Indygal in Sri Lanka

The final chapter or the first?

2008-05-31T21:55:00.009+05:30

I’ve been promising for weeks to finish the blog, do the happy ever after bit and I’ve not managed it. But it’s time to move on. I’m standing as a candidate for the European Parliament (for the SNP obviously) and it’s time for a new phase in my life. It seems these days that my love of writing means each new phase brings a new blog but it would not be right to begin a new one before this, my favourite so far, is completed. So here goes …

I’ve now been away from Sri Lanka for more than a month, more than enough time to assess the impact the whole experience has had on me. Or so you’d think. In the posts below, I’ve talked about some of the changes – both trivial and meaningful - and here, in my final "Indygal in Sri Lanka" post, I’m going to try and sum up what I see as the most significant of the changes.

My feeling now, however, is that I won't know the extent of the impact for quite some time. One day I'll look back and it'll all be clearer. In the short term, however, I think Sri Lanka will seep into my subconscious (or has already) but it will be so deeply embedded in my psyche that I may never become fully aware of who was the ‘before’ and who was the ‘after’ me. Life itself is like that of course but this three month period brought me an intensified and accelerated learning experience and I think it will be a long time before I can fully comprehend what, how and when I became who I have become - because of Sri Lanka.

I think the best way to sum it all up is to tell you about my two journeys between Colombo and Galle on the first and last day in Sri Lanka.

If you read any of my very early blog postings, you’ll know I was suffering from culture shock when I arrived in Sri Lanka. I never realised until then that culture shock was real but it certainly is. I tried throughout the life of this blog to track the transition that I made during my stay in Sri Lanka – from my terrifying first day when I was so much in shock I can only compare it to how I have felt when someone close has died (it should go without saying that the long term difference is huge but the initial shock felt very much like that) to days when I began to believe I could cope and then the period where I went from liking it to loving it to never wanting to leave.

And my final journey from Galle to Colombo really brought home to me how far I had come. When I first made that journey (in reverse, from Colombo Airport to Galle) I was horrified. It took four hours, I sat in the front of a van with no seatbelt and was convinced I’d end up with serious injuries if, indeed, I survived at all because the driving was chaotic and terrifying. I was hot, dirty, there were open drains everywhere, strange looking people, goats, cows and scabby flea ridden dogs staggering onto the road, chasing the rubbish that was strewn across the streets, hoping to find something they could eat. It was that awful journey that convinced me I’d made a huge mistake and started me plotting my immediate return.

The journey back, three months later, at the end of April was the same journey but so very different. I sat, relaxed and happy, still with no seatbelt, chatting easily to a journalist pal I’d met the day before and offered a lift to (Sri Lanka does that to you!). As we made our way through the coastal towns and villages, I smiled at the goats racing each other to the local rubbish area for breakfast; I was aware of the seatbelt danger but entrusted my survival to the Gods (or whoever it is that’s really in charge) and forgot about it; I closed my eyes and soaked up the sun, knowing there wouldn’t be much of it where I was headed.

I wished I could stay for longer and I marvelled at how much Sri Lanka had changed in the 3 months I’d been here. I remembered how frenetic the traffic had been on that first journey and wondered what had changed it. I looked for the dirt and dust that had so disgusted me early in 2008 but could find none. I peered out the car window searching for the strange looking people who’d frightened me simply because they were different – but they had all disappeared. And gradually, as we wound our way toward Colombo, it dawned on me – nothing had changed, nothing …. except me. That was a fairly profound moment for me – realising that the animals, the people, the drains, the dust, the heat and the traffic were no different to how they’d always been. All that was different was that I had stopped noticing it, it had all ceased to matter to me – Sri Lanka hadn’t changed, I had. And in ways that, until that moment, I hadn’t even noticed.

I felt that day, like I’d got to the end of a particularly exciting novel and I’d got my finale, my happy ever after ending – one that kept you reading right until the last word and made you warm all over because all the ‘I’s had been dotted and all the ‘t’s had been crossed, everything had come full circle and been wrapped up beautifully.

But to say it has been wrapped up is to suggest that this is "The End". I don’t believe it is, I believe it was just chapter one. I’ve always said that life is a big adventure but until this year most of the adventure has been lived out in my daydreams. And now? Who knows what the future holds but I think the best way to finish this blog is by sharing with you the final paragraph in my personal journal which I kept throughout my three month stay:

“It’s an unusual feeling as I sit here not knowing if I’ll return this summer or never again – I just don’t know if I’m saying goodbye to Sri Lanka forever. The one thing I do know is I don’t want this to be “it”. I don’t want this adventure to have been a one off. What that will mean exactly, I don’t yet know. More volunteering? More living overseas? Other developing countries? Or simply more holidays?

"All I know is that my horizons have been well and truly broadened and now, now I want to see just how much wider I can push them … "

PS Thanks to everyone who's read this blog over the last few months. Thanks for all your comments and emails. This is the final post on this blog and my new blog "Indygal in Europe" starts on Sunday 1st June. The link will be up when the first post is written. Thanks also to all the fantastic friends I made in Sri Lanka - some (but not all) of whom are pictured here in one of my favourite, happy pics!

"He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still"

2008-05-31T21:37:00.008+05:30

They say that travel increases your self confidence. I assumed that was because you spend a lot of time travelling on your own in foreign lands with the accompanying language barriers and being able to do that makes you feel more capable etc etc. And it does of course but I think it’s more than that.

When you’re living away from home, thousands of miles from your normal support networks, you have no choice but to develop a relationship with yourself. You may have other people around and I certainly made some very good friends out there, but no matter how wonderful they might be, they’re new friends and at the end of the day, you have no-one from your past, no-one who knows you, who can predict and pre-empt how you’re feeling and you are very much on your own. That’s different to feeling lonely but you are effectively alone and that’s when you start to develop a relationship with yourself that most people go through life neglecting.

In developing that relationship, you think more about who you are, who you want to be, who you DON’T want to be - and hopefully you make changes that are right for you. Being in command of who you are is, I believe, what increases self confidence more than anything.

I suppose one of the big changes for me is that I AM now much more in command of myself and, as a result, a good bit more confident. I don’t feel the need to be like other people in order to gain their approval, I’m happy to say ‘vive la difference’ and I expect them to do likewise.

I’ll give you an example. I am often told I’m “too soft” and I need to “toughen up” and whilst I agree in some respects AND those of you who say it will be pleased to hear that in many ways I HAVE toughened up, I have come to the conclusion (here’s the profound bit) that if I want to be soft, I’ll be soft, okay?

You see, to my mind, for “soft” you can read respectful, or nice, or courteous or sometimes, the word “soft” can even be used to describe someone who goes as far as being friendly!

Putting the record straight about tuk tuk drivers

I left Scotland having read all about how you had to be careful of hawkers and traders and tuk tuk drivers in Sri Lanka. And I thought this would be my greatest challenge – to learn to say no without feeling guilty. It was tough at times I admit because occasionally someone DID try to con me. The advice someone gave me at that time was to assume everyone was ‘on the make’. If I had taken that advice it would have soured my whole experience. You can’t go through life not trusting people. Besides, I can honestly say that the majority of the aforementioned treated me with nothing but kindness and respect.

The tuk tuk drivers are often accused of trying to rip people off because they’re white. It’s not quite like that. The truth is that they usually try to charge more if you’re white because they assume you’re a tourist and can afford to pay more than the average Sri Lankan and guess what – it’s true. If I were a tourist on a two week trip to Sri Lanka and I was charged the equivalent of £3 for a ride that would have cost me £10 at home but subsequently discovered that a local resident might only pay £1 for it, would I feel ripped off? Of course I wouldn’t, I’d feel that I’d got a bargain and I’d reckon the driver must be struggling to survive if he normally only charges £1. Obviously I wasn’t a tourist, I was living there for 3 months and had very little money so I expected local prices and in the main, that’s what I got. Maybe one time in ten, I’d have to haggle for it but you can’t blame them for trying can you?

Beach traders

The others who get a bad name and who I was often advised to ignore (“don’t even look in their direction” someone advised me as he dismissed one with a flick of his hand) were the beach traders. “They’ll only try to sell you something.” Well of course they want to sell you something, that’s their livelihood – a livelihood that for most of them was wiped away (for many, along with their families) in the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004. I wonder how my friend (we’ll call him “the flicker”) would have picked himself up from that one.

I never really could understand this attitude. After all, the reason we were out there was to work on livelihood development for, amongst others, people who had lost theirs in the tsunami. So you’d expect a certain amount of empathy to exist wouldn’t you? Of course it didn’t mean I had to buy something from every one of them but I can’t apologise for being courteous about it. Why should I? And the advantage to me was that I actually struck up some nice friendships with some very interesting and lovely people I’d been advised to ignore. The guy who's pictured here sells "medicine man" who is hand made and apparently, does away with the need for a doctor!

At times before I was “fully in command” of me, I felt almost apologetic for being “soft” and I even heard myself promising on one occasion to “ignore” them in future. But as I watched “the flicker” guy flick his hand dismissively at a very friendly, dignified beach trader who was, after all, only offering to sell postcards at VERY good prices, I realised that I had nothing to apologise for. Except, perhaps, for allowing someone I barely knew to influence my behaviour – and someone whose behaviour I had no time for at that!

Cool to be kind

Of course I can't always live up to it but I want to share with you a quote I have always liked. It's from the Lebanese born American poet Kahlil Gibran:

“Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair but manifestations of strength and resolution."

Getting there in the end!

So, I realise 42 years to learn that it’s actually okay to be yourself makes me a slow starter but hey, I got there in the end. I think as I said at the start, being away from my normal life and my friends and family gave me the distance and the time to stop and think about all of this and to develop a relationship with myself. And despite not being a fan of navel gazing, it doesn’t do you any harm from time to time. I don’t imagine I’ll always do the right thing in future and I’m not claiming to be perfect but I think I have finally got the confidence to trust my own judgement and be in full command of being me!

The quote in the post title is from the Chinese taoist philosopher Lao Tzu

No longer a Material Girl

2008-05-31T21:31:00.005+05:30

I’ve been home 4 weeks and so far, so good. I’ve yet to return to my old materialistic ways. Now before I go bashing myself too much, I was never the archetypal “material girl” and I could always see that there were far more important things in life. However, I DID like to buy and I certainly valued money a lot more than I do now. It sickens me now when I think of the money we waste in the Western world. I was reading a “problem page” dedicated to interior décor “problems” last week and someone was asking where they could get a nice affordable clothes stand. Below, accompanying the response was a photo which to me looked exactly like the clothes stands Sri Lankans tend to use instead of wardrobes. Julia, my housemate had one. I think over in Sri Lanka they retail at around a tenner. This one (which, admittedly, had a drawer under it) was £279!!! If I could find the people who are willing to waste that kind of money, I’d get them one sent over from Sri Lanka and I’d give the change to one of the many families struggling so hard to get by. The change would represent about 6 weeks wages for many Sri Lankans.

Handbag confession

Before I left for Sri Lanka, I emptied my flat of everything I felt was superfluous to requirements. It was a lot of stuff – if I recall, something like 28 body creams, 32 handbags. I felt annoyed at myself then but I didn’t realise that my mind was, despite my better efforts, still stuck in “materialistic mode” – I know this because I would walk into a shop, see something I liked and believe that I needed it. Just because I wasn’t buying it, didn’t stop me feeling I should have it. Now, the whole buying culture and my old ways, feel almost obscene to me. Nobody needs 32 handbags!

There's "need" and then there's "need"

Of course I’m aware that me having fewer handbags (even if I DID donate the money I’d normally spend on them to a developing country) is not really going to solve the problems of world poverty. Nor do I intend to take a vow of poverty myself. I just know that the desire to purchase has gone and even when it returns briefly, I’m thinking more about whether or not I really NEED what I’m buying. The result is (and of course it’s helped along by having an income of zero just now) that I’m buying very little. I have a new list of essentials and desirables now – the former has got shorter and the latter doesn’t really matter. In fact, all I’ve bought since returning to Scotland is petrol (at shockingly high prices) and the ingredients for a Sri Lankan Curry!

Do your plates match?

I HOPE the changes are lasting, I was always uncomfortable with my spending and wasting. I know it’s natural to go through a process of change like this when you live for a time in a developing country but I believe this is one of the things that will always stay with me. Little things like walking through a shop recently and seeing some really nice domestic things like matching plates and cups, a funky watering can, luxurious looking cushions – one time I’d have bought them believing them to be absolute essential prerequisites for my peace of mind. After all, if your plates don’t match, what will people think of you? Now, I really couldn’t care less. What you’ll get if you come to my house (once I get one!) is a warm welcome and maybe a Sri Lankan curry – I doubt I’ll even notice what plate I’m giving you as long as it’s clean!

Peer pressure

Another example and this one is a big relief to me. Some of my friends have very well paid jobs and as a result, fairly big, expensive houses. I stayed with two of my friends in such a place a couple of Saturday nights ago. Anytime I’ve been in their house before I’ve spent time wondering when I’ll be able to afford something similar. I’ve honestly felt that if I can’t keep up with my friends materially, I will have failed. No more. (I should say that the friends in question don’t think like that, just me!) I enjoyed staying on Saturday, I loved seeing my friends for the first time in ages, I admired their lovely house (which they’ve worked extremely hard for) and felt very comfortable there but not once did I feel any desire to have a comparable house. As I say, big relief seeing as it’s not likely to happen.

Friends are safe

I should say here that I’m not planning to convert any of my friends individually, to my new way of thinking. I hope it will happen naturally to most of us in the Western world and I’ll use what political influence I have to bring that about but I know there’s nothing more annoying than someone changing their ways and expecting everyone else to follow suit with similar enthusiasm, no matter how well meaning they are – take note all newly converted vegetarians, teetotallers, religious converts!

Better ethics

If you’d asked me “pre-Sri” whether or not I thought the experience would make me less materialistic I’d probably have said no because I honestly didn’t know just how materialistic I was. And apart from feeling in a better ethical position now, I truly believe I’ll be a happier and more satisfied person because of it – instead of concerning myself with fulfilling my financial/material potential simply because I felt the need to keep up with my friends, I can concentrate on what really matters in life – I hope that doesn't make me sound pious but that particular angst is, of course, a whole new blog posting!

Back to Auld Claes and Porridge

2008-05-31T21:29:00.002+05:30

Well, the one good thing (and it’s outweighed by the million bad things) about not living in the sweltering heat of Sri Lanka, is that I don’t have to wash my clothes every single day. You simply can NOT wear anything more than once in Sri Lanka – mainly because of the perspiration (!) and partly because of the dust. So, to celebrate the fact that clothes stay clean and dry here, I spent the whole of the first week in THIS pair of jeans that I wore every single day! The fact that they were a whole size smaller than the ones I was wearing before I went out there had absolutely nothing to do with it!

If you want to live and thrive, let the spider run alive

2008-05-31T21:20:00.006+05:30

Now this is a big and very welcome change in my life. The bug situation. “Pre-Sri” I couldn’t bear to see them and I fastidiously checked towels, clothing and bedding before using them … just in case. Now, whilst I wouldn’t call myself a friend of the beasties, I have learned to tolerate them. They irritate me more than terrify me – I don’t really understand why they have to exist or what purpose they serve (nor can I remember what nonsense I made up about them when I was doing lessons on “mini beasts” for primary 5s in Drumchapel two years ago) but I have resigned myself to the fact of their existence and I can live with them.

Relaxing with the cockroaches!

I’ll share two stories with you that illustrate just how far down the desensitisation line I’ve come. Two weeks before I left, I was at a friend’s leaving night and we sat in a beachside bar which had a wall covered in coconut shell halves. We were about 6 feet from this wall and I suddenly spotted a cockroach about the size of this paragraph tiptoeing carefully across the shells! I mentioned it and of course I pulled a face but I felt no urgency to leave. Seconds later Mr Cockroach was followed by another late night visitor – a rat! He too was playing a balancing act on the coconut cases as I pointed out to my companions. One of them offered to move to another table or another bar but I said no, reasoning that the creatures were unlikely to have any interest in coming near us so there was no urgency to leave! It wasn’t until the next morning that I thought “did I really say that?” But I had – said it that is – and what’s more, I felt perfectly relaxed about it.

Keeping my cool with creepy crawlies

Sometimes you cope with things when you’re away from home but when you get back to your old life you find your tolerance levels coming back to normal. So I was very pleased to discover a couple of nights ago, that I’m still coping with them! I was sitting waiting to go in to an SNP meeting in Ochil where I was making a speech. I was noting down a few things I wanted to say when I noticed a creepy crawlie making its way up my (far too high) boots. Now “pre-Sri” I’d have leapt up in the air squealing but on Thursday night all I felt was irritation. I tried to remove it but it persisted and in the end I just couldn’t be bothered and let it crawl on up my legs! I know, I know! This is not me. As I said, pre-Sri I would check my clothes compulsively before putting them on – just in case there was a beast on them. Now, I can’t be bothered and I figure if I do get unlucky and end up with a teeny little beastie on me, it’s not the end of the world is it?

NB The post title is an old Quaker saying - don't ask me how I know this!

Near freezing to death indeed!

2008-05-31T21:14:00.006+05:30

There is just NO getting away from it – Scotland is a ****** cold country. And I’m sorry for swearing but Scotland is so ****** cold all the time that you HAVE TO use expletives. A friend in Sri Lanka who’s done a fair bit of world travel and living abroad told me that when I went home I’d “near freeze to death”. What he forgot to tell me was that it would last for … a month so far and counting. I thought I’d get used to it but I haven’t.

Ice Box

It’s just cold all the time but despite it being cold outside, sometimes that’s where I go to heat up – I’m not sure if my mum likes to live in an ice box or if she genuinely doesn’t feel it but this house is bitter. My sister lives across the path and sometimes I go to hers for a heat – ha, some chance! She’s as bad.

Sauna

Or is it me? Could it be that in three short months my body became so acclimatised to the heat that it’s having trouble re-adjusting. Sri Lanka was too hot, like living in a sauna and although I rarely complained, given that most of my friends had snow and bitter winds to put up with, I did once tell someone the thing I was most looking forward to was feeling cold again. You can’t even get cool in Sri Lanka (as I said in a previous post I have been known to get so close to a fan that it’s nearly taken the face off me!) but I now know which I’d choose if I could and it’s not Scottish weather that’s for sure.

Loving the light nights

I like having the different seasons here (there are only two in SL – the hot season and the monsoon season) and I absolutely LOVE the light nights but these temperatures are not funny.

Come ahead if you think you're hard enough

Now Scotland has a reputation for being friendly, particularly the West of Scotland but I remember standing in Glasgow Airport on my return and wondering how on earth we got that reputation. To me, everyone looked aggressive, arms were folded defensively, most of the men had a “come ahead if you think you’re hard enough” look on their faces and there were few, if any, cheery smiles. I compared it to the friendly relaxed smiling faces in Sri Lanka and decided we didn’t know the meaning of the word friendly.

Standing up to the elements

It didn’t take me long to realise that the arm folding, the grimacing and the hard nut looks are nothing to do with being friendly or otherwise – it’s all about the flamin’ cold. Crossing your arms over your body makes you feel like you’ve a chance of keeping the wind away and maybe the “come ahead” look is directed at the elements. In both Scotland and Sri Lanka, people ARE extremely friendly – it’s just it’s much easier to smile in warm sunshine and I will miss that sunshine and those sunny smiling faces for forever! The pic of the smiling girls are courtesy and copyright of this guy.

