Most of this “edition” was prepared
in the first couple of days of Feb but it’s been finished off in the last week
of Feb so if some things are a little confusing time wise that’s why.
When our last update went to air we
were heading out the door for a trip south to the Elpitiya/Ratnapura areas
(inland) and Kalutara on the coast. Well,
once again things didn’t quite turn out as we had planned.
Appointments had been made for the
Monday and Tuesday for visits to two contacts and a brother and his family. Three visits in two days doesn’t sound like a busy program
but there was quite a lot of driving to keep each of these three appointments.
We’d set aside the Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday (28th - 30th) as the second of our
monthly three-day breaks and booked accommodation on the coast at a place called
Kalutara (half way between Colombo and Galle).
That plan had us leaving Kalutara on the Friday 30th for a
three-hour trip home.
To cut a long story short we had hoped
to visit Terrence, a 20 year old who has completed the Bible Correspondence
Course and who wants to do further Bible study.
He lives miles from anywhere on a private tea estate but we felt the
level of interest he shows made the time and effort it would take to visit him
worthwhile --- and after all, that’s what we are here forJ.
However things didn’t quite work out as we’d planned.
We received late advice from Terrence that he and his family were
attending a wedding and wouldn’t be home for a couple of days.
So Monday fell flat and left us asking ourselves the question which
we’ve asked many times over the last 15 months – “what are we doing
here?”
Our second appointment was for Tuesday
morning with a chap at yet another remote location and who isn’t on the phone.
We had written well in advance to say we were coming and asked him to
call us if it was not convenient. We didn’t hear back from him so set off in
the belief that the appointment was okay. We
had no instructions as to how to find him and as we travelled we found fewer and
fewer people who could speak English and help us with directions.
To again cut a long story short we eventually found his address only to
be told “he is not here, he is in Colombo, this is his postal address only”.
Oh how f..r..u..s..t..r..a..t..i..n..g..!
He hadn’t been south for a week or two and therefore hadn’t received
our letter and of course hadn’t rung. We’d
travelled for a total of six to seven hours under hair-raising conditions only
to find that he lives in Colombo – a mere one hour fifteen minutes from
Negombo! Suddenly it seemed that
our trip south was going to be an absolute waste of time with both of our
“priority visits” falling through. So
once again we were asking ourselves “what are we doing here?” Aaugh!
But what was weird was the
circumstances we found ourselves in. As
a result of the current Buddhist/Christian unrest we try to keep a fairly low
profile both for our own sake and for the sake of the people we visit,
particularly those who live in remote areas where there is more likely to be
trouble. It is hard of course to be
a white couple in a remote SL village and to not be noticed.
In the car that day we had been discussing precautions including the
need to make sure our Bibles are not visible when we walk from our car to a
person’s house. On this
particular occasion here we were, a white couple travelling through a series of
remote villages, having to constantly stop and ask for instructions to this
address only to find that the address was -
- - a large Buddhist temple complex!
Update
24 Feb. We’re pleased to report that the tension between the
Buddhists and Christians seems to have settled a little in the last two weeks.
The police arrested ten men who have been identified as the ring-leaders
for the troubles that occurred and since then things do seem to have quietened J. During their rampages which occurred between mid December and
mid February they managed to burn a number of churches and the bomb and burn the
World Vision offices.
The other remarkable things we saw that day included:
· a chappie who had just found a hand gun on the road, had picked it up and was looking totally gob-smacked as he held it in his hand!
· the thong shod road maintenance team of four people, one of whom was pouring HOT, melted bitumen on the road surface from his tin bucket while his three female colleagues shovelled sand over the hot bitumen to stop it being flicked up by passing vehicles;
· the two pet dogs who freely roamed the dining room of the hotel that we were staying at;
· the fly buzzing around on its back on Ken’s (unused) bread plate in the same dining room (at breakfast time);
· the presentation of Ken’s breakfast of fried eggs. The dish arrived with two eggs with the yolks placed as eyes, pieces of tomatoes appropriately cut and arranged to form a mouth and nose and pepper eyebrows and moustache. Perhaps a great way to present breakfast to a seven-year old but for an adult ….?
