House in Yaalpaanum



Our Yaalpaanum (Tamil for Jaffna) house will be ready for occupancy on Tuesday, November 15. Originally a bombed house (well I guess not originally) currently being renovated into two flats. Once the landlord has finished the staircase leading to the upstairs flat and put in the kitchen upstairs, Bill and I will move into the lower quarters. Another VSO, Marcia, a child psychologist from the UK, will reside in the upstairs flat.

We are very excited. A real house with a real yard, a real well, a real squat toilet and a real hearth for cooking in the kitchen. It is going to be lovely.

Our furniture, cycle bikes and motor scooter will arrive on Monday night and we can move in on Tuesday morning. In the meantime, VSO installed us in a guest house not far from my new work place, Shantiham. With boxes and clothes, ironing boards, computers, baskets and washing lines strewn about our room, Bill and I feel right at home. We have created organized chaos within our hotel room. The maid won't even make up the room. He doesn't know where to start.

Besides, Marcia, Bill and I, there is another VSO volunteer here as well. Mary is a business woman from Scotland who works for the Governance arm of VSO. She took her Tamil training with us and was sent to Jaffna just a few days ahead of us. In January, an Occupational Therapist is also coming to work for VSO in Jaffna. It will be refreshing having colleagues and peers here to pal around with; much different than the isolation and loneliness of Nuwara Eliya. VSO equipped us all with motor scooters and we have all purchased pedal bikes. We have begun planning excursions up and down the coast.

Marcia, child psychologist from UK, shares office with me
Our office at Shanthiham
Me in new office

Shanthiham Training Centre
Marcia and I had our first day at work yesterday, it was an orientation to Shanthiham. Today, however, is a poya day (Buddhist holiday) and therefore a public holiday. We all trishawed out to Chetty Beach, at the edge of the isthmus, for sun and swimming. The Sri Lanka Navy boys swam on the same beach – in their skimpy underwear. Further down the beach, Sri Lanka women waded into the water – in their saarees. Something grossly unfair about that.

Tomorrow, we head back to work and begin in earnest to assess how we fit into the mental health picture here in Sri Lanka's neglected north.

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 11, 2011 at 5:25 PM

    I see that your office is set up ergonomically correct :) The plastic covering on your desk is especially lovely :)

    ReplyDelete

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