Will Sri Lanka ever find peace?

2008-04-25T21:01:00.002+05:30

I have just heard the awful news about the bomb blast in Colombo earlier today. And of course, I'm more than a little nervous for the many friends I now have who live there. It's hard to say that because some of them read this blog and I don't want to worry them, but it's not like they won't be worried anyway. This bomb today has so far killed 23 people and injured 50. It was a blast on a bus taking people home during rush hour. The other day apparently 80 Sri Lankan soldiers were killed in fierce fighting in the Jaffna Peninsula and no doubt the other side will have sustained similar losses.

It's the thing I've never understood about those who use violence to make their point - and I'm talking about ALL sides in these kind of disputes. Don't they get it that for every person who dies, there's a whole family and community of friends whose lives are also devastated? For those 23 people who died today in somebody else's war, there must be at least 230 others (assuming most people have at least ten close family and friends) who won't sleep tonight and many who will be tormented by this for far longer.

I will blog more about this later but it's a very sad note to be leaving Sri Lanka on.

For the off!

2008-04-23T15:33:00.002+05:30

Well, that's most of the goodbyes out of the way. I've left my job, left the house, left the gym, left Julia and Thea (very sad) and the fish (even sadder - just kidding) and all my new friends. Felt a bit like the leading lady in Muriel's Wedding as I said goodbye to the town and everything that's become so familiar to me over the - I all but called out "Goodbye Porpoise Spit" but you'd really have to have watched MW a couple of times to know why!

Anyway I think I'm really left with the feeling now that I won't really know how I feel until I'm away from Sri Lanka. I think it will take time to assess the impact the trip has had on me. Or perhaps that's me just talking from tiredness seeing as I lay awake all last night. I lay there trying to take it all in - the sound of the fan, the brush of the net against my foot, the constant gibbering of the monkeys, the green of the trees against the dark night sky that I could just about make out through the crack in my curtains. And this morning, the gradual transition of black sky to pink sky to blue as a new day dawned. I didn't want to forget any of it.

Today of course, the rose tinted specs seem to have been mislaid - amazing how your capacity for romance can disappear when you get no sleep!

I try not to get too emotional about these things as anyone who knows me will testify. Indeed, one of my housemates who's known me for only a few weeks predicted I'd be upset when I left "but hiding it expertly" and she was right! Well done Thea! I did have a bit of a wobble yesterday as I was on my way in a tuk tuk for one last trip to the Lighthouse Hotel for a swim. I got worried I'd forget the smell of the warm air and the ocean (as Rob, a journalist I met out here said to me, it's something the internet hasn't yet been able to do is convey smells - but one day!).

So I started breathing it in, taking deeper and deeper breaths, desperate never to forget. On the last intake, one so deep I nearly forgot how to exhale, I suddenly felt quite emotional. I put it down to a physiological reaction myself but I got a bit of a lump in my throat and nearly (key word 'nearly') cried! That'll teach me to breathe won't it!

Anyway as I said, I'll do a full impact assessment on my return but right now, I don't know if I'm sad to leave, excited to be going home, nervous about Singapore (seeing as my cousin appears to have changed his number and I can't get hold of him - the things some folk will do to avoid me!) or just plain tired so, in short, for the moment, I can't see the wood for the trees.

I've one final night out tonight with The Colombo Set which I'm really looking forward to. Then, 6.30am I'm leaving in a taxi for the airport and heading for Singapore which I'm told will be very very different to Sri Lanka. Vive la difference, I can't wait!!

My last day in the office

2008-04-21T15:37:00.002+05:30

So, I'm here, my last day in the job and I'm not sure how I feel. Mainly because I don't have much time to think about it. Rush rush rush as per! Blogs may be few over next week or so because I'll be all over the place. Let me see, I leave Galle at 8am tomorrow, have a meeting in Bentota and arrive in Colombo early afternoon where my lovely friend Louise (who says journalists are all bad?!) is putting me up for the night. I'll be meeting up with the cool city based volunteers that night for a celebration - yes, they see it as cause for celebration!!

On Thursday morning I fly to Singapore where I'm really hoping my cousin Niall remembers to meet me. I mean, I'd cope if he didn't meet me but I hope he remembers I'm staying! My head's spinning a bit to be honest - don't want to leave, don't want to say goodbye to my friends here, can't wait to see everyone at home, think Singapore might be too clean now I'm used to Sri Lanka, the usual kind of things one thinks about. And then of course, I've a 20 hour journey back to Glasgow a week today! Am very excited about coming home. A friend told me that on the first day everything will seem to be in glorious technicolour and then? I'll apparently near freeze to death!

Anyway I will definitely blog before I leave Sri Lanka, definitely be online in Singapore and I'll finish off my blog once I'm home and that will be that! Over and done with. Onto the next chapter. Can't wait!

Cultural Extravaganza of a Weekend

2008-04-21T15:10:00.000+05:30

It's been a very culturally different weekend for me, this last weekend in Sri Lanka. On Saturday myself and Thea went along to a wedding. Muna, our lovely friend in the office at work, had invited us. It was her sister's wedding, my first in Sri Lanka and my first attendance at a Muslim wedding. The photo shows Muna, her son Aatif and her sister. It was quite an experience. For a start it was held at the home of Muna's aunt who lives next door. I have to say one of the best wedding receptions I ever went to was in the tiny front room of the couple's flat in Torrisdale Street in Glasgow so I'm all for home weddings.

We were shown into a room where the bride sat upon a chair on a raised stage, and we all sat in theatre style looking at her. I wondered how it must feel to be stared at like that until I looked around and saw that everyone was looking at me and Thea, not the bride. Wonder no more. Had forgotten what novelties we were. Everyone was absolutely lovely though, very friendly and as I've said before, we manage to communicate whatever the languages we're all speaking. At some point all the women (for it's only women who do this) got up to go and eat but we stayed and kept the bride company and paid lots of attention to her to make up for stealing some of it when we entered the room initially.

We asked lots of questions about Muslim weddings and arranged marriages and it was very interesting. We learned a lot and I tried to leave my mark by suggesting a change to one of the customs. Apparently the bride sits atop this "throne" not speaking until the groom arrives and speaks first. I suggested the other way round might be nice - no-one agreed. They did however think it a good idea to find me a nice Muslim husband, me having reached this advanced stage without even considering marriage! Pity, horror, confusion and bemusement - that pretty much sums up the reaction to my single status lol. I'll let you know if they find me someone before I leave on Thursday!

So, the cultural extravaganza continued on Saturday night when, via the gym and pool at the Lighthouse Hotel, we attended, in our own home, courtesy of our housemate Julia ...

... a Jewish Passover Seder Dinner

2008-04-21T14:56:00.003+05:30

I've never been to one before. I've never done or experienced anything Jewish in fact so it was a real treat for me! There were the 3 of us (myself, Julia and Thea) and our friends Louise, Sally, Narelle and Karen joined us from far and wide to mark the passover of the Israelites from slavery? I hope I've got that right. It was fascinating to listen to the readings, sing the songs, drink the wine and eat all the food associated with the rituals involved in passover. Everyone was asked to say something (poem, reading or just talk) about freedom and we had a really interesting discussion about personal freedom. I knew I'd be expected to talk about Scottish freedom but whilst I am happy to sing songs using that word, I don't see Scotland as being unfree so I didn't. We've always been free to become Independent if we so wish, our destiny is in our own hands. Anyway, suffice to say it was an interesting evening with lots of good chat, great food (Julia really can cook!) and gin and wine aplenty. It was also poya day here so thankfully none of us are Buddhists or we'd have been banned from drinking said gin and wine!

Aatif in his wedding outfit

2008-04-21T14:30:00.000+05:30

Shiny Happy Girls

2008-04-21T14:20:00.000+05:30

I like this photo. I like the contrast between the griminess of the walls and the super clean, shiny faces of the girls dressed in their best outfits for the wedding.

Men doing what they do best at weddings

2008-04-21T14:15:00.002+05:30

Shy boy ....

2008-04-21T14:00:00.002+05:30

... comes out of his shell

2008-04-21T13:58:00.000+05:30

One of the things I WILL miss ...

2008-04-20T12:07:00.003+05:30

... is arrak and ginger beer. A very nice drink. We initially couldn't agree if it was rum or whisky and now we know, it's neither. It's made, apparently, from coconut trees. Anyway it's very nice and the ginger beer complements it beautifully. I won't have to miss it at first as I'm bringing some bottles home with me. I just hope it's not one of those drinks that only tastes good when you're in a sunny country far from home. I once brought home an assortment of brightly coloured syrupy alcoholic drinks from Spain. Of course even the sight of them in Glasgow made me feel queasy. Don't think the same will be true of arrak - it's a quality libation and one I'll be very happy to share with my family and friends on my return!

And another thing ...

2008-04-18T16:29:00.002+05:30

... I won't miss is ants. I'm not scared of them like I am cockroaches, and I confess to finding the way in which they organise themselves truly fascinating. However I'm not out here to study ants and I won't be sorry to be deprived of that experience. I just went into the kitchen at work there and picked up a teatowel to discover it was teaming with them. Someone must have wiped something sweet onto it and that is like a magnet to them. A couple of weeks ago there was a large mass of them on the tiled kitchen floor in the house and the mass kept moving. I looked closer to discover it was a dead ghekko covered in ants. They were 'wagging' it's tail and waving its arm. It's undeniably clever but not very nice to mock the dead is it? Yuk.

I should say here that although I say I am scared of cockroaches I have improved a great deal. A week or two ago I was sitting in a bar on the beach in Unawatuna at yet another emotional farewell night when I spotted a humungous cockroach stepping in and out of the coconut shells adorning the wall just 6 feet away. I was just deciding how to react to that when a rat appeared and started doing the same!! However, much as I was horrified, when one of the guys asked if I wanted to move to another table I said no, I was fine. Can't guarantee to do that next time and I'd had a few arraks and ginger beer.

Anyway as I said, I'm not scared of ants but neither am I emotionally attached to them and therefore, I won't miss them one tiny bit.

In denial as Oprah would say ....

2008-04-18T15:08:00.002+05:30

I think I must be in denial because yesterday and today, all I can find are things I won't miss about Sri Lanka. I think my subconscious is trying to kid me on that I want to leave. Yesterday was headbands, and today, it's fans. I mean the kind that blow in your face, not the kind that ask for your autograph! Don't get me wrong, when I am nearly fainting with heat exhaustion, I am very glad of a fan and have been known to get so close to one that it's nearly taken my face off. But you have to have them on all the time and at work, it's a tad difficult to keep your paperwork in order when it's flying all over the office! And the overhead one is on all night. I am quite certain I will not have any use whatsoever for a fan of any description whilst in Glasgow and I can honestly say I will not miss them one bit.

Another thing I won't miss about Sri Lanka

2008-04-17T16:57:00.002+05:30

Headbands. Hate having to constantly wear them and never seeing my fringe. As someone once told me, I have a very high forehead and ought to keep it covered up (see illustration)!! However in this weather when us girls are constantly 'glowing' it just ain't possible. So, there you go, I will not miss headbands.

Suba aluth arudack veva!

2008-04-15T10:02:00.002+05:30

We often talk about “Sri Lanka Time” over here. Many in the SNP will relate – we have “SNP Time” too. It’s not like other time. I recently invited someone to an interview at my office here in Galle and she said “OK I will be there about 11.30”. I firmly pointed out that she’d be here AT 11.30 or else …. very fiercesome of me!

But it can drive you mad and New Year is a perfect example. I blogged on Sunday saying Thea and I had celebrated New Year at 12.05pm and we had, because that’s what we were told to do. There we were (as you can see from the pic) on the beach, beers in hand wishing each other a Suba aluth arudack veva! I then texted all my friends out here and one replied saying new year wasn’t till 6.24pm!! So the beer was for nothing!

It seems that 12.05pm was the end of the old year, the next few hours were a neutral period and at 6.24pm the New Year would begin. It’s all to do with astrology, you see. This is a country that places a lot of emphasis on astrology. Weddings, the building of houses, moving house – all of these things are done on auspicious days which must mean that the planets are correctly aligned.

Yesterday at 6.24pm on the dot it was most definitely New Year because that’s when it all kicked off. We were in the house with some guests when there was an explosion of sound. We got out on the balcony and watched as our neighbours let off bangers and firecrackers and we could see them going off all around Galle – all at exactly the same time. It was lovely actually. From our elevated position we watched the little girls across the road as they excitedly came outside in their new pink dresses and squealed with delight as daddy set off some spinning sparklers. We shouted Happy New Year to them and they eagerly returned the greeting. When they held their own sparklers I heard the youngest child tell her mother “mata ba hei” and I was delighted because I understood – well, seeing as it means “I’m scared” I kept my delight to myself! (Is it a surprise to anyone that I know how to say I’m scared?)

So, after all the confusion about when New Year actually was, you’d think that finally we’d worked it out when the place exploded with fireworks except … a fellow volunteer texted me at 6.12 from Kandy to say there were so many bangers going off he felt like he was in a war zone! Kandy is not that far away so how come their new year started 12 minutes earlier? See what I mean? Sri Lanka Time. Anyway never mind, I was just thrilled to be having a second but very different New Year. Looking forward to the January sales now!

What I will miss about Sri Lanka - the racket!

2008-04-14T21:15:00.004+05:30

I awoke yesterday morning to an unusual sound – it was birdsong. Lots of it. In fact it sounded like all the birds in Sri Lanka were outside my bedroom windows waiting to serenade me and welcome me to the new morning. The noise was incredible and beautiful and I knew then that my next post would have to be about the noise in Sri Lanka.

I live at the top of an unpaved road set back from the main street. For miles all you can see are lush green trees interspersed with rust red rooftops and the occasional place of worship peeking through the tops of the foliage. It’s beautiful and peaceful looking. It’s rural but it’s not quiet. Not in any way. Not ever. From dawn to dusk and beyond, the cacophony of sound is, as I’ve said before, like an assault on your senses.

Perhaps the birdsong surprised me because my wake up call normally comes minutes before 5am. (Sunday, of course, being the Sinhala and Tamil New Year’s Day, I guess a lie in on Monday could be expected.) I found an entry in my paper journal once – it said this:

4.52am – the mosque is calling all muslims to prayer very loudly over a PA system.
4.53am – the local dogs have joined in, doing their best to harmonise.
4.54am – every dog in Galle has cottoned on and they are now howling at the moon and drowning out the mosque. Let me sleep!!

It was an off day (which wasn’t supposed to have started yet) – I love that collection of noises normally. I am a sound but intermittent sleeper. I wake up at least half a dozen times a night but generally get back to sleep right away so to be woken by something that makes me laugh out loud and then drift back to sleep is fine by me. It happens again in the evening and many’s the time myself and my housemate Julia have laughed out loud at the dogs – at the cheek of them, at their awful caterwauling and at their absolute predictability.

I once mentioned it to our landlord, Saman who lives behind us. At that time I thought it was the Buddhist temple making all the racket but “no, no” insisted Saman, “the dogs not bark at Buddhist, they bark at muslims”! Perhaps that’s because the temple is far more tuneful and perhaps it’s because they start at a more civilised hour.

We get back to sleep shortly after 5am and I think we’re safe then until the temple starts at around 7am. I say safe but what I mean is we only have the animal noises to contend with. They are non stop but I remember the first time I was lying in bed and I heard monkeys nearby, I nearly cried I was so happy. I also remember the first time a family of them ran across the roof in the middle of the night – I thought we were all about to be kidnapped by some dissident group employing James Bond style methods which involved swinging from the roof and in through the holes in the chicken wire above the bedroom doors. (Amazing the detail you can imagine in approximately 3 seconds isn’t it?) I had never noticed until then how noisy our roof is but that was possibly because prior to that night I tended to have my ceiling fan on full blast – now, I can cope with the heat a little better, the fan is quieter and I’m aware that our roof is a very busy and noisy thoroughfare of a night time!

There are many screeching noises that I haven’t yet identified and as I write I am listening to one now. It may be a mongoose, who knows? Oh, and live from the roof of 33/8 Wijayanande Mawatha, a deep and persistent scratching has just started. I’m probably best not to investigate! I was surprised to make a new discovery last week as I walked to work. We have dozens of palm squirrels here and I got a bit confused as I watched one of them ‘mimic’ the local birds. I stopped to watch. A nearby (but invisible to me) bird was emitting a high pitched tweet over and over and each time he did, the palm squirrel in the tree above opened his mouth and mimed. I was quite impressed but, as I say, confused by this until I realised that there was no cheeky impersonation going on and this is, in fact, the noise the little rascals make all day long.

So we have the birdsong squirrels, we have a woodpecker heralding in the new year, we have real birds (not just bird impersonators), we have the screeching of goodness knows what, the howling of the many dogs, the jibbering of the monkeys and in the centre of town the greatest animal noise of all comes in one particular tree just before you turn onto Main St. I have never walked past that tree without being absolutely convinced that there are at least a thousand birds hidden in its branches. I’ve never heard anything like it. It’s absolutely deafening and lovely as it is, I often cover my ears because it’s just TOO loud.

Catch an air conditioned bus in Sri Lanka and they’re generally playing music. You can sit back and close your eyes and take in the lovely Sri Lankan music and then suddenly the Sinhala version of “Going to the Chapel” comes on! That finishes and it’s back to Sri Lankan music until you find yourself listening to the Sinhala version of “I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden”! All very odd!

All of that combined with the regular firecrackers (which I initially thought was gunshot) set off to frighten the monkeys away from wrecking people’s gardens, the regular thunder and lightning storms, the constant beeping of horns which I’ve talked about before and the non stop “hello, where you going?” from everyone you pass in the street, makes this a very noisy place to live. So, much as I love it you need something soothing to counteract the “assault” and that’s where the Buddhist temple comes in.

Around 7am each day, 8 or 9pm each evening and, on occasion, throughout the entire day, the temple takes to the airwaves. This is very different to the 5am alarm call where the lead vocalist at our mosque really cannot sing! This is a soothing gentle little tune – albeit always the same one - again played over a PA system throughout the area. Often the dulcit tones of a young child can be heard. The main voice we hear from the temple however, is a woman’s voice and she sounds like Doris Day to me, in fact she sounds like she’s singing Que Sera Sera and often, you can close your eyes (there’s a pattern developing here!) and tell yourself you’re back in Glasgow and it’s just some eejit having an extremely loud karaoke party!

That’s the thing, if it was Scotland, they’d all have an ASBO (anti social behaviour order) slapped on them. But it’s not Scotland. I’m a guest in another country so I have had to adjust to their way of doing things and in adjusting, I’ve found that I really love it. I remember the 3 young guys I met who each had a hearing impairment and I reckon I’m very fortunate to be able to hear at all. Perhaps it’s also a lesson in tolerance for me – maybe we can adjust to anything if we’re willing to try.

Don’t get me wrong, it will be nice to go back home to the busy city of Glasgow for some quiet but I can honestly say I will miss the dawn to dusk and overnight bombardment of noise that I’ve grown so used to in this lovely town that has been my home for 3 short but wonderful months.

Nor Lanka - best hotel in Unawatuna

2008-04-14T20:26:00.004+05:30

I don’t normally do this on my blog but I have to give credit where credit is due. If ever you should find yourself in Unawatuna, do yourself a favour and book into the Nor Lanka Hotel. From around the equivalent of ten pounds a night you can stay at this peaceful, pretty hotel. The furniture is great quality, food’s lovely, the rooms are spotless, light, bright and airy and the ensuite bathroom is clean as! They have wireless broadband and it’s free. If you don’t have a laptop you can use their computer. They have satellite TV in the main outdoor sitting area.

