Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Revisited 16/03/07 to 24/03/07

I was never really that fond of Colombo. It’s a huge city and the wealth on display was such a contrast to life in Ampara. But after 2 months of moving every 2/3 days to unfamiliar places it was nice to know my way around somewhere. The Irish Consulate had a function for Paddy’s Day in one of the posh hotels and even his bizarre speech (he referred to the Irish President as a he and had a poor enough grasp of what it means to be Irish) couldn’t take from a good evening, the grub, Baileys , Irish coffee and whiskey all contributing to an evening which ended in boisterous singing.

   I was quite apprehensive about going down to Ampara, something of a sense of not belonging there anymore. However while it felt weird not to be involved in things and not to be working it was a great trip. Really good to catch up with people   and see how things have progressed.Things are really starting to wind down now, a lot of the staff have gone and projects finished. I spent two of the days going around the projects and was really really proud with what I saw. The completed buildings look amazing and really makes you feel that you have been part of something special. Walking into the stunning new vocational training college in Akkarapatthu and seeing the fully kitted out computer lab and the mechanic course in progress was the highlight of my week. I don't regret not extending my time and seeing things here through until the end but am delighted that I made it back here one last time to see things before heading home.

I'm not sorry to be leaving Sri Lanka, the situation here has worsened in the two months I have been away. The government and the media they control have successfully managed to portray the UN and the International NGO's in a pretty negative light to the point that the general pubic regard us as Tamil Tiger (LTTE) apologists looking to interfere with the internal affairs of the country. As a result the government and army can act with impunity as they can quickly dismiss any criticism of their actions as the work of the "Tiger loving peacemongers". I've spoken to several people this week who have been to Batticoloa recently which is only 50 kms north of Ampara. The stories of the shelling and air raids into the LTTE controlled areas are hair raising and have resulted in a mass exodus of civilians from the LTTE controlled areas into the government controlled areas. The UN are trying to house and feed around 150,000 displaced people in the Batticoloa area alone. Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and North Korea may grab all the international headlines but this is an escalating crisis that is being smothered over by a supposed democratic government. Don't get me wrong, the Tigers are ruthless too and seem as disinterested in peace as the government. It pretty depressing to witness it all firsthand to say the least.

India 16/01/07 to 16/03/07

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End of the Line 27/12/06 to 16/01/07

In many ways my final few weeks in Sri Lanka were a perfect microcosm of the entire year, a combination of visits to fantastic locations and good times spent with friends crossed with enormous frustrations on the work front. After the busy Christmas period there was a lull before the New Year, there were a few more opening ceremonies and  I caused offence on a number of occasions by turning down various offers on the premise that I only had one week to go and was too busy. Sri Lankans don’t take being turned down very well.

  On the 30^th a gang of us headed to the Tangalle on the south coast for a break over the New Year. I had been here before in April and it remains one of my favourite spots in Sri Lanka. The resort is called Palm Paradise which is an apt description as the combination of great cabanas and a stunning beach within a stones throw make it an idyllic location to say the least. In the four days we were there I didn’t stir more a few hundred metres from the beach, plenty of swims in the sea and sitting on rocks watching the sunset. It was a very different New Years Eve experience, with people going for a swim once the New Year arrived. All too soon it was time to head back for my final few days in Ampara.

The going away experience for the expats can be an uncomfortable one. The national staff make a collection and from it purchase a gift (generally something pretty awful) and pay for a lunch for some of the staff. They are well paid relative to some of the jobs in Sri Lanka but still the majority of them are living month to month. Invariably people like the drivers aren’t invited, Sri Lankan society is surprisingly snobbish and when the lunch is held in a restaurant the single muslim women cannot attend either. So a few weeks ago I announced that I wanted no collection made on my behalf and that I would pay for lunch. This caused consternation but I stuck to my guns and on my second last day we had take out rice and curry for 45 in the office including the drivers, the two cleaners from our house and the two cooks who are after all the people who have taken care of me in the last year. It was great and just what I wanted but they were still insisting that when I get back in March that they will take me out to lunch, there is just no escape.

