TALKING THE TALK

Today is Monday, which means that in about an hour our language teacher will be here. I am really enjoying learning Sinhala, even though, at times, it can be quite difficult. I can get frustrated when it doesn't seem to follow logical patterns and I wish it was more like English. Then I take a good, hard look at English and realise that it can be just as illogical and perhaps more so, making all sorts of rules and then breaking them all along the way. Still, it is immensely rewarding to be able to string together the fragments of language that you know and find yourself successfully communicating with someone.

Today I want to share with you some of the cute little ways we have found English being used here. On the whole, people who use English can use it quite well, but we have still had some expressions catch our attention. Take colours as an example. In Sinhala, rathu pata is red; rosa pata is pink. Pata means colour. So when colours are translated into English, the Sinhalese do not say red or pink, but red-colour or pink-colour. Today I am wearing my pink colour t-shirt.

An expression I enjoy is "off the light" or "on the light". Can you please off the light? Can you please on the computer? The word 'smelly' is also used more liberally. Rather than being used for something that smells bad, it is much more likely to be used for something that smells good. Try, "I love that perfume you are wearing. It is so smelly."

Recently we learnt about a fantastic little expression. It is the Sri Lankan equivalent of the term 'best friends'. Here, my best friend would be called my 'mango friend'. So let me take a moment to say a hello to my mango friends back in Australia. An expression that caused us much more difficulty was the expression 'danma yanda'. Our teacher was trying to get us to learn it in our language class and we had to go to efforts to explain that we weren't having trouble with the Sinhala word, but rather with it's English translation. We could not for the life of us fathom what "go now itself" was supposed to mean.

But to be fair, it hasn't always been the Sri Lankans who have had some explaining to do. Learning a new language has led to a few language slip-ups of our own. Darren tried to use Sinhala to make a joke about smothering me with a pillow on my head, except he said that he should smother me with a child on my head. I had to spend about an hour practising how to say the Sinhala for 'hour' because apparently, with my pronunciation, I was saying a rude word. Unfortunately, I could not hear the difference so I have decided it will probably be better if I convert everything to minutes instead.

So let me leave you today with an anecdote from one of our language lessons, in honour of Teacher who will be here shortly. While learning the days of the week we learnt that Thursday is Brahas Pathinda. Darren got all excited and started shouting, "Bras and panties day! Prince, Prince, 3 more sleeps until bras and panties day!" Poor teacher just shook her head and said, "My God!" - which she tends to say a lot. It must be hard working with us. Good thing she's got a sense of humour. Darren says he has been a little disappointed with Thursdays. They weren't quite what he was expecting.

WEEKEND AT COLOMBO

This weekend we have taken advantage of the four day long weekend to go to the Colombo area for a few days. The distances we need to travel are not long but it always takes a long time due to the traffic and the poor road conditions.

One of our stops was an English class that is being run for disadvantaged children. This is one of about six that we are involved in, which are being run in different parts of the country. Teachers are voluntary and the majority have no teacher training. The classes vary in size and age. There could be between five and thirty children in each class and the children tend to be between the ages of six and sixteen years old. This particular lady opens her house every Saturday and holds four classes over the day, each one lasting an hour and a half. She also runs other after-school classes during the week.

Our role this weekend was to observe a class to see how it runs. In the future we will bring these volunteers together and give them some training and ideas to make their job easier. We also want to give them access to educational resources, being that the children can not afford extra learning materials.

We also spent time purchasing material for the resource library. We will loan out resources to community groups that could not otherwise afford them. We hope to have books, games, toys, educational aids and personal development resources available. So we went trawling through book stores at two of the big three shopping centres in Colombo; Majestic City and Crescat. Book stores should not be confused with book shops - the latter selling only stationary and school supplies. We were busy collecting posters, educational toys and flash cards on homophones, antonyms and sentence sructure. I thought antonyms ate ants - I am learning so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As always, we got to visit communities - seeing and hearing about the poverty and difficulties that these people face. One young boy we were introduced to suffers from autism. The family can not afford profesional help in managing this condition. He is only seven, but is becoming a danger to his young sisters and mother as a result of his violent rages. Mental health is so often overlooked here and the families are left to struggle on their own. Although we are unskilled to directly help this family, stories such as this serve to inspire us to do the most with what we have and encourage others to do the same with what they have.