But more importantly, they are amongst the friendliest, most accommodating people I’ve met out here – and that’s saying something. Helge is a very laid back Norwegian with a dry sense of humour and nothing seems to phase him. Anoma remembers everyone and calls them by their first name. She too has a sense of humour – I’ve stayed at Nor Lanka three times now and on my second visit, she told me she’d put a cockroach in the room especially for me. On Saturday she said shed added a scorpion in for good measure. I said she’d a sense of humour, didn’t say it was a good one! I guess I do seem a tad neurotic when I turn up at a guest house, cockroach spray in hand, asking how many they normally get and what condition the mosquito nets are in!!!

Anyway here I am pictured with the Kallman family – if you go, just mention me and I’m sure they’ll charge you double!

Can’t get a coffee for love nor money

2008-04-14T20:04:00.002+05:30

Mmmmm, coffee. First decent one we’ve found out here. Do we look contented or what?

Happy New Year!

2008-04-13T15:57:00.002+05:30

How lucky am I? I get two new years within the space of four months lol. Today is the Sinhala and Tamil New Year and I'm spending it very differently to how I spent the first one. That was in a top floor tenement flat in Dennistoun in the East End of Glasgow where my friend Aileen and I had yet another party. Last night I watched fireworks on the beach at Unawatuna and today I read half of A Thousand Splendid Suns sitting on the same beach. It's been lovely but time to go - only the Muslims are working today (not their new year obviously) and the tuk tuk driver we booked yesterday has arrived. Without him we're stranded! Anyway yet again, Happy New Year everyone!

Talking of beautiful babies ...

2008-04-11T16:10:00.002+05:30

... here's one of my angels, my beautiful niece Christie who is sixteen years old today. It's a rare one of her smiling when she was 13, she preferred (and still prefers) to scowl but sometimes, we just MAKE her smile. She hates that. Anyway for the first six weeks I was in Sri Lanka, I would phone Christie and her brother Daniel every Sunday and each time the first thing they'd say was "when are you coming home?". I wasn't sure I could manage 3 months without seeing them. I remember they went to the States for 10 weeks and I really didn't enjoy that.

Christie is my only niece and we're very close. I was there when she was born. OK I was outside the room because it was one birthing partner at a time in that particular hospital. I stayed long enough to have my hands ripped off by her mother's talons and when I popped out to wipe off the blood, out she popped. She is the first of her generation in our family and that made her very precious to us.

I have many good stories about Christie but the day when I knew she was going to be a cool kid was when her primary 5 teacher announced a Hallowe'en party. They were all to dress up and my sister was very excited and came up with lots of ideas. Christie however (being an Aries) had ideas of her own and her idea was not to dress up at all. "You can't do that" gasped my sister. "Who can't?" snarled my angel. And she didn't. She refused on the basis that just because everyone else was doing it, didn't mean she had to follow them. I love that. Her mother got her own back by dressing up as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and turning up at the classroom with wee Dan, the straw man to prove to the class that some McLaughlins do know how to party! I can still see Christie's face now as she recalled the trauma.

Anyway, that's her sixteen now. I won't say it seems like only yesterday she was born because it doesn't. It seems like sixteen fantastic years have passed by and my angel is growing into an intelligent, switched on, beautiful young girl. I said 'woman' there but that scared me so we'll stick to girl. Happy Birthday gorgeous and see you in two weeks!!!

What I WON'T miss about Sri Lanka

2008-04-11T15:43:00.001+05:30

Funnily enough, I won’t miss the rainstorms here. I came over here thinking I was a hardy Scot, I know about rain, I’m from Greenock for goodness’ sake, I’m practically half rain myself.

Little did I know. You see, it rains in Greenock, it rains a lot and it rains nearly as much in Glasgow but it’s not the frequency that gets to me here, it’s the volume. It’s unbelievable. Gargantuan sized drops of rain, millions of them, all pouring down on you like someone up there’s got a giant sky sized hose and a twisted sense of humour.

We’re all thinking the monsoon season has started early because it’s been every day for a week now. And the rain can’t just come on its own, no it has to come mob handed with the thunder and lightning the big chicken that it is!!

And chicken is one word to describe me when they all arrive at my door. I guess I can be forgiven for being a baby after my computer was struck by lightning a few weeks ago but you know, I’m thinking that maybe I need to toughen up. Or go home! I was in the house alone at teatime one day this week when it all kicked off. The rain started pouring in the open air bit above the ponds – it was pouring with such force I thought the fish were going to drown. Yes I do know what’s wrong with that statement, I just panicked a bit, okay?

I was coping though – even managed to remain calm when the power went off seven times. As I say, I was coping until the thunder shook the foundations of Sri Lanka and the lightning came cracking in through the open ceiling!! At that point, I stopped coping and started cowering in a corner with my hands over my ears whimpering “please go away, I promise I’ll be good”. (I do hope it goes without saying that I am exaggerating bits of this – eg I NEVER promised to be good, it’s not in my nature, it just fitted in with the cowering picture.)

A very kind friend took pity on me and distracted me from the storm by texting till it was over which was much appreciated but since then I’ve learned that it’s dangerous to use your phone in a storm. You can’t win! Thea and I met someone last night and she gave us a lift home. On the way she stopped to introduce us to her brother who lives in the next street to us. As we got out the car the heavens opened and it all kicked off again – this poor family barely got a chance to open the door as we threw ourselves in uninvited! The woman of the house squealed when I got a text and told me her friend’s brother was killed yesterday because lightning struck his phone!

Several hours later as the car swam the 500 yards to our house (no, we could not have walked in that) I knew what my first “things I won’t miss” blog posting would be about …

PS Photo copyright J Early

This one's not scared anymore

2008-04-11T13:06:00.005+05:30

This beautiful baby resides upstairs from my office. She no longer screams in terror when she sees me. I think the whole experience of me has been character building for the child!

I WILL miss .... being a celebrity!

2008-04-11T11:07:00.006+05:30

As promised on this blog the other day, I’m listing the 6 things I will and won’t miss about Sri Lanka as my countdown to departure begins. And the first thing I’ll miss is the attention. There’s no point in pretending that I hate it because I don’t! I thought I would, I took time adjusting and now? I’m slightly embarrassed to say, I love it! Sri Lanka is not exactly cosmopolitan and although Colombo, the capital city, will have a diverse mix of people, a little place like Galle has very few white people – so you tend to stand out a bit! Everyone stares at you, lots of people wave, most say hello and some even jump up and down with excitement (I never said it was justified).

At first I found it very disconcerting because I don’t (contrary to popular belief) like being the centre of attention. Who remembers this guy Ewan MacLeod from his days presenting Chartbite? I remember being in a taxi with him at the height of his popularity (he was helping my charity) and I wanted to sit on the floor of the taxi because everyone was staring in and waving! I was willing the traffic lights to move to green and my daydreaming about being famous stopped that day!

Over the years I’ve noticed the change in public attitude to my good friend Nicola. She went from being a high profile political activist to leader of the opposition in the Scottish Parliament and now she’s Deputy First Minister of Scotland and never off the telly. In the good old days we’d get people trying to figure out who she was (they knew they knew her but from where they did not know) – guesses included Posh Spice! Now, everyone knows exactly who she is and it’s like being out with a celebrity. People seem very excited to see her which is a very odd thing for me so goodness knows how it feels to her. Recently I was sitting in a coffee shop with her (very civilised and very in keeping with her new status, but not mine!). Anyhow, a very fit looking guy kept eyeing me up and I was feeling quite pleased with myself and gave him a little smile until I suddenly realised that he wasn’t eyeing me up. He wasn’t eyeing anyone up, he had simply recognised Nicola and couldn’t help but stare.

This is the thing with well known people – folk cannot keep their eyes off them. We seem to be mesmerised by fame, like moths to a flame we are powerless to resist. I’ve seen very confident, self assured, otherwise intelligent people go to pieces in the presence of someone they’ve seen on telly. I’ve watched the same type, desperately try to pretend that the fact that this person is famous is having no effect on them whatsoever. I am deeply ashamed to admit that I’m a bit like that myself. Obviously it’s different if you’ve known someone before their “fame” but despite my attempts to be cool and regardless of my disregard for “celebrity” I was once rendered speechless when I met The Proclaimers! I AM a big fan of their music but so what? I was about 22 when I met them and I just stood, open mouthed trying but failing to manage dignified never mind cool. Eventually I managed to squeak: “I love you … cough, splutter, clear throat, much deeper (almost manly) voice this time …. Your music. It. I love. Not you … squeak returns … bye”! Did I mention the scarlet face? No? Actually it was crimson.

Anyway I digress. This is not supposed to be an indepth examination of our attitude to fame (although if anyone wants to offer me a phd for all that work, and a phd for everyone who’s reading to the end, I’d be happy to accept).

This is supposed to be about what I’m going to miss in Sri Lanka when I leave in less than two weeks time – sob sob.

And despite my finding it a tad uncomfortable being caught up in the attention received by famous people in the past, I love being treated like a celebrity here! I admit it. I don’t particularly enjoy some of the attention from teenage boys – there is no need to be fluent in Sinhala when they thoughtfully provide actions to go with the words – and some of the men are a bit minging. My friends have experienced crudeness more than me – I can honestly say it’s only twice that I have noticed a Sri Lankan man lick his lips in my direction or, worse, touch himself whilst muttering something to me in a deeply unsexy (but trying his best) voice. Anyone who knows me might say that’s because I spend all my time with my head in the clouds but actually, I don’t do that over here (partly because of the open drains). I interact with human beings all the time – so I would definitely notice it.

I’ve been very lucky because the attention I’ve received has been generally very positive and warm. And perhaps that’s why I’ve surprised myself by not wanting to hide away. Perhaps it’s because there’s nothing negative in it. At first I thought I was getting some idea of how black people back home felt in areas where there were few of them. But I wasn't, I really wasn't and I’m sorry the thought crossed my mind. It’s not racism to recognise that someone is a different race to you and here, they celebrate the difference, they welcome it. It’s rare you pass anyone, man or woman, in the street without them at least smiling warmly at you, most saying hello, many stopping and talking – it’s something I think I never have time to do at home but I’m going to make a bigger effort in future because it’s good for the soul.

Children in Sri Lanka, aside from being absolutely beautiful, are very funny. If they can walk, they love me. If they can’t ie if they’re babies, they’re terrified of me. I’ve met one baby who liked me – a beautiful little girl in a Hindu Temple in Kandy who was almost as fascinated with me as I was with her. But every other baby out here (and I do mean EVERY baby) has burst into tears on sight of me and clung anxiously to their parents’ necks, not sure whether to turn away from the scary sight or keep an eye on me just in case … As I said, babies are the exception to the rule and from toddlers upwards, they treat me like I’m a star! Little kids in shops tug at their mothers’ skirts, desperately trying to get their attention before it’s too late and I’ve walked on – they can’t wait to show them the white person. They are so excited to have seen one. When I say hello their mothers get equally excited and urge their kids to take the opportunity to practise their English.

I’m not daft, I know it’s nothing to do with who I am, it’s simply to do with me being different. Just as the attention famous people get is often not about them but about their fame. But regardless of the reason for it, I have to say I’ve really enjoyed being a “celebrity” for a while, it's really very nice when people are pleased to see you but I know it's all coming to an end. I am spending a few days in Singapore on my way home and will use my time trying to come back down to earth lest I should find myself, on my return to Glasgow, sauntering along Sauchiehall Street waving to everyone like I’m the Queen of Sheba! There’s nothing quite like a Glaswegian put down to rain on your parade!

For breathtaking photographs of Sri Lanka ...

2008-04-08T12:18:00.003+05:30

... look no further than here. This is James’ blog (another volunteer out here) and we all reckon his photographs are quality.

I was looking for some to recommend so that I could link to them but there are so many stunning photographs that I just couldn't choose. The photo of the little boy, however, is pretty special. I think adoption agencies should use his photo - who could resist the look in his innocent big eyes?

Do take the time to look through properly and you’ll get some idea of what we’ve all experienced in Sri Lanka, notwithstanding the Anais Nin quote on his blog:

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."

Very true!

Parliamentary Pandemonium!

2008-04-08T12:06:00.000+05:30

I love words! And pandemonium is one of my favourites. As volunteers out here we have to keep our phones on and subscribe to the News Alert service so that we know what’s happening security wise. In amongst the serious stuff you get lots of cricket scores and general news. Today’s latest is:

“Pandemonium in Parliament with UNP opposing the appointment of new Secretary General. Proceedings suspended for 10 minutes.”

The use of the pandemonium word has me picturing fisticuffs, papers scattered and desks flying through the air – it’s probably just a few MPs tut tutting and shaking their heads. How very disappointing!

Bank of Scotland saga continued ...

2008-04-08T10:52:00.000+05:30

So, where were we? Ah yes, I'd had approximately 4 groundhog day conversations with my bank about them cancelling my card. Each time they'd say "you should've told us you were in Sri Lanka". Each time I'd reply "I think you'll find I did tell you, several times"! I think we'd got up to the day, a Wednesday, when they'd promised it would be working again. And it was, I got money out. But only enough to pay back the various folk I'd borrowed from. No matter, went back the next day and took out - zero because they'd cancelled it again.

So, that was a Thursday and I just could not face speaking to them again. Apart from anything else, I saw no point! Instead I reverted to borrowing money from friends (who, bear in mind, have only known me a matter of weeks) and transferring the money online.

Anyway being an independent type (why my name is even Indygal) and liking to have control over my own finances (take note Scotland), I decided to make a further attempt at the weekend. Apparently all cards have a ban on international use, it's an automatic thing. To get it lifted you have to inform the bank where you're going and for how long. Did that - as you know! Several times! However, the man I spoke to took pity on me and he lifted the ban altogether. "Now" he tells me "if you want the ban reinstated, you'll have to tell us. Otherwise, it can be used indefinitely right across the world"!

Well I don't remember telling them to reinstate the ban but 3 different banks out here seem to think the ban's still there.

On the phone again. "No" says the person who answers the phone "the ban's been lifted, you can use it". "Goodo" says I and off I skip to the bank, full of hope. Talk about naive! There is no bank in Galle (and there are several to choose from) that can give me money - not even 2000 rupees (a tenner). They can all tell me that I am in credit but they can't let me have any of MY MONEY!!!

I would never let something like this cast a shadow on my time out here but the Bank of Scotland has caused me a fair bit of stress and the worst thing is that it seems to be a systemic problem rather than one individual getting it wrong. Anyway I think that's enough on the Bank of Scotland for now, or ever. Just assume that for the next 2 weeks they'll cancel and uncancel my card - but I won't know because I'm not even attempting to go to the bank.

The Countdown Begins

2008-04-08T10:48:00.000+05:30

Well, I'm nearly at the end of my Sri Lankan experience. I will stop off in Singapore for 4 days but I leave Sri Lanka on 24th April which is 16 days from now. In 15 days time I will head to Colombo, meet up with some of the other volunteers for dinner and stay the night before flying out the next morning. The Countdown has started and I've only 6 full days of work left to do. This is because in addition to weekends, we've got the Sinhala new year coming up - more on that later.

So, I've decided to copy my predecessor at this company and do a "things I'll miss about Sri Lanka, things I won't" - each of my working days I'll post one of each so there will be 6 in total. It sounds like not a lot but I'm going to try not to repeat anything I've already talked about on the blog so it'll all be new stuff. That means that just because Sri Lankan driving, mad dogs and beasties are not mentioned in my top 6 of things I'll not miss, does not mean I WILL miss them cos I certainly won't.

I don't plan to continue this blog for much longer than that. I will probably do one posting when I return home because I will obviously have a very different perspective by then but I reckon I'll wrap up at the start of May. I've enjoyed doing it though and it's great to have, along with my handwritten journal and all the emails to friends, a lasting record of what I got up to and how it's affected me. That way when I reach old age (not too long now - hah! said it before anyone else did) and I've forgotten it all, I can remind myself!

Aversion therapy has worked!

2008-04-04T16:12:00.003+05:30

Yep I definitely still have an aversion to those things I was talking about in the last post so it's clearly working. However I just can't leave the blog over the weekend with that as the main picture so here, instead, is a photo of Mirissa which is where I am going after work and where I'm spending Saturday. Now that's much nicer isn't it?

How could I forget the creepy crawlies?

2008-04-04T15:53:00.003+05:30

Yesterday I talked about the dangers over here and I completely forgot to mention the insects. My housemates claim I am obsessed with mosquitoes and will be stuck for conversation without them when I get home - like I'm EVER stuck! Anyway they're extremely dangerous if they're carrying malaria or dengue fever. Almost worse are the black things - cockroaches and other horrible creepy slithery things. Now they are very very dangerous to my mental health and unlike all the things I talked about yesterday, somehow my subconscious never did choose to accept THEM. Nor will it. Which is perhaps why I forgot to mention them, maybe I've just blocked them out.

They are so inherently evil however that they decided to teach me a lesson for forgetting them and one has just paid me a visit. Not to my room - oh no, nothing like giving me the chance to run away. This one visited my person. My hair is currently standing on end as I relate this tale to you. Uncle upstairs (we just call him that) brought me a present wrapped in newspaper - it was a huge bunch of bananas. Very kind. Or so I thought ... I was dishing them out to the visiting field officers when I spotted something similar to, but much fatter and longer than, an earwig!

I did my usual girlie thing (can't help it) of leaping in the air, throwing the bananas at the field officer and squealing that he had to get rid of it. Being a flaming Buddhist of course, he won't just kill it and instead gently brushes it aside, thus giving it time to make its final move. Except nobody saw where it went. "What does it matter?" says the field officer, "it's gone"! "Yes but where?" I replied, "it can't just have GONE"! I searched everywhere and made them search too (they love having me here) - well he searched, Muna just laughed at me and said something in Sinhala to him about cockroaches (can't believe she told him that one!). My paranoia about these things always ends with me shaking my hair just in case it's in there.

And what do you know? It fell from my hair onto the front of my Tshirt!!!!

I am, at this moment, trying very hard to stay sane. Deep breathing. (Maybe I'll start smoking.) Positive thinking. (Or alcohol could numb things pretty quickly. Might even kill the beast off.) It would help if I wasn't feeling it crawling all over me right now. The Field Officer said it was lovely. The THING knew I was afraid, so he found me and came to say hello. Have you ever heard anything so ridiculous??

Sorry, positive thinking - yes, it was very sweet of him to stroke my hair so affectionately, he was only trying to be friendly and at least I know in future that I'm not paranoid - after 25 years of dreading, it finally happened. So I was right to be worried.

In an attempt to find something positive in all of this (apart from the aforementioned) I have put a photo of him or one of his family up and if I look at it enough maybe I'll get to like him - it's called aversion therapy. And at least I know when you find them, they're really quite easy to get rid of - unless you're with a Buddhist that is!

Taking your life in your hands

2008-04-03T13:12:00.004+05:30

I was writing in my journal the night before last. My journal I keep for more personal thoughts about how I’m changing over here and how the whole journey has affected me. Anyway I was writing about how all the things I found difficult to deal with when I first arrived in Sri Lanka are coming back and slowly being difficult again. I think it’s a very natural, if unexpected, process whereby your subconscious tells you to cope because you have no choice and then, when you’re getting close to dry land again, allows you to relax and feel how you really feel.

