14/11/2004
Hi from Paradise Island,
I trust all is well with you all and you are not suffering too much with the cold. Here it seems the same every day bloody hot although our rainy season has just started so it should get a bit cooler for a couple of months.
Its now 8 months since I arrived in Sri Lanka and I guess my life is settling down into something of a regular pattern. Just like in UK, I work Mon-Fri although weekends are somewhat different from home. Anyway, I thought I would try and give some idea of life for me here.
Country Background
When I was asked by VSO if I would go to Sri Lanka I jumped at the chance to live and work in what I saw as a tropical island holiday destination. The beaches are just as one imagines. Swaying coconut palms, white sand and shimmering water – the ideal escape from bleak northern winters. Sri Lanka also boasts 7 world heritage sites and 12 major game and nature reserves inhabited by leopards, elephants, monkeys, crocodiles and deer plus dozens of bird species. However, all this masks the reality of life for most of Sri Lankas people. In the 60s and 70s Sri Lankas economy was comparable to those of Singapore and South Korea. But 20 years of civil war has stifled economic growth and inward investment and diverted Government social spending to the war effort and Sri Lanka is now truly a 3rd world country. Today, although there has been a cease fire in operation for the last 2 years, no peace agreement has yet been signed. The new government elected 6 months ago is talking about holding peace talks and everybody hopes the LTTE (Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam- the Tamil Tigers) will not lose patience. You may have heard or read of the recent bomb explosion at a Colombo police station. It was a female Tiger suicide bomber and was presumably meant to show the government that the Tigers are still a force to be taken seriously. The last thing this country needs is a resumption of hostilities.
My Area
The north and east are effectively under the control of the LTTE and the area where I live in the south east suffered grievously in the war. It resulted in there being 4600 war widows, 2700 ex detainees and 1700 disappeared. 2200 still live in refugee camps and 75% of the locals are living below the poverty line. Apart from poverty, one of the main problems in the surrounding villages is lack of water and sanitation.
I went to a village school the other day where one of the NGOs is working on putting in a well. At the moment there are 270 kids and no water or toilets. One of the locals gave us lunch at their house. Only 2 rooms, mud floor, thatch roof which is not watertight, no water except from the river, no gas or electricity and problems with elephants eating their crops. Lunch was very simple but I never cease to wonder how it is that people with virtually nothing are happy to share what little they have with you. Whereas the richer we are the less likely we are to want to share anything.
The area is one of the main rice growing parts of Sri Lanka and at this time of year the paddy fields are a bright green carpet. We will soon be coming up to the time of the 2nd crop of the year and the fields will then be full of coolies gathering in the harvest and giving them some hard earned wages. Harvest times provide the only occasions for most of the villagers to earn a bit of cash and lose a finger or two through careless use of the knife.
I live in Akkaraipattu on the south east coast, which at 10 hrs from Colombo is about as remote from the capital as you can get. Its a lively town of about 20000 which because of the war has become ethnically divided. Tamils (Hindu) live on one side of the main road through town and Muslims on the other. Both are Tamil speaking ethnic minorities with Tamils forming 18% of the population and Muslims about 9% with both being concentrated in the north and east (the rest of the country comprises Sinhalese who are mainly Buddhist). There is little interaction between the 2 groups however. We have for example 2 post offices 1 Muslim and 1 Tamil. Tamils go to Tamil shops and Muslims to theirs. Muslim kids go to Muslim schools and Tamils to theirs.
Sri Lankan army Special Task Force camps surround the area but dont interfere in normal daily life although the other day just outside town they did pick up a couple of Tigers armed with grenades and hand guns. This week a visiting anti LTTE politician was shot and killed in the middle of town at 2 in the afternoon. Despite a police escort a Tiger guerilla managed to bump him off and disappear into the local market.
No supermarket in town just a collection of small local shops selling local produce. We get coconuts, pineapples and bananas all year and mangoes, mangosteens, papaya, passion fruit, guavas, rambutan (like lychees), etc when in season. The local fishermen sell their catch in the market and one can buy from shark and tuna to a small fish like whitebait
which I particularly like. The butchers shops are quite off-putting open fronted stalls with meat hanging up covered in flies. Goat from Tamil butchers and beef from Muslim. No pork from either of course. No cuts of meat, they just carve off a chunk which needs marinating for 24 hours and then cooking for hours but its still pretty tough. Going to the chicken stall in the market is quite an experience. He will kill you a chicken, skin it and gut it in about 3 minutes but its the tastiest protein around in my view. Local bread is good but the cakes could use a bit of imagination. Fresh milk is available but there is no chilling or pasteurising facility and its expensive. Most people use powered milk including me.
What I do enjoy is buffalo curds which are like Greek yoghurt and I have it with fresh fruit, honey or coconut treacle. The only blot on all this is my lack of culinary skills. Im no Jamie Oliver.
