Aging in Community Project in Sri Lanka

I have FINALLY arrived in Sri Lanka this morning after my long long trip.

June 25^th

9:47 p.m.Depart from Dulles Airport (7.5 hors flight)

June 26^th

10 a.m. arriving at Heathrow airport –( 5hours layover )

3:00 p.m. Depart from Heathrow  (11hours flight)

June 27^th

7:00 a.m. FINALLY arriving at Colombo airport

8:00 a.m. Picked up by Kapila

Breakfast at a locally operated historic hotel nearby the airport

and visited the following places:

• A local market
• The historic Dutch settlement and canal
• A Fish Market
• A temple in Colombo
• A shopping center (renovation project of historical house)

As soon as I walked out from the airplane, I was overwhelmed by the heat and humidity in the air. The body experience instantly made me realized that I was at the Tropical Island !! The Colombo airport was very clean and people were very friendly and helpful. When I walked pass people waiting at boarding gates, I realized the two things; 1) nobody was eating or drinking on the boarding areas, 2) nobody was working with computer. I saw most of the people enjoyed chatting with others around them, instead.

Among the many cultural experiences that I have today, the first challenge that I have learned was that “people do not necessary respect for waiting on the line.” I was naively waiting for my turn to come at the immigration area, and people walk directly to the counter in front of me… After 15 minutes of my naïve action, a nice Sri Lankan lady, probably about late 50 to early 60 years old, pushed my back softly, and said “go, go, go and talk to the guy (immigration officer)” She took me to the immigration counter, and told the officer that “please take care of her…” Her kindness made me feel so welcomed in this country immediately.

As soon as we left the airport, I started seeing so many people walking on streets. Many women wore traditional closing and most of men dress very casual, t-shirt with pants. Off course, most of them had “flip-flap” on. Surprisingly, even, the road construction workers were wearing flip flaps while  they were paving road with asphalt. (very scary….) The traffic was quite heavy, and people drive “CRAZY!!!!” on the road. It took me for while to find out that there seems to be an “order in chaos.” I was lucky that we hired a car and a driver who seemed to know all the “unwritten road rule—when to stop, when not to stop, and ect…”

Surprisingly, there were so many nice cars on the dirt roads, passing by so many poor people and their houses. It was clear that there is a large economic gap between the wealthy and poor people in this country. The thing that impressed me the most was that poor people were working so hard to live through their life. While their social economical status is low and live in small hut like houses, their eyes were shining with full of energy. I could not believe how innocent and bright their eyes were.

One more thing that surprised me by talking to my friend, Kapila, was that people are so generous in this country. Although they do not have much to share, they still manage to come up with anything that they can share with others. For example, I saw a old man in a temple who were picking up leaves on the ground, offering a help for visitors, and cleaning quietly. My friend told me that elders like him come here and hang out for all day. They come here to meditate and do anything that he could help for this temple. After talking to my friend and looked around the temple, I realized that there were many elders throughout the property listening to visitors stories and encouraging them. When I saw their peaceful face and gentle smiles, I felt that they must be truly in the journey of becoming wise elders. After visiting the temple, a little boy came to us with flower in his hands. This amazingly polite little boy was helping his family by selling a flower at the temple. He was too poor to go to school, yet, he wanted me to take the flower as a gift. This experience made me think about the value of money and human spirits.

The most important lesson that I have learned today was that money does not seem to be the key for success in raising polite/disciplined children. There seems to be critical essences that make children’s eyes shine in the society of Sri Lanka . I cannot wait to learn the value and life of people in Sri Lanka !!!

I am experiencing the information overload at this moment. There were so many more stories and my feeling that I wanted to write about, however, I probably need more time to organize my thoughts first.

P.S. I do not feel any fear by being in Colombo . It is amazing to see people live their normal lives, no matter what the political situation can bring. I will be careful not to be in any danger. 

I wanted to let my friends know that I am OK!!!