Anyway that’s not what this post is about. As I was writing I gave an example of a “returning difficulty” and that was plugs and sockets and the safety thereof. I was scared to use them at first because to get a two pin plug into a 3 pin socket, you first have to stick something into the top pin of the socket. Now, from a very young age, we are told that it is extremely dangerous to stick anything into a socket that isn’t a plug! So when I first got here and was told to do that, I instinctively baulked at the idea because my mum and dad said it was a bad thing to do! I noticed however that everyone just does it here so I very quickly accepted that I’d no choice, got used to it and got on with it. Now that I’m on the final strait, I wouldn’t say it worries me but I AM becoming aware of the safety implications again.

There are lots of other examples of “returning difficulties” and although I think it’s quite interesting to track your own emotional pattern when doing something like this 3 month trip, I’ve done that in my journal and what I really want to talk about today is this whole issue of health and safety.

It’s one of the first things that really strikes you when you arrive in Sri Lanka and I think it was the potential for danger that really freaked me out when I got here. Having been brought up to be ultra cautious just tying my shoelaces, you can imagine the adjustment was a challenge. And if you can’t imagine, let me tell you why …

Danger 1 - Driving

I arrived in Sri Lanka and was picked up at the airport by a very nice man and a minibus. I said to the driver “there’s no seatbelt”. “Yes” he said in broken English “yes, seatbelt there”. “But it is broken” I replied. “Yes” he said again “seatbelt broken”. Simple as that. I have not worn a seatbelt since I got here but that first time, I was completely unnerved by it.

Seatbelts are the single most effective way to save your life in a car crash. They reduce deaths by up to 50%. It’s not an imagined danger, it’s a very real one. But you have a choice in Sri Lanka. You can worry yourself sick about it and change nothing. Or you can decide to kick back and enjoy the situation - and change nothing. As both those options end with no change to the situation, I decided to relax and enjoy myself.

Danger 1 – Driving continued …

It’s not just the lack of seatbelts that makes the roads in Sri Lanka danger zones, it’s … well, everything really. Where do I start? They drive on the same side of the road as us. And they also drive on the other side of the road. I’ve always hated having to turn right onto a main road and for the first year of driving, I used to turn left and wait till I found a roundabout to come back on. But I should’ve known there was an easier way. All you do is turn right onto the right hand lane, and trundle along there dodging the oncoming traffic until you can nip over to the left lane. Simple really – if you don’t mind risking life and limb! At first my eyes were nearly popping outta my head when they did that. After a while I learned to close my eyes and hope for the best and now? Well now it just seems natural to me.

Overtaking and tail gating …

… are both normal practice in Sri Lanka. Now I know we overtake and it’s perfectly acceptable but in SL they won’t wait a second for you to speed up. If you’re the slightest bit slower than them, they just bump you out the way and move on. OK they don’t exactly bump you but they drive right up to you beeping away and overtake regardless of what’s coming toward them. Yesterday I was too late to walk to work and got a tuk tuk. At one point coming along the busy Wackwella Road, we were faced with a tuk being overtaken by a bus being overtaken by another bus – they were all driving like nutters and they took up the whole of the two lanes. We nearly ended up in one of the many open drains they have here! Even the tuk driver gasped. On that occasion I did think the closing my eyes routine was a useful one.

Roundabouts …

… you can go roundabout whichever way you choose. My dad was driving people home from a wedding in Perth once and as he got onto the final roundabout before you enter Port Glasgow, he starts saying “look at that idiot driving the wrong way round a roundabout – ‘oi, eejit, you’re endangering my wife’” or words to that effect. Said wife very gently pointed out to him that whilst she was not a driver she was quite sure it was he who was going the wrong way. And it was. Well he’d fit in well here because they just go the quickest way they can find.

Honestly nobody obeys any of the highway code out here, in fact I'm not sure there even is one! I had to laugh when I saw a learner driver out with an instructor the other night. I mean … why?!

The beeping of horns …

… is constant, it never ends. On my first road journey on the day I arrived, I was quite unnerved by it. My driver who seemed (and is) so patient and mild mannered, was continually doing it too. It took some time to figure out that it’s not an aggressive thing here, it’s a communication tool. Well, no it’s not. They beep to say speed up, they beep to say move over, they beep to say I’m overtaking, they beep to say thanks. But there’s no difference between the beeps so how they think they’re communicating anything at all is beyond me. All they’re doing is creating a cacophony of noise and on that day, giving me a migraine not to mention a nervous breakdown!

I should say that the photo is courtesy of this guy who tells the tale of SL roads much more succinctly than me!

Danger 2 – Buses

You are getting the picture that the roads here don’t feel safe I guess. The buses here are completely crazy. OK the bus DRIVERS are crazy. I’d love to say not all of them but I can’t. Because it is ALL of them. They drive like men (not seen any women yet) possessed. Apparently in Colombo they race each other. Take last week, for instance, Thea and I (housemate and colleague) were ordered to get the bus or a tuk tuk home because there were cricket fans getting carried away further up the road. There were dozens of them dressed up (some as VERY convincing women), banging pots, beeping horns (of course) and dancing in the street ahead of Richmond College’s match against Mahinda College. Anyway we were not allowed to walk so we got a bus.

We got on the bus and the driver was furious at being held up by these cricket guys so when we got moving he went absolutely mental - driving like a lunatic, overtaking everything and he just kept his hand on the horn the whole time. No beep beeping for him, it was just one long beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! We were laughing hysterically because we didn’t know what else to do. Eventually we bolted it off the bus when it stopped. I thanked the driver for a very pleasant journey (the nutter) and once again vowed never to go on a public bus. It was another one of those moments (and we both agree, there are many) when you have no choice but to trust that fate doesn't want you to die!! Seriously, it's not a safe country – I will continue with the roads although I accept it’s sounding like an obsession!

Danger 3 – Being a Pedestrian

When I first got here I did wonder how on earth anyone ever crosses a road. I thought perhaps people just live their lives on one side of the road or the other. Their house, their work, the shops they buy from are all on one side and they don’t actually need to cross the road. It’s perhaps an idea for the future in Sri Lanka because going from one side to the other is a truly hair raising experience at times. There are no traffic lights in Galle, there appear to be no rules about zebra crossings either because being on one doesn’t seem to affect the speed of the traffic. I used to stand waiting for the traffic to die down but it doesn’t. Ever. So now, I more or less just wander into the road and keep my fingers crossed that I can successfully dodge the traffic! There is no point in looking left, right and then left again because by the time you’ve looked left again some lunatic is coming up behind you, having driven along the railway track at 80mph and with the windscreen blacked out so they can’t see what they’re knocking over. OK slight exaggeration but only slight. To be honest, I don’t even feel nervous crossing over anymore although the fact that I’m mentioning it at all is an indication that, as I said at the start, being on the final strait allows your mind to start noticing again.

Danger 4 - Homeless Dogs

Actually it’s a very sad sight to see so many cats and dogs starving and eaten away by fleas. Many of them have lost limbs (no doubt trying to cross the bloody road) and their wounds are infected. I started off with a fear of dogs. Not a huge fear, but some nervousness. I’m much more of a cat person. But here there are dogs all over the place and you just cannot live here if you can’t overcome the nervousness. I should say that I’ve only once had a dog be aggressive toward me here. Most are probably too hungry to bother. I was told that many are afraid of human beings so won’t come near you. I pass half a dozen or so just on the path outside my house. The thing is even if you overcome your fear, it’s not a good idea to touch them because many are infected with rabies and rabies kills. Again, you put that out of your mind and just don’t take any risks. One of my housemates can’t resist however. She loves dogs and so she feeds them and tries to treat their fleas. The best thing about the dogs is every morning and every night when the mosque starts broadcasting its chants, the dogs join in so it’s one long howling session. It’s very funny, very entertaining.

Danger 5 - Water

Clean safe drinking water was one of the most immediate concerns in Sri Lanka after the tsunami and they really did reach crisis point. I read a great story recently about the Lion brewery in Colombo. (We are all fans of Lion Beer out here.) After the tsunami, they stopped brewing beer and started bottling water – it was much needed. Anyway obviously things are different now and bottled drinking water is freely available. But we’re warned about some of the tap water. You can’t drink it without filtering it first and I’m lucky enough to have a filter at work and home but you still need to be careful. I’ve been in people’s houses where they’ve been extremely hospitable to me and then given me a glass of water. I can’t ask if it’s been filtered because there’s a language barrier and I don’t want to cause offence. Normally I just say thank you but I’m not thirsty whether I am or not. The chances are it would be okay but all of the UK departments of health are quite clear that if you take the risk you could end up with serious health problems. This is the reason why in the 69 days I’ve been here, I’ve used bottled water even to brush my teeth. It’s not easy to remember after a night out on the town I can tell you.

The final danger no 6 – electricity

This one makes me laugh it’s so bad. And I do believe my friend Patrick had the same thing in Malawi. This is one that no-one can pretend is about being over cautious but there is nothing we can do about it. Can you believe that our shower is plugged into a socket IN THE SHOWER?! Yep, you step into the shower, plug it into the socket and switch it on.

Safety guaranteed

There is nothing anyone can do to guarantee their safety wherever you are. The other day 60 soldiers died over here in a freak lightning strike. And anyone who reads this blog will remember my own brush with something similar. There are no guarantees about anything so life is part careful planning, part chance. If I lived my life here according to our safety standards in the Western world it’d be simple – I’d just never shower, drink no water and avoid roads, traffic and dogs – in other words stay indoors smelly and thirsty. It’s a strange feeling that my subconscious is now letting me take a peek back at how I felt when I arrived and I wonder how long it will take me to readjust when I go back. Hopefully I won’t be taking my straighteners into the shower and skipping blindly but hopefully across Sauchiehall Street. If you see me doing any of these things, please stop me!

Stamp of disapproval

2008-04-03T03:50:00.001+05:30

It was my mother’s birthday and I was all organised ready to post the present for it to get there on time. This was something of a miracle for me – I can’t even manage that when I’m at home!

So, Thea and I go along to the local post office at lunchtime only to be told we’ll have to go to the main post office in town. So, running out of time (it was a 15 min walk to start with) we hail a tuk tuk and 5 minutes later we’re standing in the queue. I say “queue” but it’s quite a different system over there. Nobody queues, they just barge in ahead of you. If you’re not fast, you’re most definitely last in Sri Lanka.

So elbows at the ready, I eventually find myself at the front and hand over the parcel.

“This is the stamp counter, not the weighing counter” they tell me before directing me to “queue” number 2!

“Q” no 2 is worse, and I’m duked (Scots word for overtaken in an unsporting manner) several times before I finally hand parcel over to “weigher” who duly weighs it and tells me I need 600 rupees in stamps. “Fine” I say as I hand over my money. The fact that it’s dirt cheap does not in any way make up for what happens next.

“This is the weighing counter, not the stamp counter” he tells me “you must go back to the stamp queue for your stamps” before moving onto the next 12 people now at the front of the “queue”!

Thea decides to sit down at this point and who can blame her. As I stand in the stamp “queue” (aka “Q” no 3) I think how much nicer it would be if some of the fans were turned on occasionally in this sweltering heat. And I agree with myself that it might help to quell my fury at people shoving their way in in front of me. I also observe my changing attitude – I used to smile politely at this – now, my glare appears to be frightening grown men!! Ah well, whatever works!

Anyway so there I am, I buy my stamps (eventually) and head back to “Q” no 4 to hand over weighed parcel and stamps. Tuk tuk driver who’s been waiting for us all this time (about 30 mins so far) decides to come in and help me make sense of it all and informs me that I can duke this queue because my parcel’s been weighed. Marvellous, but it’s still not in my nature. Ah, b***er it, you can fight nature.

You can fight nature but can you fight red tape? No, it seems.

“You’ve wrapped your parcel” the guy tells me (like I didn’t know that) on this, our second meeting. If it was important I’m sure he’d have mentioned it when I got to the front of “queue” no 2, rather than wait till I got to “queue” no 4. “Yes” I smile smugly “and I’m posting it on time, my mother will be very pleased with my efficiency so I hope your’s isn’t going to let her down”!!

I was hoping in vain. It WAS important. It’s quite important, apparently, that you DON’T wrap parcels before posting them.

“What if you’ve got a bomb in there?” he asks me.

“Why would I send my mother a bomb for her birthday?” I almost cry out loud, suddenly realising why people frequently add “for crying out loud” to sentences.

Perhaps if they had bothered to turn the fans on and if I wasn’t about to expire in the heat, I might have listened to their reasoning but I didn’t. I just followed orders and unwrapped it to show them there was no bomb. Now my wrapping is not exactly artistic, more thorough. Therefore when you unwrap a parcel of mine, you’re not going to be able to keep the paper unless it’s for a paper mache project!

So my parcel’s approved, it’s been weighed, I’ve got the stamps, I just can’t post it because the paper’s ruined!!! Aaaargh.

“I’ve had enough” I’m almost yelling. “I will walk home to Scotland and deliver it myself” I proclaim. No, I’m not kidding, I know it’s not like me but I was hot, I’d been in there nearly an hour, Thea was lying under the counter by this point, the tuk tuk driver’s smiling broadly at how much he’s gonna charge me for the waiting time and I’m very very late for work – AND the fans were off. So, I had a bit of a tantrum and that’s when they decided to help. But only if I came away from the public bit into a side room where they could calm me down.

I was anything but calm but after checking the side room for strait jackets, I followed them in and a very nice man carefully (and slowly) rewrapped the parcel for me. Seeing as he was trying to help I gritted my teeth and resigned myself to waiting yet another ten excruciatingly long minutes and didn’t complain. After all, my ordeal was nearly at an end.

Or so I thought!

Talk about groundhog day. I got to the front of the “weighing” “queue” whereupon they weighed the parcel again and proceeded to tell me that due to the weight of the additional paper, I would need to get myself into the (expletive) stamp “queue” again and buy more stamps!!!

Can you believe that?

“Don’t worry” says the tuk tuk driver “once you’ve done that you can go back to the other queue and they will post your parcel – simple!”

“Simple”???

One hour and twenty minutes we spent in that post office being pushed from pillar to post. My mother’s present didn’t even arrive on time, it got there the next day. And my niece whose birthday was a few days later – well she just had to make do with a card until I got home because there was NO WAY I was doing all that again!

I am posting the photograph of me despite the face being make up free and the hair being all over the place because I think it sums up the exasperation of the day!

It's not all hard work

2008-04-02T10:13:00.003+05:30

I confess! Sometimes it's even fun. This photo was taken on Friday night at the Happy Banana on the beach at Unawatuna. It was Donna's leaving night - she's off to India and then she'll be heading home to Reading on her return. The Happy Banana made me think of Bogey's Nite Spot (their spelling not mine) in Greenock in the 80s. No beach, no sun, no sand, the music was completely different - must've been something to do with the number of guys leering from the sidelines then! It was fun though to be out with friends (from left to right - Sally, Tangalle; Louise, Colombo; Julie, Galle, housemate; Donna, Galle, ex-housemate; moi; Thea, Galle, new housemate) and lovely to take stroll along the beach, drink in hand. There was a huge thunderstorm that night with no rain but plenty of lightning. Each time it struck, it lit up the whole bay and it was strikingly beautiful. Tried to take pics but just got black. I don't need photos anyway because I won't forget it in a hurry.

Update on my friend for life ...

2008-03-31T09:06:00.003+05:30

Quick update on my problems with the Bank of Scotland. For those who didn't read the previous post and who can't be bothered reading it now, the summary is this:

Told them I was coming to Sri Lanka so their fraud team wouldn't cancel my card when I started using it out here.
Card worked for two weeks and then they cancelled it.
Phoned them from Sri Lanka to complain. They had no knowledge of me being here so took all my details, promised it would be fine and within 24 hours card was working again.
6 weeks later card cancelled again.
Groundhog day - have identical conversation where they tell me they know nothing about me being here and take all my details again. Unfortunately, it being Easter, it's nearly a week before they can fix the problem and they've no emergency procedures in place so I'm stuck in a developing country thousands of miles from home with no money.
Wednesday last week - card working again. I'm frustrated but relieved it's all sorted out AGAIN.

So, the update is that on the THURSDAY, they cancelled it again!!! Once again I have no access to MY money. I cannot afford to spend yet more money phoning them and really, what is the point? If I have to hear the words "you should have told us you were going to Sri Lanka" one more time, I'll scream.

So, my "friend for life" the Bank of Scotland is doing nothing to help me but some of my fellow volunteers who I've been friends with for only a few short weeks are making sure I'm okay. It's not the point though. As far as my bank is concerned last week I was stranded in the Hill Country in Sri Lanka with no money and nobody to help me and they did nothing except "sympathise".

What they think I'm doing now I've no idea because they've not used any of the contact details I've provided over and over, to find out. Anyway, Thea has worked out a complicated but (hopefully) effective way for me to get money without leaving my friends short so I better go and sort that out before the BoS decide to suspend my online banking too!

Suba Upandinayak Waywa

2008-03-28T14:05:00.005+05:30

That's Sinhala for "we wish you a happy birthday" and the photo shows Muna, my colleague, celebrating her 27th birthday today with Thea, my new housemate, friend and work colleague. Thea doesn't like this photo but seeing as she's passed my blog on to all her friends and family ('hello Thea's friends and family') on the basis that if we're living and working together, that's "just like being me" and there's no point in duplicating effort (no point in HER doing it that is), it's tough! Besides I like the photo and I'm sure her family will too. Anyway not had time to blog about our wonderful weekend yet but will try to write over the weekend and update on Monday. Off to say goodbye to housemate Donna at the Happy Banana in Unawatuna tonight and spending the weekend at the beach to say goodbye to Anne who'll be leaving Hambantota in a couple of weeks. Both are headed to India and shortly after I'll be going to Singapore. So it'll be a fun weekend but a little bit sad too. Ciao for now.

Bank of Scotland - a friend for life?

2008-03-26T17:02:00.001+05:30

Some time before I came to Sri Lanka, my friend Mary warned me that her card had been stopped out here because she didn’t let the bank know she was coming. I thought it sounded a bit daft and was sure I hadn’t heard that before. However, I duly went into the Bank of Scotland in Gordon St in Glasgow, waited in the queue and informed the teller. She laughed, told me to have a nice time but said she’d no idea why I was telling her this. I explained and she said no, they had no need to know. Fine.

Two weeks after getting here my card stopped working. I called the Bank at great expense, not least because their answer message says to press one if you wish to manage your existing account – but they don’t tell you that’s only if you don’t need to speak to someone. You then find they have nothing to press for: “my card has been stopped for no particular reason and I’m stranded in Sri Lanka”, and have to start the call all over again. Anyway that’s all besides the point.

When it happened two weeks after getting here, it was sorted out pretty quickly. The explanation was that I hadn’t told them I was coming to Sri Lanka. Grrrr. So, I gave them my address out here, my mobile number, my landline number, my date of leaving SL, my date for going to Singapore, my date for arriving in Glasgow, my shoe size etc etc and was promised no more problems.

Just over a fortnight ago I was in Colombo for a weekend and couldn’t use my card. I assumed it was the ATM that had the problem and ended up borrowing money from a friend – something I hate doing.

