there’s so much i could and would love to write about. but for the sake of all our time, i will note some fun/important things:
--as i’ve been able to understand a bit more tamil, the word i’ve seemed to really come to know is ‘velakari’, which means ‘white lady.’ i hear it a lot. i hear it in random conversations of people around me. i hear it as the kids in the village by where i live yell it among shouts of laughter as i walk by. i hear it as i drive by other cars with the window down (usually a quick “…vvvvelakari!” and point as i pass). it’s also gotten fun because i know i’m being talked about and sometimes i can pick up enough of the rest to know what they’re saying. one day i was laying around with the kids and one of the girls said something and i waited a second and then said, “velakari ennay?” (what about the velakari?) they thought it was pretty hilarious. she claimed she was talking about some OTHER white lady. yea, i said, with all these white ladies around, of course you were talking about someone else… :) but at least most of the kids now know my name, so they don’t have to call me velakari. and in fact, the staff guy gets kind of pissed at them now if they call me it. ha.
--but instead of calling me kait or Kaitlin or katalin (or Helen, as they all called me at first), they have given me the tamil name “gowdi.” it is a hindu goddess, i guess, so i took it as a compliment. i kind of like it because they don’t struggle with it as much as they do my real name. so, i may be called one of about 5 different things by different people throughout my day (probably more, actually, that i don’t even understand. i’m sure there’s a tamil word for ‘she who has really great dance moves.’)
--still going with the white lady theme, i’ve been told a couple times now, especially by my closest friend here, the staff guy, that i look just like the girl in this recent tamil movie called ‘madrasa pattinam.’ so, he got the film for me and i watched it the other night (2 ½ hours, only about half in english! ugh.) it’s about a british girl (moi) who goes to the tamil state in India during the 40s, falls in love with a dark, donkey-herding native, learns the tamil culture, but has to return to England when India gets independence. she goes back to find her big strong Indian lover after 60 years, but she finds out he’s dead. so, she goes to his grave, and then she dies. it’s pretty depressing, really. and honestly, i don’t look that much like her, except that i’m white (the big connection for people here, i think) and i’m learning tamil culture—language, clothes, music, etc. i keep saying i want to make it back before 60 years, though. we decided my goal should be 7 years—before i turn 30.
--ok, one more thing about being white here (it just so happens that a lot of funny/notable things happen around this topic)—they are literally just unfamiliar with the whole idea of white skin. for instance, the other day, my friend asked me what happened to my leg, “you have red mark,” and pointed to a circle on my calf. “oh, that’s just because i was sitting with my legs crossed,” i explained. he kind of rolled his eyes as if i was lying and had actually inflicted this ‘wound’ on myself. “it is hard no?” he said, “that skin?” ha! i laughed out loud. he was referring to a few other incidents, like a couple days earlier when i had run into a door and scratched my shoulder (maybe i’m just a spazz). and mostly to a day a few weeks ago, when i thought it would be entertaining to show them that if i lightly scratched my name into my arm with my nail, it would show up for a while. well, i didn’t expect it to show up the rest of the day, and as we walked around the rest of the day, he kept showing it to people and saying something along the lines of ‘look what she did to herself!’ and looking at me like an annoyed, but not angry, father. ha. yes, it is hard, this skin that shows everything.
--ok, new topic—samaposha. it’s this weird dry mix you buy in a bag that contains only (literally, the ingredients list: ) corn, soya, rice, green gram, calcium, vitamin c and b12. (SL has a ban on genetically modified food, and it’s clear from ingredients lists that they hold to it. things are very simply made here—a lot of sugar often, but usually only a few basic ingredients) it’s meant to be a supplementary food of some sort. all they do is mix it with coconut, a little bit of sugar, and warm water to create these dough balls (not shwetty balls, mind you). they taste like whole grain coconut cookie dough. seriously, great. i love it. i eat it almost everyday (i think the housekeeper likes it because she doesn’t have to cook as much). i tried to explain to her that i think the major reason i like it is because of the cookie dough-like texture. i tried to explain, “in America, we make cookies…um…like biscuits (what they call cookies)! but when my amma (mom) and i made them, i was child, we would make only dough and eat dough! so samaposha makes me think of amma!” hahaha, i’m sure something got lost in the translation. or maybe some of their common questions about the American lifestyle were finally explained… haha.
--and just for good measure, i’ll mention that this morning, i set a new record for largest cockroach i’ve ever seen—in the kitchen no less. i’m going to say a good 2 inches, front to back. i tried to play it cool, but when it started scurrying towards me i got a little freaked out. don’t worry though. we both made it without incident.
well, with less than 3 weeks left in the country, my time here is winding down. i had planned to travel a bit in the end, but as i realize that that would mean leaving the people here (and spending money) i’m thinking i will probably just wait until a couple days before my flight to head over to Colombo. my goal now is to just be present here as much as possible, enjoying every smile, every ‘velakari,’ every cup of tea, every bite of samaposha, every draping arm as we lay in the sand, every “i think you no go to America. you stay sri lanka,” every “you go to America, i go too?”, and every sunset more unbelievable than the last (i have pictures to prove it, which will be posted someday).
thanks again for reading. i hope each of you is doing well and enjoying each moment in the peaceful awareness that it will never ever come again.
peace, love, and shakthi (energy) to you!
