overdue update

Has been a busy couple of weeks, combined with power cuts and IT problems, so not had chance to update this for a while – but yes I’m still alive and kicking in case anyone is wondering! Getting savaged by mosquitoes at the moment for some reason – my ankles seem to be particularly delicious for them. Grrr. Rainy season is also upon us, so there are regular spectacular rainstorms which is fine when you’re inside! The air is very fresh as a result – positively cool at points, which is lovely.

On the work front, things have been mixed. Managed to get a bit of momentum going with meetings and discussions about objectives, priorities etc. But it slipped a bit this week and our regular planning group meeting was postponed on Thurs with zero notice so I ended up having a pretty boring day as I can’t get on with too much without other people’s input. It was rescheduled for Fri am…when it got to 45 mins after it was supposed to start and people still hadn’t turned up, I was not a happy bunny. While I totally accept that there’s a cultural difference in terms of meetings and time and things like that, I get really fed up when I feel like they’re not valuing my time (esp when I could be doing other things with it!), so I had a few ‘assertive’ words with the chairman, which seemed to make a difference. Meeting took place albeit delayed, everyone was very participative, we got through a lot and we have 2 meetings scheduled for next week. Watch this space…!

Have also been out and about quite a lot over last few weeks, visiting projects and meeting other NGOs (I may end up doing a bit of development work with some other NGOs as the work I’ve got to do here isn’t a full-time job). It’s been good to see some things in action, especially grassroots community-led stuff, which is really inspiring.

Unfortunately though, there is a lot of duplication of effort and not much ‘business savviness’ in the NGO community generally – lots of good intentions but not much in the way of sustainability. E.g. everyone we meet seems to think that coir (coconut husk hair) will be the saviour of Sri Lanka’s poor communities – there’s a bit of an “if we can make it, surely we can sell it” attitude – and you’d be amazed what you can make from the stuff (!!) At this rate, Sri Lanka will have a coir mountain to rival sugar and butter mountains elsewhere! Of course, donors throwing money at coir production factories don’t help. Likewise handicrafts, likewise clothing. But maybe bringing in some volunteer support to look at marketing, business development and co-ordinating effort across multiple NGOs could help…something that we’ve spoken about in terms of future volunteer placements being sent out here…

On the non-work front, it’s been a bit of a social whirl the last few weeks, what with visits from our placement provider, other folk from the guest house coming and going, trips out with the guest house family, and last night, the oh-so-salubrious experience of drinking gin and tonic at the Galle Cricket Club. Apparently Shane Warne drank there after he took his 500th test wicket at the very same ground, so who knows, maybe I sat in the same seat as him! The man of the house at the guest house is a member so he took a few of us there for a drink last night – v funny. The cricket ground was destroyed by the tsunami and is being re-surfaced at the moment – England are coming to play here in December so they need to get it ready for then. The stands are being taken down and moved, so the Cricket Club is not looking the best – as there was torrential rain last night, there was a) a power cut and b) the slightly alarming sight of sheets of corrugated iron flapping about in the gusts of wind about 10 feet from where we were sitting. All good fun.

I’m going up to Colombo on Sunday and hopefully catching some cricket on Monday – Bangladesh v Sri Lanka test match, first day. Even if we don’t see any (might be rained off!) it’ll be nice to get to Colombo for a bit as I’m starting to crave city life. On the way back down the coast, we’re meeting up with a Scottish ex-pat who runs an NGO on the coast – sounds like there might be some work to do there, which might be interesting. So I’ll be back in Galle Tues eve.

It’s weird to realize that I’m over halfway through time here – it’s flown by especially in the last 3 or 4 weeks. It’s strange, you don’t get the same sense of time passing here that you do in UK – mainly as there aren’t seasons in the way I’m used to – it gets light the same time every day and gets dark the same time every evening. It’s my birthday next week (hint hint!) and it doesn’t at all feel like the ‘right’ time of year for it. I have to keep reminding myself of the date! So in some ways it feels like it’s going to be ages before I finish up but when I actually look at a calendar I realize it’s not very long at all. There is a chance I’ll stay out here a bit longer (maybe till mid-Sep), but that really depends on if and what kind of work there is to do. Either way, I’ll be back in Scotland in time for Erin’s wedding (in case you’re wondering mum!!) and I’ll also be having a break in August – Kevin is coming out here and we’re going to have a few weeks split between Sri Lanka and the Maldives (very nice!)

Funny moment of the week - when is a photographer not a photographer…

Karen is writing an article about one of the projects here and she’d had a bit of trouble finding a photographer to take pictures of various people who’ve used micro-loans to develop their own businesses. Not that tricky you’d think but Galle is a bit of a backwater and the only people around seemed to be wedding photographers! Anyway she got one guy sorted out (for what was quite a hefty fee by Sri Lankan standards) but we soon realized that he wasn’t really up to the job when we had to explain the concepts of composition and perspective to him! The best moment was when we asked him to turn off the auto focus and use manual focus to get a bit of depth into the pictures – no chance!

We basically spent most of the day being “artistic directors” while said “photographer” reluctantly snapped away. We got a few okay shots but think Karen is regretting the day she decided to do this article!!