July 7th, Demanhandiya.
I HATE THE SCHOOL!!!! It’s terrible, the kids are terrible, it’s hot, weird, arrrrrggghhhhh! Really, it isn’t nice; I’m trying to change my programme to stay at the orphanage and not the bloody school. I woke up at 6.30 this morning and at 7 I was on my bicycle on the way to school. I’m so happy I survived the trip, it’s really amazing I did. 15 minutes latter (and totally sweated) I arrived to the school. It hasn’t got that family spirit as the orphanage. I saw the Buddhist ceremony and all te kids went to class. I waited for the English to come and when they got there we went to our first class. I wanted to kill myself. I was stupid to think the kids would be nicer… what the f***? They suck all the energy out of you and they drive you crazy. We did 6 classes in total and it was terrible. I don’t care if Gishan thinks I’m stupid now but I’m not going back, I hate it. I think I didn’t had to choose teaching. I came back home very tired and ate. Now I want to lay down a bit and then we’ll go to the Negombo town and to the tourist area (I need to see something similar to western life now…!!!). I think I got a little bit to exited when I chose how long I wanted to stay here. 1 month is a lot, really… here it is a lot! Thanks god this weekend we’re visiting Kandy and next week we’ll probably go to the South (Hikkaduwa, Galle and Unawatuna). Our afternoon turned out great. Taiwan princess didn’ want to come to Negombo so FG and I went together. We went with the famous 242 to Negombo, walked out two blocks to get money, supermarket, walked back, catch the 905 to Beach area and we got there, finally. We looked some shops but the best thing… we discovered a western pub!! Now when we get sick and tired of Sri Lanka we know that in an hour we are (almost) in Europe. It was filled with English, Germans, Dutch… so, GREAT! FG really wants to eat pizza, pasta and French fries so next week Thursday we’ll go there to have lunch or/and dinner. The two buses we had to catch to come back were 40 minutes late so we decided to go by tuctuc home. Shower at home and dinner. I’m really tired of today’s day, and tomorrow I have to go to School again with the bike… wish me luck! Oh, PS: we’ve already got our rooms for Kandy this weekend. 8€ each for two nights!
domingo, 11 de julio de 2010
martes, 6 de julio de 2010
This is DIFFERENT, but rewarding.
July 5th, Demanhadiya.
Today was better than other days. I started the day having breakfast alone because I woke up latter than the others. At 9 o’clock I was at the orphanage. Even though this may seem really odd for you all, I had a really good time playing with the kids. We started playing a game called “catch”. The kids had to throw me a ball and say catch, to learn English. I then tried to teach them “catch the ball” but that was more difficult. We then cleaned up the garden all together and went inside. French guy has already have his group of Sri Lankan kids and I have mine. It seems the bad one like to be with me… why!?!?!? Hahaha. They are lovely, I really learn a lot from them. After playing we went inside and they had their lunch break. I stood there totally amazed because they were eating rice and curry at 11 am in the morning… OMG. Malike asked them to sing a song for us and they did, I didn’t understand a word they sang but I enjoyed it. Then I had to teach them (singing) the names of the basic body parts (head, shoulders, knees, toes, eyes, ears, lips…) and the alphabet and numbers. They really learn fast. We played a little bit more and than the parents came to pick them up. I went back home and did a couple of things before lunch. For lunch we had rice and vegetables, but obviously I can’t see any more rice so I only ate the vegetables (very spicy as always!). I laid down 15 minutes and then French guy and I decided to go to Negombo town; that was one hell of an experience!!! We took bus 242 to Negombo and it cost us about 20cents each. When we got to Negombo French guy needed to get money and cigarettes… I only say this: here in Negombo there isn’t a “Tabaccos” in every corner. One hour latter we finally were able to pick bus 905 to Brown’s Beach (a supposed to be lovely beach… yeah right). I’ve taken a couple of pictures that really shocked me during this evening. We then arrived to the beach, and it wasn’t that lovely. It’s a huge stretch of beach but there are parts covered with plants. The waves were pretty big and you could see rubbish everywhere. We also saw some tourist, the first one in days. I think people say that Negombo is so fantastic because they stay all day in their 5 star hotels drinking alcohol in their new room with airco. Yeah, that’s one thing, but real Negombo is a really different one. We walked for almost half an hour and thanks god French guy was there. As a woman (yes, I am a woman) I prefer not to be alone here. At the beach a group of Sri Lankan guys came to me and I didn’t like that. Afterwards an elder guy also came and then the group of guys came back. I was surrounded by them, and at thet point I started to be a bit frightend. This happened because French guy was about 30m away watching something, so the guys thought I was alone. To solve the problem I just started to walk really fast towards French guy yelling his name so that the other would think he was my boy friend. It worked, but still with FG(= French guy) they made comments. We stayed a while there looking how some tried to surf and then we wanted to get back home. It was about 6 o’clock, but here the sun goes down at about 7pm. I still can’t believe we didn’t have any problems with the buses to get back home, it al went perfect. Buses here may we old, dirty and drive like mad, but they are faster than the TIB (Transport Illes Balears). The funniest thing was that the bus driver charged us more due to our skin colour. We know, and everybody here knows, that one bus ticket Negombo .- Demanhaduya costs 15 rupees. Well, he charged us 26 each, and you can’t even imagine how pissed up I was at the time. I know 26 rupees isn’t a lot of money, but it still makes me angry that they try to rip us of and we can’t do anything about it. However, we got back home alive (after this bus ride I was really glad to be still alive) had a shower and ate. Now FG and I were listening music at the varanda and in a while we’ll watch a movie (Paris, just to miss home a little bit more…). It was a full day, but I enjoyed it.
