Everyone in this office is off to the cricket match. I guess they have this fairly regularly, the entire staff (literally from all the offices) get together and play cricket against each other. They have a net ball (like basketball without the dribbling, which I have already said means it isn’t like basketball) competition for the ladies. I’ve been asked about ten times why I am not going. See, we were supposed to be going to Arugam Bay today, but realized we didn’t really need to go. That was my excuse, now I don’t have one. I don’t really enjoy watching cricket and this net ball thing doesn’t sound like my sport (I like basketball because of the dribbling). So now my excuse is that I’ve been traveling everyday this week and I am very tired.
This is true. Monday we drove to Hambanthota (7 hours) and Tuesday we drove back. Wednesday, after the weddings, we drove to Anarandupuran (another 7 hours) and yesterday we drove back. Yesterday, because we were traveling with Manju (Buddhist monk) and two older staffers, Chameri and I were delegated to the back seat. Apparently, no matter the vehicle, monks always get the front seat. Anyway, the back seat is the bad seat because these cars seem to be missing shocks on their rear axles (or wherever the shocks go). Until you get to Galle Road, which means for about three of the seven hours, you are bouncing so much I was airborne most of the ride. Very, very uncomfortable (and I might add, probably not good for my neck, but it seems o.k. right now). I suffered this for a workshop that was held in Tamil with occasional Sinhala translation. I don’t speak Sinhala, but hearing it everyday means I understand bits and pieces. Plus, Chameri would occasionally translate for me when it was in Sinhala (since she doesn’t know Tamil). I can’t understand anything in Tamil. So I was completely lost.
I feel this was a complete waste of time. I’m going to ask that Sewalanka pay for my Sinhala classes, since they have chosen to not pay me much and seem to expect me to understand through osmosis or something.
On the way up to the workshop the car was abuzz due to tsunami warnings. I’ve been wondering why so many aid organizations are so focused on tsunami preparations here when Sri Lanka averages a tsunami every 100 years and the one before 2004 was from Krakatoa, which caused a four inch sea rise. Anyway, apparently the 2004 tsunami’s earthquake did some major changes to the seabed, so Sri Lanka is technically more at risk than before. That said, the earthquake has to hit in a very specific location off Indonesia for the tsunami to affect Sri Lanka.
So first we got this message (actually the messages I saw were SMS messages on my cell phone, but this provides the same information):
“WARDEN MESSAGE
THE EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES IS TRANSMITTING THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION THROUGH THE EMBASSY WARDEN SYSTEM AS A PUBLIC SERVICE TO AMERICAN CITIZENS IN SRI LANKA. PLEASE DISSEMINATE THIS MESSAGE TO ALL U.S. CITIZENS YOU KNOW, WHO ARE NOT REGISTERED WITH THE EMBASSY.
CNN and other media sources reported an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale occurred off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The Pacific Tsunami Earthquake Warning Center in Japan has issued a tsunami watch for the Indian Ocean, including Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lankan Disaster Management Center is aware of the watch but it still assessing the threat.
People living in coastal areas should monitor the local media. The US Embassy will send a subsequent report if we learn new information.”
Notice it says 7.9, but the radio kept saying 8.2. The radio was correct.
Then we got this message:
“WARDEN MESSAGE
THE EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES IS TRANSMITTING THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION THROUGH THE EMBASSY WARDEN SYSTEM AS A PUBLIC SERVICE TO AMERICAN CITIZENS IN SRI LANKA. PLEASE DISSEMINATE THIS MESSAGE TO ALL U.S. CITIZENS YOU KNOW, WHO ARE NOT REGISTERED WITH THE EMBASSY.
Local news sources reported the Meteorological Department estimates that if there is a Tsunami, it will reach Sri Lanka between 8 and 8:30pm. They are also saying people living in coastal areas in the South, East and Southeast are advised to evacuate.”
Finally:
“Warden Message 12 September - Update 2
Then we woke up to another notice, about a 7.9 earthquake that hit in the morning, but this one apparently also did not affect Sri Lanka. I don’t know because I never received the final notice. None of this would have affected me personally as I was on my way to the safest location in Sri Lanka, smack dab in the middle, but now I know a lot of people in the area that would have been affected and many of my coworkers are from there.
Back to my travels. In Hambanthota we met with the people at the Mercy Corps office there. One American (I think she is from Georgia, I’ll ask her next time) and two local guys that we already knew. She mentioned that she had heard I was in the country and that I’d come to meet her soon, which was odd because I don’t believe we had this trip planned when we saw her coworker at the tourism workshop. Anyway, the meeting was weird as we thought we were there to understand what they wanted for this proposal, and they seemed to think we were there to discuss our ideas. This irritated me as we clearly would have had the wrong ideas because our previous work has been with homestays and guide training, and they said when we first sat down that they aren’t funding that type of project. We had called one guy several times about this grant and it seems he could have mentioned this at least once. It is clear they want to fund something where they will purchase some big item, like a boat or camping equipment, and then they can take photos and show people in America what they did. This is not sustainable, nor is it helping the entire community as the boat or camping equipment is only helping one or two families at the most. I can see that funders will irritate me more here than they did in the States, and that is saying a lot. Anyway, we still plan to apply — we’ll have to seek additional funding from somewhere else to make the project more helpful to the entire community.
So I’m home for the weekend, which wasn’t planned, but nice. Sunday evening I’ll go to Kaluthera for the Coastal Restoration Workshop. I’m not going to the entire thing as it will be in Sinhala, but they want me to attend the opening ceremony and a few field trips, which I’m happy to do. Monday Harshana and I are off to Sinharaja for the Japanese tourists. I’m very excited because we will be going inside the park this time!
Oh, I didn’t wear a sari to the weddings on Wednesday. I left the house on Tuesday as soon as I got home to find the jacket and skirt to match the sari Mauneri brought me, but nothing was open. I’ve promised the girls that I’ll wear one next time. I hope the next wedding isn’t until after Christmas because then I can just bring my sari from home. Still my sarong was a huge hit — I think when Aya did in fact come through and bought gifts (and had them wrapped) and cards for me. So all was good.
source:
http://expatwithelephants.blogspot.com/2007/09/on-road-again.html
sari from home. Still my sarong was a huge hit — I think when Aya did in fact come through and bought gifts (and had them wrapped) an
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