Something New

Thursday November 26, 2009

8:36 am

   Due to the lightening and thunder going on as I wrote my previous update I had to shut down my computer and was not able to upload it onto the blog. So here are two updates for ‘you’ to read.

   Yesterday I got in touch with someone to help with the health project and it’s amazing to see this idea slowly coming into a reality. I still have a lot of preparing to do, I visited the World Health Organization yesterday to get some information and resources but apparently their librarian had a day off and might be back today. It’s not too bad that she was not there yesterday it’s just that it took us a good part of the morning just going through Colombo traffic to go there, one of the joys of living in Sri Lanka!  Good news is that I can get some more informational resources from them and the project work continues.

This year I’ve learned a lot about how important connections are, even in job hunting in the US so many people said it’s who you know that can get you into a job. Thankfully I know someone even bigger, the One who opens doors no man can shut and closes doors no man can open, the One who is the source of everything; my Heavenly Father. He provides ways in the wilderness, waters in the deserts, and does new things none can compare.

*Isaiah 43:19

Absurd Paradox

Wednesday November 25, 2009

3:40 pm

       As I write a soft slightly fragrant wind blows through the windows and thunder rolls in the distance. Although the weather has not been as hot as this island can get, the cool breeze is still appreciated. The coconut trees, which surround the house, wave and dance in the yard pushed and pulled by the now stronger wind and rain.  Earlier a family of monkeys could be seen playing high up in the mango and various other fruit trees around the house. One of the baby monkeys hung from its mother’s tail and played mischievously, running up on branch, hitting another monkey then quickly running back down.

Today I went around the city to get some things done and as I sat in the back of the trishaw, three-wheeler, tuk-tuk (whatever you may know it as) dodging cars, lorries, trucks, buses, bicycles, cows, dogs, and pedestrians, I saw places I haven’t seen in years and they still look the same. Driving through Colombo you can pass a mansion built for a king and right next to it will be some small completely out of place little tin shed which sells odds and ends or fruits and vegetables, the difference in the look and feel of the two is laughable. A little further down a pile of garbage lays untouched except by the multiple stray dogs and random cows looking for a quick bite to eat. I go down another road and fancy, glass encased buildings stand out amongst the old run down street. An open shop with a line of colorful brooms hang along on side of the wall and from the entrance a row of red, blue, yellow, pink, and orange household cleaning items hang. The white washed walls no longer gleam and shine but have a dreary streaked appearance. Along railroad tracks small tin roofed shanty’s sit upon mounds of dirt and trash, ironically bright orange buckets labeled ‘refuse’ are kept near their little homes; clean and empty. Driving down that road are brand new Jeeps, Toyotas, Hondas, and others (I’m not much of a car person but you get the point). Irony is everywhere, rich and poor collide co-existing together, ignorant of yet dependent on each other. I am not trying to paint a poor picture of Sri Lanka, it’s definitely a beautiful country with amazing potential but there is not enough ‘kinetic’ energy propagating to change that potential difference.

Learning Experiences to Make Memories

Tuesday November 24, 2009

For the past day and half I have been calling and talking to people trying to figure out what to do about this health project and working with some international organizations. Also I’ve been on the phone again and again calling to get my internet connection fixed, it really takes forever to get one thing done here. (Hence my 3 updates uploaded all at once instead of one at a time!) I think this is what’s called island living! Coming from a place where multiple things get done fast and efficiently, it’s a little frustrating at first knowing you have to spend one whole day going back and forth contacting a million different people just do one simple thing.

As for the health project, things are expensive. Prices have doubled if not tripled for basic necessities, all I can do is pray and give this whole entire project into the Lord’s hands. Even though I am breaking it down into a much more simpler project due to some government, religious, and financial restrictions it is still much bigger than myself but it’s just a matter of figuring out an affordable but effective approach. Right now I’ve contacted people to do a project for children in a poorer area, these children are so in need of help, they are mal nourished. After some more thought, we are planning to get some food products that we can afford on a tight budget and give it out to the children and their parents. I am trying to get a presentation together on nutrition and sanitation that will be captivating and informative for both kids and adults. If you have any ideas write it in the comment box below. J Life is interesting just when you get comfortable something comes along to stretch you to do more, I never thought I’d be able to do a health project right now at this time of my life and even though it is definitely something new, stretching, and different it is both a good experience and one that I will develop and learn a lot from. 

Coming back to Sri Lanka is also a slightly emotional experience because the last time I was here in 2006, my father passed away from non Hodgkin’s disease lymphoma. I had to quit my job in the US, move here for a couple of months to help my mother get things organized and settled in the ministry and work.