DeWHAT!?
July 4th, Demanhandiya.
What happened to me this morning sucked. I couldn’t sleep yesterday and tried to fall asleep watching golf, reading, listening to music but nothing worked. I saw the whole football match, ¡¡viva España!! But I really couldn’t fell asleep. The guys from reception saw I had bought Sri Lankan cigarettes and asked me two at 1.3o o’clock or something like that. I gave them the two they asked, but It would have been better to not have given anything. Now they thought I was the free cigarette giver or something, and at 2.00 I got a call from Reception (and I’m sure it was to ask more cigarettes), then they came to my room and knocked on the door and then they phoned again. Obviously I didn’t answer the phone nor did I open the door. They are mad!!! I think fell asleep around 4.40, I think that time because I last looked at the watch and it was 4.30. great, finally asleep, now the problem was waking up.
I got a call from Gishan at 7 o`clock. SHIT SHIT SHIT. I had to be ready (shower, breakfast…) at 6.45 this morning. I jumped out of bed like the girl from the exorcist and just put something on and close the last bags. I heard Gishan waiting outside so I opened the door for him. “Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry” that was the onl thing I could say this morning, I felt so ashamed! We got everything down and in his car and went on the road to Negombo. It took us about 40 minutes and then another two from Negombo to my placement, about 20km inland from Negombo. I didn’t have a well fixed first impression, but when Gishan explained some thins to me and we finally arrived I loved it. It are three houses next to each other on a piece of land. I live in the first house with Malik, who is the head mistress of the orphanage. She’s lovely, and her family too (the problem is that no one of her family speeks English… so to communicate with them is a bit hard). I got a big room with views to the orphanage and the garden. I’ll share it with a Canadian girl who will arrive next Tuesday. I just met the French guy, Christian, but he’s really French. Malike explained to me that he really wanted someone who spoke French to come because he doesn’t like to speak English… well, get use to it because you’re in far away Sri Lanka! When I arrived I hadn’t had breakfast yet and Malike prepared some toast and yoghurt for me. After that I gave her the dutch presents and I stayed with her in the kitchen. She and her family are all Buddhist. She was preparing Dhal (a kind of cereal you cook) for the Buddhist temple here in Demanhadiya. I asked why and she told me it was because every 4th of the month her family was supposed to make food for them. I can imagine that if you believe so much in your religion it isn’t a problem for you to cook for them. I’ve got mixed up feeling about this though… I asked her to explain everything to me, even the most stupid things. I think I’m going to help her make dinner now. Well well, the French guy turned out to be my very opposite! He almost can’t speak English, but we try to communicate and it’s going ok. Malike explained to me that the monks of the Buddhist temple only eat breakfast and lunch. For supper they drink a special tea to clean their inner self. I almost kill Cristian when he said his favorite music are the Beatles and that he didn’t like the Kooks nor Arctic Monkeys. We’re total opposites, but we’ll manage. Now there’s a birthday party at one of Malike’s son’s house, her cousin turned 14. Cristian presented me to them and they have invited us to the party… let’s see how that will go!
