Asian Court

We are in Colombo. We have been installed in Asian Court, a small two bedroom apartment in Colombo 04, a desirable Colombo address, close to Galle Face Green and Cinnamon Gardens. This ocean view apartment was previously used by a VSO volunteer who has since returned to his home country. VSO has decided to keep it as a "guest house" for VSO volunteers visiting Colombo for meetings and trainings.

After much deep cleaning of our Nuwara Eliya home and after travelling six hours we arrived in Colombo on Wednesday afternoon, tired and stressed. We opened the door of the Asian Court apartment and nearly cried. It was filthy. The floor was gritty; the cupboards were filled with dirt, food stuffs and cobwebs. A rusty and dirty stove awaited us as did a moldy and wet fridge. Grunge clung to the kitchen sink and side board. Soap scum clung to the bathroom sink and tiles. Toilets black. Mummified plants dangled on the balcony. I got mad! We couldn't put away our things until everything was scrubbed up.

So, with anger and exhaustion driving us, I shoved all the food stuffs cluttering up the place into cupboards and those cupboards are now off limits to us (I may tape them shut). I scrubbed out two cupboards for our use. We will use nothing in the apartment that we didn't bring from Nuwara Eliya. We are only here for two weeks while we have Tamil language training and I work on the curriculum for the MSW course. I do not intend to clean out the cupboards or do windows or deep clean closets. I don't have time and frankly, I don't have the energy.

We cleaned the bathrooms and flooring, but dust remains everywhere. We had only one evening to move in, because, the next day, we left for Jaffna. I detach from this place and await our real home in Jaffna.


 

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