Back Home

Back home now and letting it all sink in. The last few days in Colombo were a great wind down. After Andrea left I went to my Colombo "family's" house and celebrated the Buddha's Birthday/Enlightenment/Death (Vesak). On Monday we offered alms to those who were practicing sill (meditating all day and fasting in the evening). It was just like a soup kitchen, I just jumped in wherever I was needed- serving the food, collecting the dishes and filling waters. I received many "Bless you child"'s so I feel like my karma is soaring pretty high these days.
On Tuesday, I had the best massage of my life at an ayurvedic hospital and then in the aft I helped make a lantern and just hung around the house. It was a great way to slowly ease back into Western life and to prepare for my 30 hours of travel ahead...
now I'm home and
I'm just hanging in between the two worlds,
waiting patiently like a good Sri Lankan
for the Western ambition and individualism to sink back in, one day at a time.

This could be my final post

So much has happened since I wrote last but I will just quickly summarize. Thurs was my very sad going away party... the girls gave me presents and speeches and everyone brought in a dish for lunch. I made them a slideshow and also gave them some other presents.
At night I went for my last dinner at Conrad and Pearl's :( In my final attempt to get even with these Sri Lankan's I gave some good gifts- I gave Pearl a Pearl necklace and Nilu small diamond earings and for the men wallet and belt for Pathi & shoes for Conrad (I know it sounds random but that was the girls suggestion).
Sometime last week when I was trying to decide to do with my last few days I saw Andrea (my Norwiegen friend who Aaron and I stayed with in Italy). I asked her what she was up to, thinking I might go see her, and she said she wanted to come to Colombo. Within minutes she booked her flight (love this girl) and we met this friday night. We had good tourist times- temples, cocktails, expensive seafood and shopping. It had to be done in order to get me prepped to get back into my consuming Canadian lifestyle, plus I felt ok about spending a little since I had saved so much over the past 4 months. So it was fun. But now she is gone and I am just chillin. I think I will lay low tomorrow and then on Tues I will joing Nilhu's family (my Colombo family) to celebrate Vesak (Buddha's bday).
So that's where I'm at.
See you soon!!!!

MORE on generosity

Craziness! Craziness! I am still in such shock. There is clearly no way to try to match a Sri Lankan's generosity. I can't express this enough.
So this whole time I have been wondering what can I possibly get as a gift for Pathi and Nilu to thank them for the way they have welcomed me into their home. As time goes on they just go more and more out of their way to accomodate me. Pathi was trying so hard to get me a cheap tour of Bangkok (booked by the time I got to it) and to help me buy a suitcase- eating a very late dinner so that he can take me shopping at night, etc.
They had told me awhile ago that they new a good jeweller and I was interested because I know gems here are much cheaper. I called them while I was in town last night to mention it again incase they could meet me but it seemed they never had the time to go there, while they were able to take me other places. So when I got home last night I was helping Nilu on Facebook and out of no where they present my with a bag. I open it up and I cannot explain who blown away I am... while I had been trying to figure out how the heck I could get them back for their hospitality, kindness and friendship, they had gone out and bought ME a present... not just any present... a Ceylon Blue Sapphire ring!

My Favorite Kind of Travel

The reality of how little time I have left has finally set in. Yesterday when I was leaving the office and telling the girls all the things we had to do and we realized that we only have 4 days in the office left together… tears began welling in our eyes and I cracked.

I enjoyed the sightseeing in Europe, the beach-lounging in Mexico, the girl bonding in Australia, the spiritual quest in Costa Rica but this has been a different kind of travel. You are not whipping around, visiting each city for one day, in a comfortable tour bus, nor are you drinking with new found one-day friends in an unfamiliar hostel. You also don’t have to chase after something called “culture,” to show that you did indeed visit this place. In have been a culprit myself of collecting junk- key chains, photoframes, jewellery that will break in a week... of trying to get a picture of myself to capture this new environment for others to see...

This time around, I have become the culture. I will put chillis in my food, go to clean a dish before I use it, speak at a new rate (after months of trying to be heard properly- competing with the British accent they are used to- I have definitelty slowed), and go in for a cheek to cheek embrace with everyone I meet. This will be the proof.

I’ve discovered this new kind of travel now where you can settle in somewhere, build relationships with people, get to know another culture first hand, and work. Being busy with something meaningful is the key (and volunteering is so great because even if some of the daily tasks don’t seem meaningful your presence alone is probably making some impact).

Maybe I will again someday sip cocktails under the hot sun in a five star hotel, I will probably seek out natural wonders and shop in foreign cities, but what I have discovered here is something far better- it is like the next species in the evolution of the travel world. In the West we are either to busy to feel anything or we are desperately seeking… how do I live in the moment? Through this experience I have found the answer.

