Our Year in Sri Lanka

Somehow I can still hear in my mind the voice of Gilda Radnor’s Emily Vitella, a character on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update from the old days, as she is informed by anchorperson Chevy Chase or Jane Curtain that the basis of one of her rants is not true. From her initial angry, strident, demeanor, Emily adopts a sheepish look and says “Nevermind…” in that distinctive, annoying, highly nasal, voice.

Well, in my case this is what I have to say in regard to my previous post. It turns out that I was unaware of certain limitations of airline tickets. In our case the most restrictive one is that no airline will write a ticket for travel more than 300 days from the date of purchase of the ticket. So, a round-the-world ticket can not be purchased if the travel ends more than 300 days from the date of purchase. So I will never know if the RTW travel planner applet gave a good estimate for the ticket prices for the itinerary selected. However, Deborah at AirTreks.com still was able to quote a price for the outgoing leg of our journey that was considerably less than what I imagine I would have gotten from Expedia, et al., entering the various legs of the journey one at a time. So, Seattle -> Beijing, overland to Shanghai, Shanghai -> Hanoi via Bangkok, overland to Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City -> Phnom Penh, Phnom Penh -> Singapore, SIngapore -> Colombo was priced around $2800 per person. That is somewhat over the budget figured using the RTW applet price, but we were ready to go ahead. Then we went to the mandatory Fulbright Pre-Departure Orientation in Washington, DC (which deserves, and will get, a separate posting)…

And it turns out we have a visa problem. Apparently, only the Sri Lankan embassy in Washington, DC can give us a visa that will enable us to spend nine months in that country. They will not do so until they receive instructions from the Immigration and Emigration Ministry in Colombo. They will not do so until they get a request from the US-Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission in Colombo. They will not do that until they receive an official document detailing my Fulbright grant award from the US State Department in Washington, DC. This will not be issued until another branch of the State Department certifies that I am healthy enough to withstand the rigors of life in Sri Lanka based on a medical examination form recently submitted by my family doctor. (I must day that I am somewhat grateful for this form. It requests the results of a very “old school” physical exam. So this was the first time in the three or so years I have been seeing this doctor that he actually palpitated my organs, checked my reflexes, and, uncomfortably enough, did a digital exam of my prostate, for example. I guess I grew up when physical exams were, well, more physical and the more modern practice of doing virtually everything with blood tests leaves me vaguely unsatified. BTW, all of my organs were in their proper places and within acceptable size ranges.)

As we had planned to leave the country in six weeks and there are several bureaucratic hurdles that no one has ventured to guess the time required to cross, it seems unclear that we will be able to leave the country as planned. And since low cost airline tickets are non-refundable, that means we would be taking a huge financial risk if we went ahead and purchased them. And if we wait until the situation is more clear, the ticket costs could rise considerably. And do not ask me why we could not get our visa at a Sri Lankan embassy in, say, Singapore, but apparently it is impossible.

So we are reconsidering our options. We hope to know more by mid next week.

Tim

We have been operating under the assumption that since malaria is endemic to Sri Lanka, we would be on a daily dose of an anti-malarial drug. We inquired of the Health Unit Medical Officer of the US Embassy in Sri Lanka about the availability of certain anti-malarial drugs (since the doctor at the Richland County Health Department’s Clinic will not write a prescription to cover the entire year). We were told that malaria is only endemic in the regions of Sri Lanka controlled by the LTTE. Since we will not be going to those regions, we will not need to take daily anti-malarial medication.

That news is a relief to our budget. We will still need to be super vigilant about avoiding mosquito bites because of the other diseases they carry. But this information added another, unexpected, layer to my understanding of the tragedy faced by the innocent civilian inhabitants of the Vanni.

Tim

Wow. We seem to be experiencing a low point right now. We feel like our lives have never been so shaken. Our current plan calls for us to abandon our home in about one month and set out on an around the world trip. Yet at this point, we have no itinerary, no tickets, no visas. We have done a pretty good job of studying Sri Lanka, but we now have the opportunity to see so much more and have not prepared in the same way to take advantage of this possibility. Our heads are swimming with potentialities and yet worries about costs. Thanks to the American people and Kenyon College we have been given this wonderful gift, but it is almost overwhelming.