The party was awesome! Totally different from European parties… why? Here some facts: first I would like to say tha the girl who celebrated her b’day turned 14 and as present she got teddy bears, a doll and more small girly stuff. Then, we sang “happy d’day to you”, but what they do is after singing the one who’s b’day it is has to cut a big piece of pie and go around the whole room to let everyone get a bite of cake. First goes the father, then the mother, then the sisters/brothers and then the rest of the invited people. The French guy (whose name is Tristan, not Christian! Hahaha) and I also had to bite the cake and they all made funny comments in Singhalees that we didn’t understand. I would like to know what they were saying. French guy doesn’t talk a lot, but because I DO, there’s always something to talk about. Tomorrow will be at 8 o’clock in the orphanage to see both morning ceremonies, the Christian and the Buddhist one. Then we’ll be with Malike and the kids till about 14.00. We’ll have lunch and then I don’t know what we’ll do. I think I’l go back to the orphanage and stay till 17.00 and after that I’ll go with Tristan to Negombo’s beach, we really want to go swimming! He’s brought lots of TV series like The Mentalis, Dexter and House (all in French, though) so I guess we’ll see them this night; I don’t know why but for both of us it’s really difficult to sleep here in Sri Lanka. They started to play an instrument and they al sang. I got downstairs to go to the other house and I watched them sing and dance. That was really like a movie, al clapping, laughing and having a good time with the basics of basics. The smile I had on my face was even bigger than all theirs together. The 14 year old girls invited me to dance with them. They were very shy, but eventually I managed to grab to of them and dance al together. All the family started yelling “Duuutch, duuutch!” and I just couldn’t stop laughing. Then a little boy came to me and said “Tifol, Tifol” I just stared at him thinking what the hell that could mean. After that he said “Tifo, Tifo, you?” Ahhhh, that’s what it was! Hahahaha. I learned him to use my camera and he made some pictures at the party. When I say a little boy, I really mean LITTLE boy, like about 5 years old or something like that. He learned how to use the camera in seconds, and we’ve got some great pictures together and some of other kids with me. I know these pictures will be hanging in my room when I come back! What a good evening!! =)
Now I had a shower and I’m going to try to get into the web. It’s really old fashion here (1001 wires, connection to the telephone, slooooooooow browser blablabla…) but at least we have something!
PS: for the lovely girls who let me the note in my rucksack (Fark Burbu and Espe) this is my answer: YES YES YES, I SMELL LIKE SHIT, BUT I DON’T MIND!!!!!!!
PS 2: LOVE YOU ALL, and even though I’m enjoying this 101%, I miss you lots.
What happened to me this morning sucked. I couldn’t sleep yesterday and tried to fall asleep watching golf, reading, listening to music but nothing worked. I saw the whole football match, ¡¡viva España!! But I really couldn’t fell asleep. The guys from reception saw I had bought Sri Lankan cigarettes and asked me two at 1.3o o’clock or something like that. I gave them the two they asked, but It would have been better to not have given anything. Now they thought I was the free cigarette giver or something, and at 2.00 I got a call from Reception (and I’m sure it was to ask more cigarettes), then they came to my room and knocked on the door and then they phoned again. Obviously I didn’t answer the phone nor did I open the door. They are mad!!! I think fell asleep around 4.40, I think that time because I last looked at the watch and it was 4.30. great, finally asleep, now the problem was waking up.
I got a call from Gishan at 7 o`clock. SHIT SHIT SHIT. I had to be ready (shower, breakfast…) at 6.45 this morning. I jumped out of bed like the girl from the exorcist and just put something on and close the last bags. I heard Gishan waiting outside so I opened the door for him. “Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry” that was the onl thing I could say this morning, I felt so ashamed! We got everything down and in his car and went on the road to Negombo. It took us about 40 minutes and then another two from Negombo to my placement, about 20km inland from Negombo. I didn’t have a well fixed first impression, but when Gishan explained some thins to me and we finally arrived I loved it. It are three houses next to each other on a piece of land. I live in the first house with Malik, who is the head mistress of the orphanage. She’s lovely, and her family too (the problem is that no one of her family speeks English… so to communicate with them is a bit hard). I got a big room with views to the orphanage and the garden. I’ll share it with a Canadian girl who will arrive next Tuesday. I just met the French guy, Christian, but he’s really French. Malike explained to me that he really wanted someone who spoke French to come because he doesn’t like to speak English… well, get use to it because you’re in far away Sri Lanka! When I arrived I hadn’t had breakfast yet and Malike prepared some toast and yoghurt for me. After that I gave her the dutch presents and I stayed with her in the kitchen. She and her family are all Buddhist. She was preparing Dhal (a kind of cereal you cook) for the Buddhist temple here in Demanhadiya. I asked why and she told me it was because every 4th of the month her family was supposed to make food for them. I can imagine that if you believe so much in your religion it isn’t a problem for you to cook for them. I’ve got mixed up feeling about this though… I asked her to explain everything to me, even the most stupid things. I think I’m going to help her make dinner now. Well well, the French guy turned out to be my very opposite! He almost can’t speak English, but we try to communicate and it’s going ok. Malike explained to me that the monks of the Buddhist temple only eat breakfast and lunch. For supper they drink a special tea to clean their inner self. I almost kill Cristian when he said his favorite music are the Beatles and that he didn’t like the Kooks nor Arctic Monkeys. We’re total opposites, but we’ll manage. Now there’s a birthday party at one of Malike’s son’s house, her cousin turned 14. Cristian presented me to them and they have invited us to the party… let’s see how that will go!
