I thought I would write about some small observations about life in Sri Lanka.
Sorry no pictures tonight, the internet is too slow. Downloading pictures would take a million years.
1. The head wobble;
When people are listening to you they wobble their head from side to side. As far as I can tell, its a sign they are listening to you, or saying yes, yes. Its really quite funny. It reminds me of a bobble head doll that sits on the dash board of your car. They do it A LOT. I noticed that some of the ex-pal ts and white people who have been here a long time have adopted this body language. It still makes me smile when I see it. Sometimes the person who is listening will do it the entire conversion.
2. Crazy road traffic
I still can't get over the traffic here. It seems like total madness; motorcycles flying past, buses driving down the center of the road honking for other vehicles to get out of their way (even on-coming traffic), cyclists weaving in and out, pedestrians walking between the cars. Don't get me wrong the traffic in Bangkok was much more congested, but it seemed to have more rules. Here, anything goes. As I am mostly a pedestrian, walking home from the hospital in the evenings, I need to pay attention to my surroundings. Pedestrians do not have the right of way, and vehicles will just honk at you to get out of their way. Watch out! I tired walking with my headphones on one evening, but quickly decided that was not a good idea.
3. Shall I have rice and curry for dinner... or curry and rice?
What do you mean you want something other than rice? This is the look I get from people when I ask restaurants if they have something other than rice on their menu. I can not understand how people do not get tired of eating the same meal everyday?! Most Sri Lankans eat rice 3 meals a day; breakfast, lunch and dinner. Typically a meal is ordered something like this: you choose meat or fish, the amount of spice, and they add a "few" (and I mean a few vegetables; usually one small carrot or potato is grated into the rice, other times its just an onion). Variety of the meal consists of the sauce they use to cook to cook the meat with. If you order noodles instead of rice, they are usually cooked with the same spice and flavoring as the rice. According to my taste buds its just another form of rice.... its not like you are getting something different. The noodles they use are the ones you get from a Mr.Noodles package and are therefore not very tasty. When you ask for extra vegetables they give you one more grated carrot. Lately I have been going to the grocery store after work to buy some fruits to make life a little more interesting. I usually bring home a pineapple, which I cut up and add to my rice. This has made things much more appealing.
The grocery store is not what you seen in North America. Its more like a large convenience store, that has the basics. Again, there is not much variety to the fruit and vegetables. Some days they don't have my prized pineapple, only a few sad looking bananas and apples. The vegetables are not fresh looking. Since I cannot peel most of them or have assess a stove to cook them, I avoid them all together. I don't need to catch a parasite.
4. Coffee
Once again, this country is not known for their barista skills. This morning I swear I could see the bottom of my coffee cup; the coffee was so weak. It was even lighter than some tea I have had! When I asked for extra strong coffee in the afternoon, it wasn't any different. Sigh. I guess good coffee will have to wait until I return to Canada.
5. Being a minority... big time!
I am one of the VERY few white people in this area (perhaps only one). I am possibly the only blonde. When I walk home from the hospital, or take a walk in the evenings a lot of heads turn and look at me. I have seen a few motorcycles serve, as the drivers rubber-neck to check me out. I very often get men yelling "hello Madame! Where are you from? What country?" Or I just get laughs and stares. I know they are not trying to be rude, its just curiosity. Even at the hospital, as I am going down the corridors I get long stares and I can feel people talking about me.
6. Geckos
I have 3 geckos who live in my hotel room. They hang around the window and when I move the curtain usually one scurries away, which gives me a little fright. At first they freaked me out a little bit. I told guys at the hotel about them; they simply suggested I change rooms. However, when I did this, there were just as many in the next room. So I have kept my original room (I has a window, the alternate room did not). I have given up on trying to live without the geckos. Instead I see them as a way to control the mosquitoes. I figure, if they leave me alone, I will leave them. I asked one of the clinicians at the hospital if geckos bite; he said no, they usually stay away from you. However, he did mention their saliva is poisonous if they lick your food or water. He suggested to leave all food in zip lock bags or leave out some water for them to use, that way they wont be attracted to my stuff.
7. Mosquito's
I am not sure what it is about this area of this country, but Vavuniya has some wicked mosquitoes. Initially I had tired to stay out in the evenings, to enjoy the last few hours of daylight, but that quickly stopped. I was eaten a live by the bugs! They even bit through my clothes. One night I had a tone of bites on my butt! Can you imagine? Tasty! Since I do not relish the idea of being infected by malaria or dengue fever I have committed to staying in my hotel room during dusk and dawn. The most maddening thing, is that the native Sri Lankans do not seem be bothered by the bugs. Its just the foreigners. I talked to Michael (an Irish man living here) about this, and he found the same problems with the bugs. At least its not just me. He told me he stays in doors until about 7 or 8 pm, then the bugs die down.
At night I plug in my mosquito repellant machine. Its a small electrical device that heats up a pellet of mosquito prallethrin. It is deters mostiquos for about 12 hours in a room. I find that it works surprisingly well. I also purchased a spray can of industrial strength bug repellent. I spray down the cracks of the windows and doors every other day... just as an added precaution. The construction here is not that good, and so there are very large cracks between the windows and the window frames. Same goes for the doors and the door frames.
These are just a few observations. I will likely add some more as I stay here longer.
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