FEELING SENSUAL

So, a provocative title caught your attention, did it? Hmmm! Today we thought we would share how Sri Lanka has appealed to our senses. To give a balanced picture, we will complete this post together.

MY FAVOURITE SRI LANKAN SIGHT
Darren: I don't mind watching the chipmunks, I guess.
Hayley: I love watching the fireflies from my balcony. Little magical creatures dancing in the treetops under the diamond stars and the crescent moon.

MY FAVOURITE SRI LANKAN SMELL
Darren: There isn't one
Hayley: I love the cooking smells that waft from my neighbour's house into my lounge room at meal times. Granted, I probably wouldn't enjoy the taste (I really don't go the spicy food) the smell is delicious. Makes me have cravings for chicken and vegetable soup.

MY FAVOURITE SRI LANKAN SOUND
Darren: Thunderstorms. Also the sound of a woodpecker is pretty cool.
Hayley: I like the sound of music coming from neighbouring houses in the still of the evening. It is the sound of people enjoying themselves. That being said, I'm not so keen on it at 2am! I also enjoy listening to groups of young men who gather on the beach in the cool of the evening to play their traditional drums and sing.

MY FAVOURITE SRI LANKAN TASTE
Darren: Mangoes.
Hayley: Pineapple - no question!

MY FAVOURITE SRI LANKAN FEELING
Darren: I don't have feelings!
Hayley: Porcupine quills are pretty cool. Oh, or how about diving into a cool pool after a hot, sweaty day. I know, the change in weather that comes when rain is about to break the heat.

Hmmm . . . notice a difference in the male and female perspective? I think it's all in the number of words used!

FIGURE HUGGING

It seems that I have a bit of a reputation for being fond of numbers, so I thought that I might as well play to that reputation by preparing the following information for you:

FIGURES FROM SRI LANKA

The cost of a carrot bought from a supermarket chain: About 13 rupees (or 13 cents)
The average length of a carrot: About 10cm
The most people spotted in a Liteace van (technically an eight-seater): 22 kids plus 2 adults plus a driver
How much more you will pay for bottled drinking water in Australia than in Sri Lanka: about 12 times more
How many geckos I counted in my study last night: 2 (it was a quiet night for geckos)
The number of mangoes in my kitchen: 5
The speed limit in built up areas: 56km/hr
The speed limit on the open road: 72km/hr
The number of snakes I have seen since our arrival (not at our house though!): 4 (thankfully 2 were dead and a third was dead shortly after we saw it)
The number of letters in the Sinhala alphabet: 58 (16 vowels and 42 consonants)
The number I can count to in Sinhala: 1000
The number of students in Brenton's class: 13 (plus 2 teachers)
The number of students in Jaymon's class: 11 (plus 2 teachers)
The rate at which vehicles drive along the main road at the back of our house between 6am and 6pm: On average, 29 vehicles per minute (vehicles includes cars, trucks, buses, motorbikes, three-wheelers, tractors, vans and bicycles)
The rate at which vehicles drive along the main road at the back of our house around midnight: On average, 3 vehicles per minute
The number of emails we have sent since we arrived in Sri Lanka: 473
The number of photos we have taken since we arrived in Sri Lanka: 691

FAMILY FUN DAY

May the 1st is May day and it is usual for companies, schools and organisations to plan a day of games and festivities. We were lucky enough to be invited to one. It was a great time to simply interact with people and watch them enjoy themselves. Due to security concerns they were unable to hold their games at the venue they had booked. As we arrived the scouts they sent out earlier found somewhere better suited for games than a concrete floored bulding. As most people walked or came by three wheeler, a truck was loaded up twice with competitiors while the remainder went on motorbikes, pushbikes and a tractor.

