Men and Dogs

Today, VSO provided a lecture on gender issues in Sri Lanka.  This lecture was largely framed around the experiences reported by previous female volunteers to Sri Lanka.  Female volunteers in Sri Lanka are subjected to incidences of sexual harrassment; noises, comments, requests for kisses from trishaw drivers, "will you suck it" from professional men,  and the most bizarre incident - a penis was stuck under a volunteer's arm on a crowded daytime bus. 


Now, I admit, it is the young, delicious female volunteers that are targets by the men who issue forth these inappropriate comments and behavioiurs. Grannies, like myself, are apparently not as appealing to Sri Lankan men.  As I cruise the streets of Colombo, it may be that I am exempt from these incidences due to my body guard.  He is usually just two paces behind me.  His name is Bill.  He is quite useful to ward off men.  However, as useful as he is to protect me from inappropropriate men, he is quite ineffective against dogs.   


Dogs here in Sri Lanka are indolent and largely benign, languishing on the sidewalk in the heat or lying under a shade tree on the cool ground.  However, there is one pack of rabid dogs here.  These brutes delight in antagonizing me on my run around Beira Lake.   This lake is dirty, polluted, bird infested and smelly from bird shat but in spite of this, is a welcome break from the exhaust of the busy city traffic. 

Anyway, the other day as I ran around the lake, this rabid pack began to bark at me, the black alpha dog nipping at my running shorts.  I turned on the dogs and in my best Sinhala and in present tense emphatic yelled at the dogs to stay from me.  "Yanne",  I shouted."Yanne", I shouted again but unfortunately, the dogs couldn't understand my accent.  Thinking quickly, I switched to English.  Go! Go!  I used my most assertive voice.  The dogs snarled.  I ran away, very fast.The next day, my body guard came with me on my run.  He too, was chased off by the pack.

I'd sooner take on a human dog.

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