The city of Colombo; A surprise in a southeast Asian city

The new theatre built in the middle of the roadway..... really quite amazing an beautiful; i think it was a Chinese architect

I had little expectation for Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka on the Indian Ocean due to my general distaste of third world Asian cities (over populated, over polluted, insurmountable traffic and usually Bad City Planning) as well as specificity from guide books denouncing Colombo. I needed to go there for a few days to extend my visa (folly, since I ended up coming home early from dengue) and it was the dreaded place I actually got BIT.  Dengue is the plague of the cities.
I stayed in a most hospitable colonial era house cum boutique hotel, Havelock Place Bungalow where I have determined the bug bit me: outside luxuriating at their fabulous cafe next to their still + presumably fetid pool. o well.
I will not bore you with the excruciatingly LONG day I spent at the immigration center, chaotic and crowded and plainly disorganized (where is the typical digital counter that we typically find in our deli section to coordinate the masses in need of assistance?????)  There were Hundreds and hundreds of us and no loud speaker, nothing to herd us toward the next step, except a civil servant speaking softly.  And there were many "steps"!!!!!!!!   Another really poor way to attract tourists and  the fee to extend was exorbitant.   Actually everything in Sri Lanka is costly compared to anyplace in Asia.  It's a shame and will backfire because the infrastructure as well as customer service is absent.  


The next day I spent perusing the streets with a car+driver. The streets were Clean, tree lined and ACTIVE.  I really enjoyed walking around the different neighborhoods, whirling around in the ever present  tuk tuks and seeing a wide diversity of people; busy going about their lives.
First stop: Gallery Cafe- former office of the illustrious architect Geoffrey Bawa.
It's now an art gallery with some provocative stuff.

stuck in the eighties (right before the civil war ) the architecture bespoke of time past+ very very overpriced mediocre food

interior pools of serenity

always room and time to comment on colonialization

I found the city to be much more sophisticated than I could have ever thought; I am glad I ventured into the streets as there was some really beautiful historical architecture. At present,  it's all being built with a lot of foreign investment (ie: China) as Colombo and the rest of the country has been at a standstill during the civil war.  
During my time at the Galle Music Festival I met and spent quite a lot of time with the diplomatic crowd (not my usual; spooks are not my peeps) as they were the "faces" of the countries represented and who had underwritten the festival.
They all resided in Colombo and told me stories of bombings and architecture and cultural offerings.  Of course, people in the north thought that the inhabitants of Colombo had it "easy" and just went about their lives and cocktail parties.
I did find it to be very cosmopolitan and Very Clean, which must be noted!  There is Great Effort to put the war behind them.  There are also still Big Gaping Wounds and dissatisfaction in how the government  is handling everything.
I spoke with some intellects working in a NGO and suggested, "why not try a truth and reconciliation council a la South Africa and Haiti"?  They answered me, "The same people who were in power during the war remain in power- they don't want to confess or change".
So, as I have been observing since landing in Sri Lanka; this country is in transition.  Where they are headed politically and whether the  truce will remain in effect is unknown.  There remains a lot of vitriol.  There is the pressure to "catch up" economically and be perceived as "First World".  A UNITED  Sri Lanka.  Only history will reveal whether the  Sinhal Buddhists + Tamil Hindus can overcome their differences and bring prosperity and equality to Sri Lanka or whether the festering wounds will bloom due to inattention.

The Museum of Art  in Colombo- Colonial architecture

The beautiful offerings at the museum.  There were classes and classes of young students there; all wanting to practice their "hello's" .

the mouse that hold up Ganesh: remover of obstacles

Another phallic symbol: Cambodia redux (Buddhist)

the frescos were stunning

travelin' woman

The southern coast of Sri Lanka: true paradise

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 Legions of stories and books have been  written waxing poetic about Sri Lanka's fabled coast.  It is beautiful and unspoilt  (mostly) but pristine is not something one can easily find in our climate changing world.  A lot of the 
coral reefs are degraded and third world does not yet have the consciousness of throwing garbage in a designated receptacle; garbage,plastic,wrappers are thrown Every Where.