We weren't the main attractions to the event, which I think was the best thing about it. So often things that we attend get overshadowed by the fact that we are there. So it was great to just be a part of it, not the centre of attention. But I don't know if this game was in the program before or after they knew we were coming. It was the"Jump Like a Kangaroo" race, and it was only open to the married women from each group.

But the highlight of the day had to be the drama component,
judged on the best dressed and best acting for the specific topic, which in this case was a funeral. From what I gather, this is a common game and not just isolated to the fun day we attended. Firstly, men were dressed as if they were dead and layed on the grass with a garland of flowers at their head. For the more creative, some of the "dead" were carried in with "mourners" in tow, wailing and making a huge fuss. When all four teams had layed out the dead with an umbrella holder shading their face, it was time to compete. People were nominated as the deceased relatives, so it was clear who was the wife, the son and so on. The winners were determined by how well they communicated their "grief" through wailing, pummelling the ground and falling over. I have not laughed so much for some time. There was one particular young man who should get a academy award. I have posted the video below of his antics.

At any event there are those that will do anything for their team, which usually makes them quite noticeable. Each team had them but these two gentlemen in the dancing competition stood out and fuelled the other teams to new heights of competitiveness.

In amongst these highlights we had games for the kids, like the old favourite "Pop the Balloon Tied to the Other Person's Ankle". This actually came down to who could keep their balloon off the ground the longest because as soon as they touched the ground, they popped. Another popular game at all May Day celebrations is the "Eat the Donut off a String" competition. Although Brenton could get the whole donut in his mouth, it still was only good enough for second place. He was quite literally not hungry enough; the winner looked like she would finish off all the donuts.

FIVE THINGS THAT I CAN DO HERE THAT I COULD NOT DO AT HOME

1) I can watch bats flying while I do the evening dishes (or while we eat dinner, depending on how late I am at getting tea ready). This is not as creepy as it sounds. They're actually quite cool.

2) I can watch fireflies in the evening. These little creatures are absolutely awesome and I'm so glad that I will not have had the misfortune of living my life without ever having seen a firefly. They are as beautiful as I could have imagined them to be. It's amazing! How can a little bug produce so much light?

3) I can send my children to school with peanut butter sandwiches. Sorry all of you out there who suffer from peanut allergies, but it is quite freeing to not have to worry about what I am or am not allowed to put in a sandwich.

4) I can glue a stamp on a letter. I went to the post office recently - this place is fantastic! You can get so used to that push for everything to be new, polished, glamorous. This post office is so positively antique it's delightful. It is a long building where the workfloor is separated from the customer area by a long wooden bench, with vertical metal bars between the postal worker and the customer. The ceilings are high and the floors are wooden. Behind the bars I watched a postal worker gluing air mail labels onto a pile of envelopes. Further back some men were grappling with a large parcel. A few administrators sat at an assortment of desks at the back, writing in their books. The lady serving me weighed my envelope on an electronic scale, but there was also a non-electronic scale sitting nearby, adding to the timeless charm. Near the door was a desk for addressing envelopes and adding stamps. Sitting on the desk was an old gluepot and a brush, for the sticking of stamps. The gluepot and the desk that it sat on bore the resinous testament to thousands of letters sent. I was very disappointed when Prince said that it was more usual to just lick the stamp to stick it on. I was so looking forward to using that glue pot. (By the way, if you are surprised by my enthusiasm for the post office, don't get me started on the lawyer's offices!)

5) I can eat bananas and mangoes that have been grown in my very own yard. Okay, okay, so I don't actually like bananas but it's the principle of the thing. As for mangoes, I never thought I liked them - horrid, slimy fruit - but since eating them here I have discovered what everyone else already seemed to know, that they are, in fact, quite delicious. I have also acquired a liking for papaya, with a little lime juice of course.