Something Extra for Sri Lanka

My trip to Sri Lanka would not have been possible without the help of many colleagues, friends and relatives who sponsored me before I left the UK. You may remember to prove I was serious about the project I took a dip in the icy Forth Estuary near Edinburgh on New Year's Day.

The best thing about all the support people gave was that even after the expensive flights and injections, and various unexpected costs along the way, I had some sponsor money left to donate to one of our local charities.

While I have been busy working away with the rural women in Weeraketiya, Norny has been working equally hard in Tangalla. Her role is communications advisor and her local partner organization is a long-established charity working to improve the lives of disabled people. The organisation works across several Sri Lankan districts, and cares for 2,600 people with disabilities monthly.


They operate a holistic centre, providing people with physiotherapy, speech therapy, prosthetics and orthotics (false limbs and corrective devices) and many other services. As part of this work they have recently set up a training centre. This centre will allow them to look after the physical needs of their clients while providing them with life skills and livelihoods training. They will cover subjects like IT, handicrafts, English language and business and entrepreneurship.


The training centre is the first one in this whole region that offers accessible residential facilities, including a wheelchair ramp, an accessible toilet, and sleeping quarters for the students. This last part is essential in this area, as many of the clients will have to travel 40 or 50 km by public transport to get to their training, and could therefore struggle to attend a two-day course if they couldn't stay over. So once this facility is up and running, they will get some really great new educational opportunities.

Nearly Ready for the Clients




The charity’s staff have worked hard to complete the building and make it ready for the classes to start, but they have been struggling to find the funds to get the facility prepared with furniture and equipment.

That’s where my fundraising will come in. They have asked me to sponsor eight tables, twenty-six pillows, sixty pillow cases, a newspaper stand and (very important) mosquito nets to keep the bugs off at night. This furniture and equipment will bring them considerably closer to opening up the centre and starting residential courses there later this year.

In the meantime they have to make do with a much less accessible facility. I went there to chat to the teacher, and he introduced me to some of the students this equipment will help.

Suchendra and me in the current computer room.


Suchendra has been coming to the IT training since he finished school. He is in his early 20s but his education and independence has been hampered by his learning disability. His mother has given him so much support through his adolescence, but when his father died in the Tsunami it was a real toll on the family. By attending classes at the Navajeevana centre, he is doing something he really enjoys, and it also gives his mother a break from the full time job caring for him. Suchendra and the other students are really looking forward to using the new facility once it is up and running. So their thanks go out to all my supporters and sponsors around the world!

The outside of the new training centre, with some other UK volunteers digging the garden.

The accessibility ramp.

Inside the new centre.

The students enjoy their computer classes, and loads of other subjects.

Leaving the Island

Now we have arrived in India. It is a real thrill to visit a different country which also has a rich history and culture, intertwined with Sri Lanka's since ancient times. But SL was our home for six months, and we were really involved with the local community there.

I think we can continue to help them even though we've physically moved on, and what we learnt there will stay with us for a long time.

Through this blog I have shown some of the highlights, but there is so much more that I couldn't show. I'd better keep in practice with the camera for my return visit...

Ta-ta to our SL Family

Saying goodbye to our Sri Lankan family was really sad for us. They have looked after us brilliantly and helped us through the ups and downs of our time on the island.


Here is a group shot of them from earlier in the year:

Front row is me, Jayamali, Suresha and Ravindra (cousins) and Chandi.
Back row is Amma (Malani) and Thatha (Somasiri).


Here is everyone on our last evening (click to enlarge):


L-R: Athamma, Chamila, Somasiri, Chandi and Dimuthu, Jayamali, Norny, Olof, Amma and baby Usha, Ravindra.

And here are Ranil and Usha doing English practice...



So as we pulled off in a van from our jungle home on Thursday morning, I was sad but happy. Sad to say goodbye, but also glad to have spent six months with such good people.

Goodbyes and Lampries

Thursday morning we had to say goodbye to our Sri Lankan family. Although we were a bit daunted by the prospect of being in a busy local household when we arrived, we have thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Wickramasinghe family have been kind to us and put up with our strange foreign ways the whole time. We were very sad to leave them behind!

One of our last meals with them our host ma and pa made lampries, a Sri Lankan / Dutch invention. It is meat curry wrapped in a banana leaf packet and baked.

