Wednesday 22 March
I forgot to mention the woeful Wednesday I experienced the day before we departed for Ampara last week:
Went for a swim in the evening after I arrived from work and got stung by a jellyfish! Fortunately I didn’t have to wee on it (traditional cure as I understand it) because I had an ammonia bite treatment stick in our room. That managed to stave off the pain and the swelling considerably although I still have some swelling and discolouration a week later. Doesn’t keep me out of the sea though.
Then when I was getting dressed after showering I spotted a credit card missing from the deck! Apart from the obvious concerns, it is the only one that performs in the ATMs here so I was doubly distressed. An early morning visit to the relevant bank the following morning confirmed that this stupid Englishman had left the card in the machine and after much hilarity and pointing amongst the staff at the aforesaid SE, the card was produced from the manager’s drawer after having been sucked back in by the ATM when I failed to take it after the transaction. My only excuse is that the sequence is different here as the receipt appears before the returned card.
I’m leaving Lesley to chronicle our adventures during the Ampala / Kandy visit. The only thing I must mention was the awesome (I’ve never used that word before but cannot come up with another one that comes anywhere close) experience at the newly built Ampara Peace Temple. This had been funded by the Japanese Buddhists and has been built over the traditional elephants’ route to their evening watering place on the lake. We had been told that if we were there at sunset it was possible we might see elephants walking to drink. We were there at 18 hours and looked around the temple and stupa where devotions were proceeding. Sunset came and went with no sign of elephants save for three babies frolicking in the marshlands half a kilometre away. We were reasonably satisfied with this but then, out of the semi darkness not twenty yards away, lumbered an enormous bull elephant followed by another nine adults and finally the three babies hot-footing it to catch their parents. They passed not fifteen yards from us strolling through the temple grounds. Innnnncredible.
Back to my playground project. This week I have awarded the contract and been to see the mayor to get Municipality approval. I can’t begin to attempt to describe a visit to the Mayor (and entourage) and I’ve now done it three times. The first to tell him our intentions, the second to present a proposal letter and the third to table an MOU which he gave me half an hour to prepare. No trouble – he didn’t know he was dealing with a professional! He is keen though as its local elections on 30 March so anything like my project enhances his prospects.
I visited my contractor’s “premises” this morning and, other than the crazy monkey in the trees above it was all pretty much as expected. He speaks not a word of English and my Singhalese only extends to good morning, how are you? and cheers! He has a daughter-in-law who speaks a little (very little) English so mainly we rely on sign language and sketches. With the help of DIL, I’m sure their English and my Singhalese are going to improve dramatically over the next three weeks.
We then made a visit to the timber yard he intends using for the seating and shading and I was shown my trees! Ginisapu for the seats and Astoniya for the shading. Both as hard as rock.
I’ve started a Project Diary, which will detail the construction process, with photos, for anyone who is interested. I’m not sure how to post that for general reading.
We had our weekly volunteers’ meeting on Monday evening and at the end one said he was sponsoring an athlete who showed serious promise at the twenty kilometre walk but had no shoes, strip nor travel costs to the stadium. The volunteer said he was aiming for $130 dollars and would match anything collected from others. Get this, this boy before the tsunami had eight brothers and sisters. Post tsunami there are TWO of them, him and one brother! The SRs. 1,000 notes were on the table before you could say “Sebastian Coe”.
I seem to also have stumbled in to another project requiring my attention if I am ever to sleep easy again. Not tsunami related but results from a visit to Jaya’s daughter’s Junior School in Ampara. The school was built 50 years ago (Jaya actually attended it) designed for two or three hundred children. It is in a picturesque rural setting but there are now 1,000 pupils in classes of forty plus. The municipality recently added an extension but it is still far too crowded. Nothing unusual there then – it happens all over the world you say, overcrowding and too big classes. The tragedy though is that for those 1,000 children there is NOT ONE TOILET! There are three or four privies that have fallen into disrepair but nothing that functions. The children are at school from 0800 to 1430 and if they want a wee or something else they have to sit on it! We were given the royal tour by the principal and entourage. The children are so happy and smiling all the time. I shall think on …………………..
A lighter note – when I was trawling the Livelihood Projects database attempting to identify a potential beneficiary for the framing enterprise, the title of an article caught my eye. It read “Goat Leaves Bicycle”. I must read this I thought. Had they had a row? How had they got together in the first place? Turns out, there was one gentleman whose only income was collecting mango leaves in the jungle, transporting them on his bike and selling them to the local goat farmer for a few Rupees. Goats love mango leaves. The tsunami swept his bike away and Project Galle bought him a new one. Who will pass this on to Lyn Truss, she of “Eats, Shoots and Leaves” fame?
An update on the Framing. At our Monday meeting I raised the matter again and mentioned my trawl of the database. One chap who hadn’t been there the previous week had a good suggestion. The Salvation Army are represented here both locally and Internationally. Being a bigger organisation than ours they have a bigger more robust database. Not only that, having a local presence they would be able to support the enterprise when I am gone. I am to make contact with them.
It’s Buddhist New Year on 13 April and apparently the week before is a virtual closedown – not for my contractor though, he has said three weeks and three weeks it will be. There are harsh penalties if he fails - £30 per day!