At the weekend there I went to Kandy assuming my card was fine. I tried to use it but again, something was wrong. I phoned the bank from my mobile once again costing me a pretty rupee only to be told that it MIGHT be because I hadn’t told them I was coming to Sri Lanka. Talk about Groundhog Day! “You see, you really ought to let us know before you travel abroad” I was told. I repeated my entire story, told her not only had I done it in person but I’d already been through all this 6 weeks ago on the telephone from Sri Lanka and they had all my contact details so had there been a problem, surely someone could have called me.

I explained to her that I was in Sri Lanka, a developing country, by myself, as a volunteer with no income and I needed access to my money. This was on Friday last week and she informed me that IF it was a temporary stop because I was in Sri Lanka, they could sort it out for me but not until this THURSDAY!

Apparently every single person who could normally have helped me was on holiday for Easter. Apparently there are no emergency procedures in place to deal with what this was – an emergency. Apparently there was nobody I could talk to about it. She was very sorry but I’d have to wait and she sympathised but really, I should have informed them! Can you believe that?

It’s really not a nice feeling at all to be stranded thousands of miles from home with no money and no access to any. And I think the Bank of Scotland should be ashamed to have put me through that. I cannot believe they have no emergency procedures they can use. Luckily we had paid our transport in advance but what if I hadn’t? I really could have been stuck and although I’ve never felt in danger over here, I think I certainly would have been if I’d had to rely on the Bank of Scotland as my only “friend for life”.

Anyway I was still left with the problem that the person I spoke to last Friday didn’t know if there was a temporary stop on the card or a permanent one. The latter would have meant ten working days for a new card to be made and a further 6 for it to arrive in SL. I really would be in trouble then.

So yesterday, Tuesday, when they were all back from their holidays, I called again. Had to repeat myself over and over (what is wrong with these people?) before she understood that I needed to know whether it was a temporary or permanent stop. All she could do apparently was email the “abroad” team to ask them to re-activate the card. She couldn’t speak to them, they do not have the facility to do that. She could only email.

“And if it turns out after you’ve emailed them that it’s not a temporary stop, what will happen?” I asked.

She couldn’t answer that. She eventually said she’d speak to the fraud team to see if there was any other reason for the stop. Unfortunately my mobile ran out of credit before I got the chance to find out. So they’ve cost me a fortune, spoiled some of my time out here, let me down really badly – and now, not only do I not have money, I don’t have any credit in my phone. And no, they’ve not called me back. Nice way to treat someone who’s been your customer for 23 years!

I'm on the Top of the World ...

2008-03-25T14:58:00.000+05:30

... looking down on creation as the song goes! I left Galle last Wednesday afternoon and I got back last night (Monday) having had the most exciting time travelling round Sri Lanka. What an amazing, stunning, wonderful place to be. Myself and three friends hired a van and driver and we were like the Famous Five traipsing round the Hill Country. We all agreed that we would find it difficult to find the words to describe our trip adequately.

Serendipitous is perhaps not quite the right word but it really felt like every corner we turned, we turned at the right time and in the right direction. We accidentally stumbled upon so many "happenings" Each one reminded me of my first impressions of Sri Lanka the day I arrived when I described it as being like "an assault on the senses". So much to see, hear, feel, smell and taste and often all at the same time.

I'll list where we went to give you some idea of how much we managed to fit in and over the next couple of days I'll post about each of them but I think my friends are right and we'll never be able to quite do it justice.

Wednesday 4pm - myself and new housemate, friend and colleague Thea leave Galle for Colombo.

Wednesday 8pm - arrive at the big city.

Thursday 8.30am - work meeting with Shakthi Organisation.

Thursday 3pm - Anne and Sally arrive from Hambantota and Tangalle and we head off to Kandy!

Thursday 7pm - arrive at the Expeditor guest house at Kandy.

Thursday 8pm - stumble upon a Hindu Festival of thousands.

Friday 10am - arrive at Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage.

Friday pm - guided tour of Dalada Maligawa, Temple of the Sacred Tooth in Kandy.

Friday evening - Kandy Arts Association to watch Kandyan Dancing and back to the Temple to see the casket with the tooth.

Friday evening - dinner at the guest house.

Saturday morning - Thea and I go for a swim at another hotel and join the other two after for a wander round the markets.

Saturday lunchtime - we visit the hotel Helga's Folly. The owner is the inspiration for the Stereophonics song Madame Helga.

Saturday pm - we make our way to Nuwara Eliya further into the Hill Country, a four hour drive.

Saturday evening - arrive at the St Andrew's Hotel in N/Eliya and had dinner with other friends who were touring the Hill Country.

Saturday night - we were unhappy that the staff of St Andrew's didn't seem to know much about Scotland or even that they had any connection so we ended up having an impromput ceilidh and singalong with them till 3.30am. Fantastic night and apologies to all the other guests.

Sunday morning - Easter Sunday so we persuaded the hungover staff to give us boiled eggs to take away and had a picnic on the road to Ella.

Sunday evening - arrive at Ella and have wonderful dinner wrapped in a banana leaf!

Monday morning - start our 7.5 hour drive home with many stops along the way.

Monday evening - arrive home at 5.30 to baking sunshine, unpack, wash, dry, iron and get ready for work the next day.

As I said I'll post later about many of these things but for now, I've work to do and that, after all, is the reason I'm here. I will end by saying that the whole trip really did make me feel like I was on top of the world and the photo, much as I don't like it, sums that feeling up!

Toilets in Sri Lanka

2008-03-25T10:43:00.000+05:30

I have been finding the toilet situation in Sri Lanka one of the most difficult challenges of all. Even in Scotland I do not like using public loos and I hate people talking about all matters related to it. Out here, some of my friends are staying with families and using crouch down outdoor toilets which I think is one of the things I would not have coped with at all. I have thus far managed to avoid using one on my travels which is just as well as I'm finding the Westernised toilets difficult enough to deal with as it is.

However, the next time I am screwing my nose up at the insects buzzing around the loo or the lack of loo roll (in Sri Lanka they use a "scoosher" rather than paper - it's a hand held shower attachment and no doubt much more hygienic, but I just can't!) I will remind myself just how fortunate I really am and perhaps it will put an end to my pampered princess act!

Last Thursday I met with Shakthi Organisation. It's a women's organisation in the Trincomalee District of Sri Lanka and my company is trying to get funding for them. We had to meet in Colombo as I'm not allowed to go to Trincomalee for security reasons so you know right away that it's an area with its problems.

Anyway the impressive Chief Executive, a 27 year old woman who started Shakthi when she was just 19 told me something that made me feel more than a little shamefaced at my aversion to public loos. She told me she visited one village in the area and of the 75 households, only ten percent had any form of toilet at all. That means around 68 houses don't even have an outside crouch down toilet. 'So what on earth do they do?' I asked and she told me they simply have to use the jungle.

Then she told me the reason they are so desperate to build a toilet for everyone, is because of the ongoing problem of men sexually assaulting and raping women using the jungle as a toilet. I found that really hard to hear and I understand why many people turn away from stories like that because it's too much to think about, it's too horrific and easier to pretend you never knew about it in the first place. But these women have no choice, they live with it every day and night.

I will do whatever I can to help secure funding for them but I'll do it knowing they are not the only ones. In developing countries across the world people are without the most basic things that we in the West take for granted. What I have been steadfastly avoiding using since I got here, will seem like luxury to these women and more importantly it will be safe. Yet again I am reminded of how very unfair this world can be.

Tunnock Tastic Thewliss

2008-03-19T15:56:00.000+05:30

Sorry, couldn't think of another headline ... just had to say a huge thank you to one of my favourite people Alison Thewliss or should that be Councillor Alison Thewliss? I got home last night to a parcel which had the address written on an SNP postit and inside a birthday card, a collection of Edwin Morgan poems, some YSI badges, some Cadbury's Buttons and best of all a packet of Tunnock's Caramel Wafers "to remind me of home". You should have seen the smile on my face.

Alison is a very thoughtful person anyway but because she has lived abroad I think she knows how important it is to have contact with your friends and family back home. An email or text is great and you know you've not been forgotten. A phone call or something through the post is even better which is why I was so pleased to get this. My good friend Mary McCabe also sent me a copy of a book she'd had published some years back. It's based in Glasgow and I'm really enjoying reading it.

When I complain to my friends about their lack of contact they invariably tell me:

* they expected I'd not want to hear from them as they've nothing new to say (not so, it's good to know everything is normal back home, I once even requested a mundane email from a friend just so I knew nothing had changed),

* they read my blog so know what I'm up to on a daily basis (great, but I want to know what you're up to, too),

* they're too busy running the country (yeah right, how many folk use that old chestnut?)

So, thank you to all my friends and family who've kept in touch while I've been here and keep the emails, calls and letters coming - the odd Tunnock's Caramel Wafer is also very acceptable!

Whirlwind Romance

2008-03-19T13:47:00.000+05:30

I'm having a whirlwind romance with Sri Lanka these days. I'm sad to realise that I've very little time left, in fact I leave 5 weeks tomorrow! And it's got me thinking about all the things I have to do before I go. So I'm very happy that there are some poya days and public holidays this week because myself and three friends are heading off on a whirlwind tour of the country.

Later today I leave for the capital city of Colombo again for a meeting first thing tomorrow morning with an organisation from the Trincomalee District. Once that's over with we're going here to see the elephants. Then we'll head to Kandy for Poya Day - Kandy is full of temples and houses the Sacred Tooth of the Buddha so we're picking the perfect day to go there. I really want to go to the Lake Club and watch the colourful Kandyan dancing with the firewalking finale!

After that we'll head further into the Hill Country, hopefully visit some tea estates and some of the towns and villages along the way where we can indulge in a bit of hillwalking. And finally, we'll end up on safari here at Uda Walawa National Park. That's the plan anyway.

So, I'll be looking for internet cafes but in case I don't get any this may be my last update till next Tuesday. Then, I'm looking forward to making the most of my final month in this amazing country before returning to my own amazing country and equally stunning views.

Don't lick your fingers Anne!

2008-03-19T13:35:00.000+05:30

That's what my dad used to say to me and there were echoes of my dad in Sri Lanka for me last week. I decided that "anything you can do, I can do better" and thought I'd join with the Sri Lankans I was on a workshop with and eat with my fingers. Yes I know, I'm bad enough with a knife and fork but you know, it didn't look that hard and I used to do it as a baby which was not THAT long ago, so I thought I'd give it a go.

It was okay apart from a few snorts of derision mainly coming from folk with knives and forks I have to say. Anyway I got through the meal eventually (great for a diet because it takes so long) and was licking my fingers clean when I heard my boss say "don't lick your fingers Anne". Apparently it's considered rude and apparently the way I was doing it - one finger in my mouth at a time is generally thought to be suggestive at best and filthy at worst. Oops, you see how easily folk can get the wrong impression of you in another culture!!! I'm back to using a knife and fork and I've stopped licking the plate in case that also means something.

Paying through the nose for nothingness

2008-03-18T11:38:00.000+05:30

Am currently away with work on a two day business planning workshop. We're staying here at the Barberyn Hotel which they advertise as giving the "authentic Ayurvedic experience". I was very excited at the prospect but I think my excitement was something to do with the fact that it costs a fortune to stay here and I wasn't paying. Materialism rules again sadly. However again I'm learning the lesson that value has nothing to do with cost. It's nice, the rooms are lovely but if I had to stay here for a holiday, I'm quite sure I'd die of boredom. It's just yoga, massage, rest, relaxation, meditation, holistic food and no alcohol. Which is fine for a day but some people are here for 3 weeks and I've yet to see anyone smile. One woman said a member of staff threatened to report her for leaving her room when she'd been ordered to relax lol. The other thing is that being Ayurvedic they don't want to be cruel to anyone not even mosquitoes. So they don't spray the rooms and the mossies just gaily fly in the gaps in the windows. Still, if it's solitude and beautiful peaceful surroundings you want, it's perfect. I can only take so much peace and quiet!

Foreigners in Colombo

2008-03-17T14:46:00.001+05:30

Quick story (no doubt one of many) from my weekend in Colombo, the capital city of Sri Lanka. On the Friday night we met up with some friends at the Gallery Cafe. We had a really good laugh and it was nice to be out socialising again. When we finally headed home at 2am it was in a tuk tuk. I was surprised by the number of police and soldiers around and the number of people they stopped and searched. I was wondering if we'd be searched but each time we approached a check point our driver stuck his head out and shouted "foreigners officer"! Apparently there's no need to search the "foreigners"! It's funny because it's quite non PC at home to refer to people as foreigners. Here it's almost a compliment. It stops you getting searched and judging by the number of clubs with signs outside saying "foreigners only" it's thought to be a good thing. Don't know that I'd be happy with that in Scotland and not sure how the average Sri Lankan feels about it. Anyway the constant "foreigners officer" made us laugh - or maybe that was the alcohol!!

The Big Smoke!

2008-03-16T11:46:00.000+05:30

Well, it's Sunday, nearly 12 noon and we're about to check out of our lovely hotel. My friend Anne and I decided to treat ourselves and we stayed at the Galle Face Hotel - such decadence but well worth it. It's been a non stop weekend making up for all the nightlife I've been missing in Galle. Have to say though, I'm looking forward to getting back to the peace and quiet in Galle where you don't suddenly look up as you're swimming and see a soldier complete with rifle above you. They are everywhere, they have to be but it serves as a constant reminder of the problems over here and in Galle we're largely protected from that. So it's been exciting and fun but it'll be nice to be home.

Adventure getting more and more hectic

2008-03-14T14:29:00.001+05:30

What a week it's been. Yesterday I got picked up at 6.30am to go on 'field trips'. We travelled across the country to visit a garment factory that now employs people with disabilities. We went from there to visit a business creation organisations to hear how they'd been convinced to focus on people with disabilities and finally at night we visited a woman with a visual impairment who runs her own business. I say finally. We left her at 7pm but it took till 11pm to get home. It might not have taken so long had I not been desperate to find a bathroom (soooo polite). The driver of our minibus took us to his sister's house in the jungle and the whole family came out to greet us and feed and water us again! It was a fantastic day and even when I was half asleep staring into the black night as we drove for hours through windy narrow jungle roads, I just felt completely alive and exhilarated. Sometimes I still think "am I really here?". Well, I am and every day brings more excitement.

Today's excitement? Heading to Colombo for the weekend. They have nightlife there you know!! I love the quiet in Galle but it's time for this country girl to head to the bright lights of the big city. We're meeting up with a few of the other volunteers out here, going shopping, getting our hair done, sunset cocktails, dinner - and tonight, we're being taken out to somewhere "sophisticated" by a fellow Glaswegian. I told him he won't be allowed in but maybe if he's with us ... !

PS Remember the rat? He's a mouse, he was in our humane trap this morning munching nervously on the Snickers bar that he deprived us of. Now all I have to do is convince Donna he's not a cute pet but good news!!

PPS Remember the b**b that they defused down the road from my house? That was the security matter I was referring to. It was a box of sand. Even better news lol.

Deprivation

2008-03-12T15:48:00.000+05:30

Ok so I know this is not really an example of true deprivation but I only have time for trivia today as I'm off on some field trips to Martara and Tangalle shortly. Yes, so, deprivation. Last night I booked myself into a nice hotel for the night where, apart from having Air Conditioning and drinking coffee, I did something I've not done since 24th January this year. I watched TV!!! Yes I have been deprived of TV for over six weeks. As someone who some years ago was a bit of a telly addict (with no desire however to appear on that daft Noel Edmonds show), I think I'm doing well. I used to record the following soaps:

Coronation Street
Eastenders
Emmerdale
Neighbours
Home & Away
Prisoner Cell Block H

I also recorded documentaries, political programmes and dramas. And I watched them all. Countdown I found was much better when pre-recorded as you could fast forward the talking bits and just play the game. Around 3 years ago I moved house and couldn't work my VCR. At first I felt slightly panicked. How would I cope if I didn't know what Jack was up to in Corrie? But the panic passed and I soon learned to cope with watching only what happened to be on if I happened to be in!

Gradually I dropped all of the soaps except Corrie. I continued to watch a fair bit of TV or at least have the TV on in the background. And then I came here. I have no TV and it's fine. I was so busy adjusting to all the other changes that TV deprivation was the last thing on my mind. And whilst the novelty of watching it last night was great, after a while I was bored and switched off.

So, it will be interesting to see how that changes when I get back home especially as I'll be living with my soap addicted mum for the first couple of weeks!

Halfway there and I'm livin' on a prayer!

2008-03-11T23:53:00.000+05:30

Today I have just passed my midway point in Sri Lanka. I arrived on 26 January 2008 to stay for 90 days. Today is day 46 and I am on the home strait now. I'm not sure whether to be happy or sad about that. For the last few weeks I've been wishing I could stay for longer. My boss has asked me to stay for six months but there are things I think I probably need to go home for. When I'm loving living here and wishing I could stay on, I wonder how much of that is to do with the fact that I KNOW it's only for a fixed period. Would I feel the same if I were staying for longer. And how much of my desire to stay is due to some natural (I hope) trepidation about what I have to go back to?

The days when I am happy I'll be going home soon (well, in 6.5 weeks) sometimes just creep up on me from out of nowhere and for no particular reason other than I love Scotland, my friends and family and my life there. Other days, there are very particular reasons and the last few days has been fairly testing. Not testing in a terrible way, I'm managing to stay positive but it's taking some effort I can tell you.

I wasn't sure whether to post about this or not but this blog is about my (not too) personal journey and I think it's important to talk about this and compare to the last similar incident. I say similar (I am referring to the cockroach) but I guess I should be glad of what happened on Sunday night as I realise cockroaches are trivial in comparison to certain other things ....

.... like what I found when I opened the kitchen drawer.

Yes, as UB40 used to sing so well: "there's a rat in me kitchen, what am I gonna do?"!!!

Right there in the kitchen drawer. "What did you do?" asked one of my sisters. "I shut the drawer, what do you think I did?"! Like I'm going to make it some dinner!

I sat in a very high up place and watched my impossible-to-scare housemate Julia sterilise all the cutlery (which we now keep on the worktop). Last night I directed from a distance as action woman Donna tried to hunt it down! Whatever it is that's wrong with these two, I hope they're never cured of it.

I didn't cry - please be impressed by this. I may have leapt up in the air high enough to represent Scotland at the High Jump at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games but I remained calm. And I stayed in the house. Three people have now expressed their astonishment that I who, as the same sister said, go into a cold sweat if I see an earwig, reacted so rationally. In fact they all said they'd have expected me to have moved myself into the Ladyhill Hotel within half an hour.

I still don't feel happy about it, still feel sick at the thought but when you compare this to a month ago when I moved out of the guest house because there was a cockroach, I think I'm possibly toughening up. I say "possibly" as I'll reserve judgement in case of delayed shock!

As one of my friends said earlier, it's been a bit of a week - lightning, rats and today, some security issues that have unsettled us all but probably better not to talk about on the blog.

This morning I got a call from Donna to tell me she'd had a weird wiry looking black spider land on her leg while she was in a tuk tuk. She flicked it off and it landed on the driver who immediately stopped and got rid of it. He told her it was highly poisonous and had it bitten her he'd have had to take her to hospital immediately. Thankfully it hadn't.

So it's been a bit of a hair raising few days. My housemates are amused by the irony that it was me who found the rat. My friends back home will just think "of COURSE it was Anne"!