Daily temperatures seem to hover between 30c to 35c with 95% humidity and it doesnt get much cooler at night. Unfortunately there is no air conditioning in Akkaraipattu but all houses and offices have ceiling fans which are reasonably efficient if you sit under one. I keep mine on in the bedroom to get a good sleep at night. But I seem to be getting used to the climate and no longer find it too oppressive.
Im just about getting used to driving on the roads here. I guess most mornings I almost kill about 3 locals as they have absolutely no road discipline. Apart from cows and goats wandering up the high street, pedestrians will blithely step out in front of you and look at you in astonishment when you screech to a halt. Trishaws will shoot out of side roads without looking or stopping. In town a stretch of the main road is dual carriage way although you wouldn’t think so. Riders and drivers will use whatever side suits them. There is also 1 roundabout which is a most hairy experience as again bikes, motorbikes, busses and trucks will go whichever way or direction is shortest for them. If any of these were dropped on the M25 they would be dead in 5 minutes.
My Work
I work for the National Forum of Peoples Organisations which is a Colombo based NGO (Non Government Organisation) and its essentially an umbrella body dedicated to improving the capacity of its member NGOs. So I work with 4 member NGOs based in Akkaraipattu. Each of my NGOs has essentially the same aims of peace promotion, poverty alleviation,
improving ethnic relations, running pre schools, vocational training, health counseling, installing communal wells and toilets etc.
My work entails helping with funding proposals to be presented to international donors such as Unicef, Unhcr, EU, Oxfam, Save the Children etc and with reporting back to donors with all proposals and reports being in English of course. At the same time Im helping to improve basic accounting and financial controls. None of the NGOs has computerised accounting so at the moment Im putting in some Excel spreadsheets whilst researching cheap and reliable software packages available in Sri Lanka. Each of my NGOS has its own micro credit scheme with all details of loans, savings and interest for up to 2500 account holders kept completely manually.
There is certainly enough to keep me busy for some time. Management culture is completely different from in the West with no manager seemingly able to take decisions. All decisions are taken in committee so that no one individual is responsible for mistakes or failures. Work moves at a much slower pace than in the West and it certainly takes ages to get anything done.
We get loads of days off though with all Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Christian festivals recognised as well as Poya (full moon) Days of which of course there is 1 every month. I am a little envious of other VSO workers in Sri Lanka though especially those in education and medicine who work directly with beneficiaries. I tend to be mostly office bound but one can only do that which ones experience and training allows one to do. Social Life Its certainly very different from UK. Whoever would have thought I would spend Saturday night doing my ironing. No bars or restaurants in town just a few greasy spoon cafes. All have the same rice and curry menu and the hygiene standards leave a lot to be desired. They make most British transport caffs seem like the Savoy Grill. But they are cheap with rice and curry costing around 20p. There is a cinema showing only Tamil films but an experience never the less. Plenty of mosques, Hindu temples and 1 Methodist church. I live in the Muslim area close to a mosque and of course am woken at 5 in the morning by the 1st
call to prayer. Everybody here is friendly enough but my Tamil and their English is not really good enough to hold much more than rudimentary conversations in most cases. One of my neighbours is an English teacher and he likes to
discuss the differences and similarities between Islam and Christianity. My immediate neighbour worked in Saudi Arabia and has reasonable English. His wife likes to ask about life for women in the west for being Muslim she has little freedom outside of the house. But they look after me giving me meals 2 or 3 times a week. There is 1 other Westerner in town and we have dinner together once a week and usually go exploring together at weekends.
Once or twice a month we go to Aragum Bay for the weekend which is around 1hr 30min south by motorbike. A few hotels and western surfers. Good to talk to other westerners even if most are Aussies. I particularly enjoy wearing my Rugby World Champions t-shirt though.
Last Sunday we went on an elephant hunt. Plenty of poo and footprints but no elephants to be seen. But we did stumble upon a Tamil Tiger training exercise in the jungle and Im sure they knew we were around before we saw them as these guys are pretty professional. Fortunately they were friendly enough sharing hard boiled eggs and tea and even let us fire their Kalashnikovs which was a 1st for me.
Im certainly quite lucky with my job in that I get to Colombo and/or Kandy every 6 weeks for team meetings. In fact I returned on the overnight bus (9 hours) recently after spending 5 days in Colombo meeting friends, pigging out on western food and 1 or 2 beers of course. Whilst there I went to see a 2007 Rugby World Cup qualifying game between Sri Lanka and Thailand. Sri Lanka managed to come from behind at half time to win 35-14. After having beaten India
previously they now go forward to the next round of matches. It may not have been too skilful but it was entertaining. Both sides had some speedy backs but the forwards lack the size and power to take on any of the majors. I guess any decent club side would have beaten either.
Living in the community rather than being a tourist does provide deeper insights into the culture of the country and allows you to see and live life as a local. Whilst its not always easy, with every day bringing a new experience, life is far from boring.
I would enjoy coming to another reunion lunch but my plans for the moment will see me out here for 2005. But if any of the guys want to come and stay with me for a couple of weeks and help out they will be more than welcome. We can only pay local wages though of 3000 rupees per month (about 15 pounds).
Regards to you all.