I find a beauty in doing things cyclically, so I travelled to Galle (Southern Coast) yesterday. The place where this journey all started. I stayed at the Volunteer Project again. The volunteers now are all different - all doctors and medical students. This morning I went back to the elders' home to say bye to the old ladies. Then I went back to Unawatuna Beach - where I spent many days of my first 3 weeks in Sri Lanka.
In these past 3 months, I have shoed off any sketchy looking beach Rasta who has come up to me. However, this time I thought about what harm it could really be just to chat to them. Sorry Mum. I could not believe how wrong I was to judge the ones I talked to today. Four of us had a in-depth, half an hour conversation about Sri Lanka - the government, the war, the future. I did not realise how knowledgable of affairs these beach boys were. The conversation moved to Bin Laden, and this is where I had to write down what one of them said.
"It's OK if you think it's a good thing or bad thing, but don't party. Even here, after Prabhakaran died, it was like Christmas party. But the struggle much bigger than the man you know. It's not right to have party. You know this Osama thing... you can blow up the roof, but the foundation still standing."
After this conversation, I trotted off to the vegetarian restaurant where I was the only person. For the West of the island, monsoon season is starting and the tourist season has ended; opposite to the East coast. I had another rivetting discussion with the owner, who is a London-trained Zen Chef and lecturer on Buddhist Economics. He wants to build houses for war-effected people in the North once the government clearance is given. His brother is a colonel in the army stationed in the North. After assessing my "energy", he came back and presented me with a soft pink moonstone for "more energy" and wished me on my way back to Colombo.
I have just met too many fascinating people on this trip - and I wanted to tie it in with my experiences with one corner of the island I haven't talked about yet - The East.
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The first time I visited the East was in March where I volunteered with Deaf Link's Eastern branches. Travelling through Pasikoda, Batticaloa and Kalmunai, I tried to observe similarities and differences with the rest of the country. Firstly, the East coast is gorgeously lush like the rest of the island apart from Jaffna. There are just miles and miles of fertile paddy fields and serene lagoons, in comparison to the semi-desert of Jaffna. In contrast to Jaffna also, the buidlings are well taken care off with freshly painted coats of bright rainbow colours. Many of these buildings have been rebuilt since the Tsunami. I was happy to see there were no signs of damage from the heavy flooding of earlier this year, apart from the reconstruction of roads going on. It will also strike you that there is a considerably large Muslim presence in the East. People contend that East-coast Sri Lankans are relatively more friendly, and less reserved than those of the North - though they share a common language in Tamil. A theory is that Northern Sri Lankans have had to work harder to gain anything from their dry earth, and this has impacted their social attitudes. For me, the most intriguing difference between the war-effected East and the war-effect North was the number of NGOs. There is a sign for World Vision, CIDA (Canadian Internationl Development Agency) and GTZ (German Development Agency) pratically every 1km. When I visited the homes of families, they informed me that they were provided all their post-flooding support from World Vision. However, it's interesting that I've met even people working for these NGOs who are skeptical about how effective foreigners can really be in spheres of development other than crisis relief-giving. I want to briefly describe some of the local level action going on.
The place where I stayed at for a night was called the "The Ashram for Human Self-Reliance and Meditation". I thought this was a highly commendable project given the presence of four major religions in the country. Though the priest is Christian, he creates sermons that are based on a common spirituality between the religions. Villagers of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianty attend the tranquil gazebo daily to hear his talks. Quite creatively, the floor is a mosaic of different tiles from the various homes of the surrounding villagers. Another lady who is utterly inspiring is Shanthi. I initially met her at the Young Canadians Peace Dialogues - some of you might remember. This time I met her in her office in Colombo, though her work is based heavily in Batticaloa of the East. She has started her own grassroots NGO, actively bringing women into political participation. She creates paraphernalia and drama productions to educate and raise awareness of people's democratic rights; particularly women. Leaflets with comic strips will show village women chatting to one another about how they can use their local authorities. The movement has been so successful in empowering women, that some have even achieved the release of their husbands who have been unjustly held in prisons. I asked her how higher authorities feel about her project, to which she said, that when the authorities cooperate with the local people and address their demands, it is actually better for them because they get re-elected. It's mutually beneficial. For your information also, the Mayor of Batticaloa is a Tamil lady.
And now to Arugam Bay. I feel this should deserve it's own blog entry. Arugam Bay, also in the East Coast, is probably one of the best places I've visited on this trip. It is how I imagine Unawatuna was 15 years ago - before it was colonized by the tourism industry. I did head to Arugam Bay just before the season kicked off - but I still revelled in its unbuilt-up charm. It is a particular hit with surfers worldwide, having staged the International Surfing Association's competition in the Summer of 2004 (before the Tsunami).
Instead of hotels in the Bay, you will find quaint beach cabanas and tree houses. I had never met so many laid back local people who seem to live outside the profit-oriented system. There's been talk about building two 5-star hotels here, which was shut down quickly by locals. However, given the way things work in Sri Lanka, I wonder how long this decision will stand. This question really speaks about the whole of the island and it's direction, given the economic boom it is seeing in the wake of post-war. Money sees enormous potential all over the island.As we sat looking out onto the beach, I had Chamil, the Sri Lankan realist economist and brown environmentalist on one side of me, and Liam, the Irish green environmentalist farmer on the other side. Chamil talked extensively about how the deserted beach we were looking at now would be swarming with hotels and beach resorts and nightclubs within two years time whether we like it or not. Liam was passionately enlightening us about the dangers this would pose to the local people and the environment.
Liam is highly interesting. He volunteered at the same place I did in Galle - but not at the same time as me. Upon visiting the East Coast, he encountered the desperation of so many who seemed hopeless after many foreign NGOs had picked up their bags and left post-war. He says his life in Ireland is beyond great. However, he could not leave here having felt the responsibility to share in his expertise with those who need it. He has over 30 years of farming experience in Ireland, and now is spear-heading organic self-sufficient farming in villages close to Arugam Bay. His mantra is centred on the "Economics of Happiness". (<< I haven't been able to watch the documentary he has insisted I watch yet : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYEvFRQchyw )
Liam is in the process of establishing a volunteer project where you can work in local schools and with villagers and the local farms. If you can speak Tamil - you are even more of an asset, as this is a Tamil-speaking area. I cannot stress how amazing the local area is. You would be close to the beach for swimming and surfing, as well Sri Lanka's emergering most-happening spot. Here is the link if you are interested for the project: http://srilankaorganicvolunteer.com/Penultimate blog! Leaving Sri Lanka tomorrow. Will have my conclusions in the last one.
