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.

Fixing Broken TVs

One of the important projects that my host organisation, a rural women's group in southern Sri Lanka, has set up is vocational training for rural youths.

The current class of 25 young people from around Tangalla and Weeraketiya are immersed in an radio and television repair course. Ownership of these kind of items is on the increase, and unlike in wealthier countries people think it is worth repairing broken ones as well.

Here are a couple of shots of the class at work. There are more boys than girls this year, but over the last few years the organisation has trained equal numbers of each sex in what has been a traditionally male occupation.





















The equipment and tuition is sponsored by a Canadian organisation, while we host the classes at the Weeraketiya headquarters and manage the overall project.

Jungle Monster in the Bathroom

"Visit Sri Lanka for the amazing wildlife" boasts the tourist promotion board. What they don't tell you is that quite often this wildlife gets a little close for comfort. Take, for example the incident I describe below.

Having got used to ants in the cupboard, geckos on the walls and rodents in the ceiling at our perfectly respectable Tangalla residence, this one was still a surprise.

The land monitor can grow over two metres top to tail, and this specimen I came across in the shower/toilet area was at least 150cm long. Attracted to the bathroom by the promise of tasty frogs and toads, luckily they don't tend to bite humans. However you can get a nasty cut from the grasping claws and whipping tail.


There's somebody using the toilet - as a frog hunting ground





















Don't get too close to those claws...