April 28, 2014

Just saw a big male monkey walking on the power lines running from my neighbour's place.  I was too slow to get a picture.  This is the first time I have seen one in the area.  I have heard that they come to the neighbour behind me who has all the fruit trees, but have never seen them.  They are dirty and a real nuisance.  But us foreigners still get excited when we see them.

April 27, 2014

Here's one for all those people who consider themselves intrepid runners.  There was a 10K run yesterday here in Kandy.  Now this may not seem like anything to most people.  However, you have to realize that Kandy is very hilly.  The only flat areas are around the lake in the heart of town and along the river.  From there all roads are very steep and twisting.  This run was nowhere near the flat areas.  Add to that the fact that April is a very hot month.  In fact, stinking hot.  Although these people started early in the morning, by the time I saw them at 0900, it was already very hot.  I was sweating just sitting in the tuktuk.  Now comes the kicker.  Almost everyone was running in bare feet.  I only saw three pairs of runners.  The pavement is hot and rough.  There are more pot holes than pavement in some places.  So good for those who ran.

It seems that 10 days or two weeks after new year, a day is set aside for sporting events.  There was the 10K and almost every sports field was full of people playing some kind of games.  They are fun things like an egg toss, pillow fights, three legged running, etc.  In any case, every field was full of participants.  I had no idea that Sri Lankans were so active.

I went out to have a look at the house for rent.  Holy smokes!  Mano wasn't kidding when he said it is palatial.  To begin with, it is huge.  5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms.  The master bedroom is almost as big as the entire first floor in my current place.  There is a proper servant's room with full bath so that makes 4 bathrooms.  All windows are full glass, so no louvres that allow in a lot of dust and bugs.  The floors are tile, marble and wood.  There is a proper garden room with water and drainage.  There are ceiling fans throughout.  The garden is not huge but big enough to do something with.  Luckily, there is no lawn to cut.  The house is build into bedrock which surrounds 3 sides and there is even an area inside the house that uses the bedrock as the wall.  Very attractive.  Huge verandas and covered balconies.  One is big enough to set up a full gym.

The only fly in the ointment is that the kitchen is a disaster.  I could not believe that they left the kitchen in such a state when the rest of the place is so amazing.  I told the owner so and he said he would fix it up however I wanted.

He is contemplating for a couple of days, but it seems that he will agree to a 5 year lease with the rent guaranteed at Rs. 30,000 (C$253) for the first 2 years going up to a guaranteed Rs. 35,000 (C$295) for the last 3 years.  No damage deposit will be asked for.  He will put in a proper kitchen, a wet bar upstairs, finish the 2 bathrooms that are still under construction.  He is currently erecting a 6' parapet wall for security.  Plus the area is regularly patrolled by a security company.

The area is about 6 km. from Kandy town but it has everything I need.  Grocery store, vegetable and fruit vendors, clothing shops, hardware stores.  The best news is that is unlikely there will be power cuts as it is less than a kilometre behind the Provincial Council complex and the huge Buddhist studies centre.  You can bet that the government is going to make sure those places have power and water. Plus there is garbage pickup.  That is huge as I am always struggling with my garbage.

It is much closer to Veenitha, so she only has to take one bus.  The other piece of good news is that it is only 2 km. from my tuktuk driver's house, so I don't have to go looking for a new driver.

Now I just have to wait a couple of days to see if the owner is going to go for all this.  He is most anxious to rent to a foreigner as we have a reputation for taking good care of the property.  So keep your fingers crossed for me.  If it goes through, I will have pictures to post.

April 25, 2014

Welcome to Julia's laundry service.  This morning Veenitha and I took my king size sheets (one fitted and a duvet cover) and hand washed them on my veranda.  I can now add washer woman to my CV.  I have discovered that white is not the best idea here as body oil and sweat make them grey after awhile.  Now after using bar laundry soap and brushing like crazy, I think we have them almost back to white again.  Followed up with a baking soda, vinegar and soap bath in the washing machine.  If they are not white after this, I give up.

Can you see all the mangoes on my tree? Veenitha will be having a real feast.

Termites or something started eating the logs holding up my Buddha statue.  It was in danger of collapsing.  Veenitha suggested using black used car oil to treat the logs.  My tuktuk man came with another guy with a big bottle of the blackest oil you have ever seen.  They treated the logs and the stones beneath and now we are bug free.  The Lord Buddha has been saved by recycled engine oil.  Now that is recycling.

