Week II

Two weeks down, six weeks to go!

Last weekend I climbed Adam’s Peak with three other volunteers, a major pilgrimage site in south central Sri Lanka. It was quite the hike—we began at 2:30 am (after a nine-hour bus journey and three hours of sleep) and arrived at the top just as the sun was rising. Perfect timing.

There are numerous stories behind the significance of Adam’s Peak, or Sri Pada—it is either thought to be where Adam first set foot on earth or where the Buddha last stepped before leaving earth. Consequently, it is shaped like a footprint. It is also known as Butterfly Mountain, where butterflies go to die, but I didn’t see any dead butterflies. I prefer that story, though.

The journey to and from Adam’s Peak by bus was a bit awful, but fairly uneventful, except for me spilling sunscreen in my bag and trying to clean it out at Kandy bus station. We were the only white people around, so of course all eyes were on us, and everyone just stood and stared  while I tried to salvage as much sunscreen as possible—well, everyone except one man who reached in my bag and stared rubbing the sunscreen all over himself, then asked, “What is this? Can I put it on my face?” I guess he was being helpful in his own way.

Overall it was a nice getaway, even though public transportation here is awful. It would be ideal to hire a private driver (you don’t want to risk driving over here, you wouldn’t get anywhere), but it is too cheap to pass up, even if you have to take the most roundabout way imaginable.

I also saw lots of tea plantations!!

The air even smelled of tea brewing...it was heavenly.

This week I worked in ETU, Emergency Treatment Unit. Well, once again, I “worked”. Mainly I just observed and annoyed the doctors with all my questions. I was able to see things that I would rarely, if ever, be able to see at home, such as head wounds caused by falling coconuts. There are also a large number of dog bites. Most of them don’t look too bad, and most people in the US probably wouldn’t go in to treat such a small wound. But none of the dogs here are vaccinated, and there are stray dogs everywhere. If you get bit, you have to go in for rabies treatment. Seeing that has made me very wary around the local dogs—you get numerous painful injections into the wound site (and it is mainly on hands and fingers; one man was bit on the face) and have to remain in the hospital for hours. I’ve also seen the early onset of gangrene! A woman came in with an infected abscess on her neck that was such a vivid shade of blue. It looked like paint—I figured it might be some sort of local remedy, but the doctor told me it was the beginning of gangrene. And it was on her neck! I guess they will have to amputate her head... As I said last time, the hospital conditions are horrendous. Didn’t see any stray animals this time, but a man threw up in the middle of the room and no one cleaned it up for at least an hour. Everyone just stepped around it. The electricity went out briefly, too—the hospital apparently doesn’t have its own generators.

Yesterday I worked—yes, actually worked—in a diabetes clinic held at a temple in a nearby town. I got to prick fingers to test the blood glucose level and took blood pressure. Yay, I was actually able to help people! Well, they probably didn’t consider me too helpful. It was my first time pricking fingers, so I had to try multiple times on some people with heavy calluses. Oh well, they survived.

Today I went to Colombo, the biggest city in Sri Lanka, with two other volunteers to do some shopping. It wasn’t quite what we expected, so we didn’t buy much except for some spices and vanilla pods. Lonely Planet had promised that they sold just about everything at Pettah market, but it was mainly produce and clothes. Not exciting clothes, either—just extremely modest, unexciting Western-style clothes. We got to visit a Hindu temple, which was cool but I don’t know much about the Hindu religion so I didn’t get much out of the visit, and didn’t really want to ask anyone because it was such a solemn atmosphere. After that we went to Galle Face Hotel for some drinks and lunch. That was quite lovely. The hotel is about 150 years old and is very British in style. We sat in the bar area, which was open to the outside and had a lovely view of the sea. It was great to sip my arrack cocktail while watching the waves and a sudden, short-lived storm. By the way, arrack is the local liquor made from sap from palm trees. It is very similar to rum but with a sharper, less refined taste...I like it all right, it is very good with passion fruit juice and some Sprite.

Last night I made my host family tell me some Sri Lankan ghost stories!! I loooove ghost stories. Most of the ones they told me involved people they knew, but they told me a few famous tales and I told them stories about the Salem witch trials and the Bell witch. I think they are afraid to visit America now, too many witches... They even asked if I knew any spells—since there are so many witches in America, why didn’t I know any magic? A very valid question. A big improvement on what my host mum asked the other day—“Can you see the sun in America?”

???

I thought Americans were ignorant about geography...she thought I was living in the North Pole or something.

Week 1 in Sri Lanka nearly complete.

I “worked” in the pediatric ward in the hospital this week, which mainly consisted of me following doctors around and reading charts. It has been slow, but should pick up next week when I work in general medicine.