I did find myself relaxing after the rigors of working the Galle Music Festival on a lovely stretch of beach: Mirissa.  Small and uncomplicated and intoxicating..... because of its gentle nature, beautiful climate of heat and breeze and very very clean water.  Lots of surfers too.  This is where I had my injury; I am still dealing with the pain two months later.
But i should have stayed in the protected cove of Mirissa, where the surf was always calm..... but i ventured down that beckoning beach.......

travelin' woman

The festival of Mirissa fishermen

the parade of young men : all fishermen

 On the full moon in early March I witnessed a wild parade; fishermen celebrating their holiday.  I had heard about it and the night before I was ready to attend but was discouraged by the hotel managers telling me, "they are Extremely drunk and you wouldn't enjoy it"  Okay ; perhaps not the best way  to spend an evening but I certainly was game to experience the festivities the next day.  This was completely secular festival, the Buddhist rituals were  null as was a trip to the local temple. (when i found out is was "secular", this is the real reason  why i did not attend the nighttime "party")

the most interesting part of the parade was viewing the paintings on their body

there was a brass band; a little like Mardi Gras

It was a testosterone filled event: loud ,raucous and celebratory for the local fishermen.  This is the area of the world where they often fish on stilts.  The location of the stilt is passed down generation to generation of fishermen.


travelin' woman

Awareness + Action on May 5,2012

Connect the dots. (www.350.org.)

An international/global day of activism to bring awareness to  plight of the climate change.  The earth will  remain alive, but will it be conducive to house its occupants?

(350 is the tipping point for too much carbon dioxide... we are currently at 390...... please go to the website for more in-depth scientific explanation)

My health seems to mimic the Vermont spring.  Some days it soars toward strong healing; other days it retreats back to listless, weak and vulnerable.

My intention is stronger though..... and I plan on attending Vermont's main "dot" in Waitsfield, 2.1/2 hours away.  Here in Vermont, Hurricane Irene showed her wrath by  intense flooding, washing away covered bridges hundred(s) of years old and decimated housing and road.


Please go to the website and see how the international community is responding with their own "connect the dots".  It's quite inspiring. And please check out where the closest event to you is happening..... so that "connecting the dots" becomes personal......as well as political...... because fomenting change in our entrenched  Capitalist country, of  oil subsidies, and unfair access  (legalized corruption)  to those who make policy in our system, lax enforcement, oversight  and erosion of environmental laws  needs to come from the People.  The tipping point is past.
(and I  do not include the "personhood" of a corporation!)

This peril is the legacy we will leave  our children and grandchildren............ and that unto itself should lead you to take an active role in supporting democracy in action.


your friend and tree hugger,
phyllis





travelin' woman

 I am back in the USA, Sandgate Vermont specifically now for 1 week.
I am really happy to be back home in Vermont.
It is still quite startling to see the Vermont landscape: open, feral and filled with the quiet brown, ash and taupe, predominant; with patches of yellow green creeping in.  Early spring has meant that the forsythia is in raucous acid bloom:WOW.
I am very weak.  I am very slow.  My brain feels most of the time in a fog.  My mind wishes it weren't.  I feel very vulnerable.


I meditate almost everyday.  I drink my "jammu" (turmeric /ginger laced drink) to help my liver heal.  I practice yoga...when i can and take walks.


Mostly, though what I want to convey is a sense of true thankfulness.  I am still processing this illness and how ill I was.
Survival can be a very "unconscious" mode: it's meant to be.
It is a state of ancestral memory; eons of  human survival in all its forms.

the slums directly outside my very private and posh hospital, Lanka Hospital.  If you ever find yourself in Colombo needing a hospital: get yourself to this one.  Healthcare is completely FREE for Sri Lankans (gov't hospitals), but I did choose to go to a private one.

it was a small slum,but in typical SE Asian fashion directly next to developed and wealthy areas