You don’t need to move slowly through life or listen to your breath at all times of the day to find the happiness that the Buddha spoke of. You just need to find a place where you feel that you are achieving something and you need to recognize that you are in that place- that moment in time or that point in space. Basically, you just need to do something good and smile about it.

packing it up and packing it in

Well, I'm feeling so busy these days, trying to pack so much in the last couple of weeks here. It is not that I have a crazy amount of things to do but just that doing one small thing can be such a process here. It can be a bit frustrating but that is also the control factor so I just have to think that I can do my best to get all that I want achieved here and hopefully another volunteer will come and pick up where I have left off.
I wanted to write the WEP Proposal, for example, but I don't see how it is possible as I still have not got any of the info I need. There is also so much training that I could do with the girls, and they are eager, but they just don't have the time. And I won't even get started on Conrad's schedule. As long as I get the brochures done though (also difficult without all the right info), since that was my mandate, I will be happy.
So I have been thinking about what to do for my last weekend. I was initially planning to stay here until the very end but then I realized that it is a holiday so, I might not be able to get a ride back to Colombo the day before, then Harshani said she will be coming here next Friday so I can get a ride back with her. I have many ideas brewing for what I could do but this is the best yet... Pathi found out from the travel agent that I could go on a 3 day tour of Bangkok (flights, city tour & hotel) for $379...wohoo! How rediculously cheap and great is that?!! I think I will go to the travel agents today. I also have to buy a huge suitcase here for all of the stuff that I have already accumulated!

PS Here is a good article that Fiona sent to me about the current political/economic situation: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/02/srilanka?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

Thotamuna Irangani

This morning I gave an Lesson on Presentations and Basic Do's and Don'ts of Photography. The girls are so good because they pay so much attention but I don't know if they always understand because they don't ask any questions... I made it very simple though and told them if they want to talk one on one about anything they can. One girl is going to Canada in August so she will actually be doing a presentation in Canada, which I will help her on before I go, so I was able to use her as an example for how she should address her audience, etc. I told her to expect a Canadian audience might not be quite as attentive, haha...
I am thinking back now to my group in our communications class- we did a presentation where we asked the two girls from Shangdong in our group to do a skit about the Canadian class environment. The next day we laughed so hard when we watched what they had come up with: "Students very bad" one girl said to the other, "put feet on desk, talk when teacher talking, eat food during class, call teacher by first name... they are like barbarians!" Now that I have seen their learning environments I can see for myself the unsubtle difference.
After the class we went to see a woman named Irangani who is a Tsunami affected woman that INDECOS and WUSC/Uniterra have found out about and would like to try to help.
This woman was actually rich before the Tsunami and lived alone comfortably, supported by her siblings and the inheritance from her parents. When the Tsunami hit her house was pretty much destroyed and she broke her arm in 3 places. While she was in the hospital, her house was looted and everything she owned was taken. She has no livelihood so no savings from which she can improve these appalling living conditions.
Harshani's idea is to at least build her a bedroom, so she is no longer sleeping on the porch, a bathroom and a front door that she can lock. If you are interested in contributing, let me know and I will send you Harshani's contact info!

Just recieved ticket- officially leaving May 21st

It's a good thing I know that now because otherwise I would be a tad bit late for my flight. Like 2 days late. Anyway, haven't been writing much lately because I know I am on a time crunch these days so I am trying to just take everything in. It's funny because I was kind of riding the Sri Lankan tide before and going with the flow of the day but now I am setting deadlines for the boss to give me info, setting up training for the girls and just simply getting things done. It really is much easier to work than to procrastinate.
I haven't spoken much about the work that I've been doing. I basically have a few things that I am working on- brochures and reports here and there but most of the time I am doing work that was not in the mandate, which I like. I will help the girls with filling out forms in English, browsing the internet and using different software. Some of them are actually quite good on the computer and often I learn something from them.
I think this last weekend was the first one in which I wasn't at the office or going to an INDECOS program. I like the freedom of working if I want to because this office is a pretty laid back scene, but I also realized that I should get to some other activities aside from work, so I took this weekend off.The Pathi's were in Colombo so I spent Saturday doing things like laundry, cleaning my apartment, cooking... (did I mention I've dot the domestic vibe going on here, too? and watching movies. On Sunday Madhu came over. She taught me potato curry, I taught her some exercises (they don't have PE at school and none of the girls even know how to do a crunch! and we met Anuradha at the beach in the evening. I still can't get over just how innocent Madhu is. She is still talking about what a fun day she had and telling everyone while giggling. It is so sweet but I also can't help but find it so funny because she is 26 years old and generally doesn't go anywhere other than her boarding house. This place really needs a... I really hate to say it.... it's so against my nature.... Starbucks.

There I said it. So bad but so true.
Maybe I've mentioned this before but I feel like at home we are so bombarded by corporate products, that we spend ridiculous amounts of energy and money to ship, and we purchase them simply because we have no TIME to even think about our purchases> convenience, convenience, convenience. It's one extra step to the market, or moment of time, or extra change from our pockets to buy locally, reducing carbon fuels, packaging, and usually ensuring healthier products.
Here they will stop at one place for eggs, one place for papaya, etc. searching each stand for the best price and quality. And, they actually enjoy it!
But then,when you are a Westerner in a developing country, stocking up on toilet paper in the city center because you just won't find it anywhere else, that Charmin 2-ply is looks mighty comforting...