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.