Islands & ocean...

I made it here from Bangkok with no further dramas. I arrived on Wednesday morning and got a ferry from the airport island to the capital. I was determined to walk to the guesthouse because I'm a firm believer that this is the best way to get your bearings, and the place is so small anyway. My first challenge was that I couldn't figure out where my location was on the map I had, but given the location of the guesthouse I knew I couldn't go too far wrong by turning my back to the water and walking straight ahead, and this method proved effective until I actually found the street and realised buildings don't have numbers here, just names. Which might be OK for identifying them, but doesn't help much for finding them. If you're standing on a street corner with Ocean Reed and Karishmaa beside you, and Pink Lake and Gulhazaaruge across the road, which way do you turn to find Kaloma?? I took a guess, which thankfully turned out to be correct. I spent the rest of the day exploring the capital, and crashed very early due to jetlag and travel fatigue (I had spent the previous night attempting to sleep on a slab of granite in Colombo airport, which I don't recommend), only to be awoken about 4:30am by the call to prayer, after which I was unable to get back to sleep.

So I rose fairly early and decided to walk the perimeter of the island before my host came to meet me at the guesthouse. It took about 1 hour and 20 minutes, which gives you an idea of the size of the place. It's very crowded and cramped and fairly dirty. There are motorbikes galore, and often it's hard to stay on the footpath because it's quite narrow and often obstructed by piles of building materials, rubbish, or workmen doing some sort of subterranean repairs. My host A came to meet me late morning, and dropped me off at the jetty where the ferries depart for the island where they live, which is a "suburb" island, and much less crowded than the capital. He had to go and meet some clients so he gave me directions to their apartment, which I found easily and quickly got acquainted with his wife D, their son L who's nearly 3, their 5-month old twins and their domestic helper T. L made me feel right at home by being all over me within 5 minutes, and constantly asking "What are you DOING?". My hosts are truly lovely and I'm enjoying their company very much.

Friday was spent exploring Vilingilli and hanging out with the family. There are 3 beaches within a 5 minute walk! Here, like the capital, people come out in droves in the late afternoon and evening to go for walks, play ball games, and hang out by the beach. It seems to be the most social time of the day.

There's a mosque two buildings away so the call to prayer is very loud. And I'm sharing a room with T and L, who has woken up repeatedly each night so far. So the sleep deprivation continues!!

On Saturday I had quite a good chat with A about the work here. There are more workers than I had expected (about a dozen, with various organisations), although not all of them are in the country at the moment. The number of local faithful is about what I expected though - A's estimate is less than 10. The work is very much in a pioneering stage. It's probably quite a unique situation, given the political climate and the geography. So far, I feel like I could be comfortable living here - but whether I could really be useful is something I'm not sure of. What does "useful" even look like when the work is so delicate and the fruit so limited thus far, anyway?? There are more people to meet and talk to yet, to help me think about that - but if you could talk to our father about it too, that would be great. You could also mention the fact that I've been sneezing a lot the past couple of days & have developed a bit of a sore throat - really hope I'm not coming down with something...

Today I went diving with a friend of A's who's visiting for a week. It was bliss to be diving in tropical waters again!!! The marine life wasn't quite as varied as I'd hoped for, but I'm not complaining - it was pretty special! And gave the best opportunity I've had yet for interacting with locals, as all the crew were locals.