· a man scaling the coconut palm just outside our 2nd floor room. Dorothy had just whipped into the bathroom for a quiet minute or two and Ken called out, “you’d better hurry, someone is about to peer through the window” and sure enough, all of a sudden, Dorothy could see a face. The quiet minute or two turned into a rushed 30 seconds!
·
a bundle of cinnamon sticks 1.7m long!
The only cinnamon sticks we’ve ever seen before are the ones you see in
Coles/Safeway and they of course are only 6cm long.
Thankfully not all our plans were frustrated as:
·
we did manage to visit Bro Indra and his family at their home (again a
long way from no-where) and spent a very pleasant afternoon with Indra and
Kumari his wife, their two teenage boys and his mother who lives with them.
In response to our question regarding Indra’s siblings we were told
that “there were 14 fellows in all but there are only seven fellows left”.
The first child died at birth and --- the second was born on an
“inauspicious date” so was given away at birth!
Apparently it was/is believed that a child born on this particular
date would kill its father if he/she touched the father’s knees so the only
solution was to give him/her to someone else to raise!
Indra recognised and commented on, in no uncertain terms (using a very
unpolished Aussie slang phrase!!), the stupidity of this.
Auspicious
dates and times are held in high esteem here in SL.
It is quite common to read in the paper that a certain event will take
place on a certain auspicious date and at an auspicious time --- such things as
the opening of a bridge; the re-commencement of a bus run or the introduction of
a new timetable; a wedding, etc. This
results in events being organised at the oddest times.
Recently we drove past a new bridge that was being opened at the
“auspicious time of 2.47pm” (or similar).
·
during our three-day break we were able to make alternative arrangements
and still visit Terrence the 20 year old we had planned to see, but on the
Friday, not the Monday. This meant that our last day away was going to be a long one
as it involved much more driving than is comfortable and a couple of hours with
Terrence and his family. They live
about 90km from where we stayed on the Thursday evening.
When it took us an hour to do the first 20 kms we were feeling pretty
daunted. However the road then
improved significantly (it needed to!!) and the traffic thinned out a bit so the
journey from the coast to their inland home on a tea plantation wasn’t so bad
after all. We arrived at their home
at about 12 noon and stayed until about 4.00pm.
The five-hour trip back to Negombo was pretty hair raising at times and
the last two hours were in the dark – which is really challenging.
We arrived home at 9.00pm absolutely whacked --- but safeJ
--- and with two of our three proposed visits having occurred.
Left or
right? While we were
home in Oz some of you asked “do they drive on the left in SL” and we
confirmed that yes, they do. We’d
now like to make a correction – our response was misleading.
They drive on both sides of the road – literally. It’s pretty dangerous and scary at times.
A couple of times on the way home (and most times we go out) Ken had to
actively evade on-coming buses etc that were overtaking other vehicles and were
well onto our side of the road. Not
only were they on our side of the road but they were going full pelt and
didn’t make any attempt to slow down or move back to their own side.
Invariably it means heading for the edge of the road, the gravel verge OR
the grass!!
The main
road between Colombo and Negombo has a median strip (ridges of concrete 200cm
long set at a 45 degree angle in the middle of the road) and often drivers just
cross over and drive full pelt down the wrong side of the road.
At the same time someone else may be driving on the wrong side along the
non-existent kerb.
Thursday 5th February saw a total of 13 in attendance at the BTSD program; of these 10 people were contacts. It is our opinion that it was the best of the best of the BTSDs J. The program covered:
ü The dead know nothing.
ü Speaking in tongues and healing – is it true?