As I said these are the days when I would like to be home. Still, "would like to be" is an improvement. Six weeks ago I was desperate to go home, even four weeks ago I wished I could go home. Today, I would just like to be at home for a day and then come back. I said at the start this would be one of the most significant experiences of my life. I don't know if I realised quite how significant, quite how amazing, quite how tough but I'm beginning to now. And even on days like today, I'm very grateful for all of it.

Well, maybe not the rat but even that has a potentially positive aspect because again according to that sister, this is the Chinese Year of the Rat - although quite how that means finding one in your cutlery drawer is a good thing is beyond me!

My 1st birthday in Sri Lanka

2008-03-10T16:43:00.000+05:30

Yep, it was certainly different spending my birthday in Sri Lanka. It really did feel strange, I have to say, being so far away from my family and friends but I got some nice texts and finally my cards arrived today. Plus, my fantastic friends in SL made it a great day!

It started at 5.30am when myself, Julia and Anne (who'd come all the way from Hambantota, actually all the way from Inverness to be accurate) arose to go up the stairs at the back of the house and watch sunrise. Our landlord lives behind us and has a balcony area with tables and chairs, and Julia made a pot of tea and brought it up with a birthday cake (she's a Virgo!). It got light and we weren't sure if that WAS sunrise - it was lovely but no sun. And then, suddenly, the sun appeared. It was stunning. The views are amazing anyway but watching the sun come up was just fantastic.

Around 8am we headed to Unawatuna beach where we stayed till 5pm. I can think of worse places to go. The weather was great and I was in and out of the water like a yo yo. We had planned to go snorkelling (my first time) but the water got too choppy so we just drank Pina Coladas instead.

At night, as you can see from the photo, we went to the cinema. We saw this film Siri Raja Siri which was brilliant. It's strange how you can follow even the nuances of a film despite not understanding a word of it. It's about a little boy who wins a scholarship to a posh school in Colombo. But the posh school takes him far far away from his village and he has trouble settling in especially when he gets bullied by the fat (of course!) boy. I was getting fair carried away with the injustice of it all I can tell you!

Anyway had a fantastic time and although I missed the people I'd normally be spending my birthday with, my friends here more than made up for it. Particularly the ones who brought chocolate, jewellery and wine!

The weekend continued on Sunday (you know what I mean) and I spent Sunday learning a lot more about the Sri Lankan way of life which I'll blog about later in the week.

2008-03-08T12:52:00.001+05:30

You look like a monkey ...

2008-03-07T12:04:00.000+05:30

... and you live in a zoo!

That's the version of Happy Birthday that one of my sisters insists on singing to me every year - obviously on my birthday, 8th March, which is tomorrow! Another one. Not fair. However, I've decided to shock everyone and admit my age today. Despite the fact that I can't quite relate to being this age, I clearly AM this age (checked and double checked the birth certificate, made my mum take a lie detector test and it's true) and therefore it's about time I faced up to it.

Oh God, I feel about 10 now and like I'm going into the headmaster's office to admit to doing something really bad! Don't want to, don't want to. Anyway I'm not 10. I am ..... 41!! I know, it's ridiculous that I should have got to this age and tomorrow, I'm obviously going to be 41+1. It'll take me roughly 364 days to be able to say the actual number out loud.

I've been practising saying it and last night Ruk the Tuk (my name for a driver I know) asked me how old I was going to be. So I told him. His reply was (and I tried very hard to see this as a compliment): "but you are so very handsome"!!

I am not sure why it bothered me so much before. Maybe because most of my friends seem to be a lot younger than me these days. Some have advanced to my age and some are EVEN OLDER (quite substantially in some cases, you know who you are) but most are a good ten years younger. Perhaps it's because I've not achieved anything like what I thought I would by this age but that's what comes of being obsessed with politics. And a little bit of it is because there were particular people I didn't want to know.

But now, I don't care, I really don't. I'm living in Sri Lanka where the average person has many more things to worry about than their age. Someone I know over here is 28, she lives with her parents, siblings, husband and child. She's up at 5am every day cooking meals for the day ahead, cleaning, washing - all without the aid of machinery. She goes to work at 8am, she works all day, she never gets more than 3 days annual leave at a time, she goes home and cleans, looks after her child, watches an hour of the soaps, prepares for the next day and goes to bed again. She never complains and I am certain when she is 41 she will not be moaning about it - probably not even when she's 41+1!

So, even if I am starting to look like the endangered purple faced monkeys above me in the photo, it doesn't matter. I'm not going to start using platitudes like "you're only as young as you feel" because that's rubbish, you're whatever age you are - face up to it people! And the other one that drives me mad: "I don't feel any different to I did when I was 21". There is clearly something wrong with people like that and I ain't gonna be one of them.

I resolve from now on not to give my age another thought. I can hear all my friends laughing in disbelief now but it's true. Well at least I'll give it a go .... right, I'm away to practise not caring.

I no longer want to die an interesting death - OK God?!

2008-03-06T15:29:00.000+05:30

When my friends and family back home were fussing about me being so far from home and the potential dangers to me (they know I used* to be jinxed), I would just say: "Look, I've always wanted to die an interesting death so as long as it's not boring, don't worry about me"! I don't actually want to die yet (yet? EVER!!) but what I meant was I wouldn't mind if I got a few headlines and went out with a bang.

As one friend who's in the Polis said to me in a very stern voice: "Now listen here young lady (he did call me young, he DID!) I've watched many a person die an unusual death and not one of them looked like they were having fun"!

Anyway after my brush with what was nearly an interesting (if not unique) death I've changed my mind. In Galle, we've just had the scariest rainstorm ever. Thunder, lightning and floods. The office is full of people today all stifling giggles at my tendency to leap out of my chair with every crack! Anyway my boss came in to tell me to switch off and unplug everything which I did. Just before I unplugged we heard a very loud crackling noise rippling through the office and everyone set off to investigate.

Half an hour later, thunderstorm over, none the wiser about the noise, I sit down to get on with work and what do you know? The hard drive's done in. Apparently the loud crackling was my hard drive being struck by lightning. Just as well I decided only minutes before to stop using it as a footrest then isn't it? Just as well my mother doesn't read this blog don't you think? And just as well I've decided I'm no longer jinxed and I no longer want to die an interesting death wouldn't you agree?

What kind of headlines would you get from that anyway?

"Volunteer catapulted by lightning into next door fruit shop"

- 'if she wanted a banana, she only had to ask' wept local shopkeeper / tuk tuk driver / translator / hotelier.

- 'if only she'd not decided to put her feet up on the computer and do her work like we're (not) paying her to' lamented her boss.

'she'd do anything for attention but I never thought she'd take it this far. Ah well' sighed all of her mates in Glasgow, collectively, before returning to their drinks.

Exactly, rotten headlines. Dead! And forgotten! Couldn't get much worse. So my message to God, or Buddha or whoever it is that created this planet and decided I could spend a bit more time here is this: thank you very much and I take it all back, I don't want to die an interesting death. I'll just be happy living an interesting life. I'm even referring to my being jinxed in the *past tense! I must mean business. Right, storm's gone and I've got work to do before I go swimming. Maybe I can swim TO the pool!

Indygal is on a Mission

2008-03-05T15:23:00.001+05:30

I'm running a one woman campaign to get all the banks in Sri Lanka to agree to exchange Scottish notes and to give the same rate as they do for English notes. If you've been following the blog you'll have read of my annoyance when I couldn't change my notes. I started today by writing to one of the banks and I've had a reply already. They were asking for clarification only but at least they've read it and they're responding. I shall let you know how I get on ...

The advantage of being a foreigner!

2008-03-05T12:59:00.000+05:30

By that I mean being a Glaswegian. Many fellow Scots find a Glasgow accent difficult enough to figure out so what chance does a Sri Lankan have? None, I’m pleased to say because it means I can entertain myself with it. Remember I do a lot of walking every day so I need something to amuse me.

Yesterday I’m walking along the beach road towards my gym. I don’t normally walk seeing as it’s an hour away but last night I thought it was an idea to completely knacker myself (remember it’s very hot) before I even got changed, for some reason.

Anyway this guy comes bounding across the road shouting “hello, where are you going?” so I stop to chat to him. He’s asking me lots of questions, paying me lots of compliments (always welcome), generally being a bit of a smoothie and then he asks why I’m going to the Lighthouse. I tell him to go to the gym.

“Ah yes” says the guy who sounded very much like he was chatting me up a minute ago “it will help with the fat bits of you”!!!

“So it will” say I laughing away “nae idea whit you’re gonnae dae about the ugly bits o’ you mind you, ya bleep bleep charmer”. He laughs too and says “yes, yes” so he clearly hasn’t heard Weegie before.

I say my goodbyes still smiling sweetly, promise that “of course” I’ll come to his house for dinner, gather my “fat bits” together (grateful that it’s only bits of me that are fat according to him), and have a little giggle to myself. I just hope I don’t forget where I am next time I’m in Sauchiehall Street and someone annoys me!

PS He wasn’t ugly but in any case I’m a firm believer that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and would not normally say stuff like that - he deserved it however!

What am I doing here?

2008-03-04T16:39:00.000+05:30

I don't think I've talked about my work on this blog. I work Monday to Friday 8.30 am to 5pm and so far, I've spent all my worktime in the office so yesterday I asked if I could go and see some of their work. The result of that was that today, I attended a workshop run by my company. The company I work for tries to break down the barriers to employment for people with disabilities, and also tries to change society's perceptions generally.

My job is to put together and start the implementation of a Communications Strategy including a website, recruit and train a Communications Officer and research various post tsunami funding options.

Today's workshop was in the Gintota district of Galle at a buddhist temple (bare feet again but monks aplenty so I coped). They invited people with disabilities and their families to come along and expected 40. They got 100. It was a really good experience for me. I didn't understand a word of course but the one thing I've realised being here is that you don't have to use words to communicate. Of course I must have known that but perhaps I didn't realise the extent to which you could build relationships without spoken language.

I fell in love with most of the children and I think they quite liked me. It was particularly easy to communicate with them because they are less inhibited about eye contact and smiling and expressing themselves. I spoke to so many people and I'm pretty tired now but it was great. It was also hard to take at times. Lots of people thought I could sort all their problems out and I'm not sure if that's because I'm white or if they thought the other staff could do the same.

I had one guy come up to me with his mother. He was around 30 and they showed me a letter which was in Sinhala. I asked someone else what it was and apparently he'd been discharged from the army. He seemed to want me to do something about it even though it happened 6 years ago. I understand he has a mental health problem and often one of the symptoms of that kind of thing is not believing there is anything wrong. Imagine feeling so wronged for so long. I really felt for him. And of course I couldn't do anything to help.

The only thing I could think to do was salute him. He immediately stood to attention and saluted back giving me a big smile. You see what I mean about communication - I couldn't help the guy but we had a connection for a short time. There were other stories which I may share later but I consider myself extremely lucky to have been there today.

Inflicting pain on myself

2008-03-03T09:53:00.000+05:30

A couple of days after I arrived here I joined the pool and gym at the Lighthouse Hotel. Since then I've been going maybe three times a week to swim. I started on 20 lengths, noticed Julia was doing 30 so upped it and then Anne told me 40 lengths of this pool was half a mile so that's what I now do each time I go. But until yesterday I hadn't managed to drag myself into the gym.

So, Sunday morning, off I head to the Lighthouse. I was in a bit of a day dreamy mood, mixed with a slight touch of homesickness and had not much enthusiasm for swimming never mind the gym. So at 10.30am I said to one of the trainers, "ok show me how it all works but I'm not doing it today, I'm just swimming". "No problem" he replies. Relief all round because they can be quite determined these fitness people. We begin the "demonstration" ...

NINETY MINUTES OF NON STOP EXERCISE LATER !!!!! ...

he says "now you can swim"!! But guess what - I did, I still managed 40 lengths. It's true that exercise is good for the mind as well as the body. I felt so calm and my mood improved enormously.

Unfortunately, I was so chilled out that I forgot to apply sunscreen to anywhere other than my face and arms. The result is that my back and the back of my legs are scarlet. So last night I was mainly Sleepless in Sri Lanka which is ironic as I watched a bit of Sleepless in Seattle yesterday - anyway I've woken up today expecting to be in agony and I feel normal (apart from bites, stings and sunburn) which was almost disappointing, I felt like I must have been doing it wrong. However my housemate tells me not to worry, I'll definitely be in pain tomorrow. Well, I'd better ... !

PS That's my latest photo posted above, you can see it's working eh?

Hiya

2008-03-02T17:25:00.000+05:30

Does anyone remember when a Glasgow based publishing company wanted to set up a magazine to rival Hello and called it Hiya? Didn’t last long, wonder why. Anyway as I’ve said before in this blog, wherever you go in Galle, people say hello to you all the time. On my way to and from work, I have my “regulars” that I am on nodding or grinning terms with – roughly 300 on my 40 minute walk. (Sometimes I get to work and I’m all talked out – yes, me, can you believe that?)

Anyway, anyway (must learn not to digress so much) some I say “hello” to, some “good morning”, some “sooboow desenak” (no that’s not how you spell it) and some, the ones I feel more familiar with, I’ll just wave and shout “hiya”! Very *Weegie of me I appreciate.

The thing is “hiya” is the Sinhala word for the number 6. So it only occurred to me the other day after weeks of this that I’ve been walking to work calling out the number “six” to all and sundry! They’re very polite the Sri Lankans, if someone did that to me I’d shout “seven” back at them but then I’ve always had a very contrary side to me!

*Weegie - means Glaswegian.

A rude awakening

2008-03-02T17:18:00.000+05:30

Saturday morning, 1st March, St David’s Day and I awoke to machine guns, canons and explosions. The initial gunshots I thought were in the next street but apparently when I hear that (and I do frequently) it’s people firing firecrackers to scare off the monkeys who descend on a garden and bring chaos to bear.

Anyway no it wasn’t firecrackers, it was obviously explosions and it went on for an hour. Julia was away for the day and she's much more level headed than myself and Donna put together so we of course hid undercover reckoning we were under siege. It has happened here before apparently. Anyway eventually we phoned our country manager who investigated and discovered it was simply the navy base carrying out maneouvres! You'd think they might've asked first lol.

I would of course have said no, have it another time as we had a party at our house on Friday night - yes, it's true, I will not let the fact that I am away from all my friends family and fellow party animals stop me. The party was great, it's the best party house I've ever lived in and I can't wait to share the "Hello" magazine style pics with you all!

Some images to share with you

2008-03-01T16:58:00.000+05:30

I normally send out an invitation to my online photo album every week when I've uploaded my pics but I know I leave people out because I get bored putting in email addresses. If you want to see them let me know but for now here's a *few images. First, this is Olcott Mawatha (Road) which links my street to the main street. It's very smelly due to the open drains and dried fish and it's loud, colourful, dusty, dirty and dangerous but only if you try to cross the street. It's an experience and here it is (courtesy of Anne from Inverness, another volunteer out here), on a quieter than normal moment.

Anne

* PS when I said a few I was forgetting how slow dial up is - that's what we have at home - so I think we'll stick with the one for now in case I fall asleep waiting for something to happen!

"Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit." - R E Shay

2008-02-28T09:05:00.000+05:30

The mystery from yesterday is solved - if you didn't read it and you don't want to now (it WAS kind of long) basically I was trying to establish if a woman who asked me to give her money was genuine or not. Were her family really starving or was she just a scammer? And now I have the answer.

My very sensible and lovely housemates asked around and discovered that this is not the first time the woman has done this - apparently she has a problem with gambling. So, although she was not being entirely honest with me, she is obviously not just a scammer for the sake of it. Addiction to gambling is as serious as alcoholism or drug addiction and it's a very difficult thing to overcome.

Unfortunately, like all addictions, it changes the behaviour of the person and they find themselves doing and saying things they never dreamt they would do or say. It's desperation and they can't help themselves. How do I know all this? Because I am a very knowledgeable person with an incredibly high emotional intelligence quotient lol.

You thought I was about to confess to being a compulsive gambler there didn't you? Not at all. I lived for 16 years with a gambler - not in any way a compulsive one, in fact a very successful one - and although his life's work has been dedicated to horseracing he would occasionally persuade me to go to the casino in Glasgow.

There I discovered I would be unlikely to develop a gambling problem because as soon as I lost even just five pounds, I'd be bored and want to go home. I'd watch all these (mainly) rich folk staring obsessively at the roulette wheel willing the thingummyjig to land on their number and I'd think "who cares?". The only thing I liked about the casino was that if you stayed till 4am they gave you breakfast - free!

My Auntie Maggie in Greenock LOVES the bingo - she must do as she's upped her weekly visits from 5 to 6 recently! She was dying for me to go with her so on her birthday I did just that. They wouldn't let me in till I joined so I'm now a member of the Mecca Bingo Clubs! Anyway, I went and quite honestly, I just didn't get it. I mean, I GOT it, I knew how to play it - what I couldn't figure out was why anyone would want to and how they managed to stay awake during it. And I can say that safe in the knowledge that Aunt M, lovely as she is, will never read my blog cos she'll be too busy listening out for clickety clicks!

The only time I've enjoyed bingo was when I accompanied Aileen Campbell, who I worked for at the time, as she held a surgery in a bingo hall (she is a member of the Scottish Parly). I had arranged for her to call the bingo too which was the source of great amusement for me until the manager announced that I was going to do it too!! Actually it was great fun - particularly the heckling when I got it wrong!

Anyway I'm way off the point here. The point is that people with addictions deserve our sympathy. We have to understand that the scamming is a symptom of their condition. However, we don't have to accept the behaviour, nor do we have to fund the addiction and I'm not going to. I am saddened to discover that she was not all she seemed and although I will be more careful in future, it won't colour my view of Sri Lankans who, on the whole, are lovely friendly people.

And if I do bump into her again, I'm going to ask her if I can tell her something in complete confidence - and then I'll tell her I can't help her because I'm a gambling addict, it all started down the Mecca Bingo in Greenock and now, I have no money left. Might even see if she'll lend me some. You see, I know how to get rid of people when I have to!!

How do you tell a scammer from someone genuinely in need?

2008-02-27T14:15:00.001+05:30

Yesterday I talked about being on a rollercoaster where you go from being terrified to grinning and bearing it and from realising the anticipation is worse than the heading over the edge itself to actually enjoying it. And sometimes, if you're lucky, it's not just as the ride is about to stop that you discover, too late, that you love it.

Although I've been enjoying and appreciating being in Sri Lanka for quite a while now, it was only on Saturday that the turning point came and I realised I was so happy I could've floated home. That was the day when I decided I couldn't wait for the rollercoaster to get to the really exciting bit at the top where I could throw myself into it wholeheartedly.

Anyway I thought I would share with you a little event that made me realise how utterly unpredictable this entire trip has been and will continue to be. I was with my friend Anne on Saturday - she's another volunteer out here, originally from Inverness but now based in Hambantota. We met someone who completely bowled us both over. I won't go into detail because I'm hoping that my subsequent experience of her is a one off and I will be able to tell you more (positive things) about her.

She invited us back to her home for tea and we followed her. She was a very entertaining lady, very worldly with a fascinating life story and a lovely family who we met. She was also fluent in English, so much so that you could have a really good laugh with her. Her whole family - her husband, daughter and son made us so welcome that we both came away thinking "this is what Sri Lanka's all about". It wasn't just me being sentimental, Anne felt the same. We promised to visit the following weekend and thanked them for their company and their hospitality.