My second last day turned out to be my last day, fitting that my final day was a hartal, called to protest the execution of Saddam Hussein. We couldn’t help but comment on the double standards of opposition to Saddam’s execution and then the indifference to the fate of the poor truck assistant who was chucked into the burning truck a few weeks ago. The new year has started out violently, two bombings on public buses killing 15 people and clashes all along the front line in the East and North. It’s doesn’t bode well for a peaceful solution.

I’ve been in Colombo now for over a week and am itching to get on the move. My first day here I went to a jazz afternoon in a rugby club, hard to believe that it the same country that I have spent a year in. The rest of the week has been spent finishing off work and shopping for essentials for India, top of the list of which was a new music player. My faithful i-river who has served me well over the past two and a half years packed it in last week, maybe the thought of another trip to India was too much for it. Other highlights of the week included sunset cocktails at the Galle Face, one of the most famous hotels in Colombo and having non Sri Lankan food, pizza and sushi have never tasted so good. But it’s a bit of a surreal existence, I don’t really feel I belong in Colombo and am glad I have only two days left.

Sri Lanka does my head in. The slow convoluted process of getting anything done coupled with the in-transience of both sides of the conflict would leave you screaming with frustration. But despite that you end up loving it and this year has been an amazing experience. There is no doubt that there are plenty of rewards in this line of work but it takes its toll, I’ve never felt so tired in my life and it is a relief to only have myself to consider again. But I will greatly miss the people who have been part of my day to day life over the past year, Tissa the cook with the permanent cheeky smile, Yoosuf the incomprehensible mumbling driver and Lareef the quiet and unassuming assistant accountant who has kept me on my toes. I will miss the expat friends I have made greatly too , they have kept me sane and entertained throughout. Thanks to all who have taken an interest in the blog for the past year and especially thanks for all the mails.

Next stop India.

Christmas and Tsunami Anniversary 23/12/06 to 26/12/06

  I think I had my busiest Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Stephen's Day ever this year. Christmas Eve myself and Tissa one of the cooks went on a big shopping spree in Ampara, purchasing veggies, the ingredients for a trifle, as much Christmas decorations as we could muster as well as dropping into a sari shop to get an Irish flag made (more on this later). Our expedition failed to rustle up a Christmas tree but a SOS call to the gang working down on the coast getting the buildings ready for the ceremony on Stephen's Day and they raided our office and sent the one we had there back to the house. The afternoon was spent directing the cook, the security guard and the driver in decorating the house , it just shows how bored the latter two normally are that they got a great kick out of it. The GOAL crew from Colombo arrived down that evening with the turkey and ham and an array of goodies including decent wine, quality street choccys and chocolate digestives. (We selfishly in the end didn't produce the latter two on Christmas day .)

Christmas morning I was up at 7am and myself, the country directors wife Sinead and Tissa spent the day getting the dinner ready for ourselves and an array of "strays" who had ended up staying in Ampara for Christmas. It was a manic day but at 6.30pm we served up a dinner of toast and pate to start , turkey, ham, stuffing, gravy, roast and mashed spuds, carrots, cabbage and leeks followed by whiskey trifle & baileys custard  and mince pies and brandy butter to an international group of 25 from Ireland, England, Italy, France, Poland, Holland, Germany and Canada. It was fantastic success, everyone was well stuffed and happy by the end.

Stephens Day was a big day for us, we had been building up to it for weeks. We initially had planned to open 3 new schools but the contractors on two let us down so we had only one to open. On Thursday 21st we fired the contractor on our third and final fisheries building when it looked like this (left) and set our own crew on it and 4 days later it looked like this (right). Now a photo from the back of the building would look only half finished but it looked great on the day. We also had finished our big bridge project just in time too so we were scheduled to open that too.

The locals has been in the Mosque praying from 7 but we of course were not allowed to attend. We had suggested a memorial service on the beach at the time the wave hit for which our local staff got us truly awful white plastic wreaths. Undaunted we hit the beach, lit some candles, had a two minute silence and then chucked the wreaths into the sea. We all then piled into minivans and headed to open the bridge. As one side of it is in a Tamil area , the security of our chief guest Madame Ferial Ashraff MP, a cabinet minister , would not let her travel there so we opened it ourselves. The bridge was looking great and we cheered and applauded some poor unsuspecting local across the bridge who just happened to turn up on his bike at the right time. All back down into the vans and back down to meet our guest of honour.