The party was awesome! Totally different from European parties… why? Here some facts: first I would like to say tha the girl who celebrated her b’day turned 14 and as present she got teddy bears, a doll and more small girly stuff. Then, we sang “happy d’day to you”, but what they do is after singing the one who’s b’day it is has to cut a big piece of pie and go around the whole room to let everyone get a bite of cake. First goes the father, then the mother, then the sisters/brothers and then the rest of the invited people. The French guy (whose name is Tristan, not Christian! Hahaha) and I also had to bite the cake and they all made funny comments in Singhalees that we didn’t understand. I would like to know what they were saying. French guy doesn’t talk a lot, but because I DO, there’s always something to talk about. Tomorrow will be at 8 o’clock in the orphanage to see both morning ceremonies, the Christian and the Buddhist one. Then we’ll be with Malike and the kids till about 14.00. We’ll have lunch and then I don’t know what we’ll do. I think I’l go back to the orphanage and stay till 17.00 and after that I’ll go with Tristan to Negombo’s beach, we really want to go swimming! He’s brought lots of TV series like The Mentalis, Dexter and House (all in French, though) so I guess we’ll see them this night; I don’t know why but for both of us it’s really difficult to sleep here in Sri Lanka. They started to play an instrument and they al sang. I got downstairs to go to the other house and I watched them sing and dance. That was really like a movie, al clapping, laughing and having a good time with the basics of basics. The smile I had on my face was even bigger than all theirs together. The 14 year old girls invited me to dance with them. They were very shy, but eventually I managed to grab to of them and dance al together. All the family started yelling “Duuutch, duuutch!” and I just couldn’t stop laughing. Then a little boy came to me and said “Tifol, Tifol” I just stared at him thinking what the hell that could mean. After that he said “Tifo, Tifo, you?” Ahhhh, that’s what it was! Hahahaha. I learned him to use my camera and he made some pictures at the party. When I say a little boy, I really mean LITTLE boy, like about 5 years old or something like that. He learned how to use the camera in seconds, and we’ve got some great pictures together and some of other kids with me. I know these pictures will be hanging in my room when I come back! What a good evening!! =)
Now I had a shower and I’m going to try to get into the web. It’s really old fashion here (1001 wires, connection to the telephone, slooooooooow browser blablabla…) but at least we have something!
PS: for the lovely girls who let me the note in my rucksack (Fark Burbu and Espe) this is my answer: YES YES YES, I SMELL LIKE SHIT, BUT I DON’T MIND!!!!!!!
PS 2: LOVE YOU ALL, and even though I’m enjoying this 101%, I miss you lots.
sábado, 3 de julio de 2010
Colombo is CHAOS.
July 3rd, Colombo.
It has been a wonderful – ful of culture shock – day!! I started the day having breakfast at the hotel at about 9.15 (fruit, toast and a coffee). I realized I definitely don’t like papaya, it’s awful!!!! After that I went back to the room and Rosie came to pick me up and have breakfast herself and then leave. We left the hotel at about 10.45 and set of to Pettah in a tuctuc (that’s the local cab). When we arrived to Pettah, real live in Colombo started for us. I didn’t realize we were going to be so different in this country. I haven’t seen more than 6 western people in the whole day! Well, we walked across the Pettah market (where they only sold shoes, bags, watches and movies) and then we got lost, really really really lost!!! All over Colombo you can find soldiers, it’s pretty amazing. I actually had the weird idea that they could help us because they obviously speak English… I was really wrong. They didn’t understand us but they (and we) really tried to communicate. We gave up after 15 minutes of trying and just started walking toward Galle Rd. Rosie realized that there was a weird Sri Lankan guy following us and started to get nervous, but in the meanwhile, I continued walking and trying to figure out how the hell we were going to get out of there. I then realized there was a Tourist Board here in Colombo, so we decided to go there and ask a couple of recommendations. Ok, they might smile a lot the Sri Lankan people, but I can assure you this is the first time in my life I feel discriminated by my skin colour. To get a tuctuc to drive us there was easy but to fix a price wasn’t at all. Usually they have to charge between 150 and 250 rupees rides in Colombo, but for us they just put the prize a “little” big higher. Of course, we slowly are becoming real Sri Lankans, so at the end we managed to get a normal prize. Thanks god the Tourist Board existed. A man came to help us out with the tuctuc and let us in. I’m sure you all imagine a nice office with air conditioning, lamps, chairs and a big map of Colombo. Yeah, of course. It was a small 6sqm cabin with no light, no air conditioning and with a police officer and an old lady sitting inside. That’s Colombo!. We got a tuctuc fot 500 rupees an hour (about 4€ an hour) and then the fun begin. We went to a Buddhist temple and it was beautiful. We had to put up a long white skirt and couldn’t show our back to the Buddha. It was really amazing, I enjoyed it a lot and took lot’s of pictures (also some of myself, mom!). After this we went to an Hindu temple and then to the Victoria Park. We walked around and Silba (our tuctuc driver) showed us the cinnamon trees and explained more about plants. I was more interested in his life, and I figured out of him this: he is married and he has got 3 childs, two girls and a just born baby boy. He lives in Colombo for almost 12 years. He had to come here because his dad is an Ayurdeva dr (oil and plant treatment) and in Kandy there was no work for him. No he is tuctuc driver and Ayurveda dr here in Colomb, because he can earn more for is family, but he misses his other family in Kandy. He earns about 70.000 rupees each month and his little flat in Colombo costs 25.000 each month. Ha! I’m becoming a real specialist in interviewing!
