. They suffer from the same deep water table problem as Navatkudah, so the requests are reasonable. And the District Secretary is happy because the tank saves him time and money, which makes him look good! Since it’s a win-win situation, I’ve told our co-conspirator, Prabha, that we can do one tank this year for sure. If I can get more money, we can do the second tank. Hear that guys? Send in those checks!

I’m sure all of you remember Selwenthiran and his family. They are the ones we gave a house well so they could have water. Well, I have some good news. Janthi, the sick wife, has been to hospital and is getting treatment for her epilepsy. The supply of high-nutrition tonic we have been providing has had an excellent effect on her health; she no longer looks gaunt and scary. True, she is still far from pleasantly plump, but now she doesn’t look like a concentration camp survivor. Little Panvitra has been attending preschool, which we pay for. When I first met her, she was a shy little thing. Now she’s smiling and outgoing and VERY sociable. OK so I’m not those most paternal of guys, but it is so sweet to see how much she’s blossomed. Makes me a touch verklempt.

On my first visit to their house I was greeted joyfully. I mean, usually when you finish a project, the recipients are obviously happy and thankful, although public displays are generally frowned upon. I’ve never had anyone run up to me, plant a big kiss on my cheek, hug me, and practically brim over with tears as Janthi did when I stopped by. I wish each and every one of you could have been there to see it. You couldn’t have helped but been moved.

Selwenthiran has asked us for a bit more help this year, and I think that ABDF.org ought to consider it. Janthi’s teeth, never in the best condition, have almost entirely fallen out. I don’t know why, but I suspect it’s a matter of sickness, poor diet, stress, and maybe even in part a side affect of her medication. For example, right now her uppers consist almost solely of her two canines. As we all know gum disease and tooth problems usually mean chronic infection, which in turns means poor resistance to other diseases and could lead to heart problems. One the other hand, Panvitra and her daddy’s teeth are strong, white, and all intact, so it must be something specific to Janthi. I don’t know what sort of money is involved yet; I need to take her to a dentist to get a diagnosis and plan of action. But it can’t be that expensive by our standards; I’ve had doctor visits here that have only cost me a couple of bucks!

Our road at Peace Village is still on hold. You will recall that the source of rubble for the foundation comes from a tsunami-destroyed hospital in Kattankudy being rebuilt by the Norwegian government. Last year they knocked down part of the ruins, and we got the rubble for free. Rather than take down everything at once, the Norwegians have decided to rebuild in sections; the part they cleared last year is still under construction. So when they get around to knocking down some more, we’ll snag the detritus. That should be some time this summer. Sometimes these projects are slow, going along inch by inch. But hey – the materials are free!

I haven’t had the opportunity yet to go to Thraimadhu to see how the coconut seedlings are doing, but Balan tells me that they are fine. Once planted, they require little care other than the occasional watering. They are now almost a year old and in four years or so they will begin to bear fruit. I was told that the average palm will bear up to 15 fruit around every two months. Given that each family has three plants, that’s a lot of coconut! That should give them extra, which they can sell in the local markets for a bit of added cash.

Right at the end of last year I received a written request from the folks at Thraimadhu asking us to help ‘em set up a couple of community gardens. Although the soil on the east coast is sandy and not nutrient-rich, it can grow a variety of vegetables, including eggplant, okra, the so called “drumstick” (a sort of long bean), and gourds. Assuming these gardens are managed properly, and the produce distributed fairly, it would be another step in food self-sufficiency for the villagers. Not a bad idea; I have to get an updated estimate on the materials and supplies, and find out how they will be run.

I seem to have segued into projects for this year.

I’ve got one quick-n-dirty but very useful little project coming up. A bit south of here is the town of Kaluthavali. Local teachers have set up an after-school tutoring program which they run out a set of tsunami shelters. The whole thing is free for the kids, and there are a half dozen classes going on any particular afternoon, for a total of more than 400 kids. The teachers are unpaid. Their biggest problem is photocopying lessons, as there are not nearly enough books to go around. Photocopying here is about as costly as it is in the US, meaning that for locals it’s expensive. The teachers pay for the photocopying (and there is a lot of it, 400 students a day, 5 afternoons a week) from their own pockets. And teachers are paid OK here, but they ain’t rich.

