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.
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
The Countdown Begins
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!
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!
Friday, 4 April 2008
Aversion therapy has worked!
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?
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!
Thursday, 3 April 2008
Taking your life in your hands
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!
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!
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
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!
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!
Wednesday, 2 April 2008
It's not all hard work
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.
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