Oy...It's hot...and buggy...and humid. We all got shipped into the internet cafe tonight because apparently there was some kind of bomb or claymore attack in Jaffna within the last few days. There's no need to worry about us since we are so tucked away in the countryside that I don't even know how our driver finds our worksites everyday...
Same sweltering internet cafe, and there are cold beers in the van so toodles for now.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
It's a jungle out there...
Seriously! I'm on this two week build with Habitat for Humanity, and I am so not kidding when I tell you that we are in the middle of the jungle. It's only been two days so far and my work gloves are completely worn out and I have a blister on my thumb. The team is great, the only problem is there are a lot of younger people and frankly they have a lot more stamina. I can barely keep up with them and am about to stop trying. We are exhausted, but having a ball. I'd write more, but I'm inside a sweltering internet cafe and can't stand it any longer...
later!
later!
Sunday, June 11, 2006
The Return of the International Dilettante
So I’m back in Sri Lanka and I’m happy to report that it’s still hot. My first two nights I spent with the WSG (Women’s Support Group) My friend Maria Kenney is a founding mother of the group and they have a place in Colombo that houses their offices and meeting rooms. There is also a bedroom for interns, volunteers, women in crisis and the occasional like-minded international dilettante. In a culture where women are largely second class citizens, there is a real need for the services the WSG provides.
As usual, my first actual 12 hours in Sri Lanka was spent napping interrupted only by periodic bathroom breaks. My friend Lino is moving to a new apartment very near the WSG house and I was very little help, what with nodding off at the drop of a hat.
On my second day here, Janaka and I tracked down my faithful Sri Lankan sidekick and trishaw driver, Roy. It was a very happy reunion made happier when I told him my mom and I (with a little help from Bob Boozer) were buying him his own trishaw. Roy was absolutely pole-axed and couldn’t believe what Lino was translating to him.
Roy has been leasing a trishaw for about 200 rupees a day. He has to drive quite a few fares everyday to cover that and the cost of gas. Having his own trishaw immediately puts 200 rupees back in his pocket every day and he could actually start making a good living as well as helping to support his mom and dad as they get older.
The very next morning, Roy picked me up and we went to the dealership. We told them we were buying a trishaw; picked a color; got the total and left for the local HSBC for the money. In an amazingly easy transaction, the first of it’s kind for me in Sri Lanka, I secured three lahk and one of the armed guards escorted me back to Roy and the trishaw. A lahk is 100,000.00 rupees and the highest denomination of paper currency in Sri Lanka is the 1,000 rupee note. Suffice it to say, this was a pretty huge couple of bricks of currency.
Roy wanted a red tuk-tuk, but he would have had to wait until the next day for delivery. He changed his mind and got the blue tuk-tuk because he wanted to drive me around in it that day. Let me just say the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles could take a few clues from these guys. From the moment we first walked in to the dealership to the moment we drove away in the new blue trishaw, was a little over two hours. (Most of which was spent in dealer prep time) They handled the plates, registration, insurance everything …amazing…more later.
As usual, my first actual 12 hours in Sri Lanka was spent napping interrupted only by periodic bathroom breaks. My friend Lino is moving to a new apartment very near the WSG house and I was very little help, what with nodding off at the drop of a hat.
On my second day here, Janaka and I tracked down my faithful Sri Lankan sidekick and trishaw driver, Roy. It was a very happy reunion made happier when I told him my mom and I (with a little help from Bob Boozer) were buying him his own trishaw. Roy was absolutely pole-axed and couldn’t believe what Lino was translating to him.
Roy has been leasing a trishaw for about 200 rupees a day. He has to drive quite a few fares everyday to cover that and the cost of gas. Having his own trishaw immediately puts 200 rupees back in his pocket every day and he could actually start making a good living as well as helping to support his mom and dad as they get older.
The very next morning, Roy picked me up and we went to the dealership. We told them we were buying a trishaw; picked a color; got the total and left for the local HSBC for the money. In an amazingly easy transaction, the first of it’s kind for me in Sri Lanka, I secured three lahk and one of the armed guards escorted me back to Roy and the trishaw. A lahk is 100,000.00 rupees and the highest denomination of paper currency in Sri Lanka is the 1,000 rupee note. Suffice it to say, this was a pretty huge couple of bricks of currency.
Roy wanted a red tuk-tuk, but he would have had to wait until the next day for delivery. He changed his mind and got the blue tuk-tuk because he wanted to drive me around in it that day. Let me just say the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles could take a few clues from these guys. From the moment we first walked in to the dealership to the moment we drove away in the new blue trishaw, was a little over two hours. (Most of which was spent in dealer prep time) They handled the plates, registration, insurance everything …amazing…more later.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Oh yeah...the blog...
