Daze in Colombo

Ayubowan! I am still adjusting to the time difference here but I've actually been feeling pretty good- must have been those zinc lozenges (go Judy!). It was our first big day in Colombo. We started off meeting Harshani who is fantastic and she told us some info about our positions. I will be staying with a family- apparently other volunteers have stayed with them and the reports are unanimously positive. It will be within walking distance of the INDECOS office (which they do this so that we will not have to take public transit and take chances right now) and my job will be to improve their marketing materials. Haha, everyone thinks Andy and I are twins and they do not see a difference between the names Angela and Andrea. Harshani also warned us that they mostly see white people on TV so they think we are all rich. That's pretty funny actually because I got my very first phone number handed to me today when I was at the bank!!!
She also told us, particularly for me, to have as low of expectations as possible for what we will get done so that if we get stuff done we will be happy. Only the people at the top of the org can speak English so I will spend a lot of time waiting around to be fit into these busy people's schedules. Still she does not want us speaking Sinhala if we learn it because the people at the office will just start to help you learn instead of learning English for themselves. She also said that the main boss has a daughter who is in school in America so he will dote on me & take me in as his own and that I should not refuse his invitations to dinners & other such events unless I say I am sick or it will insult him.
I got a good sense that they take our safety very seriously- while Harshani believes in fate she is also against putting anyone in the position where there is a chance. She has even banned any unnecessary travel. Even while she says this though she seemed more than happy to give Andy and I advice on how we can visit each other, ie. I could hitch a ride in with local doctors or WUSC office staff, and she even found Andy an apartment with an extra room because she said I will likely want to visit Kandy. We also met a lady at the WUSC office who seemed very well informed and quite a bit more organized than others I've dealt with.
She said she is putting off some volunteers until the end of April because the government said they would end the war then. But she also said it is not likely. Harshani says, and it seems to be the consensus of the Sinhalese, that the gov't should be killing the leaders of the LTTE but not just dropping bombs that are killing innocent Tamils.
After the orientation we ate some lunch and then went to pick up phone cards for our emergency phones which we are allowed to use as much as we want since the we buy the minutes. It took ages because everything is a major process here! After that Keith dropped us off at Odel, the mall in Colombo. I bought a few postcards there but Andy and I would both rather buy more authentic clothes since it was not unlike the clothes you can find at home- only it was much cheaper! If I want to pick anything up before I leave I can but right now we are both feeling unconsumerish- in fact, we're looking forward to Friday when we get to stay in a village with no electricity!