Madame Ashraff is a very impressive and formidable woman. Her husband was the leading Muslim politician in Sri Lanka until he was assassinated at which point she ran for his seat. Most of the Muslim women I've seen have peered from behind curtains in kitchens at me, so to meet one who is a cabinet minister is quite a turnaround. Such a high profile government figure is a prime target so security was tight but that didn't stop the hoards of people from clogging up the streets to get a look at the chief guest. We first opened the fisheries building (thankfully she didn't go out the back) before going onto the school for the raising of the Sri Lankan, Irish and GOAL flags. We have plenty of Irish flags in the house but we had to get one made to 4 ft x 3 ft so it would be the same size as the Sri Lankan flag, they are nearly as fussy as the Americans over their flags. Anyway I got to raise the tricolour but it had been poorly tied on and half way up a gust of wind caught it and it took off and landed on a fence. It was retrieved , rolled up in a ball and wrapped around the flag pole. I was bulling and all the way through the Sri Lankan and Irish National anthems (I sung the latter at the top of my voice ) was glaring at the guy who had done it. Once over I went straight over and said that he wouldn't do that to his country's flag so how dare he do it to mine. Two minutes later all was well again with the tricolour flapping in the breeze with the other flags.

 The rest of the day was standard opening ceremony stuff. Welcome speeches , kids performing ( they sang all the greats...knick knack paddy whack......the hokey kokey....it was howl) and a just incredible amount of long boring speeches, albeit ones where GOAL and the Irish people were being praised to a height . Our gift was surprisingly tasteful, a clock with a personal message on it. It may make the trip back to Ireland unlike many of the other things I have received. They all came wrapped in paper that said "on your wedding" which had us in a fit of the giggles all the more so since it was Madam Ashraff who copped it first. The audience was all male with some women lurking outside the building. Madam Ashraff had a dig and said that next time she comes back she wanted to see a 50/50 split.

The following day we got great coverage in the local papers and on the local news. We also had a segment on the TV3 news at home and articles in a number of papers including a picture in the Star. It was a fantastic day and would give anyone an incredible lift to experience such a thing. I must say though that I am looking forward to be anonymous again and putting my fifteen minutes behind me.

Grim Realities 09/12/06 to 23/12/06

Every day as we commute from Sinhalese Ampara town to the Muslim/Tamil coastal area we pass through Sammanthurai, a bustling Muslim town. We have nick named it “cow town” the main roundabout is always choc a bloc with sauntering bovines slowly going about their day. The other image of Sammanthurai that will stay with me is the droves of kids heading to schools in impossibly clean uniforms. It has the appearance of a pretty nice town.10 days ago at 8.30pm an NGO vehicle passing through the town knocked down and killed a cyclist. He didn’t stop and in the panic drove on and ploughed into a group of pedestrians killing two more. The driver fled the scene but his unfortunate assistant was dragged from the truck by a mob and beaten severely. They then set the truck on fire and threw the badly beaten man onto the flames.
The next morning all the GOAL team plus the journalist Vincent Hogan were sitting outside the GOAL house while I made and received phonecalls trying to gauge the situation. The problem stemmed from the fact that the man who was burnt alive was Sinhalese, from Ampara town and the mob was Muslim. Sammanthurai had no traffic through it and there was a heavy security presence. Our Muslim drivers who live on the coast and come by motorbike every morning to Ampara town to pick up their vehicles were prevented from travelling by the security forces for their own safety. Our drivers from Ampara who are Sinhalese were understandably nervous about heading into Muslim areas. In the end the decision was made to go to the coast via a roundabout route through a predominately Tamil area. Ironically enough the day before this was a no go area, someone was shot near one of our schools and we didn’t send any of our workers there. Things flare up and die down that quickly here. The rest of the day passed off without any major incident. Rumours of Muslims being killed in Ampara proved to be unfounded although one guy was dragged out his motorbike and it was set on fire. The discouraging thing was the attitude of our staff , people that I work with every day. Their only comment was to lament that the wrong man was murdered, if it had of been the driver then justice would have been served. Such is the value placed on a life here.
In Ireland we consider ourselves to have a violent recent history. During “the Troubles” between 1969 and 1998 approximately 3,500 people were killed in the North. From 1983 to date 67,000 have been killed in Sri Lanka an island of similar size with four times the population. This year alone in the time that I have been here 3,500 people have been killed, the same amount as during the entire Troubles. The violence has a ferocity that is sickening and neither side seems to have any will to end it.
The gravity of the decisions to be made on days like that leave me mentally and physically drained. Positions of authority have never rested easy with me and one of the reasons I won’t extend beyond my current contract here is how uncomfortable I am being responsible for 100 people in an increasingly dangerous situation. Every now and then you need a break to get your head straight and   a few days later I took a four day weekend and got away to the hills. I spent the first night in Kandy savouring as always such luxuries as hot showers before catching a train for what I thought was going to a 5 hour train journey up into the hills. The 10.45 train left the station at 11.15 and 30 minutes on I went to make my scheduled train change only to be told that it was delayed by an hour. My plans of viewing beautiful scenery were spoiled by the torrential rain which only cleared occasionally and it was 6.30pm when I arrived in Banderawela. I had spent the previous hour hanging out of the train every time it slowed down to try and see where we were, no such thing as a conductor of these trains. All my frustrations evaporated when I saw the hotel, previously a club for tea plantation owners and now a luxury hotel. For the first time I felt as if Christmas was coming, the roaring log fire in the lounge the Christmas trees in reception the lounge and the bar and most of all the pouring rain and how chilly it was. My plans to visit a tea plantation were scuppered by a tea pickers strike which meant it was unsafe to travel there so my sightseeing was limited to driving for an hour to see a wooden bridge. I was pretty sceptical but it turned out to be a lovely serene spot. All in all I had a great relaxing time and arrived back in Ampara well rested and ready for my final 3 weeks.