Memories surround me of my childhood, my father, mother, sister, and I all living, learning, and enjoying life under one roof here in Sri Lanka. Walking into our home when we first arrived our family photo frames were everywhere a picture of Jessica and myself when we were about 9 and 10 years old in Baton Rouge, Louisiana immediately caught my eye. The picture is cute and funny; Jess and I, hugging tightly with our excited, happy, content faces grinning widely back at me.  I look around each nook and cranny and specific memories of relaxing as a family in front of a natural environment scene from the balcony, studying at 4am for exams in that one room. Walking upstairs it’s as if I can vividly see daddy sitting in the room reading His Bible commentaries preparing for a sermon or standing outside in the garden flying his pigeons. Then going into the rooms I see in my memory Jess half sitting half laying down with a book in one hand and tipi tip (a Sri Lankan version of cheese puffs) in the other! Oh the precious memories! Even though getting things done here in Sri Lanka takes forever, too many insects bugging me, and going places take a crazy amount of effort, I still really do love Sri Lanka!

First Days in Sri Lanka

Monday November 23, 2009

7:15am

A sweet morning symphony

This morning I awoke to a cacophony of noises, which strangely melded together into a simple nice morning symphony. My aunt cooking in the kitchen before going to work, the myriad of birds bursting forth with song starting at 4.30am, a howler monkey annoying our dog and our dog barking right back at the intruder, the old Aiya playing the news on the radio at the highest volume so his aging ears can hear, the neighbors all awake and getting ready for their daily duties, the noises never end and the peaceful melodies continue.

Sunday November 22, 2009

11:49pm

White lights and Island Sights

After several months of planning, packing and preparing for our journey to Sri Lanka the day arrived for us to depart to visit our homeland. Adventure seemed to start on our shuttle drive to the Dulles International Airport. Since my mother and I were the only passengers in the van we got to chat with the driver. He told us about how he grew up during the Communist era in Romania and how he fled one winter hiding, walking, and jumping onto hidden compartments in trucks through forests and wintry roads to Germany. This reminded me of the reality of the situation in Sri Lanka and how men, women, and children are in plights much worse living in camps in the northeast of the island.

Flying into Sri Lanka at 5.50am I looked through my window in the plane and saw little twinkling lights in the country below. Surrounding and sometimes overlapping the sparkles of white light were the thick vegetation of the land. In some areas the wet rice fields appeared lake like in the middle of a green landscape. Coconut trees popped out of the ground and as the plane descended tried to wave its branches toward us. As we walked through immigration and towards customs the people around, the atmosphere all brought back immediate memories of my Sri Lanka. Greeted by some of our family members and seeing their wonderfully familiar faces felt like we’d never really left this island.

As we walked out of the airport to the van army guys stood around the airport holding heavy duty looking guns, I passed right by one guy and my heart really quickened seeing this machine which can kill someone in an instant. Apparently the island is still in a tense and unstable situation that even security guards at banks and stores and on the roads carry long rifles for protection due to frequent armed robberies.

Chatting with my relatives about the past and future as we drove towards our home. Surprisingly the driving startled me, suddenly the van was driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. You would think it would not have been such a big deal after living here in the past for about six years but it seemed so different and new yet familiar all at the same time. Observing the people, the roads, little shops, signs, humidity, mosquitoes (in the morning!), and smells it seems as if time really does stand still here on this island nation. Things do not quite change at such a fast pace as it would in other places. 

Talking with my relatives they told us more about the cost of living in Sri Lanka, the situation of the young girls who are being taken advantage of in the camps in the northeast, the lack of freedom of religion, and how people struggle to survive. To buy one loaf of bread it cost 37 Rupees on salaries of about 8,000 Rupees per month. This would be equivalent for a person living in America on an average salary to have to buy one loaf of bread for about 100 US dollars. The currency exchange rate of 100 Rupees is roughly equal to 1 dollar. Dahl otherwise known as lentils was known as the poor mans food, now he cannot even afford to buy what has now become part of a rich man’s diet. In the northeast where they have refugee camps for the thousands of people displaced from the war; the living conditions are far worse than one can imagine. My cousin said she and her husband went to that area to help. They said how people have almost no clothing, they use one piece of cloth to cover themselves and young girls cannot bathe without being watched or victimized. After seeing the people in the makeshift hospitals and what they were going through made her so physically sick she was unable to handle the reality of the sight.

Diseases are running rampant, having proper or even any food and shelter is more than a struggle what with people facing losses in jobs, even when they have a job the pay is about one dollar or two a day!

In the past few months I was wondering just how comfortable I had become living in the United States and although I realized I had all the comforts in the world, coming here and seeing these things first hand still puts things in a whole new perspective. We get so caught up in such silly mundane things and become greedy for things we don’t even need! We’re digging ourselves in debt trying to pay off our new flat screen t.v, entertainment system, car, house, trendy clothes, and social life. God forgive us for loving our selves too much that we’ve forgotten about our neighbor! On the flight I was wondering what I was doing coming back to Sri Lanka, I felt like my whole life was so uncertain but I now know. We cannot change the world, we cannot work a miracle, we cannot know every single detail of our life but by God’s grace and power He can do what we cannot.