Here Amma and Thatha demonstrate the wrapping method:

Clean banana leaves from the garden,


.... heat them over the wood stove to soften,


.... cut to size,


... and put in the curry to wrap up.

Thanks to them we have been well fed and healthy throughout our time in SL.

And the lampries were delicious!

Last Day in the Sri Lankan Office

Last Wednesday was my last day at work here in Sri Lanka. My project was finished and it was my chance to say goodbye to the rural women and men who have worked with me this last six months.


I was really pleased to be able to hand over to them a new plan for the organisation, developed in close collaboration with the staff and director. It is not a big change in direction for them, but it clarifies and updates a lot of their work, and gives them a blueprint to build on their strengths in the future. The best aspect of the plan is that they were the creative force behind it, with me channelling their thoughts into a coherent whole. The whole thing is also available in English and Sinhala. This was no mean feat given the other pressures on Ranil, the only truly bilingual staff member.


Here I am, handing over the printed plan to Daya, the director.



They surprised me here in that although they worked over a large area, they did not have a good map of the surrounding roads, towns and villages. I made one myself and got it printed by a local sign maker, and they are going to hang it on the wall and mark their projects on it to show visitors.


A practical present for them:





I also worked with them to improve their other skills, including English language, IT and organisational development. I really think that I have struck the balance right between accepting their (very different) culture and also challenging them to use better ways of working from elsewhere.



Here is the group photo of us all outside the office. Front row, left to right: Fernando, Siri, Daya, Shriyalatha, Anusha, Gnana, back row: Pubudu, Ranil, Mr Dadallage, Ruwan, Ranjith, Ajith, another Ruwan, and me... (click to enlarge image).




My now-former colleagues were really kind to me on my last day, and said very generous things. Apart from the work, they also thanked me for taking part in their traditional ceremonies and also regularly sitting down to lunch with them and sharing my precious rice packet...


I was sad to say goodbye to some good friends, but I feel that my work has been accomplished and I really feel the organisation is in a stronger position than before I arrived.


Mission accomplished!

Parades and Axe-Weilding Toddlers

The most famous Perahera festival in Sri Lanka is the Kandy Esala in August which features a cast of hundreds, and attracts thousands of spectators. We won't be able to go to that one as we are leaving the island this month.

But don't feel too sorry for us, as it is perahera season, meaning everywhere you go you seem to see some kind of procession heading towards or away from a temple.

Weirdly, no-one ever seems to know these things are happening until they stumble across them. Presumably the participants know in advance though as they have to put on their crazy costumes.

Here are some photos from the rather cute Witharendeniya Perahera last month. This small town is half way between Tangalla and Weeraketiya and can't quite muster an elephant. But they did have some pint-sized drummers and a cave man. Raar!






The chief monk led the procession through the main street towards the temple, accompanied by what may be the chief parasol bearer.



Not quite the hot ticket of the season, more of a luke-warm one, it still attracted a few hand tractor trailers and three wheelers of eager spectators from the local villages.



This boy seemed to have attached an entire rose garden to his bicycle before joining the parade.




So, we won't be at the Kandy perahera, but who needs it when you can get so much entertainment from the back-country version?

Folk History at Koggala

Norny and I visited the Martin Wickramasinghe folk museum near Koggala recently. There is a really great collection of traditional crafts and Sri Lankan everyday items there, so definitely well worth a visit.

Here are a few examples:


This 50cm tall puppet, made for travelling shows, represents a king from the Kandyan era. The pale skin of hill country people is admired by other Sri Lankans, as are their hats.




These are ancient Sinhala texts written on ola leaves. Before paper was available in Sri Lanka, this was the only way for the people to record religious or historical documents. The leaf would be written on with a knife-like stylus, and the indentations filled with ink. Many examples have survived for hundreds of years.





A crab trap woven from reeds. Many traditional techniques are still in use in Sri Lankan fisheries, though plastics and fibreglass have made many traditional materials redundant.






These hand carved masks show what people thought of the British policemen who patrolled Sri Lanka during the colonial era. Clearly they couldn't take the sun...




And this is a devil mask, crowned with cobras. In some parts of Sri Lanka the masked "devil dance" is still performed to ward off evil spirits and treat people with mental health problems.

Things I didn't know about the Sri Lanka Tsunami

Those of you who have been paying close attention to my blog may have noticed that I haven't written that much about the Indian Ocean Tsunami. Though the programme that brought me here is for Tsunami-related projects, I felt that there was so much that had already been said about the events of Boxing Day 2004, and it was probably best not to dwell on disaster.