So I’m pretty sure no one is reading this anymore, which works out nicely since I just need to vent. Coming home and being confronted with all the things I didn’t get rid of when I left for Sri Lanka is rather daunting. As I stared into my closet, I was reminded of my friend Deana Hmoud. Upon returning to England, she was reunited with all the apparel left behind and screamed, “No one needs this many @#%&ing clothes.” We pretty much all lived in a few tee-shirts and several pairs of jeans and shorts for quite a long time. When Dani went to England to apply for her work visa in Sri Lanka, she caught up with Chris in Liverpool. Upon her return I asked her, “So…what does Chris look like in different clothes?” She knew exactly what I was talking about and said she was really startled because he looked like such a grown-up. The jury is still out on whether or not that is a good thing.
It’s great to hang with my mom. I got a good laugh when I realized that for the whole time I was away, she didn’t know how to work the phone I left her. She kept kvetching about how it would only call my friend Sue, or on rare occasions, Beth or Tammy, the fiancées of two of my brothers. As it happens, you need to dial the number THEN press the call button. If you press the call button first, you basically get either the last number called or my old speed dials and hilarity ensues.
My mom is going to kill me for telling this story, but I have to. Anyone that knows her is aware that she always goes out of the house looking like a million bucks. One day, we were putting some stuff in the storage area under the eaves. She had a bunch of bungee cords around her neck that she was using to bundle up some foam padding and comforters. She used them all except one. Later that day, she had to go to the mall to return a sweater. When she got back, she still had the bungee around her neck and I asked her if anyone inquired as to where she had gotten that chic little bungee cord she was wearing. She was mortified. I laughed my ass off.
I just started taking a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course online. It’s amazing how difficult it is to focus on the basic elements of your own language. Especially since I’ve pretty much taken them for granted since I learned to speak and write. Once I complete the course, I plan to take an additional course in teaching business English. Even though I don’t consider myself a business person, I am able to speak it with some degree of fluency as a result of selling college textbooks for five years. Granted, it’s sort of like Esperanto or pig latin, but I think I can get by. (thanks Prentice Hall…) As my goal is to continue traveling and volunteering, it would be good to subsidize my endeavors with a job teaching English.
Here are the burning questions of the moment…why am I so irritated with the problems of people around me? It’s entirely too pat to say, “Compared to what we were dealing with in Sri Lanka, these difficulties are all so inconsequential.” True or not, it sounds so arrogant and dismissive but I can’t help but feel that way. I never want to be the person that runs around saying, “You think you’ve got problems…let me tell you about blahblahblah…” I just have a real shortage of patience right now and a sincere need for fewer expectations from those people around me. If you’re unhappy with your life, then change it; you want a meaningful relationship with someone in the same geographic area? Find someone that’s already there. You want more money? Then get another job and/or a better one. Hold the door for someone you don’t know; be kind to small children and animals and wipe your feet. Feel free to give me your advice, just don’t get pissy if I don’t pay it any mind.
Dan & Jon with their new shirts...each of their dads has "jersey envy".
It’s great to hang with my mom. I got a good laugh when I realized that for the whole time I was away, she didn’t know how to work the phone I left her. She kept kvetching about how it would only call my friend Sue, or on rare occasions, Beth or Tammy, the fiancées of two of my brothers. As it happens, you need to dial the number THEN press the call button. If you press the call button first, you basically get either the last number called or my old speed dials and hilarity ensues.
My mom is going to kill me for telling this story, but I have to. Anyone that knows her is aware that she always goes out of the house looking like a million bucks. One day, we were putting some stuff in the storage area under the eaves. She had a bunch of bungee cords around her neck that she was using to bundle up some foam padding and comforters. She used them all except one. Later that day, she had to go to the mall to return a sweater. When she got back, she still had the bungee around her neck and I asked her if anyone inquired as to where she had gotten that chic little bungee cord she was wearing. She was mortified. I laughed my ass off.
I just started taking a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course online. It’s amazing how difficult it is to focus on the basic elements of your own language. Especially since I’ve pretty much taken them for granted since I learned to speak and write. Once I complete the course, I plan to take an additional course in teaching business English. Even though I don’t consider myself a business person, I am able to speak it with some degree of fluency as a result of selling college textbooks for five years. Granted, it’s sort of like Esperanto or pig latin, but I think I can get by. (thanks Prentice Hall…) As my goal is to continue traveling and volunteering, it would be good to subsidize my endeavors with a job teaching English.
Here are the burning questions of the moment…why am I so irritated with the problems of people around me? It’s entirely too pat to say, “Compared to what we were dealing with in Sri Lanka, these difficulties are all so inconsequential.” True or not, it sounds so arrogant and dismissive but I can’t help but feel that way. I never want to be the person that runs around saying, “You think you’ve got problems…let me tell you about blahblahblah…” I just have a real shortage of patience right now and a sincere need for fewer expectations from those people around me. If you’re unhappy with your life, then change it; you want a meaningful relationship with someone in the same geographic area? Find someone that’s already there. You want more money? Then get another job and/or a better one. Hold the door for someone you don’t know; be kind to small children and animals and wipe your feet. Feel free to give me your advice, just don’t get pissy if I don’t pay it any mind.
Dan & Jon with their new shirts...each of their dads has "jersey envy".
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