Floods

Rob and I wanted to get to work early this morning so we cancelled our ride with the van that picks everyone on our team up for work and decided to call a cab. It had been raining heavily all night but heavy rains are not unusual in Sri Lanka. We were unable to get a taxi however as all the cab companies reported the it would take them hours to pick us up. What was going on? We looked outside our apartment building to find the city completely flooded!

In some ways, living as a foreigner in Sri Lanka is like being on a reality tv show. You have intense cravings for foods not available, terrible bug bites, and you need to expect the unexpected!

Election

There has been a great deal of build up regarding the presidential election: rallies, speculation, and concerns of assassinations and violence. The current president cannot be re-elected and two main politicians are in the running: Mahinda Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickramasinghe Most of our friends and the people in Colombo are in favour of Ranil however many people in rural areas want Mahinda to win. The outcome of the election could have very different repercussions for the people of Sri Lanka. My understanding was that Ranil could really create some positive changes for SL. He was committed to rebuilding Tsunami devastated areas and had plans to get more foreign investments coming into SL, stimulate the economy, and improve the quality of life for Sri Lankans. One friend told me that if Mahinda was not elected he would likely try to go abroad as it would be “suicide” to stay in Sri Lanka under the current government. If the green party (Ranil) was elected, we were told that it might mean violence in the short term but long term stability; whereas if the blue/red party (SLFP) was elected, there would be peace in the short term but the long term stability of SL would depend on the reaction of the LTTE. Going into the day of the election the race was too close to call.

We were a bit nervous about the day of the election because that evening my parents were booked on a flight out of SL and we were worried that if there was violence or a curfew, they may not be able to leave the country. Election day however was relatively peaceful however and my parents got to the airport with out incident. The new president would be announced the morning after the election and depending on the results, protests and violence were expected. Consequently many places of business including our office shut down with the anticipation of a curfew. When we woke up in the morning, it was clear the Mahinda had won the election. The streets of Colombo were eerily quite, and despite mass disappointment, the city and most of the country were calm.

Guys here think I’m hot!

The OUSL campus is quite spread out and there are two sides to campus. I work on the Nawala side but I regularly have to go to Nugegoda side to meet with professors and students. Walking more than 20 feet (for a foreigner) can be unbearably hot after about 9:00 am especially in work clothes. Normally I get one of the drivers to take me to the other side of campus so that I will not be completely hot and sweaty by the time I get to the meeting; however I usually walk back on my own and then stand in front of the AC in our office until I cool down. One day I was walking back to our office from across campus and a young male student looked at me in a kind of horrified way, noticing the massive amounts of sweat running down my face and said, “Madame, you are much hot.” Yes I agreed, I was really warm. I went back to the office and reported back to all the office girls “guys here think I am hot!”

Roadtrip: Part 3 Hill Country

We then traveled to hill country where all the tea plantations are located. The landscape is totally different from the South and the climate is much cooler. It was so incredibly nice to be able to breathe cool air again! Hill country is so lovely and my favourite place in SL so far. We stayed at the Grand in NG which was like an old CP Hotel. It was so elegant but reminded me a little of the hotel in the Shining (red rum, red rum, red rum!) We didn’t go to a tea factory but did see (mostly) women picking tea and carrying it up the hills in bags balanced on their heads. I will never drink a cup of tea again without thinking of those women.

Roadtrip: Part 2 East Coast

We then traveled to Arugum Bay which used to be a trending surfing town however it was devastated by the Tsunami (1000s killed) and little has been rebuild. The road is still washed out and there is only a temporary bridge in place. There were many temporary housing camps and many NGOs about. Although Aragum Bay is a very beautiful place, the whole city seemed depressed. We hardly saw any women in the community and I wondered if many of them had been killed (more women than men died in the Tsunami). There are many Muslim people leaving in this community so perhaps the women did not have a strong public role in this town???

I talked to many people along the way about the problems in relation to rebuilding and distributing aid. (We hear that, in comparison, Thailand is completely rebuilt). One concern is regarding the SL government. For example, we heard that an NGO offered to rebuild the road to Argum Bay however the SL government declined the offer saying that they would rebuild the road however it has been 11 months and still no road. There are also stories of Tsunami donations ending up in politicians bank accounts. People also say that the aid is not getting to the right people. For example, we heard that all the fishing boats that we saw at Argum Bay (about 150) are just 25% of the boats originally donated to the community. Many people however how were given boats were not fishermen (or perhaps not from this community). They took the boats and motors and sold them. We also heard story about a Canadian doctor who brought medicine to SL and gave it to a local doctor to distribute. The doctor sold the medicine and bought a house in Colombo. One man said that it is impossible to get aid to the people who really need and has given up trying. Some people believe that some residents do not want to leave the refugee camps because their basic needs are met in the camps. When you see the camps, it is hard to imagine that anyone would want to live there but I guess there are also people who become dependent and institutionalized and want to stay in jail.

Roadtrip: Part 1 South Coast

Rob managed to get some time off and we went on a road trip all around Southern SL. We went to a couple of beach resorts along the South coast and mom and dad were able to see the devastation from the Tsunami. People are still living in temporary housing in most places and if you can believe it in some places tents! You do however see signs advertising housing projects (eg “26 houses rebuilt by the Italian government”) Besides the refugee camps there is other evidence of the Tsunami including boats that were washed ashore.

Mom and Dad arrive in Sri Lanka

My parents came for a couple of weeks to visit us in SL. It is so exciting to have them here so that we can show them our life in Colombo and introduce them to all our friends.