However, some things I have heard since I've been here have really surprised me, and challenged what I thought I knew about that day, so in this post I recount some of the things I have learnt:


1. The damage depended a lot on local geography. Even within Tangalla, there was a huge variation in the destruction depending on the local landscape. The beach nearest us (ten minutes walk) was completely inundated, damaging hotels, guest houses and residences. However, because of a steep bank, the water did not hit houses just 20m from the beach. On the other side of Tangalla, the flat landscape meant the water travelled a long distance inland, damaging houses and farmland 100 metres from the beach.

2. While we were watching events unfold on television from thousands of miles away in the UK, people here had no idea what was happening. The phones and electricity went down when the wave hit so people could not watch the news or contact loved ones. The coastal roads were damaged or blocked so it was very difficult to travel to help friends or family. Very few people actually saw the Tsunami waves, and survived to recount what they saw. Most only saw the destruction some time afterwards. A local friend commented that their first visual impression was the unexplained black mud all over the beachside area.

3. I now know some of the noble things people did in the immediate aftermath. Our host family took in friends and family and supplied neighbours with food and clean water. One family member travelled in to Galle to help his fiancee, who was still stuck on the roof of her college when he waded through the water to get her. Ex-pat residents and foreign donors did an enormous amount to help the local community, including building and equipping an excellent new hospital in Tangalla, constructing a special school near Dickwella, and supplying the fishing community with new boats and equipment.

Fishing boats in Hambantota harbour on Sri Lanka's south coast. The fishing industry has largely recovered, partly as a result of assistance from foreign donors.














4. In the years since 2004, a mind-boggling amount of foreign money has flowed into the affected area. This caused a major shock to the local economy in Tangalla, some positive, some negative. As happens in any such situation, certain people were better at securing help than others who perhaps had greater needs. People talk about the "golden wave" that came after the Tsunami, which some people took advantage of to enrich themselves at the expense of more needy people.

5. Much more deadly things have happened in Sri Lanka without foreigners really hearing about it. The civil war in the North and uprisings in the South of Sri Lanka have led to the deaths or displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in the last 25 years.

6. The 2004 tsunami was a very rare event. It sounds obvious, but before I came I was a little afraid that great waves were a regular occurrence in Sri Lanka and there might be another one while we were here. However, the earthquake that caused the 2004 tsunami was one of the largest since records began. Sri Lanka is not in an earthquake zone and coastal communities worldwide are also vulnerable to such a disaster.


So, these are just some of the things that I have learnt and that have surprised me about the Tsunami of 2004 - perhaps they will be surprising to people back home too.

A broken fishing boat still stands on the Palikuduwa beach near our house in Tangalla as a reminder of the Tsunami. In the main, the restaurants have now been rebuilt and the greenery has grown back, but the stories remain a powerful part of the local culture.

Why is Sri Lanka Poor?

I'm sure there are many global political and economic reasons for Sri Lanka's relatively low income per person, to do with balance of trade, commodity prices and of course the ongoing civil conflict in the country.

However, that stuff is very complicated and I haven't got the knowledge or the space to go into all that in this blog. My theory is more simple, and it is that it is impossible to get anything done here!

Taking an everyday example – today I will do the laundry...

First of all, because of the heat and humidity (leading to sweat), the mud roads and the grubby buses, I have to do laundry more often than back home in the UK. So, having accumulated a large pile of dirty clothes I go and fetch the washing machine from the kitchen, and put it outside - yes, all 40 kilos of top-loader have to be moved outside on to the porch. It's 7am Saturday, the sun is shining and I'm feeling optimistic about having nice clean clothes by the evening.

Now, you might be thinking "well, at least they have a washing machine" and this is a fair point: a large number of people here wash with their hands in a pond or tank (reservoir), so we are lucky in that respect. Our host family had to work abroad to get enough money for a washing machine, with Amma (host mother) going to the Persian Gulf four times in domestic service. Also, the eldest son is in Japan where he works as an engineer. But they have a washing machine which is half the battle.

A local bathing place and laundry spot, populated with water monitors (see my earlier blog post).