The hospital conditions are....interesting.

I’ve never seen stray cats in a hospital before.

I’m also trying to adjust to seeing squirming, screaming children getting pricked with needles. I force myself to watch, although I am cringing all the while...I have to get used to it if I want to be a doctor! Eeek.

My host family is great—I am staying with a family that consists of a husband and wife, their son and his wife (they are just a couple of years older than me), a grandmother, and a cook. I don’t quite understand what exactly a housewife does if she has a cook...I mean, how much sweeping can you do in a day? I would rather cook than clean. If I were to be a housewife and for some reason had to hire someone, I would get a cleaning lady and do the cooking myself. Well, that is if I had to hire someone to do something I would normally have to do myself—obviously a masseuse or a personal trainer or someone you pay to be your friend would be preferable choices. Anyways, my new Sri Lankan family is incredibly sweet and they love to tease me and learn all about America—they are especially interested in Area 51, which surprised me.
Neighbors also seem to wander in and out of the house, in particular this little old man who yells at me about his hearing problems and how they are “such a nuisance” and tells me “it is going to rain” as it pours outside.

I have been getting lots of stares since I am one of the only white people in this town. It hasn’t bothered me too much, as everyone seems very nice and for the most part respectful. Women smile at me shyly, children hide and smile or sometimes leap at the opportunity to practice their English, and men for the most part don’t pay much attention—young men and teenagers always try to talk to me along with the other girl volunteers, but so far nothing offensive. Very old men also talk to me frequently, which I love—they are so tiny and cute and don’t have many teeth, and they are very polite and inquisitive. Apparently one volunteer was the first white person a Sri Lankan had spoken with! Strange...there are white people in all of the advertisements and on television, but they are so rare here except for the touristy areas, so everyone becomes very excited when they see one of us magical TV people. I feel like I am in a parade while walking down the street—everyone is gawking at me as I smile radiantly and wave at small, entranced children. I should throw candy.

WILDLIFE UPDATE!
Still no monkeys, but I have seen some interesting specimens—fireflies, geckos, small cranes, lots of stray dogs and cows, colorful butterflies, a pretty dead fish, a huge bat, and a monitor lizard!! The monitor suddenly appeared out of the bushes as I was walking down the street, so I leapt out of the way and got a snapshot before hurrying away.

There are also lots of adorable little crabs all over the beach.

This week was the Sri Lankan New Year, so everyone was out getting ready and buying new clothes, but now it is suddenly dead as everyone goes to visit their families and shops close for the holiday. Neighbors brought over sweets last night, and families visit temple and fast and eat at auspicious times to ensure good luck for the New Year.

Well. I made it to Sri Lanka!!

=]

It is amazing, of course.

I arrived Friday, at one in the morning (Sri Lanka time, which is 12.5 hours ahead of Pacific time), then took a taxi to my hotel. I ended up arriving at three in the morning, but couldn’t fall asleep because I was so excited/freaked out. My hotel room was sweltering hot, so as soon as I safely arrived I stripped down.

Then, I heard a knock on the door.

I called out, “Who is it?”

“Housekeeping.”

Housekeeping? At three in the morning?? I put all my clothes back on, and my mind started to race. Did some creep see me arrive and try to pretend they were housekeeping to get in my room? I tried to dial reception to ask if they had sent someone up, but couldn’t figure it out. I glanced around the room to find something to beat him with if needed, then braced myself to face a knife-wielding stranger.

I opened the door and found the small, skinny porter who had led me to my room. He was about a foot shorter than me and did not appear to be armed, so I breathed a huge sigh of relief. He quickly walked in my room, turned on my air conditioning, and bid me good night.

God bless that little man!!

I slept quite comfortably for about four hours, then was wide awake. I had been told I might have to spend the weekend by myself in Colombo, so I tried to plan out my day. I was too afraid to wander around town much by myself, but decided I would give it a try in a few hours.

Luckily my travel advisor, Gishan, arrived at about nine in the morning and asked if I would like to go meet my host family. I readily agreed. He drove me from Colombo to Panadura, about 23 km.

Let me tell you, the people here drive craaaazzzaaaayy. I was gripping the door the entire way. No one seems to pay much attention to the lanes, and there doesn’t appear to be a speed limit. They often don’t yield to pedestrians, and everyone is honking and bicycles are zipping in between cars. It is quite the experience.

I met my host mum, Lakshmi, and she served me a delicious lunch. Indian food is my favorite type of cuisine, and Sri Lankan food is very similar, and also very hot. I am constantly sweating here, but even more so at mealtime.