We ate at the Summer Garden Restaurant, a nice place were all the resident people of Colombo come to eat. A mixed salad each (which was totally different from the western mixed salad) a 2L bottle of water and two beers (one for Rosie and one for Silba) turned out to be 700 rupees each, almost 6€, and it really was fantastic food. During meal it’s normal to burp and make funny noises (good for you, dad) but I couldn’t stop laughing when he just burped and burped and burped all dinner long!. After all of this we went to buy my Sari, a lovely ocean blue with silver on it one. This is the most expensive thing I’ve bought here, I think it was 30€ or something, but it’s really worth it.
Oh yeah, I want to let one thing clear: the weather in Colombo is like the mood of a menstruating woman, it changes like mad during all day. But It’s fun, I like it.
We ended in the National Museum and then we walked across the Victoria park again till a supermarket to buy something to drink, toilet paper (yeah, there’s no toilet paper in Sri Lankan toilets), apples and some chewing gum. We crabbed a tuctuc and he drove us to the hotel, a normal ride that would take 15 minutes but it took us like almost 40.
Now we’re at the hotel with our laptops and enjoying the evening. It goes dark really early at about 7pm. We’re going to ask a pineapple juice and enjoy the football match Argentina – Germany.
Good facts of today:
-To get lost around Colombo.
-All the crazy tuctucs on the road.
-Burps throughout our meal.
-Only seen 7 white people all day long.
-This is a good one: Silba trying to convince me to buy Sri Lankan Marihuana because he says it’s a really special type here in Colombo and he knows how I can find it. I don’t know if it was a defense reaction of my mind or not, but when he told me the first thing that came to mind was the board hanging in the emigration post in the airport saying “Possession of any drug in Sri Lanka is punished with death penalty”. Hahaha.
Almost arrived, here I am.
July 2nd, between India and Sri Lanka (flying)
I can’t imagine I’m almost there. I’ve already been travelling for the last 16 hours, and in a couple more I’ll be in Colombo. The journey has loads to tell:
Fist we begin at the in-check in Schiphol - Amsterdam. I only had 21’1kg of 30 that was fantastic! I’ll be coming back with about… 5kg? Hahaha. Well then, that went fine, I got my boarding passes AMS-BXM-CMB and I said good bye to mom and dad. Poor mom, I really felt bad when I saw her waiting till she really couldn’t see me anymore… But well, all babies grow up one day!
I passed the control check and I set to zone D. I arrived (after 25 long minutes of waiting with my back pack, pc bag and the map) and I sat down with a water and something to eat. When suddenly I see I only had one hour left till boarding, so I though…better go and wait at the door. Thanks God-Allah-Buddha I did that! I ask some guy from the airport where I was supposed to be going and he said “You boarding ticket is from, you can’t be at D and G at the time” I thought so… Half an hour latter running across gates A, B, C, D, E I finally get to G. I only had to wait 30 minutes and I already sat in my comfy chair. A guy I saw while boarding turned out to sit next to me, so, as I continue being Tara Siches, when he sat down next to me I couldn’t stop laughing. Yes… the whole bloody day laughing, I’m sure some people thought I was stoned or something, but I just couldn’t imagine what I was doing (in a positive way!) Okey, a good flight, loads of movies (+200 movies, +1000 podcasts, +150 TV channels…) I was pretty entertained as you can imagine. I went like 10 time to the toilet just to walk a bit, and due to the fact I sat next to the corridor, if not I wouldn’t be that childish. We arrived to Dubai without problems, but the last 40 minutes of plane were nice because I saw a guy (dutch) sitting in front of me playing Trivial, and the question was: “¿in which Atlantic isle is the Teide?” He didn’t know the answer and I just said to him: “Tenerife – Canarias”. He just looked at me thinking “How the hell do YOU know that?” but it was very funny. I helped him some couple of times more, but only in the area Science, Geography and General Knowledge. Oh yeah, one important fact: he didn’t know a philosophy question, but… I DID! Pfff… and then I have a 3 in my grades… buah!