Anyway, now I need soap powder. I jump on Tatha's bike - of the old fashioned police bicycle style - and head down the dirt track to the main Kadurupokuna road where there are some shops. In fact, within ten minutes bike ride there are about 30 shops selling soap powder and other groceries, and none of them seem to make much money. It seems that in Sri Lanka if someone has a good business idea, everyone else tries to jump on the bandwagon and none of them end up making much money. Nevertheless, shopkeeping is generally considered a reasonable business.

Arriving at the nearest kiosk, I find that they have only tiny packets of soap powder - enough for a couple of shirts maybe. These sachets are popular here because so many people are low paid or underemployed they don't have enough cash to buy bulk boxes. Therefore soap powder, toothpaste, shampoo and milk powder can all be bought in tiny packets with only one or two portions. With inflation running at 30 percent at the moment it seems unlikely that most people will start upgrading to the economy bulk size! So our shopkeeper, dressed in a sarong an sporting a hearty "rice belly", passes me the two packets of "Sunlight" and with the insanely annoying radio jingle of this soap brand ringing in my ears I cycle back to the house.

Our large shopkeeper with tiny packets of soap.

It is now 8am, and I'm back at the washing machine, having loaded the clothes, connected the water, added my tiny sachets of soap and plugged in the power supply. Switching on the wash, I sit down to a cup of coffee made with hot water supplied by our host family’s grandmother, Athamma. She boiled it over a wood-burning stove (another economy measure – nine out of ten people in our region cook everything over wood collected from the forest). I’m starting to relax now – maybe I will have a nice clean shirt this afternoon.

Alerted by a lack of noise on the veranda, I dash out to find that due to the weak electricity supply, the machine has switched itself off while filling up the drum. In our area it is common for the electricity to be out for a whole day or night, and when it is on it regularly isn’t enough to power even a low energy light bulb. So it’s now 9 am, and depressingly I’m still at stage one. The only thing to do now is wait for the current to increase.

Now the day is getting hotter – maybe 33 degrees Celsius in the shade. There’s still no current so using the fan, blogging or watching TV are all out of the question. After an hour of power-out and reading last week’s newspaper, the current comes back on and I finally get the washing machine going. Now I settle down with the computer to get through that pile of emails.

Some time, and two or three snails-pace dial up emails later, the machine has finally finished and emptied its waste water onto the pineapple patch (the place where the papaya pinching parakeet hangs out). It is now 11am and the sun is very bright, so I get the clothes out on the line to dry.

Twelve noon and due to the baking equatorial sunshine the clothes should soon be dry – but I hear a shout from Athamma out in the garden: “wahinnavar” – it’s raining! So we pull down armfuls of the washing and bring them in, getting soaked by the monsoon shower in the process. I know that Sri Lanka is not alone in having regular rainfall, but this time it’s just taking the mick!

Not just laundry

Maybe my washing is a trivial example, but in my experience getting anything done here is a similar process. I am told that things are more efficient in Colombo, but in the rural areas people seem to accept a slow pace of life, and they are relaxed about achieving things over weeks and months rather than days. This also offers some explanation for why though the Sri Lankan economy is growing, it has not developed as quickly as other Asian economies, and still has a very long way to go before they have the comfortable living standards we consider normal in the UK.

So, why is Sri Lanka poor? Perhaps it is because it is such a lot of work to get even simple things like laundry done, and there is not much you can do about it. You can choose whether to work like mad and achieve one or two things a day, or you can sit back and relax and enjoy the sunshine, accepting you won’t achieve much. I’ve tried both and I know which is more fun...

Early morning thief

Enjoy this post, because for once I have managed to post about something the same day it happened:

This man appeared on our roof today apparently attacking the papaya tree with a coconut knife on a pole.

Actually it is Chandi (our host brother) putting up a net to stop the real thief...

...a parakeet which we caught in the act outside the kitchen window while we were having breakfast! These birds eat all the papayas before they get ripe, which is very annoying for the family and for us.

Local Wedding

What is the best way for guests to arrive at a wedding looking good and feeling cool and collected?

Probably not in a Sri Lankan bus, even if it has been chartered for the occasion.















Norny and I were really pleased to be invited to our host family's cousin's wedding, as it would be a good opportunity to see the traditional Sinhalese ceremony. The format of the wedding, and the outfits were as expected. There is normally a wedding day, followed directly by the homecoming day which was the part that we were able to attend.

We were a little surprised though at the transport, and the fact that the bus came to pick us up two hours late! On the way to the wedding it also stopped off so people could get some last minute gifts.