ü What is a Christian? (discussion)
ü
What did Jesus mean? (“The thief on the cross” and “A house of many
mansions”)
Nilanthi (one of the contacts whom we
referred to in the last edition of Negombo News) invited Betsy, one of her
“Bible friends” along and Betsy in turn invited another friend Sriyanthi. Another couple (Duncan and Therese) whom we hadn’t seen
since September as they have had a series of Ozzie visitors staying with them
since December also came. Neil, who
didn’t make it last time as he’d hurt himself when he fell off his bicycle
and told Dorothy “I have the bandaids” also turned up again.
By the time the day’s program got under way we found that in our lounge
room we had a number of people who were connected in some way or another.
Duncan and Neil knew one another but hadn’t seen one another for 30
years! Neil also knew Nilanthi’s
friend Betsy and her friend Sriyanthi, as they go to the same Assemblies of God
church.
The atmosphere was good, quite a bit of
interaction and discussion; most in attendance were busy turning up Bible
passages during the day and were avidly taking notes.
Discussion followed at the end of the day’s program and the contacts
(with our happy consent) organised what they hope will be a weekly Bible study
in Neil’s home with Ken as the class leader.
We are planning to use the publication “The Way of Life” edited by
Bro Rob J Hyndman (Melb) as the basis for the weekly classes.
It provides notes and scriptural references and discussion starters on a
range of topics.
Update
– 24 Feb:
Unfortunately the class doesn’t look like it’ll “get legs”—at least
not yet! Soon after it was arranged the proposed hosts in whose rented
house it was to be held were told to leave their home.
Since then the husband – Neil – who has been out of work for some
time has taken a position in Dubai. We’ll
have to wait and see what happens but the chance of the class eventuating
isn’t looking too rosy at the moment.
Ari and Ange
Ari and Ange Pickering arrived on
Wednesday 18th Feb and will be with us until Wednesday 3rd
March. They are half way through a
12-month stint in India and came across to renew their Indian visas. We’ve done a hill country trip with them visiting Rajah and
the three boys in Nuwara Eliya and across to Badulla to see Ranjan.
We dropped in at the elephant orphanage again and spent a couple of hours
watching the elephants being fed and then off to the river for the twice-daily
bath. Ange paid the sum of Oz 80 cents to roll up her Punjabi
pants, wade into the river and have her picture taken scrubbing down an elephant
with a coconut shell!! How do you
wash an elephant? A small bit at a
time….!! J
We expect we’ll be back there again in May when David, Marion and
Alexander King join us for a few days on their way to the UK.
By the time we go back to the elephant orphanage with them it’ll be our
fourth visit in approximately 12 months – we think the elephants may soon
recognise us! Ari and Ange are
living it up while they are here. They’ve spent quite a bit of the last six
months in the back-blocks of India so they are really enjoying access to things
like Toblerone chocolate, vegemite and plunger coffeeJ.
We’ve planned a youth program while
Ari and Ange are here. Given
they’re in their twenties and we’re not (that should read “Dorothy’s
not” – K) we thought it a good idea to have them take the running for the
day. If all the young people
(teenagers and early twenties) who have been invited attend on Sunday 29th
we should have about 14 young people here.
There are eight who have accepted the offer to date.
R&R
When we returned for our second year we
planned to take a one-day a week “office holiday” and a monthly three-day
break. Last year we did neither and
were pretty tired as a result. So
far we’ve managed to take and enjoy both of our three-day breaks. We’ve only taken one (or perhaps two) of our weekly days
off but we seem to be managing okay so far.
(Update
- The Feb break isn’t going to happen –– it’s the 24th Feb now
and we have a full program until at least 6th March so we’ll have
to see what we can do after that.)
Our January three-day break was on the
coast at Kalutara and we had comfy rooms and a nice pool.
It was right on the beach but we didn’t go swimming in the ocean as the
waves, which were quite a decent size, were breaking right on the shore where
the sand drops away dramatically – it looked a bit scary. We had a few books and spent the days reading, swimming and
not doing much else. The break was
a bit messed around as we ended up visiting Terrence (see above) on the Friday.
