Numbers

I'm sure it pleases my parents to no end that it took this long, (and with a math degree under my belt) but I finally see the beauty of numbers. Just knowing what numbers are in another language is quite possibly one of the single most useful things you could know when traveling.

In Hatton I got to flex my limited expansion of Tamil knowledge while Reuben was negotiating a tri-shaw price. The driver and his friend said it would be RS. 30 in Tamil to each other, but said RS. 50 to Reuben. I called them on it immediately, and they were shocked and embarrassed. Looking like a tool finally paid off, and now I had a new tactic to my negotiating repertoire. Instead of bustin' out some really broken Tamil, I speak as "Canadian" as possible. Then when the vendors and/or drivers discuss prices in Tamil, I'll have an inside edge.

Another key realization is that I should have stuck with French through high school. The ability to barely communicate with Reuben in French allowed us to discuss prices whilst the vendors were about. So after my time in Sri Lanka, what say I spend a few months in France? And then Spain too, cause if I knew Spanish I could really clean up when I end up traveling in the Caribbean again. Of course I would require some sort of employment that would facilitate this, but those are just minor details.

Now that I'm back in Colombo, I've got to wait till Tuesday (with 4 religions to cater to, there are government holidays coming out the wazoo) to get my visa extended, then I'm going to head up North to start with my original volunteering plan. I've been in contact with a few NGOs, but I've yet to hear back from them. And apparently manpower isn't an issue, but supplies and funds are. So to that end, I'll keep my eye out for any relief work but it looks like I'll be assisting in some computer teaching projects. (ed. just read in the Sunday Times that the U.N. Development Program is setting up an office in Mullaithivu; I'll be following up on that one)

Also, if/when my boss gets back to me (I'm technically still working on contract), I might be working out of the Australian office for some time come April. That's about the timeline I anticipated sticking around Sri Lanka but luckily I've got a bit of flexibility till June/July so I'm just playing everything by ear.

Some people might be wondering about the bi-polar posts. Soaring highs and non-soaring lows. Some are funny, some are painful attempts at humour, and some are serious. There are a range of emotions, like right now I had pangs of guilt because I took a week to travel in the midst of this situation. But it was not possible to just jump in and do long-term help as several barriers, namely needing to be a part of a structured organization, prevented me from actively participating in relief work. So I kinda pushed that aspect to the backburner, and just played the part of tourist for a week. I tend to wear many hats in life (figuratively, although as of Saturday, literally as well), so this is just a compendium of those various discrete points in my travels.

Anyhoo, I apologize for dumping all my posts on one day, but I don't know how to stagger it out automagically with blogger (help!). This'll be the last big post for a while until I get things sorted out here. I just saw Reuben off at the train station, he'll be hanging out for a few days by himself. It was a fun week and I guess I'll see ya in 6-7 months when we're both back home dude.

Sri Lanka