Bill and Wendy's ickcillint adventures

Just after our move to Colombo on Wednesday night, we left Colombo Thursday afternoon for Jaffna. Objective: meet our partner, Shanthiham, the staff who work there, and to search for housing. So, with a driver, two VSO staff members, a VSO volunteer from the UK (child psychologist also moving to Jaffna), Bill and I make the very long trek toward Jaffna. After six hours of dangerous driving (bad roads, congestion, high speed), we got as far as Mihintale and booked into a guest house for the night. Next morning, we set off to make it through Elephant Pass and into Jaffna (another six hour journey). From Wikipedia: Elephant Pass is a major military checkpoint and controls access to the Jaffna Peninsula. Elephant Pass connects the militarily significant town of Chavakacheri in the Jaffna peninsula to the Sri Lankan mainland. The base was under Sri Lankan Authority control until 2000 , despite repeated attempts to capture it by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, als...

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 unt...

With only ten days notice to leave Nuwara Eliya, it sent Bill and me into a dizzy of activity. I focused on getting all ends of my work at the hospital, the community mental health clinic and the community social service agencies tied up. Then, we began our goodbyes and our good byes and our good byes. I said goodbye to the nurses I had trained in mental health (and some I didn't). I got presents. I said goodbye to the community social service workers that I have been training since July on case management. I got presents. I said goodbye to the acute psychiatric staff. I got presents. I said good bye to my precious colleagues in the community mental health clinic. I got presents. I said good bye to my Sinhala teacher, Sandamalli over a dinner at the Grand Hotel and I said goodbye to my nurse/colleague/translator and friend, Chamali and her husband. I said goodbye to the doctors and the psychiatric consultant. Bill said his goodbyes. He said goodbye to Rahim over lunch...

It's official. We are moving to Jaffna! We have a measly week and a day to pack up our belongings, tie up loose ends at work (several dangle at the moment), and say goodbye to those who befriended us here in Nuwara Eliya. It is all moving very quickly. We are scheduled to move from Nuwara Eliya (the coldest climate in Sri Lanka) to Jaffna (the hottest climate in Sri Lanka) on October 19 th (penance, on earth)? Well, actually, before we go to Jaffna, we have 2.5 weeks of Tamil language training in Colombo before moving north on November 2 nd . I will work in Jaffna at the hospitals (job description unclear at this time), but VSO and the partner organization, Shanthiham, built in flexibility thus allowing me to continue supporting the post graduate diploma in social work program (for which I have begun to write the curriculum). So, am getting both jobs instead of having to make choices about which to take. I am feeling a bit sad to leave behind our little house nestled up agains...

Do you remember when I wrote the blog about Sinhala people's singing? It was in March and entitled Vindication. Well, my mother, who has always held me and my siblings to higher values, wrote to me, "Wendy, if there is problem, you need to be part of the solution. You have a beautiful voice." Now, that same mother of mine did come to see me in Sri Lanka and actually got to hear the din herself. She was in agreement that the music was NOT what she was used to; it was not lovely, sweet hymns and vespers. However, she re-issued her challenge. So, in acknowledgment of the challenge from my mother, and in desperate need of a sense of belonging, I joined the 5pm. Saturday night English mass church choir. The choir, on a good night, consists of about 4 nuns, a couple of teenagers, a couple of ladies my age and a teen organ player. We have no choir practice, no preparation, we just arrive at mass and we sing the number in the song book that one of the nuns announce...

For the most part, people here wear either cheap plastic flip flops or bare feet. It is so interesting to be a foot watcher (different than having a foot fetish, mind you). Feet on people here, like anywhere, come in all shapes and sizes, but mostly smaller than we are used to in North America, at least in length. The width of feet here is another story. Feet that have not been bound by shoes tend to spread very wide. Toes splay over the sides of the flip flops. Huge spaces exist between the toes. The feet tend to have lost the arch and take on a flat footed appearance. Besides the toes, the heels are worth mentioning. Men's heels are deeply cracked and some must be very painful. The other interesting thing about feet, particularly heels, and one doesn't seem noticeable in white skinned people, is that there is a strong demarcation between dark pigmentation and white pigmentation about the middle of the back of the heel. However, this is not prominent in all people...

We have not, since my mother and daughter left back to Canada at the end of June, seen a glimpse of the sun in Nuwara Eliya. The hard rain, angry winds, heavy cloud and ethereal mist have daily tormented the entire community since that time. However, today, the sun shone! All of the townspeople emerged from their homes, rejoicing! People welcomed the sun, opening the doors and windows of their homes. Blankets, towels and items of clothing were jubilantly draped about the yards as people attempted to dry out the soggy bedding and linens and clothing. People greeted each other and small groups of neighbours collected in the alleys as people chatted, hungry for social relationship after the long quarantine provoked by the unending rain.   Bill and I dragged out every blanket in the house. Each and every one of them smelled of mildew. We draped them over the many clotheslines in the yard. We opened every window and door in the house, allowing the wind to whip through, doors banging lo...