Out of control 01/12/06 to 08/12/06

  The situation with opening ceremonies is well and truly out of control at this stage. This week we had the opening of our 2^nd fisheries building. The opening coincided with the arrival of a TV3 crew, Collette Fitzpatrick who (apparently) reads the news and a cameraman. It’s all fairly standard at this stage and I was kept busy between cutting ribbons, planting coconut trees, lighting candles , accepting numerous thanks and finally making a speech. There was also the standard request for more stuff in the form of a wall instead of a fence and something to prevent the yard getting flooded (we are getting a serious amount of rain these days). It was a nice function though and in a country where everything is ethnically separated (schools for example and even most towns) it was nice that the co-operative formed consisted of Muslim and Tamil fishermans societies.That night the TV3 people came over to the house for dinner , duly filmed us eating and then later in the evening interviewed us all individually.

But all this paled into insignificance in comparison to the following day. We had an opening ceremony for one our schools and if the footage ever gets out I will never be able to show my face in Dublin again. When we arrived the rain was absolutely powerhosing it down and we sheltered until it had eased off to a downpour. Then I was positioned just under the huge banner that stretched across the road welcoming me and the marching band approached and the bandleader came up, saluted and welcomed me to their school. Then these lads, the equivalent of Sri Lankan morris dancers appeared, danced around and banged their sticks a lot. Next up was a sinister looking guy carrying a sword and one of those martial arts things of two rods of metal joined by a chain. He waved his weapons around for a while and then the dancing girls showed up. 20 girls under 10 years of age, all in pink dresses then led the procession up the muddy road to the schools gate . The route to the gate and through the schools yard was all lined with schoolkids armed with flower petals which they pegged at me with a venom you wouldn’t b elieve. I think Collette and Owen the cameraman were too stunned at first to record but in the end they got enough incriminating footage to ruin me. Next up was the flag raising ceremony and we finally retired inside to the assembly hall. Here the singing and dancing continued followed by numerous speeches and presentations of gift. Despite how happy I look in getting my shawl and my beautiful sun trophy , the excitement soon wore off and as you can see none of us seemed too please with what we got. All told the whole thing took 3 hours, I don’t know if I can take many more of these. The footage from their trip is supposed to go out as part of the evening news on December 24th, 25th and 26th. I can only hope the rain damaged the tape.

