After several days In Batticloa (and realising that my postings appear to have come to a halt in mid-sentence), I shall try to complete some thoughts.
On our journey here, we stopped at the home of an elderly Sri Lankan political activist who also believed in diversity of cultivaiton and sharing one's food with those who had none. He has a smallholding himself on which he grows a variety of fruits and vegetables. By his reckoning if 100 households shared their crops, growing different items there would be enough mangoes, avocadoes, pineapples, beans etc. to feed the whole village so that those without money would not starve.
This idea seemed great, if you have land, but many people here do not. This same man also said that many young people, highly qualified, cannot get work in this country because they are trained for the wrong jobs (something simlar is certainly happening in the UK). This leads to restlessness and frustration. So badly needed is wise political leadership. This made me think about what I am doing helping Tamils to speak English but it will open so many doors for them, I hope.
On a lighter note, our journey also brought us past Asian elephants, hundreds of sacred cows on the road during a tropical storm, and goats, dogs, motorbikes, bicycles, tucs-tucs (3 wheelers) and lunatic buses all in the most amazing traffic melange I have ever seen. Survival of the fittest would be the best way to describe it.
Memories that remain are the sound of Budhhist chanting through the night in Colombo during the Buddhist feast of Poyaa, the flaming torches of the processions going through the streest during a crowded Colombo night, the beautiful green hills of Kandy, and paddyfields forever. In Batticaloa, it is the fishermen in the crocodile-infested lagoon with their centuries old method of net fishing who stay in the memory. What a diverse and vibrant country this is.