After lunch Gishan took me to a small talk on diabetes testing in hill camps, which I will be doing in a couple of weeks. I met three other volunteers who also worked in medicine, and they said they went traveling every weekend. They invited me to come to Hikkaduwa--a touristy beach near Galle in the south--with them this weekend, but I was too exhausted. I will definitely go traveling with them next weekend, though.

After the talk I slept, got up to eat dinner, then slept some more. Yesterday morning one of the Projects Abroad directors, Charlie, came to pick me up and introduce me to another volunteer who arrived about the same time I did. We went to Blue Water Hotel, a 5-star hotel in Wadduwa, and paid to use their swimming pool. It was amazing. The pool was the perfect temperature, and was surrounded by palm trees and overlooked the beach.

Then we took a walk around the beach.

Absolutely gorgeous.

After that we just laid out in the sun for a couple of hours before heading home.

I think I am going to love it here.

T-minus 24 hours, 20 minutes until take-off

Received my passport and now useless Indian visa this morning and immediately made flight reservations for tomorrow:

Leave Seattle at 11:50 am, transfer planes in Vancouver, transfer again in Hong Kong, quick stop in Bangkok, arrive in Colombo at 12:40 am.

Entire flight time: 24 hours 30 minutes. Such an improvement on my original 32 hour long flight... and no visa requirements, I made sure of that.

Now to start finalizing my journey and finish my packing. Yay!

Trip Delays and Metaphysical Reflections

I'm feeling pretty down today.

=/

I am supposed to be on a plane headed toward New York--ultimate destination Colombo--at this time, but obviously that isn't happening.


But don't worry! The trip is still on....just slightly delayed. I just don't have any flight tickets at the moment.

The Indian visa was delayed. A Briggs, supposed passport "expeditors", gave me inaccurate information while I was filling out my visa application and didn't alert me that there was a problem. I found out while checking my status online and immediately made the needed corrections. According to their claim of processing taking 7-9 days, I still would have had time to get my visa before leaving Seattle at 7 a.m. this morning.
Well, turns out it's the embassy that requires 7-9 days of processing, so sending the info to A Briggs just takes even longer. And once the info is submitted to the embassy, there is nothing that can be done.

Government jobs suck the souls out of their employees.

Seriously, just think of the DMV.

You want to die when you go there.
I would rather hang out at a funeral home...at least those people pretend to care about you. There is actual emotion there...not this empty vacuum of soullessness, occupied by people who attempt to make you as miserable as they appear.


Well. That's enough dwelling on soulless bureaucracry.

In the grand scheme of things, a few days delay shouldn't make much of a difference.
I'm just stuck at the moment, waiting until I get my passport back before I schedule my next flight. I'm aiming to leave this Thursday the 7th and arrive in Sri Lanka the 9th. I will probably fly through Hong Kong instead of India this time, so the visa will be useless unless I decide to make a weekend trip to India. Bleh.

At least I've learned a valuable lesson: always check the visa requirements of not only the countries you are going to, but the countries you transfer flights in.
And now you've all learned from my mistakes, too! Yay.

Also, I have more time to learn some useful Sinhalese phrases before my trip, and more time to recover from a two week long bout of bronchitis.

Everyone has been telling me that maybe it's meant to be this way.

Maybe I wasn't meant to be on that flight today. Maybe it will go up in flames and I am avoiding a dreadful, painful death.
Or maybe today's flight will go smoothly, and my new flight will go up in flames. Maybe I'm meant to die on the next flight. Who knows.

I'm not afraid to die, but god, can't it wait till after my trip? Like on the flight home??

OK, I'm jumping to the worst possible scenario, I realize this. I'll probably be fine either way. It's just nice to think that when things don't go your way, there is some great plan behind it all, and that things will actually be better this way.

I like to think that each life follows its own unique formula that was put in place to keep the good and bad in life in some sort of balance. I mean, a mathematical model can be used to describe so much in the world. The movement of just about every particle--to a certain extent--fits into a calculus equation. Maybe our lives are the same. The orbits of the planets, the life of a star, the trajectory of space junk can all be explained with a mathematical model. Throughout time people have looked to the stars to tell their futures, but maybe they really should have been looking into the mathematics behind the movements of the stars, which is the driving force behind the universe and the simplest way to explain complex phenomena. Rather than focusing on the stars, they should have focused on the mathematical models that rule their exsistence, because perhaps our existence also follows some sort of formula that can be worked out.

Only the Great Mathematician in the Sky knows for sure.

Wow...went off on a bit of a tangent there. People find such weird ways to comfort themselves and justify their circumstances, don't they?

I am obviously no exception. But at least I feel a bit better.