Today

16 December 2006
Hello again
I think things are starting to get worked out and the program is getting rolling. My Sinhala is still terrible. I am able to understand more and more each day, but I don’t like to speak it. Next week in Madampe it will only be Roshan and Gamini translating b/c everyone at the CSU (Colombo office) is very busy…the Ministry of Social Services told all the NGO’s last week that the 2007 year plans are due on the 22nd. THANKS FOR THE EARLY NOTICE MSS. Its ssssthhhuper great the way you give people a whole 2 weeks notice to write a yearly plan and buget… we sort of have most of it done but we have to change it into the right format and breakdown the budget into what we will be spending per village. Yeah for paper work…My favorite.
I am driving now pretty well in the villages and in the Madampe area. Sometimes in traffic I get a bit shaky but it is coming. Next Thursday I have to drive to Colombo. I am really not excited. The traffic is not fun in Colombo and it is well crazy. I am not excited at all. Oh well I have to do it sometime…uggg.
Other than that life is just getting fairly routine…..Oh wait there is one thing…So the rat that I scorched while baking cookies apparently came back to my oven…it ran behind my bookshelves the other day as I was sitting doing work. Shenali and I chased it into the kitchen with brooms. It hid under the stove and we banged at the stove and the oven on and stuck things under the oven…but it was no use. That is until Shenali was getting a drink from the fridge and it ran out again. We eventually got it caught in the back room and after quite a bit of jumping and screaming it eventually ran outside….YEA!!!! Hopefully it will not come back.

Poya Day

4 December 2006
Things are going…good I guess. It’s not bad so I guess it is good. Things are hard and I am still frustrated by the fact that I really have no idea how to put what’s on paper into a real situation. Last week we gave some water buckets to the farmers and that was cool. They made ME hand each bucket to the farmers…and they took pictures of each one…it was really weird that they made such a big deal about it but Shiloni tells me that is the norm for people giving gifts. It felt odd but that is ok. I also did a “motivational” power point for our 10 new farmers. It had some of my background in it and some basics of all the work you have to do (Cows don’t get poya day off) and then the fact that it is not just economically rewarding but more deeply (ie being part of the life cycle…a profession one can take pride in…and whatnot) At the end of the presentation for the Koulwewa group (5 of the ten are from KW and 5 are from Kappangamua) one of the ladies spoke for the group and said how grateful they were that we chose them…she was on the verge of tears. It was like wow. I felt so little and not worthy to help them. There is apparently a waiting list to get into our program…I knew there was a list of 10-15 people who would be willing to join… I didn’t however realize it was a waiting list… It was weird.
Anyway the next day we tagged all cows and heifer calves. Bandara, the area livestock development instructor (LDI) did all of them. Kasturi and others helped hold. I helped on a few of the tougher ones. It is a bit hard to balance between being me who wants to show the men that I am just as good and being sensitive of culture. I also feel the need to do some things so the villagers will be able to relate to me better. Anyway, they were very impressed with what little animal handling I did do. Very technical and “brave”...whatever.
Shiloni and I made sugar cut out cookies in the evening unfortunately I have no cookie cutters so we cut them out with knives…nither of us being very good artists…it was…interesting to say the least. But good. They turned out ok.
Jaykumma came on Thursday to fix the Mdmp computer and rode home with us in the van back to Colombo. He was very talkative and Shaloni and I weren’t. So he kept talking. He is fun to listen to when he speaks English b/c its like a little kid. Sometimes I feel bad for laughing “with” him on the inside but he’ll survive. At one point I responded to what he said in a very very fast slang English response. He turned around and didn’t talk for a bit. I think I confused him. Its good times.
Saturday I played ultimate Frisbee with some expats. it was so great. Its Monday now and I still ache…it is an every Sat thing now. How cool is that. Afterwards we all went to Keith’s (after showering that is ) and we had a barbeque. Hamburgers….oh how I had missed burgers…it was so so good. Chenoa and I also got to make mac and cheese…oh how I missed its cheesy goodness. It was a great party with burgers, veggies, mac and cheese and good conversation.
Anyway, today is a Poya Day so some friends and I are going to a hotel for swimming and buffet. Good times.
Also, I have decided to stop taking anti-malarials. Talking with the Dr. at Navajeevana I think I can get by. If I am here for 3 years I might as well get used to it and the Dr. says it isn’t really much of a risk anyway. I might however take some on a short term basis if I go to Mannar which is in the North.
OH ok side note I just thought of. On the way back to Colombo we got stopped at the Colombo bridge checkpoint. Everyone had to get out and show ID. I went to get out and the soldier was like, “sit, sit madam” Grrrrrrr, I know it is youthful idealism, but grrr. Why should I be treated different b/c I am white? I could be bad…I’m not…but I could be. Grrr anyway…
ALSO PLEASE PRAY FOR THE COUNTRY! Another bomb went off in Kullupitiya area Thursday about a 2km from my evening church. The target was the defense secretary. I still do not understand war…it is very confusing…

One last thing…I am going to be putting mass pictures on snapfish…currently I only send the e-mail saying that I put pix up to my family so if you want to see pix leave me a comment on this blog.