Yesterday one of my housemates called me to say the woman was at the house looking for me. I had only told her the area I lived in but she found me and now wanted to know where I worked. She said it was an urgent personal matter. My housemate called me and I spoke to the woman who said she needed to borrow twenty pounds. She said she was expecting a wages cheque but it hadn't come through and her whole family were starving, hadn't eaten for days.

What do you do? My first thought was a very selfish one - "why me?". I have had much experience back home of being taken for a mug (primarily because I behaved like a mug, I appreciate) and I was so upset it was (possibly) happening again. And with this woman who had so inspired us.

My next thought was, of course, what if it was true? What if they really were starving? It's not like it's an impossibility over here. How could I turn her away? How could I not help her son and daughter not to mention the woman herself and her husband?

Whilst I'm thinking all this I'm saying to her that I can't afford to give her twenty pounds because I'm a volunteer and I have to budget. But all the time I'm thinking that yes, I may be a volunteer and I may have had to take on more debt to do this, but there's no doubt I'm a lot better off than her financially.

I felt deflated because I didn't know if she was genuine or not. It's hard for me to tell at the best of times but over here, how do you ever know? It's my history of financial muggery (or being a victim of it) that clouds my judgement and leaves me feeling very confused when this kind of thing happens.

I told her I could give her 1000 rupees which is five pounds. It might sound a bit mean but that would feed her family for a good few days over here. Rice, for example, is 50 rupees a kilo. I offered to buy her food rather than give her money (on my housemate's instructions - apparently it's a good way to tell if someone's lying and I can see why) and at first she was keen but then said the money would be better.

The strangest thing is, she then didn't turn up to where we'd agreed to meet. I went the opposite way to where I wanted to go and ended up having to fork out for tuks and she didn't show up. I think my housemate told her off for taking advantage of me (so my mum will be pleased at that) but surely if she was desperate enough she would still have come. That said, I have to admit to worrying a little about her last night. She went to a lot of trouble to find me so I wondered what had happened for her not to show.

And I'm left with the question - which would make me happier? If they were genuinely starving and desperate? Or if the woman who was the catalyst for the turning point for me in Sri Lanka, turned out to be nothing more than a scammer?

I can't answer that. All I can say is that I'm here to make the most of absolutely everything so although the rollercoaster may have dipped a little, I know to expect these peaks and troughs and if all I take from this is a lesson about trust well learnt, then at least I've learned something.

Tonight (to end on a happy note) I am heading down to Fort after work for a teatime stroll and to watch the sun as it sets. That's what the photo is - I've named it Sunset at Fort in Galle. Is there not a place in Perthshire called Fort in Galle?

Life is a Rollercoaster ...

2008-02-26T17:00:00.000+05:30

Today I have been in Sri Lanka one month – I arrived on 26th January and it’s now 26th February. So I thought I should stop and think about what my life’s been like for the last month and how it’s affected me.

I was talking to a friend the other day and likened my trip out here to being on a rollercoaster and the more I thought about it, the more I realised what an accurate analogy that is.

I don’t go on rollercoasters anymore although when I was younger I would be first in the queue. Now, if I found myself on one, it would be by accident (you know the kind of accident where somebody blindfolds you, hits you over the head and puts earplugs in till you get to your destination!) and I have often wondered over the last few weeks how on earth I ended up out here.

It all happened very quickly – I heard about it, went to an info evening two weeks later, applied the next day and within a week or so I’d been through two interviews and been accepted. But to be honest, I didn’t allow myself to think too deeply about what I was about to do in case I chickened out. Only one friend questioned me really. At the time I felt he was being unsupportive but he wasn’t, he said he just wanted to be sure I’d thought it all through. He clearly knows me very well because of course I hadn’t.

If I found myself somehow sitting on the rollercoaster, it would take all the strength I could muster NOT to stand up and walk away and the only thing that would stop me would be the desire not to look like a fool. And again, I will be honest, when I arrived in Sri Lanka, I hated it, I wanted to run a mile. I cried the first night and started trying to work out how I could get home again without losing face. I realised I couldn’t so I stayed in my seat and closed my eyes as the rollercoaster started up.

Even when I liked rollercoasters, I still found that first bit to be scary – you have all the trepidation of what’s in front of you but you know you have to keep your head. So you grin and bear it and you pretend to your friends that you’re actually really excited about it. You comfort yourself by working out how long the ride will last and how long you’ve already done. Even when I started to enjoy being in Sri Lanka, it still took me till I had 81 days left before I stopped using that as a comfort.

(Before anyone worries, I don’t count the days now because there are not enough left and I don’t want to think about that!)

So, 9 days in to my 3 month stay before I stopped counting. That’s not to say I didn’t have good, even great days before then but each night I would say “okay that was really exciting but when can I go home?”.

As everyone knows however, you reach a point on the rollercoaster where you just can’t hold it together any longer – usually just as you’re heading over your first dip. I feel sick just thinking about it. And of course I had a dip as anyone who reads regularly will know. But very very soon after that dip, I was back on the straight and narrow and I realised that often the anticipation is worse than the actual event.

So by the time the next dip comes round, you’re ready for it – you may not relish it but it doesn’t feel quite so bad. And then of course for most people, there comes a point (usually just as you’re coming to the end) where you relax and start to love it.

Luckily for me, that happened on Saturday, when I’d nine weeks left of my stay. I had the most fantastic day. It wasn’t about what I did so much as everyone I met that day. I felt like I was falling in love with the people of Sri Lanka. I realised then that I absolutely LOVE living here and I am so fortunate to have been given this opportunity.

Of course it will be great to go home and see everyone and yes, I still miss some people but I love my life here – it’s exciting, it’s worthwhile and it’s different. You never know what’s around the next corner, you never know when you’ll meet the next dip but you know that you can handle it. To be honest, traveling by tuk tuk is really no different to being on a rollercoaster – except tuks are perhaps not quite as safe!

But that’s all part of the crazy exciting country that is Sri Lanka and just like the plug and socket for your shower being IN the shower and knowing that you’re taking your life in your hands just crossing the road here, you either worry about it or you just stop worrying and love every minute. For me, after one month of living in Sri Lanka, I’ve decided that Doris Day was right when she sang “que sera sera, whatever will be will be”.

So, I’ve managed it, I’ve lasted for a month and I’ll try to make the most of every single minute of the two months or (hang on till I count it up) the 58 days I have left in Sri Lanka.

Mickey Rooney's Sri Lankan cousin

2008-02-25T11:42:00.001+05:30

Just a quick story that I've been meaning to tell for a week or so. People in Sri Lanka are very friendly and love to chat. I am now very well used to just about everyone I pass smiling, nodding or saying hello and of course, I am always happy to chat. But last week I met a man who put the biggest smile on my face since arriving in Sri Lanka. He looked like a smaller and Sri Lankan version of Mickey Rooney and when he saw me, he stopped in his tracks, put his hands on his hips and proclaimed, in A PERFECT COCKNEY ACCENT:

"Well 'ello me lovely lady, 'ow you doin' then?"

And then, in case I hadn't heard the first time I presume, he repeated with much volume and greatly exaggerated intonations:

"Well, 'ello me lovely lady, 'ow you doin' then?"

I kid you not and for once, I'm not even exaggerating. I told him I was fine, thank you and asked how he was but he simply smiled, tipped the edge of his hat and walked off. So clearly, someone has taught him this one line and it's all the English he can speak but I think he must be in my top ten of favourite Sri Lankans I have met so far - and there is a lot of competition for that spot, let me tell you!

The most amazing part of the day

2008-02-22T16:09:00.001+05:30

This is how we ended our Poya Day trip. We had visited a turtle sanctuary on the way down and they talked about how they release the babies into the ocean when they are four days old. They said for a donation to their work we could do it for them. So we went back. I was looking forward to it but had no idea just how fantastic it would be. They were all surprised enough to see me touching the babies never mind picking up this big brute :-)

My batteries went in my camera so all Poya Day pics are courtesy of my housemate Donna, as is this video which she couldn't resist playing with. These babies were smaller than our hands and as we guided them into the ocean I couldn't help but worry how they'd do. I was particularly worried about the little one at the end - Tommy his name was. And now I know how my mum feels about me being out here although I reckon my survival chances are a little higher than Tommy's! Enjoy - it was a wonderful experience for us.

Poya Day wouldn't be complete without a visit to the temple

2008-02-22T16:03:00.000+05:30

So that's what we did when the rain calmed down a bit. We got in our Catamaran and ended up here at this temple. Some of them (no, all of them) are awe inspiring to look at. The buddha figures are so big and the temples so peaceful. There was nobody there but it was nice to visit it - the makeshift stone stairs were not for the faint hearted mind you and I was wishing my legs were twice as long as they are!

When it rains, it really rains

2008-02-22T15:56:00.000+05:30

So, we were sailing along peacefully on Kogalla Lake when the downpour started. Thunder and lightening added to the atmosphere and Donna had me convinced that having my brolly up would render me liable to be struck by lightening! So we all got soaked instead. But we stopped at the first island, Cinnamon Island, and the boatman took us to a small stone house where a woman made us cups of cinnamon tea, gave us shelter and then sold us cinnamon sticks. We were happy though because they were very hospitable, the children were delightful as you can see from the photo and let's face it they needed the money. We then set off further along the lake and stopped at another island as you will see above.

My first Poya Day in Sri Lanka

2008-02-22T15:53:00.000+05:30

Poya Day or full moon day, is a public holiday in Sri Lanka and we decided to go to Kogalla for the day. We being housemates Donna and Julia along with Julia's dad Mike and his wife Fiona. We spent an hour and a half in a catamaran on this lake but not the kind of catamaran I had in mind. No men in sailor's suits, no G&T, no romantic music playing in the background - this looked, to me, more like two canoes nailed together. But it was lovely even when the storm started. In my next post I'll tell you what we did when the storms came.

Sci fi fish

2008-02-21T16:37:00.000+05:30

I promised to post photos of our huge fish and in particular Sudo who is enormous. He'd feed a family of 5 for a week - no wonder he looks at me sideways. The "little" fish next to him are about 5 times as big as a normal goldfish. Been busy this week but hope to post tomorrow, Friday, and tell you all about my first "alms giving" last Sunday, an experience I had at the pool the other night and how I spent "Poya Day" yesterday. Poya Day is full moon day and it's a public holiday so we went away for the day and had an amazing time. Did something really special that I can't wait to blog about but no time right now - got to upload my pics to online album and be at the pool for 5.30. Hope you like Sudo and his pals.

Valentine's Day came a little late

2008-02-19T16:32:00.000+05:30

I've just had such a laugh at work today. I work with an organisation that seeks to empower people with disabilities and today 3 young guys who are deaf were in the office. They must have got bored and decided to overcome the obvious communication hurdles that exist (when I speak English and they speak Sinhala but sign language Sinhala) because they just appeared at my desk and started chatting! We managed however and it was really funny.

One of them told me after ten minutes that he loved me (I was outraged it should have taken him so long lol) and then spent twenty minutes drawing me a rose and two hearts entwined. So despite spending last Valentine's Day having a candlelit dinner overlooking the Indian Ocean "all by myself" as the song goes, I still got a Valentine's card of sorts, just a little late. Actually the sitting by myself was spontaneous, accidental and nothing to do with V Day before people start singing that irritating song to me :-)

I'm amazed though and impressed with these guys. Sometimes here I get a little tired of having to make extra efforts to communicate - I don't resent it, it's just a bit tiring that's all. But these guys who must've faced communication difficulties all their lives decided to speak to the Scottish girl and we honestly did have a really good laugh. It's cheered me up anyway but I'm still not taking up his offer to marry him.

Fun house

2008-02-19T13:02:00.000+05:30

I spoke to my 15 year old niece Christie on Sunday and I was describing the house that I live in with two other volunteers, out here in Sri Lanka. She replied that she too wanted to live in a "*fun house". It certainly is the most bizarre house I've inhabited in my 36 years on the planet - okay 36 - ish.

We have giant goldfish that would put my good friend Craig MacKay's freakishly big fish to shame. We have two ponds - inside the house. A waterfall. Trees. And an owl. Luckily it's a stone owl, not a pet owl because that would just be OTT - unlike the rest of it. I am going to take a video recording and take you all on a trip round our bizarre house but for now you'll have to make do with photos.

We're also very fortunate by Sri Lankan standards because we have an oven and hob (many homes have only the hob), a fridge freezer (silver one too!) and a washing machine. It's a very old fashioned one and it stains white things yellow but apart from that, it works. It is not unusual for women (never men of course) to wash the family's clothing in the back garden using a cold tap.

You come in the main yard and up about 8 stairs to the front door. Through the door you immediately enter a large red tiled floor space which has a kid-on beach hut to the left and facing you taking up the whole of the back wall, is the first set of trees and the pond with the sci fi fish. (I'll post photos of fish asap.) The biggest one is called Sneaker (I think) and he plays football. I know, it's weird and no I'm not imagining it - there's a ball in the pond and he is a dab hand with the headers!

He's not the only non human around here. I was warned not to worry about noises on the roof - it's the local wildlife playing at night!! I put the fan on so I never need imagine what's out there.

Anyway as you come in the main entrance you turn to your right and there is a set of wooden stairs which leads to main living area - you can see it in the photo although it's a bit dark so I'll try to get a lighter one later. If you imagine you have your back to the pond and trees in the photo, the room extends to include a kitchen / diner separated by a breakfast bar. We tend to sit round the glass dining table at night although I hear we're expecting a futon style sofa any day now. Not that I'll be able to sit on it being so aged these days.

The upstairs tour will be conducted another day. For now I must do some work.

Anne

*Christie's definition of a "fun house" - 'you know, one with moving staircases and funny mirrors that make you look really weird'! That's all mirrors isn't it or is that just me? In any case I've agreed that when I move back to Glasgow I will investigate the possibility of buying a fun mirror for my fun house!

You can try to make me go to rehab and I’ll say no no no!

2008-02-16T06:00:00.000+05:30

I used to read a lot but in recent years I’ve read one book - The Motorcycle Diaries - and apart from that I’ve maybe read bits and pieces from works of non fiction but that’s it really. I’ve been too busy to read which, I was always aware, is a sad state of affairs.

So I was very pleased that out here I have no TV, few phone calls and no SNP meetings and worknights to keep me busy. Therefore I have time to read. It takes a while to get back into it but I’m currently reading ‘Atonement’ (you may have seen the “major motion picture” that it’s now become).

It’s funny but I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about until I got to page 137 which gave me some clue as to where it was going. I am amazed that I persisted but now that I’ve reached chapter 13 and realise what it is the main character has to atone for, I am very glad I did. It’s kind of like having to climb a steep hill to finally get the most amazing view – you begin to wonder why you bothered starting the climb but all your doubts disappear when you reach the summit.

Well that’s what I feel I’ve done with this book. I am shocked and stunned by what Briony (the main character) has done – it literally took my breath away. And I feel like I’m grieving for her victim and for her - and the lives they will now each have to lead. I want to tell him that it’s okay, I know he’s innocent and was only ever guilty of loving someone. I want to urge her to go back and rectify matters, convince her it’s not too late but I know there’s no point because although she knows what she has done, she sees no way out. And my heart sinks with that realisation.

Okay, back in the real world I realise there’s actually no point because it’s not real – it’s only happening in the pages of my book. However, it means I’ve turned a corner, I am a reader again! Hoorah! I will struggle now to put this book down, just as I used to before my life became so hectic that reading the spine of a book was too much trouble. One book will lead to another and before I know it, I’ll be addicted again – so by the time I get back to my life in Scotland, there will at least ONE thing in my life other than work and the SNP.

Only thing is that tonight, after work, I’m supposed to be going swimming and then my housemate Julia and I are meeting a frog expert from the Baltic States for a few drinks and dinner – maybe he’ll be so into his frogs that he won’t notice my book on my lap!!!

The Phenomenon that is the Sri Lankan Lunch Packet

2008-02-14T16:24:00.000+05:30

In an early post (early - all of 2 weeks ago) I was telling you how brave I felt going out all by myself to buy a Lunch Packet. And I promised to post a photograph. The Lunch Packet is wrapped (as you can see) in a square of greaseproof paper and a square of chip wrapping paper (I refer to posh chippies that don't use the Daily Record and who can blame them?). Anyway, open this seemingly innocuous 35p lunch and it will reveal a full dinner of rice, curry, egg (now that I seem to have become veggie!) and a variety of accompaniments - see other pic. This was my lunch today and just to make you all really jealous, it has ZERO CALORIES. Well it does when half an hour after consuming it, you find yourself emptying it right back out again - involuntarily but gratefully all the same. I realise that's a terrible thing to say and to punish myself I'm now going to go and do 30 lengths at the pool. Ciao for now toute le monde :-)

All is well in Galle

2008-02-13T16:52:00.000+05:30

Just a quick posting to say that today is another day and all is well with me. I meant to post this "happy photo" yesterday to prove I'm not in the depths of despair but ran out of time. So here it is, proof that yesterday was a one off. This was me having a rotten time at Mirissa Beach - it cost 50p to get there on the bus and 6 pounds for B&B in a beachside cabana. I'll make no political comment this time and simply appreciate how lucky I am.

PS just spotted that I HAD already uploaded it. Ah well, I'll find some more tomorrow!

Talk about speaking too soon

2008-02-12T11:59:00.000+05:30

That is exactly what I did in my ever so positive and upbeat post yesterday - "problems are not exaggerated just because you're thousands of miles from home"! Oh no? Oh yes! Oh yes indeed!!

So, instead of the hopelessly over optimistic "you know you're settling in when ..." I'm changing it to:

"I knew I was homesick when ..."

... after everything listed in yesterday's posting that I handled with grace, fortitude and dignity lol, my bank card was refused 3 times (when I'd no money) and I took it out on local traders who kept asking me to buy stuff by telling them "the eejits at the bank'll no' gie me any dosh so there's no' a lot I can buy unless youse sell bazookas at 20 rupees"! Yes, I did it in my best Glaswegian just to confuse and also, to make myself feel better which, in a strange kind of a way, it did!

... my tiny bathroom in my new guest house had another inhabitant - a giant cockroach and instead of dealing with it rationally, I locked the bathroom door, stood on a chair (for a short time only) and decided that I'd never ever need to use the bathroom for any reason whatsoever.

... my mosquito net in my new guest house had seven sizeable holes in it. Enough to let more than seven giant sci-fi type mosquitoes through. Luckily, instead of buying bazookas with my rupees, I'd bought sellotape and proceeded to tape them up. All perfectly rational I hear you say but what's normal about sitting up all night guarding the sellotaped holes?

Nothing! And that's my point. I was wrong yesterday when I said "off days" weren't exaggerated being so far from home - I clearly just wasn't having an off enough day to know. It is so much harder dealing with problems when you're this far from home. Your family and usual friends, your normal support network are too far away to help and you don't want to phone them and worry them.

All the other distractions you take for granted are missing too - turning on the TV, going online, cleaning your kitchen, going for a walk or a drive, meeting friends for a drink, letting my mum make me my tea or even just taking to my own bed are all the kind of things I'd do if I was having a bad day at home. But most of these are inaccessible to me out here.

So for a time you're forced to rely solely on yourself and your ability to think positively and find a way round your problems, your fears, even your phobias. I say all of this not to adopt a "woe is me" personna and illicit sympathy but because this blog is about my personal journey (without getting too personal) - adapting to a life where my usual support networks are not there, is going to be a big part of that journey.