April 24, 2014

We had the block party.  Quite a difference from the others I have been to.  Usually you bring some food, your own drinks and a chair to sit on and that's it.  Not here.  They put up a marquis right in front of my place, rented tables and chairs.  Some of the tables were the round ones with Heineken umbrellas so there was a real cafe atmosphere.  Lights were strung up everywhere along with balloons.  There was a bar set up with wine, beer and hard liquor.  They hired caterers who set up like it was a wedding. There was even an outdoor sink for people to wash their hands.  They made hoppers as you waited and there was a wide variety of curries and salads.  All the chefs were dressed in full white aprons and chefs hats.  Everything was in silver salvers.  And all this for probably under Rs.1000 which is about C$8.

There was music and games; pin the eye on the elephant (you can guess what we call this), musical chairs.  It was nice to meet the neighbours.  One of them who I had already met has been living here since the development began 7 years ago and there were some people she had never met before.  Good on the 3 men who organised things.  Just goes to show when Sri Lankans want to do something, they can really make it happen.

Here are the morning preparations.  I could not take pics at night as I don't have a proper camera.

This is the marquis right in front of my gate.

Everything wound up by midnight so there was not too much disturbance.  I left just after 10.  It was fine, but not everyone speaks English and you can't expect those who do to sit and entertain you all night.  So I watched the games, ate, had a glass of wine and quietly slunk off.

This morning's exercise saw 3 parakeets doing aerial acrobatics.  It was fantastic.

Off to see some new houses on Saturday with my friend Rushma's uncle Mano.  She is Muslim dating an American Buddhist and her uncle is Buddhist married to a Catholic.  That is what I call ecumenism.

April 19, 2014

150 passion fruit later, I have about 5 litres of lilikoi (for those who speak Hawaiian) jam.  One of my favourites.  I used to wait until I got to Hawaii so I could get some.  Now I can make my own.  How great is that!  However, it took about 15 woman hours between Veenitha and I.  I think it was worth it. I have enough for the next year now and still the passion fruit are coming.  Things are slowing down at bit now.  My neighbour gave me a bag yesterday and I gave her a jar of jam in thanks. It is juice from now on.  Love that too plus it is raw.

I have been composting like crazy.  It has cut down my garbage quite a bit.  The last couple of days, my compost is boiling with maggots.  It is gross but apparently very good for the decaying process.  It must be good because since I have been watering and giving compost to my seemingly sterile mango tree, it has sprouted a veritable harvest of mangoes.

Here is what landed on Veenitha's head yesterday.  A lovely female praying mantis.  Here she is on my hand and arm.  She was quite lovely and felt pretty cool walking on me.

The neighbourhood is abuzz with activity getting ready for tonight's block party.  The men are out hanging strings of lights, a bunch of chairs have been delivered.  The only problem is that it is going to take place right in front of my house.  Convenient, but it if goes really late, it may become a pain.  Oh well, it will be nice to meet people.  Good to fit in.

April 17, 2014

I saw a lady turtle dove being wooed by two suitors this morning while I was on the bike.  Very courtly procedure.  The female just sits there while the male bows continuously while trying to get closer to her.  She just seems to ignoring him but if he gets too close, she takes off.  He then pursues her and starts all over again.

Making passion fruit jam today from all the 150 passion fruit my neighbour has given me.  Yesterday we juiced.  What a lot of juice we got.  About 1.5 quarts of pure undiluted juice.  Nectar of the gods. Now let's see now the jam turns out.

April 16, 2014

OMG!  On the way home from the Kawasaki's yesterday coming along the river, we saw a huge monitor lizard.  It was just sitting by the side of the road.  I got my tuktuk driver to stop so I could get a pic, but by the time he did and I got down, another tuktuk had come along and scared it into the grass. This is very close to what it looked like.

I didn't even know that we had these things here.  Thank god they are not dangerous to humans. Apparently you can make them into pets, although I am not a reptile kind o' gal.  Some are even so intelligent that they can count.  Won't be taking the time to teach one, though.

April 14, 2014

Happy New Year!  Today is Sinhala new year.  I was greeted this morning at around 0730 by firecrackers going off all down the street and across the river.  Because I am almost in a canyon here, the echoes were deafening.  I also got a new year text from the president of Sri Lanka.  I can't imagine how much it costs to send a text message to everyone who owns a mobile phone here.  They probably strong arm the government telephone company to do it for free.

