ABDF

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Hi Everybody!

Wow! Since I last wrote you a lot has happened. It’s hard to know where to begin.

Well, I might as well begin with the New Year. It started sundown on Monday the 13th and lasted until sundown the 14th. However, shops began closing as early as last Friday, and by Monday almost everything was shut down, except for necessary services such as hospitals and pharmacies. For me that meant a lot of planning ahead; stocking up on bottled water, food, cell phone minutes, and generally trying to anticipate anything I might need for the next five or six days.

Of course there is nothing remotely like a superstore here, meaning that everything is bought in its own shop. This takes a lot of time, especially as I can safely carry only so much at a time on my motorcycle. So I started Friday morning and kept on shopping through the weekend, whenever I found a place open.

As I mentioned last week, most of my project partners are teachers and they are now on vacation, so our projects have really started to take off. I mentioned in my last dispatch about the sewing machine for the school uniforms out in Pavatkodichchenai and Irunooruvil. On top of that I’ve ordered the furniture for our computer lab in Vantharumoolai, and made arrangements to have it all wired up. If all goes according to schedule, the computer lab will be up and running by the first day of school.

I had also ordered the ronio machine for the EDS after school project in Kaluthavalai; it is supposed to arrive tomorrow, as it had to be ordered from Colombo and shipped. However today I found out from the shopkeeper that the company is asking all sorts of questions: who is buying it? An NGO (Non-Government Organization, meaning an aid agency)? They are refusing to send the machine out until they get answers. I talked it over with our partner on this, Balan, and he suspects that the company thinks a rich NGO is buying it, and will ask for more money. However, I have a signed quotation and there is more than one ronio machine company in Sri Lanka. Balan and I are going to the shop tomorrow and have a little chat with the shopkeeper.

Anyway, back to New Year. I got myself fully stocked up on what I might need; if anything I probably bought more than I need. But no matter, things like pasta, sugar and oatmeal don’t spoil.

Monday evening the family downstairs held the ritual bath ceremony. It’s really rather quick and simple. At the appointed time we all gathered and Amma (Tamil for Mother), the matriarch of the family, one by one put curry leaves on us; on one each foot and on the top of the head. Then murmuring a blessing, she doused us each three times with a jug of water drawn from the well. Then upstairs for a quick bath, and a change into new clothes. I had brought a new shirt from the US, and I wore that. Then we walked through the dark to a tiny kovil (Hindu temple) nearby and the family left offerings of flower garlands and incense. They prayed to the deity, and circumambulated the shrine three times, and then we all walked home. The only prayer I made was to wish the family health and prosperity, and for a successful year for ABDF.org, and then cast the thought out into the universe.

Tuesday was really busy. It’s tradition to go about and visit people in their homes. I did this all morning, took a break during the hottest part of the day, and then did more visiting in the afternoon. I ended up down in Arriampathy on the other side of Kattankudy with the Synergy staff, my students, at the house of one of them, Vathsala, about whom I talked in last years’ dispatches. After a lively visit we all rode to the beach for an hour of cool sea breezes. I finally made it home just after dark, only to find people waiting to visit with ME. The last guest left around 9 PM; I was exhausted by that point and feeling a little ill. You see, at each place you visit you’re served tea and traditional sweets. Sri Lankan tea is chock-full of sugar, as I described when I gave you the tea recipe, and some of the sweets are VERY sweet. It’s rude to not try at least one of each, so by the end of the day I was all sugared up and highly caffeinated. Ah! The perils of popularity!

On to some sadder business. As I mentioned in my last letter, my friend Prabha’s father was dying. Well, early on Saturday morning he died. The funeral was Monday morning, before the start of the New Year. Naturally I went, and participated in the entire thing. Last year I gave a pretty complete description of Hindu funeral rites, so I won’t go into great detail; suffice it to say that the ceremony was quite moving. Last year the body of my friend Murali was burned. This is not normally done in Sri Lanka, so Prabha’s father was buried.

The body is laid out in the house before being taken to the cemetery. A priest comes and sings several chants without accompaniment. The priest this time was young and had a very rich, full voice. In fact if I hadn’t known what language was being sung, and without having seen him in his Hindu garb, I would have sworn he was a cantor at a synagogue! His voice was that good, that deep and rich.