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the hospital I went to convalesce at the Galahari Hotel.  It was the only hotel available as there was a business expo going on in Colombo. My excellent dengue fever doctor, Dr. Wijeywickrama (filled with knowledge as well as a caring bedside manner) suggested that I go to a "seaside" hotel and be over the 8th floor as I could get bitten again (there are 4 kinds of dengue).  This was to minimize that opportunity.
The hotel was Arab Chic, over the top and the addition of women in full clad black burqa (with only their slits/eyes showing) was just another element of surreal.  
The hotel management was very helpful and solicitous.  It was a good choice to convalesce.

outside my 10th floor window was extraordinary beauty: the old Parliament building to the left

the Indian Ocean to the right, the modern skyscrapers in the background, and a beautiful beach/ boardwalk/ fort  where people walked all the time in the limitless sun

 Another time I may blog more about Sri Lanka.  Right now doesn't seem like the proper time.
Right now is about being /acknowledging where I am Now and concentrating on building health.  Playing the piano.  Seeing friends.  Seeing Diandra

my darling daughter Diandra and her beau, Silas who came to VT. to help me and love me up!  Thank YOU!

My sister Deborah and brother-in-law Mostafa were there to retrieve me from JFK.  It was just what I needed and they lovingly helped me get settled into Sandgate.  My house had been cleaned and well stocked by two dear friends, Jayne and Ellen.  Friends come by each day.  I need this at this time and I welcome it.


Please take the time to truly feel thankful for your health and your time here on earth.   Feel gratitude for what IS and the abundance of it all.  We live in a world where it's always trying to tell us to be dissatisfied for who We are and what we have.  It's so disingenuous and so Untrue.
To accept yourself and the person next to you, as well as half way across the world exemplifies what it is to truly embrace humanity.
This is what I will be keeping in the forefront of my foggy brain as I try to heal myself.
Very fundamental.  Very real.
And 
because it is spring
and I have been habituated for over 35 years
to reach into the cold/damp soil
with the sun on my back
I do strive to regain my strength and plant my vegetable garden.
All helpers welcomed!

travelin' woman

Small Indignities

Gecko Egg

There are plenty of indignities in life; we just try and ignore them,endure them ......and hopefully laugh out loud about them.
Traveling really has its share, as one is out of ones element,and the specificity of place often eludes us.

All throughout out SE Asia geckos small and large live
"amongst" us.  In Bali, there was not only many many geckos who lived in my cottage, but a larger "tokay"  (male)
who did his dance of seduction regularly above me.... especially in the bath. I named him "Don".
It was a regular occurrence to get "peed" upon....as most geckos live up on the ceiling (and walls and shelves) and well we are below.  Buona Fortuna!
In Bali, there was a mosquito netting canopy over my bed, therefore  I was usually spared receiving the other thing that comes out of geckos.  I was Lucky.


Now, I am not using my mosquito netting (even though I should....the dreaded dengue) but i am too claustrophobic in this tiny bed.  Therefore I am getting peed upon.( and the other)... kinda regularly.  Last night around 10pm I am reading a really really good book, "A Gate at the Stairs" by Lorrie Moore and regularly looking above me to keep an eye on the gecko perched there.  Sometimes you Just Know.  Well- all of a sudden.... she turns upside down and I see something white....and I Jump Out Of Bed.........not knowing.... but knowing Enough.
PLOP!
An egg drops on my bed.

I call MinJoo (Korean student writing her dissertation next to me (on the "peace" opportunities as the country transitions)
and she comes running.  We cannot believe it.  We take pictures. (She's from Seoul, and the things from the "country" really freak her out)  And of course I try and move the egg, which is both Sticky+ Gooey and Soft.  We scream.
I then Google gestation periods of the gecko egg.  4-8 weeks.  Don't move it (it will drown in yolk).  All very interesting things: I think it was unsurvivable from the twisting fall.  None the less..... the egg remains in the room.


What small indignity have you suffered from recently?????

How often do you say.....isn't Google amazing?.

(we all remember trudging down to the library to utilize the periodical index).

sometime i do love technology

travelin' woman

Peacock up a Tree?