So rather than a leisurely morning and three-hour drive home we were
gone first thing and didn’t get home until 9.00pm – but on the other hand we
booked in prior to lunch on the Wednesday so we caught some extra R&R at the
beginning of the breakJ.
Again, we saw another chappie climbing
the coconut palms. At touristy
places they do so to cut down dead foliage and coconuts – if there are any
(they usually take the coconut flowers so coconuts don’t develop) – to make
sure the tourists don’t get hit on the head by falling missiles.
Elsewhere they do it to harvest coconuts. Needless to say, this career is a tad dangerous.
We described in an earlier edition of Negombo News (months ago) how
these men climb the palms. They use
a loop of rope in which they place their feet.
Then, with a foot either side of the trunk, they push against the trunk
of the palm with the loop and then push their body up; reach skywards with their
hands; grasp the trunk; lift their body another arm’s length.
They then bring their feet up to start the whole process over again.
There is of course no safety harness – horrors.
The other method they use is even more dangerous but we haven’t yet
seen anyone doing it. A number of
palms have ropes slung between them at coconut level.
A man climbs palm number one and then accesses the second, third and
fourth palms by walking the “tight-ropes” between them!
Again, no safety-harness or safety-net.
There was a report in the newspaper about two weeks ago of a chappie who
walked out on one of these “tight-ropes” so some tourists could take some
photos and he fell to his deathL.
Since we returned home and since
writing the above we had a chap up the coconut palm immediately behind our house
(in the neighbours yard) harvesting probably 15 coconuts.
The blind leading the blind
One of the headlines on the front page
of the daily newspaper (Sat 7th Feb) is “Lankans can View Transit
of Venus”. The article advises
that this very rare phenomenon of Venus transiting the sun will take place after
122 years on Sunday. A senior
astronomer told the Daily News that
“Sri Lankans could view it clearly from 5.15am to 1.50pm … wearing dark
glasses”! He may be a senior
astronomer but he’s certainly no eye specialist!
There is not even a hint of a warning of the dangers of looking at the
sun. (Thankfully the day turned out to be overcast – or at least it was in the
Negombo area.
Where
can I park my conveyance?
There are times when we just look at
each other and burst out laughing! One
recent occasion, we were driving from Negombo to Colombo and were approaching
the airport precinct on the main north south highway.
It’s quite a busy road. On
the side of the road we spied the first evidence (a large pile of very fresh
manure) of what we might see. Sure
enough, another 500 metres and there beside two parked cars, three motor bikes,
and a bicycle was an elephant parked by the side of the road!!
Well, what else do you do, if you’re a mahout, with an elephant on a
main national highway?
Elections
The President dissolved parliament
about two-weeks ago and has called an election for 2nd April. It’ll be the third election in four years!
One of the front page articles in today’s paper was a report of the
police calling for the political candidates to not distribute free alcohol and
fire arms in an attempt to “buy” votes.
As the country goes into election mode we are starting to see an increase
in the number of police roadblocks and a greater number of armed police/soldiers
on the streets.
I’ve
been to Australia/Melbourne
As you can imagine we are constantly
asked which country we are from and which city.
In reply to our advice that we are from Melbourne one lady recently told
us that she had been to Melbourne, she’d spent two months there and it is a
v..e..r..y nice place. When we
asked what she saw she told us that she stayed with friends in Rowville and they
had been to Noble Park, Springvale, Dandenong and Chadstone Shopping Centre.
“Oh” we replied, “did you go to Healesville sanctuary, the Dandenongs, the
Great Ocean Road, etc, etc, etc?” “No,
but I did see the Vic Market too” was the answer.
Apparently she had a great time and she thinks Australia is “v..e..r..y,
v..e..r..y, b..e..a..u..t..i..f..u..l”
– so that’s goodJ.
Over
and Out
That’s
our news to date. What’s yours?
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Its been very quiet this first 3 months!!