Oops...so much for blogging every week. This is the first chance I've got to update my blog, since internet is hard to come by here! I prepared this one last week but was waiting to upload lots of photos with it. Unfortunately these will have to follow on as I can't co-ordinate this complex operation at the moment!
A day in my life
I thought it might be interesting for me to blog this week about an average day here in Tangalla. The thing is, there isn’t really an average day at the moment. I am getting into some routines, but Sri Lankans are nothing if not spontaneous – every day brings a new element of randomness. So instead I thought I’d write about last Tuesday, as this was a regular day at work, and I got up to some interesting things!
The alarm went off at 5.45am, waking me and Olof from our deep 8 hour sleep (yes we really do go to bed before 10 each night). After taking cold showers in the bathroom cubicle in the garden it was time for breakfast. We were given a flask of hot water by our “amma” (host mother), and set about making our morning coffee with milk powder and a strainer made from a piece of wire, a straw and an old pair of tights, that Olof picked up in the kitchen and hardware store in Tangalla.
Unlike at home, where mornings were always a rush, usually ending in me arriving at work late having run out of time to have breakfast, here they are long, leisurely and relaxed. It’s a good time to talk to Olof or the family about our plans for the weekend, to enjoy the cool morning air, or to compose some emails to send when I eventually get internet access.
At about 8 I got on the bike to cycle down to work. I cycle down hills and push the bike up them, as by this time it is already hot and sticky. On arriving at work five minutes later, I sat out on the balcony working away on my laptop and overlooking the sea. Times like this make me feel so happy about working and living here.
When my battery was dying I went inside, only to find that there was a power cut (the third in four days) that was due to last until 5 o’clock. That put an end to my plans to make progress on the annual report. After making some enquiries I found that the physiotherapy department were going on a field visit with field officers from the Wallasmulle area north of Tangalla to deliver three wheelchairs to clients who the organisation had been working with.
I spent the day travelling around in the (wonderful a/c) van with Mr Samantha (yes, it’s a man’s name here), Mr Indrajit and Ms Ashoka. Samantha and Indrajit both speak great English, so they told me all about what we were doing (in between stopping for strange Sri Lankan snacks – a fish “bun”, crispy lentil bites, strange cough sweets – I said things were a bit random here).
We visited loads of people in very very poor areas. One client lived at the top of an enormous hill, where the “road” was so bad that even the Sri Lankan driver couldn’t get the car to go. After climbing up the hill, we entered the small mud and thatched house. As in all Sri Lankan homes, there were a lot of people there – the granny, some kids, and people in between. Inside the house there were the typically Sri Lankan posters on the wall, of fair skinned women and fat Japanese babies (I still haven’t figured this out), and the client lying on his bed.
He had fallen out of a tree ten years previously and had been paralysed from the waist down. It’s quite common for people to fall from trees here, as they do a lot of tough manual work and fruit picking with no safety precautions.
A happy man with his new wheelchair
Despite the fact that three people, including a random white person had turned up at his house and were crowded into his tiny bedroom, he was friendly and smiley and quickly got dressed.The NGO had given him his wheelchair the previous week, and he said that it had dramatically improved his life (I can’t imagine being paralysed for ten years without even having a wheelchair to use). Samantha showed him how to use the wheelchair and did some examinations, and I took lots of photos for case studies and reports to the donors.
The family then did what all poor village families here do and wouldn’t let us leave until we’d had some of their fruits from the garden. I was handed two “oranges” (which are green here) and then the three of us were given a King coconut each to drink. After we’d drank the refreshing juice, the son then cut a spoon from the outside of it and let us scoop out the delicious flesh to eat. They thanked us so much for coming, and the guy in the wheelchair said that he wanted me personally to come back whenever I wanted! Chancer.
The day went on like this, visiting people who were getting by with their disability in such basic conditions. The wheelchairs, which had been custom made at the centre in Tangalla really did seem to open up their world for them, and it made me realise once again how good my organisation really is.
Halfway through the day we drove down another road (a bumpy track to you or me) and arrived at the house of one of the organisation's volunteers. She had prepared the most incredible banquet of rice and curry – rice, poppadums, fish curry, soya curry, white (coconut milk) curry, sambol, bean curry, chicken curry, which we ate with our hands. I was so sleepy afterwards, but we went back out into the field for more home visits.
I cycled home at about 5 and was so hot that I decided to head straight out again and go for a dip in the sea. I swam for a bit and then had a coffee with one of my colleagues who was down at the beachside cafe. Olof then met me and we had a fun half hour jumping over the enormous waves that are common here.
We went home and had another cold shower before going next door for our first Sinhala lesson. We have arranged lessons with Vejira, our next door neighbour. She is a school teacher, and we realised that she meant business when she started writing things on the whiteboard and testing us! Sinhala is really difficult but we learnt a few words and promised to practice in time for our next lesson on Thursday.
We arrived home at about 8 after the 1 hour lesson, and our amma had prepared dinner for us. It was.... rice and curry again (they eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner). This time it was plantain curry, fish curry, a coconut sambol and rice rice rice and rice.
By 9 .30 we were both feeling pretty exhausted, so read some of our book, got the mosquito net out and climbed into bed in our small humid room, ready for the alarm to go off at 5.45 am the next morning....
