Just a fraction of the way

Hey guys, sorry I haven’t written for so long, but I’ve gotten a little lax!

I’m now back in the UK, after spending a total of 5 months in India and 2 weeks in Sri Lanka. For those of you that have been taking the trip with me, you will know all about my fustrations of working in India with local NGOs. I was debating on wheather to return, but have decided that I will return, but will hopefully be spending more time working for a different organisation. I have been offered work by a British headed NGO called Action Aid, and will be doing similar work for them. The office is about a 3 hour drive away, so I’m going to have to see what I do about transport or relocation.

But it’s now 7 months after tsunami, and I have nothing new to report. Still not enough is being done, still the government is blocking re-development and still the villagers are suffering. I had a meeting with the boss of my organisation where I was hoping to (in the most diplomatic way possible) tell him how badly his organisation is functioning, but we satarted the meeting, and he side tracked my adgenda and we ended up talking about something else. Terry is battling with them single handidly now, and I’m not sure how he’s doing. Personally I don’t feel that many organisations really have what it takes to make a difference, I’ve seen too many people motivated by money and too many people not motivated at all. I’ve seen people struggling to get things done, and people who put in not even half the necessary effort. Laziness and inefficiency mask many activities undertaken, not just by my organisation, but by many others too. You would have thought that due to the massive sums of money the tsunami has raised, re-development would happen really fast. It doesn’t help when the government finds ways to pocket half of all donations, and the organisations don’t find the best ways to spend their money!

But evetrything works on slow time in India, businesses as well as charitable organisations, schools and government too. There is never a sense of urgency, and nothing is ever rushed. Maybe it’s because I was bought up in the west, with western work practices that I feel so fustrated at the lack of pace and progress, but there’s not so much I can do about it, when I don’t have total support, so it’s something I’m going to have to learn to accept, for now anyway, whilst I’lm still towards the bottom of the ladder!

It’s so nice to have gotten out and away for a bit. Sri Lanka was fasntastic. All of it. I thought that it would be a country similar to India, due to its proximity, but I couldn’t have been more wrong! Sri Lanka has a different culture, people, religion, food, road system and greenery that is better (subjective of course) than India. Maybe it was the amount of green I saw, or the peacefulness and calm driving on the roads, or maybe just the amount of friendly smiling people that greeted me that really warmed me to this country. I only had 2 weeks there and covered a lot of ground.

Before leaving Chennai airport I was in converstaion with a Sri Lankan guy of Tamil origion. At first I tried not talk to him, but he persisted, even though I was only giving monosyllable answers. But he turns out to be alright and we end up talking for the couple of hours before take off, the whole flight and in his car as his driver picks us up and takes me to the bus station where I promptly leave Colombo for Kandy. Kandy is the 2nd largest city in Sri Lanka, and is in the lower middle of the country. It’s based around a huge man made lake and places of importance there include a temple, which holds one of Buddha’s teeth. I made a local friend there, as the time of day I arrived, it’s hard to meet the other people in the guesthouse, but that was fine. I seem to be able to attract young men quite easily, which of course comes with its positives and negatives. It does mean that I’ve never had to pay for a tour and have had full explanation of all places I’ve visited, but it also means that I get many unwanted requests!

After spending a couple of days in Kandy, living extremely cheap I went to a place called Dambulla a few hours away to the north for the start of my cultural triangle visit. Near Dambulla is a place called Sirgria, a place for the kings of history and a place of majestic beauty. In Sirgria there’s a big rock on top of a mountain. The climb up is easy and the views from the top breath taking. You can see for miles in each direction, and from here you can see the dense jungle that covers many parts of Sri Lanka. I had a local guide tell me all about the history of the place and lead me to all the unkown secret places. Dambulla has a few places of interest, but the most impressive there has to the Buddha caves. A series of 5 cave temples where there are many Budda models, varying in size and pose, but that best part was that all the caves, inside, had fully painted walls. All this dates back centuries and it is so well perserved. Fantastic religious paintings and decorations cover every square inch of wall and ceiling. Also there were loads of monkeys outside, and many with newborns clinging onto their mothers.