Well well, in Dubai I walked a marathon I think, it’s HUGE. Between looking for a phone cab, trying to buy something with €, $ or Pounds, and then changing all of these in Sri Lankan rupees (which I eventually didn’t get because they didn’t have…) I almost died. My salvation was a free internet point where I could send an email to dad to let him know everything was going well. I got to the boarding gate and everyone was already in. A beautiful Sri Lankan woman asked my if, why and till when I was staying in Sri Lanka and we talked for a while. I love these women, they are so… I can hardly explain, but I think that without the 3kg of makeup, 1001 surgeries in a row and the A-label clothes the western women wear (and I include myself in this pack) are faaaaaaaaaar more beautiful. They are also so nice and polite, with their big smile, and I almost bursted out laughing when I saw this: imagine a thin tall Sri Lankan, with a small bag, who had a face of lost you can’t even imagine and then has got on his bag: a HUGE sticker that said “Tamirei SRI LANKA”. Yeah, like if you first name and country only is going to work if they want to give it back to you I couldn’t get my smile of my face, how funny was that.
I now smell like shit, look like shit, and actually act lik shit, but I’m the happiest person alive. My next door neighbor is very nice, and we talked about Colombo and Negombo. I asked him to recommend me some places, but he talks so bloody fast I only picked up 3 names. He said to me he would be in Negombo tomorrow because his family lives there… you never know, I might actually see him again!
Now it’s 22.52 local time (18.52 for you) and I’m in my bed in I don’t know how it’s called Hotel Colombo. When I arrived to Colombo Airport this morning I finally set my first feet on Sri Lanka. It was (and still is) very very very hot and most of all, humid. Even so, I went with a big smile to immigration were I got my stamp and then I picked up my luggage. And no, it wasn’t a scam. When I went to Drivers Association there was a board with my name on it “Tara Siches – Projects Abroad”. I got my sim card and a phone and I exchanged all my Euros, Pounds and Dirhams to Sri Lankan rupees. I thought Anura (the man responsible for me) was driving me to the hotel but it wasn’t. We went out to the parking lot and I saw one of those very old and almost totally broken vans waiting for me. An old Sri Lankan came out and helped me put all my trash into the van. As I put on my seat belt, they smile and say “no no, here in Sri Lanka we don’t use those”. Oh my god, I just started laughing. He was a good man; he explained some things to me about Colombo and the country. I really had to focus to understand him, but together we eventually managed to have a kind of, something like, conversation. After 1 and ½ hour I got to my hotel, got a shower and fell asleep. No, first I called dad to let him know everything was going fine and I was still alive. I was so tired I just laid on bed and fell asleep. I woke up at 7, but I didn’t have a clue what time and where I was. I sent a sms to Anura to know what I was going to do and Elize called me. At 19.30 I went down and had a pineapple juice. I met Elize at 20.15 with three other volunteers: Abdul, Rosie and Brooke. We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant and Elize gave us all the information we needed. Tomorrow Abdul and Brooke will set of to Galle, and Rosie and I will have the day to visit Colombo. Gishan will pick me up Sunday at 7am to take me to Negombo and introduce me with my family. By the way, I also know now I have a roommate, a frech guy. All the volunteers in Negombo are guys, 3 of them from the UK, one from France (my roommate) and me. I’m so looking forward to meet them!!!
Oh yeah, one great news I already know you know: HOLLAND WON THE MATCH!!!! Yeeeey!!!!
Now I’m going to look the match Uruguay – Ghana in my room and I’ll go to sleep. Tomorrow will be a busy day.
I can’t imagine I’m almost there. I’ve already been travelling for the last 16 hours, and in a couple more I’ll be in Colombo. The journey has loads to tell:
Fist we begin at the in-check in Schiphol - Amsterdam. I only had 21’1kg of 30 that was fantastic! I’ll be coming back with about… 5kg? Hahaha. Well then, that went fine, I got my boarding passes AMS-BXM-CMB and I said good bye to mom and dad. Poor mom, I really felt bad when I saw her waiting till she really couldn’t see me anymore… But well, all babies grow up one day!