So I’m gonna offer them a ronio machine. We called them mimeographs in the US; some of you are old enough to remember when photocopies smelled REALLY COOL. That was a mimeograph. They’re still used in Sri Lanka, as normal photocopy machines are pricey. Like with washing machines, they are imported and heavily taxed. Toner is expensive, as is repair. And when the power goes out – useless! Ronio machines are inexpensive to repair, the ink is way cheap, and they can be hand cranked when the electricity goes out. So it seems to me to be a much more appropriate and sustainable solution. Normally I would hesitate to just hand out a piece of equipment, but in this case it would really help out the teachers who are, after all, volunteering their time and spending their own meager funds.

Let’s see, I’ve already mentioned Janthi’s teeth, and the road in Peace Village.

Oh yeah, the Peace Village preschool. The villagers have set aside a space in the community building for a preschool. Right now there is little more than a few small wooden chairs and a couple of chunks of blackboard. In partnership with Aneesha (she of the yummy brain curry) I’m going to begin talks with the village elders about getting them some decent equipment and school supplies.

I’ve found out that Middle Eastern countries, when they pay attention to Sri Lankan Muslims at all, are very demanding when they offer funds. Most countries such as Saudi and Iran insist that if they help build schools, that teaching Islam be the primary focus. And the local mullahs and imams are very wary of such conditions; when tsunami aid came from the Middle East along with it came preachers of extremist Islam, which locals found abhorrent. Islam here in Sri Lanka is pretty laid-back, relatively speaking. Fundamentalism has made few inroads here, and Muslim leaders prefer it that way; rigid adherence goes against their thousand year old culture. The result is that very few are willing to take up the offer of aid from the Middle East; too many strings.

Muslim schools are much more interested in teaching the Three R’s: Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. Most Muslims would also would much rather learn English than Arabic. Yes, the schools do have religion class, as do the Hindu and Christian ones. But unlike the madrasas of Pakistan, for example, the raison d’être here is to give kids a good Western-style education based on math, science, language, and citizenship.

Have I ever mentioned how pro-American most Sri Lankan Muslims are? It sounds strange, given the amount of fear of Muslims we have in the West. But there are communities here that think the US is best thing around. Yes, there is great sympathy for the Palestinians, but I haven’t heard anything particularly anti-Semitic or anti-Israeli. Criticism of Israel yes, but none of the virulent hatred you get in the Middle East. And yes, George Bush with his fear mongering really disappointed Muslims here. But despite this there is an unflagging trust that America really is the land of equality and opportunity. They know that Muslims are generally treated better in the US than in some of their own countries. They recognize the hypocrisy of countries like Saudi who claim the West is against Islam, yet in the West mosques are regularly built whereas churches are not allowed in Saudi. They agree that Saddam was a monster and had to be gotten rid of; they just wish it could have been done differently (many Americans agree with this). They wish the same for bin Laden, who they consider a freak and completely un-Islamic.

I think part of it is distance from the Islamic mainstream, way out here in Sri Lanka. Part of it is being a minority, and familiarity with what that means. But a major part of it is the suffering they have experienced in the past 20 years or so; they are far more afraid of the LTTE and it’s various offshoots than they are of the US or the West. They have suffered at the hands of Sri Lankans, Tamil and Singhalese alike, not from the West.

I’m not saying there is no anti-Western and anti-American sentiment. There are some who buy into these things, although it is a minority view. From what I can tell, they tend to be very poor, unemployed, and uneducated – which is why such projects as the preschool are so important.

On a more personal note, last night I finished reading Agatha Christie’s “Murder at the Vicarage.” I love those terribly British mysteries where at the end they all sit in the parlor to reveal the murderer. Miss Marple in particular is my favorite detective. Not to spoil it, but it turned out it was the two lovers who done did it. Fun book!

Anyway, I’ve wandered about quite a bit in this dispatch. It’s now almost one in the afternoon. Dog’s had his powdering, the laundry is drying on the roof, and it’s time for me to fix lunch and then try to post this.

xoxoxoxoxo

B.

PS: The mobile phone system just came back online.

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