Week 5 - Exploring the City
- Dec 6, 2017
- 6 min read
Five weeks really have flown by so quickly. This means I am most likely around one tenth of my way through this amazing adventure! I cannot believe time has gone so quickly, and whilst I wholeheartedly feel settled, this week came with a few regrets of not having made the most of my time here in Wattala – seeing the sites and going out to explore.
I have loved (almost) every second of my time here, and looking back on this last week to write this post has made me realise I honestly would not change a second of my experiences and what I have done with my time after school. It has been a great opportunity to meet the local people, and members of the church and get to know them as people, rather than the projects The Dust Project helps. Getting to know them, where they live, their wider families and life to me was one of my aims for this trip; getting to know the REAL people, and having an honest connection with them. I am pleased I have managed to do this, but my lack of exploring the local area really did frustrate me earlier this week.
School was as usual this week, with me taking on Shalom Class a couple of days solo again, which had its hurdles and difficulties, but overall very rewarding. I feel like I have honestly bonded with the teenagers, and perhaps this is something I can gain confidence in from this trip. Usually anyone over the age of 11, who happens to be my height (not difficult) or over, is someone I would avoid at all costs. Being thrown into a class full of 15-16 year olds has definitely got me over this. I have done it, and survived! I only have 2 more days from writing this post with them – sadness is definitely an emotion I am feeling; I have grown to love them!
After a fun start to the week, we were hit with torrential rain and winds, and half-day powercuts. News Channels were blowing up with the coverage of the disasters, including landslides, sea tornados and floodings as worst case scenarios. Throughout Sri Lanka there were deaths and missing people – some of whom almost a week later have still not been found.
Here, it seems the country is not well enough equipped or prepared to deal with this type of weather, which seems completely ridiculous as there is regularly heavy downpours, thunder and lightning and cases involving flooding. Whilst this time the effects from the weather are not as bad as they could have been, it did make me consider the government’s role in helping the people who have been left with nothing. All it would take, is for the government to pump back into the country the money they have gained from the last few years of tourism, into the local people – putting in proper sewage systems, reinforcing power lines, making sure drainage runs in the heavily built up areas, and offering help to those who are stranded during this extreme weather.
Many of the people living near to me, are living in make-shift villages. Where there is a main lane, and from this road, there are little side roads, coming off – much like a rabbit warren; there is self-dug, open waste streams (no toilet waste, as cesspits are dug), no real drainage systems and poor access. Anyone who is at the bottom of the road, far out, during this weather has no chance of getting anywhere. No tuk-tuks travel this far down, and it is not safe to wade through the water that has gathered along the track – who knows what could be in it.
Due to this weather, school was cancelled on Thursday, and we had a day of complete freedom, which was very much needed – however, as the only person in the school, who had never experienced a night of thunder, lightning and rain like the previous night, I was completely unaware that school would be cancelled. It was a nation-wide cancellation of school, and it seemed every student and teacher was overjoyed of this news. After getting ready, showering and eating my breakfast as fast as Usain Bolt runs the 100m, I was then told by my house-mate, who is also a teacher at Paalam International School of this news! I definitely would have taken an extra hour or two in bed had I have known.
Despite school being cancelled I still had a fantastic day. It rained continuously all day, and even the rain couldn’t dampen my mood. It was my friend Nisha’s birthday, and she gave me my first insight into what a real Sri Lankan birthday celebration involves. In Sri Lanka, it is not like the U.K. – on your birthday, you bless everyone you know, and you do not expect to receive gifts or cards from family and friends. It is your turn to bless those around you. I went on a birthday shopping spree with Nisha; buying food for the evening celebrations, cake to be cut amongst a few other essentials for any Sri Lankan party. Sri Lankan parties RULE! My first of two birthday parties this week – Nisha’s on Thursday (30/11), and Niro’s on Tuesday (05/12) – two sisters, two parties, two cakes and two sets of photoshoots.
I even had my first experience of being in a chicken shop, hearing the chicken we would be eating for dinner cluck, be killed, and diced up in front of me. Definitely not something I wish to experience again. I was asked to hold the bag, full of warm chicken meat… Not cool.
After school being cancelled on Thursday, Friday very conveniently was a POYA day (national bank holiday due to the moon). Another day off of school, and a chance to re-cooperate and relax with my housemates. We slept in late and wandered around the house for a while. Me and Tharshini made pancakes, with lots of Golden Syrup. Yum, yum, yum. The house was an absolute mess, having not been cleaned for quite some time, and with the dust in Sri Lanka, we knew it needed to be done. It’s a fairly large house, with 6 bedrooms and lots of communal areas, the house took over 5 hours to clean. Had we been cleaning it regularly as we should do, it would have been done in under 2 hours.
Poya is traditionally used to spend time with family and friends, and so we then headed to Niro and Nisha’s house for the afternoon. I spent most of my afternoon playing with Abiyuth, who I really think is beginning to warm to me. We played lots of card games, including UNO, which I managed to pick up at the super market for 580r/s (about £2.70).
Saturday I decided an adventure was waiting for me. I took Tharshini and Kobika out with me, and we headed to Colombo to explore. It was definitely a good decision, and I am so glad we made the effort to do something. We visited Buddhist and Hindu temples, meditation centres, sights of the city and of course, KFC. As I have a residency visa, I managed to get in free to all the sights, whereas a tourist always has to pay – winning! Half-way through our wanderings, with still so much more to see, we were hit, after 12 hours of no rain, absolute torrential weather. Standing on a pontoon in the middle of a lake, and being hit with the immediate force of the weather was not something I would rush to experience again! Fighting against the rain, wind and other tourists to get a Tuk-Tuk home did not go well, and finally managed to catch a ride home after looking like drowned rats.
I also discovered a new favourite past-time whilst out and about – checking out the slogans on the back of Tuk-Tuks. The errors of cliché sayings, turn them into something even more hilarious…
Again we spent an evening this week playing the new board game I encountered last week, alongside card games including President and a variation of Rummy. I love spending time with people, and I feel that playing games brings you closer to others without having to communicate with words. As the language here for me and those I am around a lot of the time is not common, playing games is a great way to spend time with them. We have been hanging out with a lot of the teenagers and young people from church at the weekend in the evenings, and it is great to finally begin to get a good set of friends and support network around me here in Wattala. Looking forward to seeing what week 6 brings me!
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