Anyway, the homecoming ceremony was held up for the arrival of our bus so we saw the couple arrive at the groom's parent's house, accompanied by a chorus of local girls.






















We also caught a glimpse of the large truck loaded up with her dowry of furniture, electricals and other desirable items - not something you normally see back home


Norny and I dressed up for the occasion....




















Our host family (mother and sisters) wore the traditional saris.










.

Project nearing completion

So, my project is drawing to a close and I am having to project my thinking forward to 23 July when I have my last day in the office.

I have done a lot with the rural women's organisation here in Weeraketiya, but what is left to achieve? I have produced a map of the organisation's working area, and asked a local printer to print it. Now I have to, in the typical Sri Lankan way, chase him up a few times to see when he'll make it - if ever.

Also, I need to have a couple more English classes with the staff here. Some of them have really enjoyed it, and there has definitely been an improvement in their level of spoken English. A few more lesson's and I'll have them reciting Shakespeare I think...

Then there's the strategic plan itself, the main part of my project. Now we have had lots of discussions with the staff and director and got loads of ideas about where next for the organisation, including an updated vision and mission. Over the next few weeks all the different project ideas need to be boiled down to a few key actions and some information about who is going to carry them out. This week I will be (with assistance) translating the plan's summary back to Sinhala from my English notes, and looking for volunteers among the staff to do the main actions in the plan. Don't be shy now!

Women at work...









Meanwhile, out the back of the office some local guys have been busily demolishing a small kitchen and pulling down some coconut palms so that they have some clear land to build a training facility out the back. Soon the VT students I wrote about in a previous blog are going to have a new classroom with more space and better equipment, which is great news for them and for the organisation too.

Ten things I have learnt ....

.... since I came to Sri Lanka

1. In order to preserve decency, women should swim with all their clothes on

2. It is possible to nod and shake your head at the same time

3. Oral health problems are caused by “inner heat”

This Sri Lankan toothpaste tube says it all (click to enlarge):

4. It is perfectly lady-like to rake up phlegm and spit it in the street

5. Operating a piece of machinery or equipment requires one operator plus six to ten “helpers”

6. Mosquitoes love biting knees and ankles more than anything else

One of the evil blighters...

7. Sweeping can be a national sport

This man has just finished sweeping the entire beach, and he will do the same tomorrow:

8. A two lane road actually fits up to six moving motor vehicles side by side

9. “You are country!?” is the way to ask a foreigner where they are from, and also a greeting

10. It is actually possible to read Sinhala

The sign board tells me it’s hard right for Tangalla...

Giant Squirrels

Near to my office in Weeraketiya I sometimes see giant squirrels. These are not people dressed in furry costumes promoting peanuts, but are in fact a huge variant on the regular kind of squirrels we have back home, and cousins to the pint-sized Sri Lankan palm squirrel.

Palm squirrels are seen anywhere with trees in Sri Lanka, particularly parks and gardens, and are easy to spot due to their distinctive stripy backs and loud chirruping when alarmed.

Here is one I caught snacking on a half coconut left out to dry in the sun in our garden.














Giant squirrels however are much less common. Normally you only see their dark shadow leaping from the top of one tree to another.

My colleague at work was therefore a little surprised to find one - only a few days old - lying on her driveway. It had evidently fallen from the nest high in the trees, and been rejected by its mother. The family's kids have been looking after it, feeding it pineapple and other fruits, and it is doing well.

At just a week or two old it was already competing with the UK's grey squirrels for size, and once fully grown it will probably be around 80cms from nose to tail!















Anyway, as it was still only small and hadn't got a full set of claws yet, I was happy for it to perch on my shoulder for a while...

Norny's Mum Visits

We were really happy in May because Norny's mum was able to visit us in Sri Lanka. Lizzie first completed a tour of the island, then we all met up in Colombo, before she came to stay in Tangalla for a week.

Together with Sally, our fellow CWW volunteer based in Tangalla, we stopped off at Ussangoda, which we are told is where a meteorite struck the earth many thousands of years ago. It is certainly an alien landscape.




























We visited Yala National Park, where we saw crocodiles and heard a leopard attack on some spotted deer.









































Lizzie helped Amma (our host family mother) make roti in the kitchen.





















We went to Sri Lanka's most southerly point and looked at Dondra Lighthouse.




















We also visited the late Bevis Bawa's garden, called Brief.