Customer recognition part 2, trip to Ella and work progress 12/11/06 to 30/11/06

Sri Lanka still manages to surprise me.It seemed to be a day like any other but little did I know that my life, or at least the part of it where I buy a bottle of water every day, was never going to be the same again. There I was sitting in my office sweltering and getting tired of drinking luke warm water. So I went downstairs and crossed the road to a chorus of horns from the motor bikes, tuc tucs and buses all who's drivers seem to panic at the sight of a white man crossing the road. I had opened my mouth to say "a bottle of water please" when I noticed before me the shopkeeper wearing the most gormless smile you could ever seen whilst holding a chilled bottle of water. After nearly 11 months he had finally remembered my order. As tempted as I was to say "no I want a bag of peanuts" I took the water with a smile went back across the road to another huge chorus of horns from panic stricken drivers. A week later he is still hugely impressed with the leap forward he has made in customer recognition and having my bottle of water ready for me seems to be one of the highlights of his day.

Last weekend a gang of us headed up to the hills to Ella for a quick get away from Ampara. It good from time to time to be reminded that there are some truly stunning parts to Sri Lanka, as Ampara is far from being picturesque. In addition to great scenery , the weather was cooler, there were actual restaurants there and we saw the odd white person that didn’t work for a NGO. It was great. Our walk along the train tracks was a surreal experience , it felt like a totally different world. The station, trains and general vibe felt very much like home. The only downer was when it took to pour rain which was bad enough until we got back to our guesthouse and realised that we had all been attacked by leeches. Not very pleasant at all. 

I don't get out in the field as often as I should but when I do it's good to see the physical progress that is being made however slowly it is happening. The photo's here are some before and after shots of some of our schools buildings that I've taken over the past few months. The wind down process is in full swing and one by one the projects are closing down and staff are being let go. I have 5 weeks left here but it will be probably be late April by the time everything is finished. One of the reasons I don't want to stay on is that I reckon it will be pretty sad to be here right at the end,to go from over 100 national staff down to handful at the end will feel weird. From a security standpoint as well I seem to be getting out at the right time too as the violence gets worse by the week. It is a farce to say that the ceasefire is still in place given that 3,000 people have been killed in the time that I have been in Sri Lanka. It's pretty depressing to witness first hand a situation where it appears that both sides just do not seem ready for peace and compromise. I find it hard to read the media reports from both sides now without wanting to scream in frustration. This week the leader of the LTTE gave a speech outlining the reasons why he reckoned the ceasefire was "defunct". Yet when questioned later the LTTE said no, that they were not withdrawing from the cease fire agreement. Welcome to the world of Sri Lankan doublespeak.

Even More Bling...30/10/06 to 11/11/06

After being at a party until 2am that morning the last place I wanted to be at 10am on Saturday morning was in Nintavur at the opening of our fisheries building but what is a chief special guest to do ? As team leader not only do I getting bigger garlands than anyone else but I get my name on the welcome banner as well. It was all a bit mortifying to say the least. It was a busy morning…there were ribbons to be cut….coconut trees to be planted…speeches to be made …tacky presents to receive and documents to be signed. Despite how it looks, no I haven’t just married some Sri Lankan guy , I merely was signing over the building to him. Back in early January on my second day in Ampara I went to the foundation ceremony of this building so it’s nice to be around to see the finished article. As well as the meeting hall and market building we set up the local farmer’s co-operative union and gave them some training in running same as well as giving them fish boxes and some money to get them going in a variety of fish related trades. It’s days like these that make putting up with all the hassle out here worthwhile making you realise that you are part of something positive. And while as per usual they asked for more stuff the didn't labour the point, by and the large the speeches were very complementary of what we had done .

We recently got a new batch of GOAL t-shirts in and they have become hot fashion items in Sainthamaruthu. The gas thing is that all the national staff are always asking for t-shirts and then they will never wear them. Most of the office and senior staff consider it to be beneath themselves to wear t-shirts so as soon as this photo was taken most of them took them off.

In a fit of madness last weekend a few of us went for a hike in Gal Oya National Park which is 20kms south of Ampara town. The climb only took around an hour but the heat and our general lack of regular exercise meant that it was tough going. It was worth it in the end though, the views from the top were amazing, there are times you are so absorbed in the work and day to day hassles that you forget that this is a really beautiful country.   