After the chanting is complete, the body is bourn up and in procession taken to the cemetery. Mourners follow behind. The walk was about 2 kilometers, and the sun hot and humidity high. The burial itself took an hour, including the moving Water Ceremony (again, see last year). Then the walk back. By the time I got home I was dehydrated, sweaty, and feeling very filthy. Ah, the unheated water of the shower felt so good!

As is custom, the family sits in mourning for eight days, 24 hours a day; similar to sitting shiva in the Jewish tradition. Friends and neighbors sit with the family to lend support. So on top of all the rest I’ve described, I have been spending at least an hour a day at the house. It’s considered a sign of respect. Truth be known, I had barely met the man; but I want to be there for Prabha who has been a great friend, and an important part of many of our projects. Plus, I was acting as the representative of Claire, Fiona, Katie and Jordan; the whole gang of us foreigners who got to know Prabha back in the tsunami times.

In addition to all this, there was a big graduation ceremony on Saturday at the Synergy office. Around a hundred people had taken an intensive counseling training course and it was time they received their certificates. Sushila, who runs Synergy, asked me to be the photographer. The ceremony started around 3:30 and ended two hours later. The afternoon started out sunny, but by the end it was raining pretty steadily. So after the ceremony I drove home inn the rain. I got soaked, but the cool was lovely.

Friday, April 17, 2009

It’s around 11 in the morning, and already I’ve had quite full day.

I got up early to see a friend off at the train station. You may remember me bitching about having to take the overnight train between Colombo and Batti. Last week the rail service instituted a second train; this time it’s what’s called a “fast train” service. At both ends the train leaves at 7:45 in the morning and arrives at the other end at 3:30 in the afternoon. It sounds great, a lot more convenient, shaves a couple of hours off travel time, you don’t have a sleepless night journey, and the cars were recently donated by China, and so are in much better repair. At least this is the theory; we’ll see. Jerry and I are booked on this service next Friday, when we go to Colombo.

Afterwards I got a quick breakfast in town, and then took my Motorbike to Jerard’s, where I had had the thing serviced two weeks ago. Lately the motorbike has been causing me all sorts of trouble. When I picked it up at Firthous’ house (he had kept it for me in my absence) he had advised me have a complete servicing done. I had noticed a few problems, including occasional difficulty starting, a clanking noise in lower gears, and the engine would occasionally stall while I was shifting gears.

My friend Sasi had recommended a shop run by a man named Jerard, so I took it there. The chain needed replacing, as did one of the small gears. After the servicing the bike ran a lot smoother and quieter, although the engine still stalled between gears; at the time I thought it was because I didn’t have my shift-timing right. They had also put on a new rear brake pad, but way too tight. And they didn’t take the bike out for a spin after finishing their work. As a result, as I was driving out of the shop, I had a high, real loud squealing noise from the brake, even though I wasn’t touching it. So I immediately turned around and went back. The brake was loosened, and the guy took it for a test drive. And this is where I started to get frustrated; the brake was quiet until you really pressed down on it during a quick stop. As it was dark and New Year was starting, I had no choice but to wait until after the holiday.

Then my bike began to choke up while I was driving, sometimes stalling out altogether and forcing me too the side of the road to restart the engine. My frustration grew, as you can imagine. I mean, I had paid a big amount, around 2,600 rupees, to get the damn thing fixed, and there were STILL problems. So this morning I went back, and the brake was finally fixed acceptably. I figured the choking and stalling was lack of petrol; I knew I was running low and the bike has no gas gauge. I hustled to the nearest station but about 20 meters away the engine finally gave out. Errr.

I walked to the station, got a liter of petrol in a borrowed jug, and put it in the tank. The engine still wouldn’t start. Double errr! I called my friend Sothi and he came in his trishaw. We then walked the bike to a different mechanic. The mechanic made some quick adjustments, finding that one connection was highly corroded. He replaced it, hoped on the bike, and when he went to switch gears the engine died. Hoorah! I’m not crazy! He instantly recognized the problem and after examining all the wiring, located the trouble; a connection had come loose. He told me that what with all the terrible roads, this happens frequently. Within a few minutes he had fixed the problem and checked all the other connections as well. The whole process took half an hour. And he only asked for 200 rupees! That’s less than $2 to you and me.