It is the practice to bring around Sri Lankan sweets and fruit to the neighbours on new year, so my lovely neighbours, Anruda and Yalani dropped some by yesterday.  The gesture is lovely, but the sweets themselves are bad, very oily and cloying.  But it is the thought that counts.  Sonali tells me that the custom is to return the plate with something on it, so I will get some fruit and return the dish to them replete with banana, papaya and pineapple.

Things have been quiet here.  Veenitha is off for a week for the new year and won't be back until Wednesday, so I have to fend for myself.

I did meet some new people through the Brits I met on Facebook and through the cheese effort.  The one couple, Claire and David have been here 19 years.  He was born here, was a tea planter here, then went to Malawi for a few years and is now back.  I talked to him about acquiring and running a small estate.  His advice is to stay away from tea.  He says that you need to be running at least 50 acres to make it profitable and that it is fraught with problems.  Typically, estates that are sold or leased have been allowed to run down.  It costs millions of rupees to bring them back.  Also, the owners usually let the EPF (pension) payments lapse and then you have to shell out more millions to bring the payments up to date.  So much for tea.  He did think that a small holding planting pepper, vanilla and some other things may work out though.

So on that note, I have spoken to Jayanthi and asked her if I can lease her place at Thalatuoya.  She is going to talk to her brothers and let me know in a couple of weeks.  Keep your fingers crossed.

My newly acquired friends participate in a book club which is really a book exchange which meets once a month at the Citadel Hotel.  I attended my first meeting.  It is quite fun.  I met some new people, one of whom I met for a drink a couple of days later.  She is a Brit also and has been here for 23 years. The setting is great, right on the river.  The hotel has good food, if a bit expensive, and a great pool. Claire usually swims after the meeting, so I will join her next time.  I have been dying to get in a pool.

My little friend Billy Balls showed up for a brief afternoon nap the other day.  I don't know where he is living now, but he is a bit thinner and one of his eyes is a bit messed up probably from being in a fight. I was sorely pressed to take him in, but Veenitha doesn't think it is a good idea.  She is probably right, so I just let him sleep and gave him a bowl of water as it is really hot and dry here at the moment.  Here he is having his nap in the back yard.

It is now also passion fruit season.  My neighbour behind me has at least one tree and they don't like them, so they give them to me.  Here they are.  There are a lot more in the fridge.  Passion fruit, lime, kittul (this is a local tree which is tapped much like a maple) treacle, and tambili (king coconut) water or regular water make a great drink.  I have so many that I am going to try making passion fruit jelly as soon as Veenitha is back.

April 2, 2014

No April Fools Day here, so we were all safe from pranks.
My friends Tom and Terry Lamond gave $100 to buy school clothing and supplies for Veenitha's neighbour's orphaned children. We bought three pairs of shoes, 2 dresses, a skirt and blouse and a school bag.  The kids and their grandmother were so happy, they were apparently weeping.  Thank you so much Tom and Terry.  You have helped three girls stay in school that would otherwise have very little chance.  Maybe they will go on to change not only their lives but the country as well.

Here are the foot tracings for the girls so we could get the right size.

I have finally written all my articles.  A book review for a local author which has been published in Ceylon Today and an article on my experience with that horrible private school which will also be published in Ceylon Today.  Ceylon Today is an English language daily and is one of very few independent newspapers left in Sri Lanka.  Thankfully, I have a friend who is a journalist working for them, so she gets anything I write published.  They have said that they like my writing so I will continue to send them articles from time to time.
Here is the text of my expose on École Internationale.  Needless to say, the school has not be identified by name, nor have I, but if you are thinking an know about the school, you will be able to identify it from the hints in the title and throughout the article.

"

COME TO SCHOOL INTERNATIONAL, THE FACILE CHOICE IN SRI LANKA'S HIGHLANDS!

Are you a parent who would like to send your child to an expensive private school that teaches in English medium? We offer a wide variety of benefits for the undiscerning parent:

• an undisclosed fee schedule
• very little discipline in the class room
• teachers with unknown qualifications
• two campuses in the heart of the Central Province
• poorly equipped classrooms
• dirty and stinking bathrooms
• dusty and poorly kept campuses

There is no need for you to participate in the education of your children as we do not have a parent/teacher association nor do we hold parent/teacher conferences. Just as well, as we have no place with the privacy necessary to have any discussion about your child or your concerns anyway.

If you have a special needs child that you want to dump into a classroom, we will be happy to take him/her without question so long as you are prepared to pay the fee. We regret that we cannot provide any meaningful education or even help for your special needs child, but we are sure you won't mind.