I only stayed in that place for a couple of days before moving on to other histirical places, where you could see remenants of dagobas, big Buddist stupas and foundations of where monestaries and palaces once stood. It wasn’t until almost a week into my trip that I met some foreigners to hang out with. In about 50% of the places I stayed at I was the only person staying in the whole of the guesthouse. This didn’t bother me at all, but I came to know that most of the travllers in Sri Lanka are pretty cool people. I met many people working voluntarily, but no one seemsed to be working for more than a couple of months, and most people I met, if working, were working to help out the hotel owners. I don’t really have a problem with this, as they too need help seeing as the government isn’t doing much, but there still seems to be quite a neglet of those who are really desperately in need.

After being in the north I took an all day train (with a change in Colombo) to a place haven called Unawatuna. The total journey tiime was close to 14 hours, but I don’t mind, as train travel is hideously cheap and the views are constantly stunning. The train rides along the south coast and you can see the ocean as you sit on the train. A tuk tuk driver that I had appeared on the train, wishing to see me just one final time. He was nice. Spoke the most English I’ve ever heard from a tuk tuk driver, and was the nicest aas he invited me to a meal in his family house in the jungle. It was lovely. He also climbed up his tree to cut down an unripe jackfruit!

Unawatuna was great. I was only there for 2 nights, and didn’t arrive until late the first night so didn’t have so much time for chilling. I was supposed to be checking out the tsunami damage and visiting any near by temporary shelters but instead went on a long walk with a local surf guy who earlier had tried to teach me to surf! I was hopeless though, I didn’t manage to catch any waves, do largely to the fact that I just couldn’t seem to paddle fast enough (despite being a good swimmer) and could balance at all (despite being good at yoga!). We gave up after a while. That night some guy was having a devil dance at his house, where locals dress in costume and masks and dance around to the beat of a few drums. It was ok. But in this place I didn’t meet many overly interesting people, so took my leave around 1am, and went to bed, in my nicest and cheapest room of the whole island. There’s really no point to be paying huge sums of money for a room, when I know most people would have been totally satisfied with the room I had for only £2. After here I went to a religious pilgramage site, stopping at a museam on the way, where, when walking to the bus to take me to the next place I totally misjudged a mud patch, thinking it was dry and safe to walk over as a short cut, I totally sank my 2 feet into wet sloppy mud which covered my entire feet. I was going no where with out a wash. I stood there and laughed at the absurdity of my situation and at what a prat I was and then went to find someone with a tap. Fortunately there was someone close by, so I was able to wash before making my way to Katagarama. Where unknown to me before arrival it was festival time. Time to celebrate Shiva and Parvatti’s son, who’s got 6 or 7 faces (like many people), Murugan. Even though the main religion in Sri Lanka is Buddism, their Buddism is still very closely realted to Hinduism. For thiose of you that don’t know, Budda was a Hindu, but created a different linagage, as he was unsatisfied with many of the praces of Hinduism (such as the caste systam). Also there are many Indians, mostly Tamils living in Sri Lanka, so this festival is for them too. Katagarama is supposed to be a sleepy plce, but during festival time tens of thousands of people come here on pilghramage, and many have walked all the way from Jaffna up in the north.

I ended up being taken under the wing of a local guy, who turned out to be a bit psychotic, but by then other westeners and I had formed a friendship so it wasn’t so bad when this guy when crazy. I also met a very cool local guy working for the french Red Cross, doing tsunmai rehab, so spoke a lot to him. But I did miss out on the best part of the festival, as I didn’t find out about it until I met a guy in a different place. Here in the mosque was self-mutlitation where people stuck kitchen knives into the tops of their heads and spears through their cheeks. That kind of stuff is pretty rare to see live, so I made do with the parade of elephans, dancers, drummers and fire twirlers.

Next stop was over night in Ella. A beautiful mountain place close by to a national park. I arrived later than I had hoped, as I had to wait 3 hours in Katagarama bus station before being able to leave. This made me somewhat fustrated seeing as I was up early to leave, only then to be waiting for 3 hours as my Ella time ticked away. So after arriving I checked into a guesthouse and went on a walk to one of the highest points. I got lost a couple of time and found my self scrambling over scree, which really isn’t the sort of thing you want to be doing when out walking alone in utter wilderness. But again, from the top the views were breathtaking. I love the mountains, They’re increadble and so tranquil. I couln’t stay for long though as I wanted to be back before sunset, incase I took a wrong turn on my way down and ended slipping down the side of a mountian!

