3rd - 5th February 2007

Saturday 3rd February

This morning I went to Morathuduwa Temple to meet Gothama, the monk as arranged last week. We sat outside, just near the white dagoba, and meditated on a mat for about ½ hour. We then had a chat about various things to do with Buddhism.

I went to Rathgama’s Saturday market after the temple to gather information for the This is Rathgama project. I took a few photos and made a recording of sounds of the market which I hope will find it’s way onto this website as an audio file. There are about 100 stalls selling fruit, vegetables, spices, fish, kitchenware, cloths, linen, household goods, toys and incense.

Sunday 4th February

Today is National Day, celebrating the anniversary of Sri Lanka’s independence in 1948. Last night Nalinda said, “Tomorrow everybody hate (sic) you!” I know he meant it as a joke, but I’m not proud of my country’s colonial past, and I told him so. It was easy to explain actually due to his choice of t-shirt – red with a big union jack in the middle. I basically just said to him that I would never been seen wearing that t-shirt. I think he got my drift.

I snorkelled again today and I swam among loads of wonderful fish, including a school of barracuda and a fish about ½ metre long, predominantly electric blue, with a bright yellow patch on each side. But the most amazing thing was when I was swimming along looking at nothing in particular, only to find a huge turtle, the size of me, swimming underneath me!

This afternoon on TV there were a few films, some Indian, some Sinhalese, set in colonial times, with natives pitting their wits against the Brits. It’s good to see some Brit-bashing movies..!

Monday 5th February

Going to the beach to see the fishermen at 7am this morning I saw loads of kids walking to school. It was only now that I realised that school days here aren’t shorter than in England. They may finish at 1:30pm, but they’ve been at school since 7:30am!

After this morning’s teaching at Ranapanediniya School I went into Galle with Nalinda and Manju to get a few bits and bobs I wanted. There are some things I’m really finding a strain now I’ve been here nearly 4 weeks. One is people asking me for money after telling me something useful. For instance, today in Galle we went into the train station to find out times of trains to Colombo. I thought the smartly dressed man who explained the options to me was an employee of the station but no. He was a tour guide, and after our conversation he wanted some money. Now, I know that people here are generally worse off than I am, and so need the money more. But it’s not that that bugs me. It’s the deception of altruism that depresses me.