I had not anticipated this anxiety. Have we unknowingly become rootbound? Have our lives become so routinized that our bodies are reacting physically to the impending upheavals? We have scoffed at people who have described us as “brave” for what we are about to embark on. Are they more right than we knew? And, if so, are we brave enough to carry this through? And if we do, will we be better for having done it? Or just poorer?

Tim

In the orientation materials that were sent to us, there are a number of quotes taken from a book entitled Excursions and Explorations: Cultural Encounters Between Sri Lanka and the United States edited by Tissa Jayatilaka published by the United States – Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission in Colombo in 2002. I was able to obtain a copy from Amazon.com (though it appeared to be the last one available).

The book is a series of vignettes written by Sri Lankans about their experiences in the United States or by Americans about their experiences in Sri Lanka. This has been the best book so far to prepare us for our visit. The personal stories are delightful. They range from serious and academic to hilarious. I read “The Road to Miami” by Sinharaja Tammita-Delgoda aloud to Kris. Or at least I tried to. I had a hard time speaking while laughing and a hard time seeing through the tears of my laughter. The book was doubly effective in teaching about cultural differences by enabling one to not only read the reactions of Americans to Sri Lanka, but the reactions of Sri Lankans to our own country.

Having met and gotten to know Frank and Kathleen Peiris and other members of their family, I already was confident that I would be pleased to meet more Sri Lankans, but this book confirmed that feeling. And the descriptions of Sri Lanka’s people, parks, and ancient heritage further sharpened my desire to get started on our trip.

Tim

In writing the last post, I realized that I had a problem. By authoring a blog, I am voluntarily giving up some of my privacy, but in a way that I control, or imagine I control. On the other hand, when I write about my interactions with someone else, I am giving away some of their privacy in a way that they have no control over. So, what to do?

In the last post, I used a pair of letters that might or might not be the person in question’s initials. I am going to go with this imperfect system for now to restore to my “interactees” some level of privacy.

What do you think? What would you do?

Tim

Today is a bit of a sad day for us. Molly is our cat. We have lived with her for about 15 years now and she was a mature cat when we adopted her from the Knox County Cat Shelter. So we are pretty sure she is at least 18 years old.  We knew we could not take her with us to Sri Lanka and so looked for a kind person to adopt her. Molly’s angel appeared in the form of MM from Kris’ church. We decided that it was too much to ask someone to care for Molly for a year and then ask for her back after Molly had worked her way into their heart. So we all agreed that this was a permanent adoption and that MM was now Molly’s owner.

We moved Molly to her new home this morning. Molly started to explore and settle in rather quickly. She was delighted to discover a robin’s nest within 7 feet of a screened door. Molly has always been both curious and sociable. We once boarded her and her former housemate, Sasha, on one of our visits to the West Coast. Sasha never did adjust and was miserable the entire time, mewling pitiously and continually.  Sasha was so miserable that the cat boarder called us on the coast to see what could be done. Molly, on the other hand, slept with the boarders in their bed on the first night and loved playing with their puppy the entire time we were gone!

So it seems this time. We had to drop by MM’s later in the afternoon to drop off an item we had forgotten to bring and Molly was calmly snoozing on a chair in the living room. By now MM has fed Molly and her last concern about the move will be assuaged.

We will see if we fare as well. She was such a cheerful presence in our lives. She greeted us at the back door when we came home and at the kitchen door when we came down for breakfast. She had a delightful little dance that let us know not to forget that it was time for her breakfast and dinner. She had intelligent eyes that reassured us, that when we talked to her, she understood perfectly. She helped keep our blood-pressure under control by forcing us to sit still while she used our laps as warm sleeping spots. She loved TV. Not to watch it herself, but to use us as warm cushions while we watched. She was just a wonderful presence in our house and it will seem less of a home without her. Coming home in the evening will not be the same for quite a long time.

Tim