So of course I’m gonna keep going back to this guy; and I wonder why the mechanic at Gerard’s hadn’t noticed the electrical problems when he originally took my bike out for a test ride. Triple errr!

Of course mechanics in the US are often just as negligent? dishonest? non-problem solving? as the guys at Jerards’. The trick, just like with a car, is to find someone good and honest and give him all your business. Also, I’ve never owned a motorcycle before so I don’t what the signs of trouble are, or what to look out for. It’s all on big learning experience.

But despite the frustration of the morning, things happened that make me realize why I do love this place so much.

For example, while I was waiting for my brake to be fixed again, there was this young Muslim fellow also waiting. We got to chatting; he’s from Kattankudy, and has just begun his career as an Imam at one of the Mosques there. An Imam is a Muslim preacher, sort of like or priests and pastors. It was a fun talk: I talked about me and what I do here (everyone is amazed and impressed that I work for no salary), and he talked about being nervous when he gave his first sermon. We found we had some mutual friends. We exchanged phone numbers. I have met several Imams formally at meetings, but had never gotten the chance to talk to one casually, especially one so young and just starting out. It was pretty cool.

Then on the road trying to get to the petrol station, my bike finally gave out. After I came back to the bike with the liter of petrol, a couple of guys came out from their shop and proceeded to inspect the bike intently and try and start it for me. Eventually one of them gravely informed me: “Electrical problem,” which was more than I got out of the mechanic at Jerard’s place! The guys tried as much as they could to help me out, and would barely except my thanks; merely shaking their heads and saying “No problem! No problem!”

Then again at the second mechanics, there were two young women waiting for their scooter to get finished. I saw them glancing at me curiously, so I proceeded to smile and pretend I was going to pass out from the heat. I did it in a broad and comical way that had them covering their mouths and laughing, laughing. As they rode off they grinned, waved, and cried out “Goodbye! See you!”

And lastly, the mechanic, who’s name I never got, was really relaxed and pleasant and answered all my questions about the engine of my bike; I had never seen inside of one before. He had excellent bedside manner, so to speak, and made me feel very confident in what he was talking about. And then to do the work for practically no charge.

This is why Batticaloa is such a great place: it’s the people. There I was, frustrated and angry, and yet encountering these folks made it worth while. I’m still irritated about the poor service at Jerard’s, but I’m awfully glad I ran into all those other folks. OK, it’s true; I probably get treated better because I’m a foreigner. But the basic hospitality and helpfulness shown by the two guys from the shop was genuine, as was the sense of humor of the two ladies at the second mechanic shop. And I’m very happy to have made a new Kattankudy friend. So you see, it all worked out in the end.

Oh, and I have some great news! OK, so you will recall we built that water tank in Navatkadu last year. It was such a hit and exactly what the villagers needed, that two neighboring villages have asked us to build tanks for them as well. My friend Jerry is in town, as you know. He had raised some money in the UK to be used for wells; however that part isn’t working out very easily. So now he says he’ll fund at least one of our tanks, and perhaps the second one as well! Right at the moment I don’t have the funds allocated for either; I’m waiting for more donations to ABDF.org (hint, hint) and so Jerry’s offer is a godsend. Prabha and Balan will take us out to view the sites next Wednesday. So you see if you keep true, good things will happen.

And so on that positive note I will close; I’ll try and post this dispatch this afternoon.

xoxoxoxoxo

B.

PS: Since I didn’t have time to get to the internet café to post this, I might as well add that it turns out that the shopkeeper selling us the ronio machine got greedy. The original quote had been gotten by Balan, who is a local of course. Then he and I walked in together to order it. As soon as the shopkeeper, whose name is, ironically, Gandhi, saw a white guy he got rupees in his eyes and decided he wanted more money. Hence the delay in calling in the order.

Screw him. We talked to my friend at Macsar, the one who is doing the networking for our computer lab, and he agreed to get us the same machine for the same price, and have it in Batti by Monday. I’d rather give a friend the business anyway.

Of course what this man Gandhi didn’t know was that a couple of my upcoming projects include buying school supplies in bulk. And now he’s lost that business as well.

---

---