A Muslim Overdose 18/10/06 to 29/10/06

I’ve pretty much had my fill of the Muslim culture this week. First of all Tuesday was the festival of EID Mubarak, which marks the end of Ramadan their month of daylight fasting. There was confusion as to whether the festival was going to be on Monday or Tuesday, it all hinged on when the new moon was. I was sure this kind of thing of predetermined but not in Sri Lanka.It was cloudy on Sunday night so they couldn’t see the moon so the festival fell on Tuesday instead. I’m not kidding.The day is spent stuffing their faces with an alarming array of sickly sweet cakes and sweets. They have an extraordinary ability to take pure sugar and present it in a variety of shapes and colours. Unlike some of the expats who spent their day going to various houses belonging to national staff, I only had one to attend. It is a true feeding frenzy in that as soon as you finish one thing a new sugary object is pressed upon you with mortal offence being taken if you refuse. All this of course takes place in the presence of the men only, the woman are kept in other rooms behind curtains churning out cups of tea and the aforementioned sweet array.

Then on Friday the Jummah Grand Mosque of Sainthamaruthu  had a “felicitation ceremony” for GOAL. We had funded the construction of  walls around 3 tsunami cemeteries and they wanted to take the opportunity while having an opening ceremony to thanks GOAL for all the work we have done in Sainthamaruthu, Gone are the days where when attending this kind of thing I can lurk in the background avoiding taking part in the proceedings by claiming to be the official photographer, the team leader is front and centre for the whole thing. First of all we visited each of the cemetery walls and cut the ribbons before adjourning to the Mosque for a meeting/tea party. Or rather a marquee beside the Mosque, as non believers we aren’t allowed inside the mosque. We had been told that our customary attire of GOAL tshirts were not appropriate for the occasion so we were all looking our best despite being burdened with the Sri Lankan equivalent of bling, a gaudy necklace. They had a few spare ones so I ended up with 3 in total and was looking very stylish as you can see. Those on the podium and in the audience were a who’s who of Sainthamaruthu , between Mosque leaders, local MP’s and government officials. All men of course, no women allowed. They had put together a booklet listing all that we had done since the first week after the tsunami hit when we arrived in the area. It was pretty moving and would make you very proud of all that has been done. And then , like all these ceremonies they go and ruin it. “Since you have done all this good work we most humbly ask that you do the following….there is a fourth cemetery that has no wall…the tiles on the floor of the Mosque are chipped from when all the tsunami refugees  stayed there…we need a new photocopier…"the list was just endless. I wouldn’t mind but they had sent me a letter a few weeks ago asking for most of this stuff and they got a response telling them in no uncertain terms that there was no more money left…I avoided saying that even if there was I wouldn’t be spending it on tiles for the Mosque floor. Finally after nearly an hour of speeches I was presented with a little memento, a surprising tasteful glass engraved object in the shape of Sri Lanka.Most of time you are given something that is truly awful that you end up discretely disposing off. Then the master of ceremonies announced that we had reached the highlight of the afternoon, the speech by the GOAL team leader. I humbly accepted their thanks on behalf of all the expats who had worked here since January 2005, all the national staff, who are the ones that do the real work and the people of Ireland who gave the money in the first place. It seemed to go down pretty well even when I told them that we couldn’t give any more money to them but assured them that I would pass on their request to my colleagues in the INGO community. I battled my way through the crowd, shaking hands all around as I went and avoiding the guy who wanted the photocopier who seemed determined to make his case heard. I’ve a funny feeling I’ll have a few more of these over the next two months.

Customer recognition and a week off...28/09/06 to 17/10/06

It is nice to be remembered…..In September last year I walked into Butlers just of Grafton street in Dublin for a coffee, something which I did every morning when I worked for Eircom. Despite it being 15 months since I had been there last, the guy behind counter looked up, smiled and said “Americano, isn’t it ? “. Contrast this with my daily experience in the shop across the road from our office in Sainthamaruthu. I have gone there practically every day since early January, sometimes twice a day. I only ever buy one thing, a chilled bottle of water. Despite this, the routine I go through with the shop keeper is exactly the same. I approach, he smiles and bobs his head and then we engage in a staring standoff (his being decidedly vacant) until I eventually give up and say “bottle of water, please”. There follows a beaming smile of recognition as he heads off to the fridge (oh that’s right, this is the 6ft red haired white guy in a GOAL tshirt who buys water as opposed to……..). There are days I try to screw with him and hold out for as long as possible to see will he reach for the fridge door without me asking but he is way better at the staring game than I can ever hope to be. One of these days…………..