We have no food program nor do we have a cafeteria as we do not care if your child is hungry or not when s/he comes to school. We do offer a canteen service which serves a variety of totally nutrition less deep fried foods and sugar packed drinks and snacks.

In addition to our undisclosed fees, you will also be paying for uniforms, but they are rather shoddy, so they will not cost a lot. Plus the uniform only applies to shirts, skirts, slacks, shoes and socks. You can make use of any old sweater your child has at home if one is required. At least we don't do what some public schools do which is specify even the style and pattern for school shoes. We even know of at least one public school where you can buy these very specific shoes from the principal. He must be making a lot of money off this, so we will look into it. All ideas for fleecing you are welcome.

You will also have to fork over for text books. This may be quite expensive as there is some text book swapping but it is totally unorganized. We know you will understand that organizing a book exchange at the end of every school year is just too much to expect from us.

Are you a student who wants to go to a school that offers very little supervision or indeed education? Then this is the place for you. You can join a gang and carry on gang fights without fear of police interference. We are proud to say that one such fight even landed a student in the hospital for 2 weeks. Needless to say, there were no consequences for the perpetrator.

You can do drugs in the bathrooms. You can attend class or not. The only thing we are likely to worry about is whether girls and boys are kissing or holding hands, but there are plenty of places where you can do that as well. Best of all, we keep no records of your performance so your behaviour and indeed your marks will not follow you for the rest of your life. Of course, you may have difficulty getting into any post-secondary institution, but we are sure you don't care.

On that score, we teach the London syllabus so you have a very remote chance of getting into a foreign school. However, we do not teach the local syllabus which would give you a chance to let into a local school. So at the end your time with us, you will likely have failed to get into a foreign school because our level of education is so bad and you will not get into a local school because we do not offer the required syllabus. We truly wish we had thought up this ridiculous system, but we can't take the credit. That goes to the Ministry of Education.

If you are a power hungry egotistical type that wants recognition for doing nothing at all, we have a great prefect programme. You get to wear the badge, hang around looking important, do nothing and best of all, you can remain prefect or even head boy or girl long after you have left the school.

We ask that you don't bring your cell phones or iPods to school, but we don't really check so you can do what you want.

For that small number of overachievers who do want to do well, you should consider another school. Even if you did manage to get somewhere on your own, we offer nothing in the way of counselling for college or university entry.

Our scheduling is a bit haphazard but again we know you won't mind. We offer the government mandated religion classes. In fact, we are so zealous about this that we waste 5 periods a week on it. No matter that this leaves no room for things like French, Spanish, German, Hindi or any other global language that may be useful to you later on. We do offer classes in Sinhala and Tamil so at least you may come away with a working knowledge of your mother tongue.

If you are one of those small, wimpy or female students, you can be sure we will give you the best experience ever in bullying and harassment. It will be good for you. Toughen you up for the hard cruel world that you will face after school anyway.

We have streamed you into two areas, commerce and science. God only knows why, but there you go. You may also want to note that we don't think that knowledge of computers is important in today's business world, so we do not offer this subject to commerce students.

Many of our teachers are well past any reasonable retirement age but you will like that as they will likely not be able to see or hear what you are getting up to. Plus, many teachers have very little command of the English language in which they are supposed to be teaching, so there is no need to pay attention in class. If a teacher leaves, we take our sweet time replacing them so you get to do whatever you want for months on end.

We have no public address system, so if you do get into any trouble, the grapevine will let you know well ahead of the game so you can skedaddle.

We are the perfect school for the intellectually and physically lazy. We have a virtually non-existent sports programme, so you never have to get sweaty. We could offer you cricket, net ball, basket ball, swimming, tennis, badminton and a few other things, but we are not really bothered. For those who do want to get all dirty and sweaty, we do have a few lame teams: cricket and net ball for sure. You can also play badminton in the gym either between or during other classes, but you have to get that set up on your own.

There are no extra-curricular activities such as music, art, drama, literature, etc. , so you don't have to worry about staying after school.

Are you seeking employment as a teacher? We offer very low salaries, but you will be compensated in other ways. You can come and go as you please. No need to fill in a leave form or to inform anyone of your absence. Just don't show up for work or leave whenever you want to. We don't mind. We ask that you sign in and out, but no-one really refers to these books, or even if they do, nothing is done about it. Of course, if you get on our wrong side for whatever reason, you may be fired without any due process, but that is a small price to pay.