I met 2 Dutch travllers that night, the woman was running her own project somewhere on the coast, helping rebuild a hotel which got destroyed. They were very nice. But again I was rush rush rushing my way around Sri Lanka, heading now to my penultimate place – Aragum Bay. The place famous for it’s surf and long sandy beach. On the 3rd bus I had to take to get there a bag fell on me from the rack on top. I looked up to see who is was and it was Adam, an English guy, travlling with Dave, who I’d met before in a different place. It was cool to see tham again, even though they’re a bit nerdy. I was told that the total time from Ella to Aragum Bay should be 2 hours, it was more like 6, so I appreciated a bit of company to compare what we’d been up to for the past week.

When we arrived in Aragum bay (it’s on the east coast, towards the south) the place was still a mess. It’s a predominantely Tamil Muslim area, and you have to go through security checks on the way in where locals have all their bags searched by the army. But the tsunami destroyed this place and re-development has been slow. There are still people living in tents and houses in a state of critical dilapidation. I met with a guy working with an international organisation to find out the possibilties of work for me, but he informed me of the new government order that states that no new foreigners can be employed.

I stayed in a hut on the beach, it was pretty much a glorified shed, but I liked it. My place only recenly had a toilet built, but there was no shower. To get water for the toilet you first had to get a bucket of water from the close by well! It was pretty rustic, but served my needs. The family that owned the place was lovely, thay had a 25 day old baby and bought me a cup of tea each morning. I was the first guest to stay there since they managed to rebuild 3 of the 6 huts that were destroyed. I loved my few days there. I had a group of great characterful frineds. A German guy who seems to have been to pretty much every country, 2 Californians, 2 kiwi's and my 2 Brisish friends. We went body surfing, and swimming a lot. The water was great, and I ate fish daily. I was sad to leave, but it had to be done as I took the evening/early morning bus to Colombo. I arrived at 4am, a very unconveniant time, but just followed the locals from the bus down an alley to a place there the men share a room and the women another, you pay 50p for the priviladge to have a mat on the floor until morning. After leaving I tried to find a room for myself for that night, knowing to expect to pay more for a room as it was the capital. I found a room, it was so damp and mouldy I couldn’t stay. Aftef walking for more than 1.5 hours with all my stuff I chanced upon the international youth hostel, where for Rs. 125 a night, about 60p you can stay in their totally dilapidated building. I was put into a dorm upon request, but there was only 1 other person staying so it didn’t too much. However, I was out into the male dorm, the receptionist had mistaken me for a boy as I was wearing trousers, didn’t wear earrings and had short hair. It was so funny. I would expect this kind of assumption from a remote villager, but this was in Colombo! It didn’t matter anyway, this was a big room and I got to share with Geeth Udaya Kuonda Katrunaratha. For those of you that are interested in cricket, remember this name as he is presently on the Sri Lankan B team, hopefully soon to be promoted to the A team.

I spent my last day in Colombo shopping before meeting up with Arul, the guy I’d met on the plane on the way over. Arul took me out for drinks and food, and then I had what I wanted to be an early night, only Geeth kept me up talking.

I flew the next day to London, sad to be leaving Sri Lanka but happy for all the good times and memories I’d got. I was really looking forwards to coming home, and now home I am, and it feels like I never left! I have 2 1/2 weeks back here, where I’m not going to be so rushed. Of course I have a lot to do, people to see places to go, but it’s nice, I’ve been able to chill for the pst couple of days, eating sushi, duck pancakes and chocolate.

I’m going to make the most of my time here before going back to India possible for another year starting in mid August.

I have a load more photos to share with you, but my digital camera broke, so many are on film, which I need to scan first, so you’ll just have to wait.

But I hope that you are all well. I hope that you are not bored by my stories and I hope that you all one day will visit Sri Lanka so you’ll believe my stories about what a fantastically wonderful place it is!

Love to you all. Again sorry for not writing for ages.

Ruth xx