Anuradhapura was the greatest monastic city of the ancient world and at it’s height was home to over ten thousand monks. It was also the capital of Sri Lanka from the 2^nd BC to the 11^th century AD in a time deemed to be the golden age of Sinhalese culture. To this day it is a place of great significance for Buddhism and Sinhalese culture but nowadays it resembles more of a military installation than an archaeological site. In 1985 the LTTE gunned down over 150 pilgrims here which coupled with the truck bomb at Kandy’s Temple of the Tooth in 1998 means that both sites are heavily guarded given the significance both have to Buddhism and therefore Sinhalese nationalism. Anyway I don’t think I have bossed around more in a single day in my life between having to show respect to Buddha by not wearing a hat or shoes at any of the sites and being bossed around by obnoxious soldiers as to where I could and couldn’t go. I was involved in two "incidents" that day. The first I inadvertently sailed into a temple grounds via a back entrance on my (extremely effeminate) rented bicycle. Cycling in temples is a big no no apparently to say nothing of the fact that I was wearing my hat and had my flip flops on as well. Cue lots of people scolding me and barking orders at me. Speaking of the hat and flip flops, respect to Buddha is all very well and good but I have very fair skin and need my hat to protect my head and the stones are just too damn hot to walk on in my bare feet. You had to keep on the move all the time and even stopping to take a photo is pure torture; in the end I resorted to standing on my hat while taking photo’s, I’m pretty sure there is a rule against that too but no one caught me. The second incident was just farcical. I had just passed through a security checkpoint having had my bag thoroughly searched and been felt up by a Sri Lankan soldier for the umpteenth time that day when I realised that my water bottle was leaking inside my backpack. So I stopped, opened my bag on the ground and proceeded to rescue my camera, guide book, wallet, mobile phone etc. I was suddenly surrounded by some stern looking AK-47 carrying soldiers asking me what I was doing. C’mon lads, you’ve just searched me and my bag, what are the odds I assembling a WMD here. I snarled something about a leaking water bottle and they slinked away.  

Despite all of these frustrations Anuradhapura is an impressive site and well worth the visit. Easily the best sites are the enormous dagobas, as stupas are known here in Sri Lanka. At the time of it’s construction the Jetavana dagoba was the 3^rd largest structure in the world, after two of the pyramids at Giza. It is 120metres tall and contains 90 million bricks….you get the picture…it’s damn big. I was less impressed with the Sri Maha Bodhi or Sacred Bo Tree which is the principle reason for all the security on the site. It’s a sapling from the original Bo tree that Buddha attained enlightenment under and given that the original tree has since been destroyed the sapling is revered by Buddhists. It is also claimed to be the oldest tree in the world at 2,300 years old. Despite all this it just looks like any other tree.

I based myself in Anuradhapura for the majority of my week off catching up on rest in between seeing the sites in the surrounding countryside, which invariably involve something related to Buddhism. You get tired of the temples fairly quickly, admittingly some of them are in great locations but the temples themselves are fairly plain with only a standing/sitting/reclining Buddha inside. (By contrast the Hindu temples are a blaze of colour and contain a vast array of mad looking gods). The upsurge in violence has hit the tourist industry hard, this is one of the top tourist sites in Sri Lanka but is practically deserted at the moment and my guesthouse with 20 rooms had only 3 occupied every night. Still it was nice and quiet and good to get away from work for a few days.

Peace talks are scheduled for the end of the month in Geneva but there isn’t much hope here that anything constructive will come out of it. The government have of late been making forays into LTTE controlled areas with both sides suffering heavy casualties. Then the LTTE exploded a massive bomb yesterday killing over 100 people, mainly navy personnel. Peace still seems a distant hope here, but our work is ongoing relatively undisturbed and we continue to take all the necessary precautions that keep us safe.

On a positive note we finally got our work permits after month of frustrating waiting.