When I first stepped out of the airport, the first impression of Sri Lanka was a soldier holding on to a machine gun, flashing me a friendly smile.
What struck me was the fragility of peace in the country. June 29 was President Kumaratanga's birthday, and we were in Colombo, staying at Galle Face Hotel. As we walked past the old parliament building to a restaurant for our dinner, we saw that the entire area was patrolled by the Sri Lankan army, for fear that a terror attack would occur.
When we were in Batticaloa, the Special Task Force(set up by the Sri Lankan government, I think it is a paramilitary force) was also protecting Tamil Tiger events. To me, it was new to see government forces guarding for what some might call a terror organisation. I think it was to prevent attacks from either sides of the conflict.
Shyam decided to bring us to Ampara District and let us do our work in the east coast, without the faculty's knowlege. We stopped at several points on the east coast, from Batticaloa to Arugam Bay, Pottuvil. and spoke to the people there, from resort owners to fisherman, to hindus, muslims and buddhists, to men, women, teenagers, children.
The place that gave me a bit of jitters was at Maruthamunai. When Shyam dropped us off at the Muslim Village, he asked us to stay at that spot and not move around first, because he was unsure how they would react. The muslims have been pretty unhappy with the government and has recently been organising rallies and strikes to protest against the joint mechanism, which left them with little political power compared to the Sinhalese and Tamils. So 12 of us stood around the same spot and chatted with the locals. And more and more of them came to check us out, and surrounded us. They were harmless. Except for a drunk man who kept scolding us. I guess it gave me an idea of how a riot could be started.
I came back from Sri Lanka on July 5, which was the Black Tigers Day. The day before we drove past a Tamil Tigers float with pictures of their "matyrs". We took a group photo at a Tamil Tigers memorial, and passed through many of their checkpoints. I think my mom would've died if she knew where I was at... haha.
Anyway, I had the longest car ride of my life... an 11 hour drive from Colombo to Amparai, through Kandy. The winding mountain roads caused me to puke twice on my way there. Good thing the motion sickness only lasted 2 days. If it had continued, I would not have been able to function properly because of the dehydration from puking all that I ate and drank. On our way back, we drove past Polonawaru instead of Kandy, to avoid the mountain roads. It was a longer distance, but a more comfortble ride. We drove through plains, some of which Shyam said used to be dense jungle until the Tamil Tigers flattened the ground out so they could spot and shoot anyone that entered into their territory more easily. I saw a female STF soldier, the first of all my 7 days in Sri Lanka.
The soldiers all looked very young, and I asked Shyam what the soldiers did when they grow old. He told me light-heartedly that they had no chance to grow old so far, as the ceasefire has only lasted 3 years. Prior to that, they just died in the war. I remember I smiled at him, first in disbelief, but when the gravity of the statement sunk down, I just didn't know what else to say.
Sri Lanka is a beautiful place. The first day we arrived at Amparai at night. The van drove through rice padi fields with not a building in sight, and the vast black sky was littered by thousands of sparkling stars. We had the van windows open and the wind was blowing strongly on our faces. If the world had no snakes, it would have been fun to run through the fields barefoot.
Arugam bay is a gorgeous looking beach. The place looked like it was colour-enhanced on photoshop. The beach was overwhelmingly beautiful. But when I looked at the opposite direction, I could see the debris left by the tsunami, the broken skeletons of resorts washed away.
Well, I'll not write about the tsunami stories i heard because they might be published if our team is lucky enough. By the end of the trip, I just did not want to hear about the tsunami anymore, but at the same confused moment, I was tempted to do an Ali G, asking people in the dead centre of the country, far away from the coast, how they were affected by the tsunami. Of course we didn't do it because it is too much like crappy american television.
Talking about crappy american television, I heard that Good Morning America flew a Sri Lankan couple over, as a follow-up of the Baby 81 story. When I was in Colombo for a media conference, the Bureau Chief for AFP. Mr Amal Jayasinghe mentioned how Baby 81 was a fake story. Which clearly shocked me, because the story was like THE STORY of all tsunami human interest stories. I guess when the media discovered it was false, the story had run its mill, and did not even deserve a mention that it was a fake story. The story was about 9 parents wanting to claim the same baby, but the reporter could only quote from the baby's real parents/sole claimants. The tv station got footage of 2 women wanting to carry the baby, but one woman was actually the grandmother. It amazing how a misunderstanding can suddenly be full-blown to sound like truth.
The trip to Sri Lanka was my experience of a lifetime. And all I'm left with now are the mosquito bites that have left scabs on my legs, and pages of untidy notes and some photos (which I hope would turn out ok, because my camera was kinda faulty).
Well. the next trip is in September... I hope we can still go back to Ampara... =)
