Bill and Wendy's ickcillint adventures

village temple cart at Point Pedro We have met a man who lives in Jaffna and works for a Swiss NGO. This NGO has been largely involved with housing projects beginning after the tsunami, but also ongoing for those internally displaced people (IDP), displaced due to the civil war conflict. Anyway, he offered to take us out to one of his housing projects, so the next time we met up with him, I called in the offer. He picked us up in his Land Rover and off we went on a very educational tour. Through lessons learned by their tsunami projects, the NGO has now adopted a Whole Village Concept to housing. This process begins with identification of those in need of housing. This is not done by income, as there is little reliable documentation on income. Therefore, people who request relocation and/or who are identified as needing relocation are offered an opportunity to resettle elsewhere. This is a very difficult decision for Sri Lankan people as their “ancient village” gama (Sin...

nasgly mass of straw for hair You may remember a previous blog where I called myself Snow White? Well, Snow White is gradually moving back to her blonder roots, pun intended. Yes, after the tedium of having to colour my roots every two weeks, my hairdresser in Colombo has encouraged me to go back to my original hair colour (dirty blonde) in order to relieve me (and Bill) of the messy fortnight job involving black hair dye. nesting crow So, it looks quite nice, Loreal # 7 - pearly blonde. However, it has a draw back. My hair seems quite a bit drier than usual and it is getting longer too. I had frightened myself in the mirror on the morning of the event which I shall share with you and mentioned my fright to my VSO colleague, "My hair is a mess," I said to her after catching a glimplse of myself in the washroom mirror. Truely, my hair had a straw, nest-like resemblance. This nest attracted a crow. Last week, after cycling home for some lunch, I re-entered ...

Yes, we had another crash. Last Sunday, following a wonderful day riding to Casurina Beach on our scooter, the sun warm on our face, the light breeze blowing about our clothing to cool us, and after swimming in the Indian Ocean with Tamil and Sinhalese and Muslim families, we headed back into the crowded mayhem of Jaffna City traffic. As we rounded a corner, there was a mini bus parked very near to the corner. Don’t ask us what happened, but the next thing we knew, I had my helmet plastered into the side of the minivan and our bike had zoomed into the side of the minivan. “Bill, what happened?” I inquired. Forlornly, Bill replied, “I don’t know.” We dismounted, Bill told people around (many, many people) that he was responsible and a young lad tore off excitedly to find the driver of the vehicle. A small crowd gathered as a dozen men inspected the dent and scratch on the side of the minivan, still loaded with passengers. Bill continued to accept responsibility for the ...

Coloured/uncoloured are really misnomers in that all of us, other than albinos, have pigmentation in our skin and that pigmentation, over the centuries has caused great hardship to those who aren’t the right “colour” There are many reasons for discrimination, colour being only one of them. In Sri Lanka we have ethnic origin, language, religion, caste and I’m sure a myriad of other differences by which one group distinguishes another group. Comments were once heard about a daughter being so beautiful and the mother in the presence of the daughter saying “Yes, but she is too dark”. Darkness may be associated with those people who work out in the sun and therefore are darker (tanned). They seem to be looked down on as being of lesser importance or not as good as those of lighter skin. In Canada it means something different as the tanned person has been able to afford a vacation away from home. When Wendy and I walk down the street we get stared at by many people, mostly not in a th...