"If you give me a fish, you have fed me for a day. If you teach me to fish, you have fed me until the water is polluted and the beach is taken for hotel development.

But if you teach me to organize, then whatever the challenge, I can join together with my community and we will develop our own solution."

the lotus ponds surround Islander

Monshusri- resident monk; yesterday he was on a motorcycle....but he did not want me to take his photo like this

 

The above is the credo for Sewalanka Foundation. (it is actually a 3 part organization, part micro- lending, part social entrepreneurship and then the above is the heart of the organization).  I am currently at Islander, the Neutral Center , in the north, adjacent to Wilpattu National Park.  It is considered neutral because it is the "safe haven" for the different factions to come, meet, discuss and learn. This 30 year civil war just ended in 2009; Sewalanka has been doing its work since 1992.
Currently, there are students from both Sinha and Tamil, ages 17 or so having their first chance to mingle and also to learn leadership skills to take back to their villages and be pro-active citizens in their lives. It's a 3 month program. It's all part of capacity building, the buzz-word of rural economic development in the parlance of the NGO world for the past 8 years or so.  CBO (community based organizations) are what they strive to create.  Leadership is shared.
From my perch, it is well run and extremely progressive; the vision central, but flexible to negotiate a country in transition.
At this point, 5 days into my stay at Islander I have been
working with the new "Eco Tourist"  director who is attempting to create a plan for this extraordinary place.
I am attempting to identify the strengths of this concept,
direct my knowledge of resources for partnerships, and brainstorm what is feasible.  The range also includes volunteerism for their 50 acre organic farm as well as "spiritual tourism" as there is Buddhist monk in residence  and a visiting Hindu priest.  (the civil war conflict was mostly fomented around these two religions; geographically and politically, dividing the country)
This would include meditation, yoga and religious discourse.
The center itself is Magnificent, built on the ashram concept.
More on the work that I am doing later.

So, what has this got to do with the "peacock up a tree" title?

dusk - the scale is deceiving; this guy is HUGE!

 I am in a place of indescribable beauty ....... but I will try to give you a sense of it.
This is the dry plains of Sri Lanka.  Islander is in the middle of a sacred "tank" ; a waterway /reservoir system built perhaps 1000 years ago by the resident King.  The chairman Harsha's vision encompassed this neglected place and transformed it into a natural paradise where birds, reptiles, amphibians, elephants, INSECTS and of course humans intersect. It is a safe place for all.

outside of my window

heron and egret waiting for their breakfast to swim by over the dam

monitor lizard outside my window; i hope i can get a photo of the one i saw the first day: he was 10' long (this one is about 6-7)

Indian Pitta which I must have caught migrating

black hooded oriole- bigger than our Baltimore, He is the Color of Sri Lanka

 

the shy and quick Asian paradise flycatcher

It's not a jungle, it's more wide open plains with water ,foliage and dead trees, perfect for viewing the wildlife.  I cannot believe how close I can get to the birds. (I'll leave my small nikon binoculars here so that others can enjoy this experience).
The sounds are endless and amazing.  The peacock goes on all DAY.  He sounds like a combination of Tom Keith's (from Prairie Home Companion) version of a hawk + cat's mewling.  It is astonishingly LOUD.  They are so Funny.  Not great flyers (although they were the first thing I saw as i entered the area; my mouth agape seeing this HUGE unknown thing in a tree) they are the FASTEST runners, waddling with this gigantic long tail reaching 12 feet behind them.  Then there are the parrots, hundreds of green flying through the sky at
very low altitude.  And the diving kingfishers; fast and turquoise.  Then the hornbills.  And drongos and trogons.
I hope to be able to photograph some more for your delight.

SO, what isn't working very well here for me is only one thing.
Absence of sleep.  I am unable to sleep in the little bed, with the little rock hard mattress and the little pillow in the excruciating heat (but there is a fan) and the MOSQUITOES!
(yep, can no longer sleep in the Afghan desert- those days are long gone)
I just put two mattresses together and I hope this will work........
stay tuned................


 






travelin' woman