I forgot to mention the woeful Wednesday I experienced the day before we departed for Ampara last week:
Went for a swim in the evening after I arrived from work and got stung by a jellyfish! Fortunately I didn’t have to wee on it (traditional cure as I understand it) because I had an ammonia bite treatment stick in our room. That managed to stave off the pain and the swelling considerably although I still have some swelling and discolouration a week later. Doesn’t keep me out of the sea though.
Then when I was getting dressed after showering I spotted a credit card missing from the deck! Apart from the obvious concerns, it is the only one that performs in the ATMs here so I was doubly distressed. An early morning visit to the relevant bank the following morning confirmed that this stupid Englishman had left the card in the machine and after much hilarity and pointing amongst the staff at the aforesaid SE, the card was produced from the manager’s drawer after having been sucked back in by the ATM when I failed to take it after the transaction. My only excuse is that the sequence is different here as the receipt appears before the returned card.
I’m leaving Lesley to chronicle our adventures during the Ampala / Kandy visit. The only thing I must mention was the awesome (I’ve never used that word before but cannot come up with another one that comes anywhere close) experience at the newly built Ampara Peace Temple. This had been funded by the Japanese Buddhists and has been built over the traditional elephants’ route to their evening watering place on the lake. We had been told that if we were there at sunset it was possible we might see elephants walking to drink. We were there at 18 hours and looked around the temple and stupa where devotions were proceeding. Sunset came and went with no sign of elephants save for three babies frolicking in the marshlands half a kilometre away. We were reasonably satisfied with this but then, out of the semi darkness not twenty yards away, lumbered an enormous bull elephant followed by another nine adults and finally the three babies hot-footing it to catch their parents. They passed not fifteen yards from us strolling through the temple grounds. Innnnncredible.
Back to my playground project. This week I have awarded the contract and been to see the mayor to get Municipality approval. I can’t begin to attempt to describe a visit to the Mayor (and entourage) and I’ve now done it three times. The first to tell him our intentions, the second to present a proposal letter and the third to table an MOU which he gave me half an hour to prepare. No trouble – he didn’t know he was dealing with a professional! He is keen though as its local elections on 30 March so anything like my project enhances his prospects.
I visited my contractor’s “premises” this morning and, other than the crazy monkey in the trees above it was all pretty much as expected. He speaks not a word of English and my Singhalese only extends to good morning, how are you? and cheers! He has a daughter-in-law who speaks a little (very little) English so mainly we rely on sign language and sketches. With the help of DIL, I’m sure their English and my Singhalese are going to improve dramatically over the next three weeks.
We then made a visit to the timber yard he intends using for the seating and shading and I was shown my trees! Ginisapu for the seats and Astoniya for the shading. Both as hard as rock.
I’ve started a Project Diary, which will detail the construction process, with photos, for anyone who is interested. I’m not sure how to post that for general reading.
We had our weekly volunteers’ meeting on Monday evening and at the end one said he was sponsoring an athlete who showed serious promise at the twenty kilometre walk but had no shoes, strip nor travel costs to the stadium. The volunteer said he was aiming for $130 dollars and would match anything collected from others. Get this, this boy before the tsunami had eight brothers and sisters. Post tsunami there are TWO of them, him and one brother! The SRs. 1,000 notes were on the table before you could say “Sebastian Coe”.
I seem to also have stumbled in to another project requiring my attention if I am ever to sleep easy again. Not tsunami related but results from a visit to Jaya’s daughter’s Junior School in Ampara. The school was built 50 years ago (Jaya actually attended it) designed for two or three hundred children. It is in a picturesque rural setting but there are now 1,000 pupils in classes of forty plus. The municipality recently added an extension but it is still far too crowded. Nothing unusual there then – it happens all over the world you say, overcrowding and too big classes. The tragedy though is that for those 1,000 children there is NOT ONE TOILET! There are three or four privies that have fallen into disrepair but nothing that functions. The children are at school from 0800 to 1430 and if they want a wee or something else they have to sit on it! We were given the royal tour by the principal and entourage. The children are so happy and smiling all the time. I shall think on …………………..
A lighter note – when I was trawling the Livelihood Projects database attempting to identify a potential beneficiary for the framing enterprise, the title of an article caught my eye. It read “Goat Leaves Bicycle”. I must read this I thought. Had they had a row? How had they got together in the first place? Turns out, there was one gentleman whose only income was collecting mango leaves in the jungle, transporting them on his bike and selling them to the local goat farmer for a few Rupees. Goats love mango leaves. The tsunami swept his bike away and Project Galle bought him a new one. Who will pass this on to Lyn Truss, she of “Eats, Shoots and Leaves” fame?
An update on the Framing. At our Monday meeting I raised the matter again and mentioned my trawl of the database. One chap who hadn’t been there the previous week had a good suggestion. The Salvation Army are represented here both locally and Internationally. Being a bigger organisation than ours they have a bigger more robust database. Not only that, having a local presence they would be able to support the enterprise when I am gone. I am to make contact with them.
It’s Buddhist New Year on 13 April and apparently the week before is a virtual closedown – not for my contractor though, he has said three weeks and three weeks it will be. There are harsh penalties if he fails - £30 per day!
posted by Colin HARMAN at 3:34 AM
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