Vavuniya

My monkey friends

Due North, heading to Vavuniya

After a little bout of food poisoning on Sunday night I was not too happy about the idea of bouncing around in the mini van for an afternoon with Mary and her driver. I knew the roads wouldn’t be smooth, combined with the way people drive in Sri Lanka, I wasn’t sure my stomach could handle the tossing about. My trip on the train to the SLSPO in the morning was difficult enough. I knew I would faint soon because I was seeing nothing but blackness. Since there weren’t any seats, I had to sit on my haunches until we got to Ragama. David and Hanna offered to carry my luggage up to the school when we got to the station. Ugh, not fun.

prayer flags

After a morning at the school, Mary and I left for the north part of Sri Lanka, where I would be spending the next 2.5 weeks. According to Mary we would arrive in Anuradhapura after 4 or 5 pm, stay there for the night and continue to Vavuniya in the morning. We arrived at 3:15 pm; Mary said this was record time, as the roads had recently been resurfaced. I slept the whole way up, and I felt a million times better. I awoke once during the car journey to see an elephant on the flat bed truck in front of us. Mary said it was likely being transported to a construction site. Apparently they use elephants like we use cranes to move heavy objects. I felt sorry for the poor elephant, as it was chained to the truck and was wobbling back and forth. The poor thing must have been scared.

3rd or 4th century Buddha

After arriving at our hotel and dropping our things off, we made our way over the ancient city of Anuradhapura. It is a sprawling complex of ancient wonders, crumbling towers, and grand Buddhist temples all mixed together. The grounds were huge and we had to drive from one ancient ruin to another. Mary pointed out a few varieties of flowers and species of birds along the way. We also saw some monkeys running around the grounds. The gardeners at Anuradhapura were preparing for the national holiday that would be taking place on Wednesday. Apparently there would be a huge celebration for the full moon, which is a national holiday The grounds were very barren looking, and not many "gardens" to speak of. Apparently there has been a drought, so there wasn’t much greenery to speak of. A few flowers on trees but that was about it. Not like the parks we are used to in Canada.

We stayed at a hotel called Boa Vista. It was a nice place over looking a "lake" (pond really). Mary is friends with the hotel owner, so we were received with open arms and had dinner with the owner. The hotel is run by a Sri Lankan couple who had lived in Canada for 25 years, but decided to open the hotel for some additional income. Sadly, the hotel was not as successful as they had hoped. Now, the wife is running the hotel, while her husband is working in Canada. The wife was spoke to us about the difficulties of running a hotel in Sri Lanka. She said that tourists expect the prices of hotels and food to be as cheap as in India. This is not a reality in Sri Lanka, because it is technically an island, with island prices. The rising cost of fuel, food, and electricity have had a huge impact; especially for those who are only making a few dollars a day. A lot of travelers are using the Lonely Planet book as reference for prices and hotel costs, but since it was published in 2009 it really isn’t a correct or fair estimation. The owner said traveler’s constantly feel as though people are ripping them off because of the Lonely Planet, but this isn’t true considering the economy today. Tourists arguing about 1 or 2 dollars, which is a huge difference in the lives of some of these people.

We awoke the next day at 5:30 am, so we could be on the road to Vavuniya at 6:30 am, to arrive at 8 am. As we drove further north, I began to see a strong military presence throughout the country-side. There were check-points along the roads, where guard could pull over cars to be searched at radom. Guards could be seen walking down the roads in their uniforms, with guns slung over their shoulders. We were stopped once along our journey to have our car searched. When the guard opened the sliding door of the van and saw two white faces peering back at him we were waved on. I was told that the Tamil conflict has mostly been stopped, and a lot has been done to control conflict over the last couple of years. The situation with the Tamil LTTE is considered to be stable so the military presence has been greatly reduced over the last few years and most of the NGO’s have left the area. Nevertheless, while in town one day, I saw a jeep with "landmine clearing" written across its doors. For the most part things look pretty normal in the rural town of Vavuniya, and you wouldn’t suspect it was under heavy conflict a few years ago. However, when I am in clinic seeing patients this is a different story.

Flower offerings at the temples

We arrived at the clinic for 8 am. Mary introduced me to the P & O staff and we took a tour of the clinic and technical areas. Following this, meetings were arranged for me to meet the new orthopedic surgeon on staff (he just finished his training in the UK and appeared very keen and interested in the P & O department at the hospital) and the Hospital’s chief of staff. Later in the morning I assisted the other clinicians with 3 orthotic assessments and prescriptions. We saw one little girl, and 2 adults who were victims shell blasts.
The chief of staff at the hospital is very interested in statistics, so the P & O department were encouraged to keep track of who they are seeing, what they are seeing them for, and their pathologies. I believe the statistics are something like this: In 2011, 198 prosthetic patients, 220 orthotic patients. Greater than half of both P & O patients were a result of war accidents or landmines. I was surprised to see that there were more orthotic patients. I would have expected to see the opposite. I think I will have the opportunity to see a wide variety of patients and my time at the clinic will prove to be interesting. The orthopedic surgeon said to me "you will see all sorts of surprising and inhumane things people survive in this 3^{rd world country".}