I passed the control check and I set to zone D. I arrived (after 25 long minutes of waiting with my back pack, pc bag and the map) and I sat down with a water and something to eat. When suddenly I see I only had one hour left till boarding, so I though…better go and wait at the door. Thanks God-Allah-Buddha I did that! I ask some guy from the airport where I was supposed to be going and he said “You boarding ticket is from, you can’t be at D and G at the time” I thought so… Half an hour latter running across gates A, B, C, D, E I finally get to G. I only had to wait 30 minutes and I already sat in my comfy chair. A guy I saw while boarding turned out to sit next to me, so, as I continue being Tara Siches, when he sat down next to me I couldn’t stop laughing. Yes… the whole bloody day laughing, I’m sure some people thought I was stoned or something, but I just couldn’t imagine what I was doing (in a positive way!) Okey, a good flight, loads of movies (+200 movies, +1000 podcasts, +150 TV channels…) I was pretty entertained as you can imagine. I went like 10 time to the toilet just to walk a bit, and due to the fact I sat next to the corridor, if not I wouldn’t be that childish. We arrived to Dubai without problems, but the last 40 minutes of plane were nice because I saw a guy (dutch) sitting in front of me playing Trivial, and the question was: “¿in which Atlantic isle is the Teide?” He didn’t know the answer and I just said to him: “Tenerife – Canarias”. He just looked at me thinking “How the hell do YOU know that?” but it was very funny. I helped him some couple of times more, but only in the area Science, Geography and General Knowledge. Oh yeah, one important fact: he didn’t know a philosophy question, but… I DID! Pfff… and then I have a 3 in my grades… buah!
Well well, in Dubai I walked a marathon I think, it’s HUGE. Between looking for a phone cab, trying to buy something with €, $ or Pounds, and then changing all of these in Sri Lankan rupees (which I eventually didn’t get because they didn’t have…) I almost died. My salvation was a free internet point where I could send an email to dad to let him know everything was going well. I got to the boarding gate and everyone was already in. A beautiful Sri Lankan woman asked my if, why and till when I was staying in Sri Lanka and we talked for a while. I love these women, they are so… I can hardly explain, but I think that without the 3kg of makeup, 1001 surgeries in a row and the A-label clothes the western women wear (and I include myself in this pack) are faaaaaaaaaar more beautiful. They are also so nice and polite, with their big smile, and I almost bursted out laughing when I saw this: imagine a thin tall Sri Lankan, with a small bag, who had a face of lost you can’t even imagine and then has got on his bag: a HUGE sticker that said “Tamirei SRI LANKA”. Yeah, like if you first name and country only is going to work if they want to give it back to you I couldn’t get my smile of my face, how funny was that.
I now smell like shit, look like shit, and actually act lik shit, but I’m the happiest person alive. My next door neighbor is very nice, and we talked about Colombo and Negombo. I asked him to recommend me some places, but he talks so bloody fast I only picked up 3 names. He said to me he would be in Negombo tomorrow because his family lives there… you never know, I might actually see him again!
Now it’s 22.52 local time (18.52 for you) and I’m in my bed in I don’t know how it’s called Hotel Colombo. When I arrived to Colombo Airport this morning I finally set my first feet on Sri Lanka. It was (and still is) very very very hot and most of all, humid. Even so, I went with a big smile to immigration were I got my stamp and then I picked up my luggage. And no, it wasn’t a scam. When I went to Drivers Association there was a board with my name on it “Tara Siches – Projects Abroad”. I got my sim card and a phone and I exchanged all my Euros, Pounds and Dirhams to Sri Lankan rupees. I thought Anura (the man responsible for me) was driving me to the hotel but it wasn’t. We went out to the parking lot and I saw one of those very old and almost totally broken vans waiting for me. An old Sri Lankan came out and helped me put all my trash into the van. As I put on my seat belt, they smile and say “no no, here in Sri Lanka we don’t use those”. Oh my god, I just started laughing. He was a good man; he explained some things to me about Colombo and the country. I really had to focus to understand him, but together we eventually managed to have a kind of, something like, conversation. After 1 and ½ hour I got to my hotel, got a shower and fell asleep. No, first I called dad to let him know everything was going fine and I was still alive. I was so tired I just laid on bed and fell asleep. I woke up at 7, but I didn’t have a clue what time and where I was. I sent a sms to Anura to know what I was going to do and Elize called me. At 19.30 I went down and had a pineapple juice. I met Elize at 20.15 with three other volunteers: Abdul, Rosie and Brooke. We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant and Elize gave us all the information we needed. Tomorrow Abdul and Brooke will set of to Galle, and Rosie and I will have the day to visit Colombo. Gishan will pick me up Sunday at 7am to take me to Negombo and introduce me with my family. By the way, I also know now I have a roommate, a frech guy. All the volunteers in Negombo are guys, 3 of them from the UK, one from France (my roommate) and me. I’m so looking forward to meet them!!!
