Arrival

 
 
We arrived, yesterday afternoon (Jan 4) safe and not so sound in Colombo, Sri Lanka, following a gruelling flight of 22 hours in the air.  I didn’t sleep, but Bill,naturally, slept like a baby.  I found his gaping open mouth a bit much to look at for such a long time.  The long flights and so much sitting caused me fluid retention and this filled my ankles like camel humps while my hands resembled pork sausage links.  I don’t travel well.
Upon arrival at the Colombo Airport, we were promptly met by Manchula, the VSO Legal Compliances and Support Officer and Upali, the VSO transport officer.  After stashing our worldly
possessions suitable and/or necessary for Sri Lanka (stored in huge, bulging backpacks and front packs) into their spacious, white Land rover, they placed our life in danger as Upali careened through the tangled traffic.  Given that they are still in holiday mode for the New Year, Manchula explained that traffic was “slow.”  Oxen and cart, cows, trishaws, motorcycles, mopeds, tractors, ice cream carts, cycle bikes and pedestrians share the road.  It is a sight to behold.
Chelsea Gardens Guest House!  Doesn’t that have a nice ring to it? A nice Colonial ring?  Anyway, our guest house is run by Padmini, a Sri Lankan woman who speaks good English.  As we had been up for more than 30 some hours, and it had been some time since our last airline meal, she scrambled us some eggs and poured strong tea.  She then showed
us our apartment so we could get some sleep. Again, Bill slept well.  My nervous system seems to jar me awake as I begin to fall asleep; I haven’t slept well since Dad passed away.   Normally, I sleep very well, so hopefully nothing permanent.  I did get a couple of hours though.  We got up and found a restaurant.  We ate egg hoppers and chicken curry.
This morning, our driver, Stanley, picked us up and drove us for our orientation at the VSO office.  Following staff introductions, we completed much paper work for the Canadian and British Embassy,
received security clearance ID badges, opened a local bank account, had our original degrees photocopied (yes, we had to drag along original degrees), and received an agenda of our training that completes on 23rd of Jan. This training, called in- country briefing, includes orientation on the political situation, the governmental structure, gender issues along with intensive language training in the Sinhala language.
Today we made some necessary purchases; a Nokia cell phone, and an adapter so we can run our computers and more importantly, my blow dryer.  Our purchases also included some
shorts for under my skirts so my thighs don’t rub together and chafe (I hear you laughing, but it is not funny) and Bill got a lovely linen shirt with short sleeves. We were misled about what is suitable attire for this country. Although there is much traditional clothing worn by women, there appears
to be few fashion rules.
Speaking of rules, I saw my first Burka clad women.  I do hope they are naked under all that cloth
of black as they must be roasting alive if they are wearing clothing as well.  I get very upset by this oppression.  Don’t Muslim men know that a woman’s eyes are the most alluring part of them anyway?
I should be careful. I had my wings clipped today re: blogs.  Blogging about political situations in a
negative way is worrisome to the fine line of cooperation VSO receives with government to continue their work with the partner organizations.  Inflammatory blogging might jeopardize the relationship with government and curtail VSO activities.  VSO tries to remain as objective and neutral as possible in order to get their necessary work accomplished.  Therefore, any comments I might like to make
will not be published in this blog.
Enough for today. We are still jet lagged and coffee shops are rare here, so brain function
not optimal.  Just really wanted you to know we have arrived.

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