I said in a previous post that whilst I knew a benefit of this experience would be the character building aspect, I sometimes think I'm quite happy, I've built it and I don't want to build any more thanks very much. And that's how I felt last night and it's how I feel right now. I suspect it will take time but I know in the back of my mind that one day I'll be glad for what I've learned even from the bad bits of the trip.

We were given advice before we came out here that if we were having a bad day, it would be a worse day than it would be at home and when it happened we should plan something nice and relaxing - a day at a spa for instance. So I'm going to think about that now.

Finally, I will end by saying that whilst my normal friends and family are so far away, I am very glad of the friends I've made out here amongst the other volunteers. We all experience it differently but we are all experiencing it and talking to them and to our country manager out here as well as my lovely colleagues in the office, has helped so much. I wouldn't be writing about it in my blog if I wasn't feeling a lot better.

I will look forward to reading this one day in the not too distant future and realising how far I've come - I know I will get there, it's just that the getting there can be a little challenging at times.

You know you're settling in when ...

2008-02-11T12:23:00.000+05:30

... your phone breaks - and you cope ...

your sunglasses snap - but you manage, despite fearing permanent visual impairment ...

you burn your legs after using factor 50 and reapplying neurotically - but don't lose heart because at least you can't get wrinkles on your legs ...

you awake to find two mosquitoes on the outside of your net, staring at you and foaming at the mouth in anticipation of your eventual and inevitable exit - but survive the rat run to the loo ...

the tuk tuk driver you've been using because he's such a trustworthy family man with a lovely wife and children puts his hand on your thigh and tells you that you're beautiful - but you don't freak (mainly because you're so naive you think it might just be a local greeting in Galle and all perfectly *innocent) ...

your new found determination to drink 3 litres of water a day is going well but resulting in HOURLY punch ups with the mosquitoes who inhabit the office toilet - and yet, your dignity is intact (once you get outside the loo that is) ...

and you get to work to discover a button has popped off your (not at all tight) dress right at a bit that you really ought to keep covered in a conservative country like Sri Lanka - but, still, you remain stoical ...

What I'm trying to say is that you know you're settling in well when the things that would test your patience at home, test it no more over here. Problems are not exaggerated simply because you're thousands of miles away from home - this revelation I am treating with surprise and relief. Right I'm away to find out where I can buy aloe vera and a sewing kit!

* Apparently this is not an innocent greeting. As our country manager out here said to me when I emailed to ask, "not in Sri Lanka, not in any country in the world"! Apparently "some things mean the same the world over"! Some call it naivety, I call it faith in human nature :-)

Got to relax somehow

2008-02-08T17:16:00.000+05:30

Not been feeling too hot this week. Well, I've been hot obviously (even when it rains here it's hot), but not too well last day or so. Therefore I feel it's only right that I take myself off to here for the weekend so come Saturday morning when all my Western Hemisphere based mates are tucked up in bed or falling out of Clatty Pat's, this is where I'll be headed. Whatever you're doing enjoy it. I may update over the weekend but I don't see any internet cafes in that picture do you?

Mini Beasts

2008-02-08T10:59:00.000+05:30

One of the hardest things to adjust to over here is the mini beast situation. I call them that because when I did teacher training I discovered this is the correct term and the one I’d been using was – well, just swear words really.

Anyway I’m not a fan. To be fair, so far it’s been not too bad. I’m almost immune to the ants and the little spiders and I know my time will come but most of those other horrible things that I can’t even mention by name, have been keeping out of my way till now.

My colleague Muna was laughing at me for having a fight with a mosquito – I think perhaps it’s not very Sri Lankan to try to communicate with them (definitely not Sri Lankan to swear at them) but I was just trying to explain that I was minding my own business and it should do the same. I consider myself fortunate indeed, however, not to be living in Wisconsin!

Do you know what I’ve discovered? Apparently it’s only female mosquitoes who bite and they do it to fertilise their eggs. So basically, I’m being tricked into motherhood before I’m ready – and not even to human beings but to bloody mosquitoes. I object to that!

Plus, I could be responsible for killing my own offspring. Isn’t that infanticide? In this case I think we could call it insecticide and if ever I get done for it, I'll plead justifiable insecticide - I'd like to see them argue against that one!

They knew I was coming

2008-02-07T14:29:00.000+05:30

Look at this! A beachside restaurant in Unawatuna had laid out all its tables with a Saltire especially for me. It's funny here. Everyone keeps asking if I'm English or British and I say no I'm Scottish. (It's only fair to make the distinction seeing as the Scottish Government is funding us all to be out here.) Anyway, last night I was in a shoe shop buying a pair of shoes I'd managed to wreck before even trying on (which made the trying on a bit pointless but I did it anyway, I think to try and pretend that I'd MEANT to wreck them, I liked the scruffy look! Anyway ...) and the guy asked if I was from England. I said no, I'm from Scotland which is near England.

"Ah yes, I know"

says he

"Scotland is one of England's colonies"!

Thought that might amuse some people :-)

In defence of my country

2008-02-07T14:19:00.000+05:30

I got here a week ago last Saturday with no money having taken someone's advice that I wouldn't need any till I got to Galle. So I get to Galle and the driver very kindly takes me to see his friend a local shopkeeper. He will change my Scottish notes but won't give me as much as I'd get for English ones. It's not easy explaining why you're not having that when you don't speak Sinhala.

So on the Monday I went to the bank and there was much consternation over our banknotes. Part of the confusion was that I had Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland and Clydesdale Bank notes and they just didn't get why there were 3 different types. I pointed to the word Sterling but they just looked at me as if I'd stamped it on myself. In the end they refused to take them.

Finally a friend very kindly offered to take them to Colombo (where she lives) and exchange them there but when I asked would she fight them to the death to get the same as English notes, she said 'fraid not. Result is that I'll be going back to Glasgow with them. There's a principle at stake and it's not often I compromise on my principles! Ah well, I'll have a good night out when I get home :-)

Overcoming Guilt - is it possible?

2008-02-05T16:07:00.001+05:30

I’m getting more used to living in Sri Lanka but I’m not getting more used to the guilt. It’s interesting to observe how other people deal with being asked for money or to buy something. I like to hear how they deal with it internally and I am very conscious of my own reactions and motivations. It’s great because I really need something to over-analyse and beat myself up about – not!

I knew it would be a challenge for me to deal with these kind of things and it’s something I don’t find easy to deal with in Scotland so I had it pencilled in as one of the things to “sort out”. I’m not sure however, that I will ever really be able to do that.

At the weekend I went to Unawatuna, a beautiful beach resort that was wrecked by the tsunami. I met with other volunteers but at one point I went to the beach by myself for a couple of hours. In a 15 minute period I was approached by 5 people, one after the other. All were selling, none begging, although I did give one guy money rather than buy from him.

If this kind of thing would put you off coming to Sri Lanka on holiday, don’t let it. It’s very easy to say no and you don’t get pestered. Most tourists seemed to pretend that they’re not there and they just move on. My trouble is I don’t want to just say no and I definitely don’t want to ignore them. I'm not criticising those who do because who knows how I will deal with it once I've been here a while. But right now, I want to explain why I can’t buy from everyone. I don’t want them thinking I’m some rich white Westerner who couldn’t care less that they have no money. That, I suppose, is about making ME feel better but it’s not just about that.

I think I’m going to do separate postings about the different people I met on the beach because they were all interesting. Everyone has different views on how you deal with it all. A Sri Lankan told me to just ignore all of them. One volunteer told me it gets easier as time goes on and you come to realise that you can’t help everybody. And another said that I should stop trying to overcome the guilt because I won’t be able to. I think what she meant was that I am right to feel guilt about this massive gulf between rich and poor in the world. I think I agree with her. It will be interesting to see how my thinking develops on this one but for now I think I’ll have to accept that this is how I feel and I just have to live with it until I figure out some other way. My life will still be a lot easier than some of theirs, guilt or no guilt.

I'm a comedienne!

2008-02-05T15:37:00.000+05:30

Laughter is the best medicine they say and I think I’m making a lot of people healthy out here because they keep laughing at me! Who needs Merci Corps or The Red Cross when there’s me? I asked my boss’s daughter if she wanted to come for a walk to the lunch shop today and she did. Well, she probably didn’t (she’s only 16) but was too polite to say no. She laughed all the way – first when the bush hit me in the face, then when I nearly fell down a drain (tried to explain we don’t play Dodge the Drains in Scotland) and when we got to the lunch shop you’d have thought I was the funniest person alive.

The girl in the lunch shop asked my new friend (in Sinhala) what she was doing with me and she duly translated. So I said I’d spotted her in an office, hit her over the head and dragged her out so I didn’t have to walk alone. Once she’d translated the two of them dissolved into a fit of the giggles – maybe I’m funnier than I thought or maybe it was a duff translation. And now we’re back in the office and both she and her sister are laughing at my attempts to speak Sinhala. They are lovely girls but to get my own back I’m going to teach them Weegie. Seeing as I appear to be entertaining them, I think returning the compliment is the least they can do!

I knew it'd be the fault of a Glaswegian!

2008-02-05T12:08:00.000+05:30

Have just read an email from a friend who was responding to my post comparing Glasgow buses (and drivers) to Sri Lankan ones and he tells me the following:

"In actual fact, many of the Sri Lankan buses, ARE Glasgow buses! Many of the old Leyland buses and Lorries you see in Sri Lanka were made in the old Albion / Leyland plant in Scotstoun."

He then admits that "this comment betrays too much knowledge of vintage commercial vehicles than is healthy!" but isn't it a small world. Maybe I'll feel a bit safer on the buses here in future. Nah, thought about that for a second and I'd say the chances of that are zilch. I will explain later when I tell you about my second bus experience which was not quite as successful!

Quick Update

2008-02-05T08:48:00.001+05:30

I've been away for the weekend and come back to a couple of messages from people asking if I'm okay. They were mainly from people who keep up to date with international news and it's probably best to say no more than that here. The answer is yes, we're all absolutely fine and following all the advice we're being given. I'm sure we'll all continue to do that. Anyway Indygal's invincible don't you know that? Will post later today with continuation of the adventure ... for now, though, better do what I'm here for and work!

Worse than Glasgow buses

2008-02-01T14:16:00.000+05:30

The other day when I was going on about how pleased I was to have been able to go out and buy my lunch "all by myself" I must've been feeling brave because I did something else, altogether much braver in my view. I got on a bus! Now I am not a fan of buses at the best of times but this was scary because it was packed. It was packed in a way that if we did it in Glasgow the driver would get sacked. And I've already told you about Sri Lankan driving, it's mad!!! The nicest thing though? An old lady got up to give me her seat. "Why thank you" said I. It was a huge relief to be sitting down I can tell you. Nah, only kidding, I politely refused and profusely thanked. I told Muna who I work with and she said it was because "you are visitor to Sri Lanka". Isn't that really nice? We think we're friendly in Scotland but I'm not sure I've seen that happen terribly often. Correct me if I'm wrong ...

The British Way

2008-01-31T14:32:00.000+05:30

Look, just because I'm a nat (member of Scottish National Party for anyone who's just stumbled across this blog) doesn't mean I can't enjoy Britishness. And once we're not officially British anymore, I'll still enjoy it particularly when I hear stories like this one from my friend Mary who's in Colombo. We've been discussing the situation out here and how some organisations are now not sending volunteers to Sri Lanka till things cool down (nobody tell my mum that my timing was, as always, spot on!) when she sent me this email:

"Have you ever heard Jeremy Hardy's story of being picked up by a man from the embassy when he got in to a spot of bother in Israel? The American Embassy sent a fully armed Humvee to collect their people and the British sent a car with a man armed only with driving gloves and then offered a nice cup of tea on arrival at the Embassy."

Don't you just love it?

Paradise but for who?

2008-01-31T14:03:00.000+05:30

I have joined a gym! Last night I went to the Lighthouse Hotel and joined for a very reasonable rate. It made me feel a bit guilty I have to say - rich white Western woman thinks gym is cheap and the price I paid almost without thinking is roughly equivalent to 2 months wages for some people in Sri Lanka.

Hmmm, this started off as a happy (I'm having a great time) post and now I feel a bit crap about it all. I expect this will happen time and time again over the next few months. I want to enjoy my stay and there are things I want to do but I can't just forget how unfair it is that I can do it and most people here (in their own country) can't.

I swam last night in an outdoor pool overlooking the Indian Ocean. It was beautiful but even while I was doing it there was a strange mix of emotions - I felt happy and at peace because of the beautiful surroundings but I also felt a little bit alone. I like being on my own normally (being such great company and all!) but when you're doing something amazing it's nice to share it with someone.

And I felt guilt then too because it's a 4 or 5 star hotel and they've got guards all around it presumably to keep the locals out. Now I know when you're on holiday you expect to be able to wander about your hotel grounds without people trying to sell you things for example, but it just felt wrong. I felt like I was getting special privileges just because I happened to be born in a rich country.

And it occurred to me that if I DON'T use the gym, I'll be annoyed at myself because it's 45 pounds down the drain and I'm not earning just now. But at the end of the day it really won't affect my life too much, I will simply brush it off. What a wasteful society I belong to. Maybe the guilt I've just discovered will ensure that I actually USE this gym. It's better than not using it but it doesn't exactly do anything to address the problems of wealth inequality in the world does it?

Yours very introspectively,

IndyGal!

Milestones along the way

2008-01-30T15:30:00.000+05:30

I woke up on my second day here and I realised that every day is going to be a challenge from now on. I won't have normal days anymore. That is daunting but you really just have to make the most of it and realise that it's all good for you. I can only benefit from my experience here. To be so out of my depth (and sometimes a bit lost) but manage to overcome my daily or should that be hourly fears, has got to be character building at least. I have moments where I think 'yes but I've build my character and I'm quite happy with it thank you very much' but I obviously still feel the need to challenge myself or I wouldn't be doing it.

Mary, a friend who I only met last October and who's got me doing this, is in Colombo and she's been really good to talk to. She assures me that her first week was also marked by milestones like crossing the road. So I know I'm normal - or as normal as Mary is which I'm not sure is necessarily reassuring. (Just kidding M.) It's true though, it's like learning everything all over again. The first day I had to go out by myself (2 days ago) I can't tell you how courageous I felt walking down the dusty hot busy roads (with nutter drivers everywhere) with everyone looking at me and shouting hello, asking me if I wanted a tuk tuk, even asking if I was lost and looking for the tourist bit. "No, I live here" I replied. Well, I do!

And yesterday I went into shops to find fairly obscure things like scissors, wooden spoon. We need them in the house but it's not like you can just go to John Lewis. (Not that I have often shopped in JL, more like PS - pound shop!) So I'm going into shops where you don't know if anyone will understand you and trying not to look and sound stupid or lacking in confidence and also trying not to take out 5000 rupees instead of 50! It's quite daunting. But at least I had a laugh with a shopkeeper when I had to draw him a coat hanger. I was supposed to get receipts and the word is CHIT but of course I asked for a CHITTY CHITTY (clearly on a musical theme) and got blank looks in return.

Today's big milestone? I bought myself lunch. I walked along by myself to the lunch shop and asked for an egg lunch packet. It's rice, curry, egg, and various other things like coconut, dahl, vegetables in a square paper packet. I'll take a photo later because it's hard to describe. Anyway it was a meal and I bought it myself. And it was only 70 rupees, that's 35p. When you have to take a deep breath just to get the courage to go and buy lunch, you know you're on an adventure!

Working in Sri Lanka

2008-01-30T10:15:00.000+05:30

Worklife is probably the only thing that doesn't seem completely different here. Office life at least. I am working in a ground floor office suite with clean cool tiled floors and lemon walls. It's not air conditioned but we have fans. the furniture is modern and simple and the computers are no different to back home really. We don't have broadband but we do have ADSL and I can't really tell the difference. The keys on the keyboard are sometimes in a different place but apart from that it's much the same.

Their way of working, the formality with which they approach things however, reminds me of the voluntary sector in Scotland about 12 years ago. The need to overstate everything in reports, to use very formal language, to dot the 'i's and cross the 't's. I worked for Sense Scotland in the mid 90s and they were very much like that. Perhaps it's still the same, I don't know. It will be a challenge for me in the work that I'm doing because I like to simplify language and keep it as informal / user friendly as possible.

It will be a challenge but that, after all, is what I'm here for. One other thing that's slightly different here - in this office at least, we're asked to leave our shoes at the door. Seeing as you'd die if you wore socks in this heat, we're all barefoot. As someone who waits until December in Scotland to wear socks or tights, I like it - very liberating. The first time a gecko runs across my bare foot however, I'm afraid the shoes will be going back on and not leaving me till I go to bed!

Been to the dentist, must be settling in!

2008-01-30T10:02:00.000+05:30

Last night after work I went to the dentist. She was great. Took out my stitches for me, nudged me after quite a while to say I could open my eyes now cos it was all over and then charged me a mere 50p for the work. Compare that to my experience with the Dennistoun dentist who told me he wouldn't take the risk of using a Sri Lankan one. It was quick, painless and approximately 7,920 pence cheaper than he was!

The Icey's here!

2008-01-29T15:59:00.000+05:30

No he's not - as with the mobile ringtone / real life parrot mix up, I'm still experiencing a little local difficulty in forgetting that I'm not in Glasgow. And last night I heard this bing bonging about 7pm and I honestly thought it was the ice cream van! How mad is that? I mean they do have static ice cream vans round here but silly me, I should've known it was the temple starting its nightly service. It's just round the corner and for some reason it all has to be amplified so if you thought you'd have a night in watching Corrie or the SL equivalent (and they are apparently soap mad here), you can forget it because coming live in a living room near you are the latest thoughts of Bhudda. It's quite nice really but was equally nice for a brief moment to think I was back in Glasgow. And of course, when I get home I'll be looking for the temple every time I hear the icey! Such is life.

I made it!

2008-01-27T17:22:00.000+05:30

Very quick posting just to say I made it here in one piece. It was a 3 hour wait at Glasgow airport, a 6.5 hour flight to Dubai, 1.5 hours to wait there, 3hrs 45 min flight to Colombo, 1 hr to get through customs and baggage and a 4.5 hour drive to Galle so when I got here I was filthy and hot and sticky and hadn't slept for a day nor eaten for 16 hours (yep I was counting). All I wanted to do at that stage was turn on my heels and flee. But I didn't obviously and today is a new day. Arriving at Colombo airport and waiting for the driver to pick me up was amazing - mind blowing in fact. The cacophony of sights, sounds and aromas that hit you is immediate and intense. The air is so stiflingly hot you can smell it along with the petrol fumes that permeate the atmosphere. The noise is incredible too - from the whistling policemen (not tunes, orders!) in brown uniforms to the sound of monkeys outside your bedroom window, it's all new and all exciting.

Before I go, one quick aside to demonstrate how we all get stuck in one groove. I was lying in bed under my mosquito net and lovely cool fan today and I heard a weird noise which I identified as some idiot with a parrot like mobile ringtone. Obviously it wasn't, it was a parrot or something similar. I'll be back in Glasgow in April looking for parrots!!!

Going to Sri Lanka

2008-01-22T04:36:00.000+05:30

This is my new blog and the reason for a new one is because as I said in the title, I'm going to Sri Lanka. Whoo hoo. I leave on Friday 25th January and I'll be there for 3 months. I'd like to keep this separate from my normal blog because my life is going to be so different to everything I've known before. Meantime my IndyPals are updating that blog for me. I don't know how often this blog will be updated until I'm actually out there and figure out how to get internet access. Once I get it, I'll be blogging away.