We don't really care about your qualifications. Even if you have some and provide us with some proof, we don't keep any employee files, so they will be useless. Furthermore, we offer no professional development as we don't want to pay for or keep track of it. You will find the atmosphere to be most comfortable as none of your colleagues excel so you will not be in competition with anyone. We have found that no teacher with an ounce of self-respect wants to work for us, so you will be safe from being shown up for the rest of your career.

We may give you a copy of the syllabus, but we don't care if you follow it or not. Don't want to fill out the class record book. No problem. No-one refers to it anyway.

There is no need to mix with your fellow teachers. Staff rooms are tiny, spread all over the campus and are segregated. No-one will supervise your attendance let alone your classroom performance. No classroom preparation is required. Just read from the textbook, or better yet, let the students read quietly from the text while you take a little nap. You never have to see or meet with a parent.

The principal is a very nice person. His only concern is hiding in his classroom which is fine as we don't provide him with an office in any event. He is hardly available to provide assistance or even to administer the school, but the flip side of that is that he will not be getting in your hair. We do have a director, but she is dotty so you can either ignore her or use her as a tool for undermining those of your colleagues you don't like.

For those of you who are looking for an investment opportunity and feel that private for profit education is your ticket, we are worth considering. All our financials are looked after by a firm in Colombo. They are obsessed with your privacy so that no-one will ever see any financial records. We are sure that the books are well kept as the same firm that does our accounting also does our auditing so that nothing gets by them. But the good news is that we recently hired someone who has an intimate knowledge of how to assist in scamming millions from foolish investors, so your money will be safe in our off shore bank accounts.

We feel that this is an especially good investment for those who are looking for a capital loss vehicle. We have lost about 500 students in the last 3 years, so that if you need any financial offsets for your vast income, we can provide them.

Once you have made your initial investment, it is unlikely that we will be asking for any more. Despite our large profit margin, we do not bother with any capital reinvestment. You will be happy to hear that we make use of all our furniture and equipment until after it falls apart and in some cases even after that. We squeeze the last value out of every rupee.

Our track record speaks for itself. We have survived in the private education marketplace for a long time. In fact, we are one of the oldest private schools in the country. We have a glorious history that we have been proud to systematically destroy over the last 5 years.

This is a satirical piece on what a private school or any school, for that matter, should not be. If you have a child or are a child who attends a school that has even one of these problems, start doing something about it. No-one other than you is ultimately responsible for your or your child's education. Get involved in your parent teacher associations and you student councils. If you don't have them, then start lobbying for them.

It is the basic right of every child to attend school and get a decent education. In an underdeveloped country like Sri Lanka, such rights are difficult to insure.

Access to universal public education can be restricted by regulation such as mandated but overpriced uniforms. Some schools really do mandate the exact style of shoes that must be worn. Having closed white, black or brown shoes is not enough. They must be of a very particular style. If you don't have the necessary shoes, you are denied admittance to that school which may the be only one in your area. No school supplies are provided. There are very few text books provided. All these things conspire to keep children out of schools making the idea of universal public education a myth.

Teachers are very poorly paid. The very people who hold the future of the country in their hands are so grossly underpaid that they would be better off cleaning toilets for a living.

As illustrated above the notion that private schools can fill the gap is a fairy tale or more aptly, a nightmare. Very few people can afford such schools and even if they can the level of education they provide is questionable.

Furthermore, the policy of Sinhala only has left two generations at a severe disadvantage. The government has started to reverse the tide but there have only been 2 generations of students since the reversal. The first generation of these received no real benefit from language training as there were very few teachers available to teach in English medium. The second generation faired a bit better and improvements continue to be made.

Economic advancement cannot be achieved without education. Failure to redress shortcomings in the education system will leave Sri Lanka as a third world nation for generations to come. Citizens need to start engaging with their schools. It is the most direct and important link in the democratic chain and ultimately in the economic chain as well."

The other big news is that my car has finally sold.  We actually have money in hand, so hopefully nothing more can go wrong.  It has only taken just over a year which is speedy in Sri Lanka time.

I think I have acquired a cold so I have been swallowing the Ayurvedic mixture called paspangu laced with ginger, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, lime and honey.  The latter is a concoction recommended by my friend B-J.  It seems to be working, so thanks B-J.

Visa renewal is still in progress.  Let's hope for the best.  Same goes for finding a small estate to work.  Something should crop up soon.  Ha! Ha!