I think I am finally realizing that this is my reality. Living here in South Asia, that is, working for IJM. The reality sinking in a little more each day is just as exciting, if not more, as the beginning days of wide-eyed discovery. I'm amazed that my calendar tells me it is May. Although the stifling hot temperatures certainly confirm the official start of summer in the city.
Strangely, these are a few normal parts of my life now:
* Power outages. As the city heats up and the A/C's cool down, the power goes out sporadically, and I'm told with increasing frequency. So sometimes I wake up to an especially quiet room at 3am, with no noisy A/C and no need for my thin covers. Other times I just switch gears entirely; like last week when I was working on my resume and an application for a potential post-IJM opportunity and the power went out, taking my nicely worded Word documents with it. (My laptop battery is totally dead and needs to be plugged in 100% of the time; this is a problem I can and will fix...at some point.) And then there was today, when the power went out just as I opened my Outlook inbox. It came on 20 or 30 minutes later, but the internet and our server never did. So you learn to improvise, adjust, and hit "save" incessantly.
* Strikes. Last week we had an impromptu holiday, or a "bundt" day, thanks to a "voluntary" strike issued by the state government. Everything was closed from 6 am to 6 pm, a statewide day of silent protest against the civil war and bloody dispute escalating between the "Tamil Tigers" and government in Sri Lanka. The "Tamil Tigers" are demanding separate recognition and rights, and the Sri Lankan government has been attempting to quell their small and weakening uprising. The state where I am is closely tied to the Tamil Tigers, due to the shared nationality and heritage. Over the past several months I have been here, I have witnessed many protests and gatherings about the Sri Lanka conflict. On several occasions, our advocates have not been able to attend hearings because various advocate unions are on strike and it is unsafe for lawyers to enter court premises. A month or so ago, one advocate was actually beaten to death during a bitter dispute between civilians, advocates and police in the very courtyard of the High Court here in the city.
* Crowds. Words fail me. Check out tomorrow's blog entry.
Ironic Note: literally, as I clicked "post," the power went out and my blog entry disappeared into the dark. At least I fell asleep with a smile on my face.
1 comment:
The Sri Lankan crisis is just ridiculous. The war is displacing and hurting a lot of innocent people on that little island, but who stops first? Do the (LTTTE) Tigers have the right to fight for the freedoms that they feel they are being denied even if it mean acts of terrorism because it's the only avenue they have left to use? Is the Sri Lankan government just another smothering, power hungry official bully? Where does it stop? This thing is big, and it's beyond just Sri Lanka. One of the coolest things I saw AFTER I left Tamil Nadu was a rally in Paris. It was a peace rally for resolution in Sri Lanka by former Sri Lankan citizens and their descendants. People were on hunger strike, sleep strike, banging drums, chanting messages for the cessation of violence, and they were mostly blaming the Sri Lankan government. Gosh, I've gotten carried away, but I'm glad you wrote about it, T, because it does have such a wide reach. (You know, M.I.A. is of Sri Lankan heritage, and her Dad is a former LTTTE)
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