Oh yeah, one great news I already know you know: HOLLAND WON THE MATCH!!!! Yeeeey!!!!
Now I’m going to look the match Uruguay – Ghana in my room and I’ll go to sleep. Tomorrow will be a busy day.
jueves, 1 de julio de 2010
The end has come, begining is finnaly here.
July 1st, Delft
HERE I GO!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday I had a fantastic las day (except of the moment were I lost my family in Delft and I didn't have any money, mobile phone nor keys... yea, that Sucked!!) We did our last Sri Lankan shopping and enjoyed our last meals together... I don't no why, but I was so tired I slept from 4 till 7, and then we went for supper to the Cataldi family. You can't even imagine how we all enjoyed. After almost 13 years that we didn't do anything as two families together, this was awsome! Pucho and Domenico were like to drops of water, and te same for mom and Lizzie. Thom, Luke and I also laughed a lot, but gosh.... they're so big!!! We stayed till about 1 o'clock am and then walked back home. I didn't think I could sleep, but eventually at 2 o'clock I was in my moon.
Now they're comming to pick us up... I've already (or at least I hope so) got everything and I'm prepared to go!
Sri Lanka, here comes Tara Siches.
HERE I GO!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday I had a fantastic las day (except of the moment were I lost my family in Delft and I didn't have any money, mobile phone nor keys... yea, that Sucked!!) We did our last Sri Lankan shopping and enjoyed our last meals together... I don't no why, but I was so tired I slept from 4 till 7, and then we went for supper to the Cataldi family. You can't even imagine how we all enjoyed. After almost 13 years that we didn't do anything as two families together, this was awsome! Pucho and Domenico were like to drops of water, and te same for mom and Lizzie. Thom, Luke and I also laughed a lot, but gosh.... they're so big!!! We stayed till about 1 o'clock am and then walked back home. I didn't think I could sleep, but eventually at 2 o'clock I was in my moon.
Now they're comming to pick us up... I've already (or at least I hope so) got everything and I'm prepared to go!
Sri Lanka, here comes Tara Siches.
miércoles, 30 de junio de 2010
And tomorrow is d-day.
June 30th, Delft
Wow... These last couples of days here in Holland have been totally fantastic. We went present-shopping yesterday in Delft. We got very cheap, but beautiful, giant jigsaws, balls, books, some toys and painting items. I really enjoyed walking across Delft (as I’m from here) and just talking to people and smile. After 3 hours of Sri Lankan present shopping, we picked up Pucho and went to eat in a place mom loves. I had never been there, nor my dad, but it turned out to be fantastic. It’s called KOFFIEDUMIDI and it’s an old farm (with still all the animals walking free around there) were you can eat breakfast, dinner or supper. We all ordered really Dutch food, and it was great. We talked and talked and almost stayed there 2 and ½ hours, but the funniest part came at the end, when coffee arrived. Just returned from the WC and by accident I throw a glass of water over mom. Ok, she got pissed, but everyone can have an accident. But then coffee arrived, and as soon as I got mine, it went over mom (AGAIN!!!). She almost killed me, she went bananas. The lady of the restaurant laughed, and Pucho too. One of the guys working there was really nice (and also handsome ;)). He also laughed, but to punish me, mom started saying things to him about me and I just couldn’t do anything! Hahaha.
I almost forgot, yesterday morning we also visited the Cataldi family! After years I hadn’t seen Luc, and he’s huge! I’ll see Tom today evening; we’re all going to eat together in their house.
But the next thing I’m going to tell really made me laugh yesterday. Mom and I arrived home at about 7 o’clock. I really wanted to see the football match (Spain-Portugal) so we decided to not tell Pucho and just tell him we had a surprise. But then, I open my laptop and see a long list of names. I stayed looking like “WTF?” and then I got it. It was the participants list of the 470- Sailors in Den Haag. I went to New Zeeland and there were 6 names. I just guessed and I did it well. The two train boys (Tom and Jack) are actually called: Finn Dummond and Francisco Lardies. Yes, they are New-Zeeland students, 19 years and on facebook. Yesterday I already spoke with Tom, I mean… Finn. My first two Ceylon Adventure Friends!!!!
Well then, I’ll upload some pics, and for the ladies, the blond one is Finn ;)
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