Easter Sunday

Having not had enough of the luxurious atmosphere of the Chaaya hotel, I decided to return there for Easter Sunday.   I grabbed a tuk tuk from the Green park hotel, and headed over.  On route we passed a funeral procession.  First was a small tracker with a trailer filled with sand, with a man scooping out the sand onto the road behind.  This was followed by a couple of men sweeping the sand over the asphalt, a hearse with a casket hanging out the back door, and ended with men following behind the vehicle.  I was told the sand is believed to stop the spread of bacteria that the decaying body would produce.  

I spent the day reading my book and people watching by the pool.  When I grew tired of this, I switched it up for the beach.  Later in the afternoon, as I was packing up for the day, I noticed a huge commotion on the beach.  A large crowd of Sri Lankan men were gathering to bring in some fishing nets.  I had seen the nets being hulled in a couple of times now; I thought it was strange that men would be running over to help, as typically only 30 fish are caught in the nets.  So I decided to investigate.   As I walked over I saw piles and piles of fish on the beach, and more were being hulled onto the shore.  Lots of shouting was going on, as men were sorting out the fish, rinsing them in baskets in the ocean, weighing the baskets and loading them onto a truck.  

The previous day I had struck up a conversation with a man selling souvenirs outside of the Chaaya hotel.  He had asked me what I was doing in Sri Lanka, and I explained my volunteer work.  He quickly pulled out a certificate he had received for his service with the Red Cross during the war and the tsunami. He was very proud of his 7 years working for the Red Cross and was excited to share his experiences. When I was on the beach watching the fishermen pulling in their nets, my friend from the Red Cross greeted me.  He was wearing his Red Cross shirt and had a big smile on his face.  I made a joke about the irony of today’s catch being on Easter; it’s an Easter miracle, I said… but I am not sure he understood my joke, as he is Hindu.  My friend bought some fish, and invited me to come back to his hut to try his fried fish.  He said it would be the best fish I would ever have.  I tried to decline his offer, as I knew how poor he was, but he insisted.  So we went back to his “home” to prepare the fish.  I did not realize his home was the small hut that he sold his souvenirs out of.  (you can see it in the pictures, it is the small wooden shack in front of the pink building… he does not have any access to the pink house in behind).  When I asked where he slept he pointed out a bamboo mat that he rolls out at night to sleep on the concrete floor.  The hut is barely long enough for someone to lie length ways.   

Quickly my friend ran to his neighbors house to get a bucket of water to clean the fish.  He spiced it with some curry, and was already previously salted from the ocean. He cooked it up on a small camping stove outside his home.  

He pointed out two dogs that live outside his place. He said they were his pets.  He had adopted them after they had been dumped in the back alley behind his home.  They were only a few days old, and he nursed them with milk and has been feeding them ever since.  Another very interesting thing he did was neuter the dogs.  This is not a common thing in Sri lanka; stray dogs can be seen everywhere.  The sleep in the middle of the streets and roam the cities for food.  I thought it was very responsible of him.

As we sat and ate the fish he told me about his family which lives in Columbo.  He is trying to save up enough money to bring his wife and 3 children up to Trincomalee.  He also wants to rent out the pink house behind his place, so he can turn it into a souvenir shop.  He has to wait until the lease expires on the current tenant, before this can happen.  My friend from the Red Cross is from a family of 13 children, with 4 boys and 10 girls. He explained that it is the responsibility of the men in the family to ensure the women have a dourly and a house before they are married.  As a consequence, because he was one of the eldest in his family he did not marry until he was 38 years old, (which is quite late for a Sri lankan man), so that he could build the houses with his father and brothers.  

I thanked my friend for the tasty fish and he said to me: “it was my pleasure.  It will be an experience I will remember for the rest of my life”.  It was so sweet of this man to open his house to me, and share a meal together.  Definitely a memorable moment.