I arrived in Sri Lanka on Saturday Jan 5 at 4:30 am. Sri Lankan airline had a contact waiting for us so it was still easy for me to get through immigration and customs. I am in Homagama (it took about 2 hours drive from the airport) and starting to make plans to meet with contacts. Will meet with Mendis, engineer discussing the environment today (Jan 6th), and White, embassy contact, hopefully tomorrow. Please let me know what pictures and video you would like me to post. Looking forward to hear from you.
Crista Arangala
25 comments:
Hi Dr. Coles - I'm so glad you made it there safely, I just wish I was there too. Have you noticed any differences in your traveling so far compared to the last time you went to Sri Lanka?
I am staying in Homagama. It is about 1 hour drive to downtown Colombo, but I have made the drive now (almost the entire way to downtown). I have not really seen a difference in what is happening between now and June 2006. Of course security is present. There are regular roadstops and I have noticed a decent amount of security at the airport, waterways, and around any high officials living quarters. We were stopped only once at one of these traffic stops, on the way home from the airport. We were traveling with a large truck with our duty free stuff behind us. Sanjay showed his passport ID and we were on our way. This has happened in our previous travels as well.
I also wish you were here and am very sorry about what happened. Of course I am here until July 3 and visits are welcome.
January 6th -- meeting with D.L.O. Mendis (Sri Lanka representative of Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs).
http://www.pugwash.org/
Mr. Mendis is an engineering who focussed in enviromental issues, particularly water conservation. He was to meet with the class on Jan 6th in Negombo. I meet him to discuss our project, to get his views on the project and to determine new contacts to further benefit the project. Mr. Mendis is planning to visit the US in February and March and I am encouraging him to come talk to you as part of his tour.
He is very interested in starting a Water Museum \Water Heritage Museum at Minneriya Tank and believes that our project would fit in well here. He has visited the Natural Science Center in Raleigh as well as several science centers in California to consult.
Dr. Kamela can tell you about Minnerya as this is where we sunk our jeep in 2006.
http://www.srilankaecotourism.com/minneriya_national_park.htm
January 7th -- phone conference with Terry White from US Embassy in Colombo.
Upon speaking to Terry White he still feels that the situation is fairly stable in the country. He has spoken to Ambassador Blake who has just returned from a family trip, with his parents and Senator Whitehouse from NH, to Dambulla in the north.
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/561
He said that there were no checkpoints and that the hotels were full of tourists. There is no reason to change the US travel advisory at this time, but of course there can always be something that will change the situation.
He also mentioned a program called ISLE http://www.bowdoin.edu/isle/
who will be sending 7 students for 4 month study in Kandy in the upcoming months.
The attack on minister's convoy is saddening ... is the country really slipping into an increased cycle of violence? What do the editorials say? Are english language papers presenting a difference point of view from Sinhalese papers?
What do the Sri Lankan's think about the death of the Minister? I know they are not positive whether or not it was the Tamil Tigers, but is the attack effecting how people see the situation there? Also, do you think that the United States will change its travel advisory?
Hi Dr. Coles,
How are you doing? I hope that you and your family are well. We read online that a minister was killed in a bombing today. Have you noticed an overall change in people's attitudes since we talked yesterday?
Hi everyone I was wondering if people talk about which ethnic group they were in?
I hope things are going well in Sri Lanka, and you and your family are safe and sound. This is kind of a depressing question, but the BBC said that 2008 would be the "year of war" in Sri Lanka, do you feel the same way?
Hey Dr. Coles! I hope you and your family are doing well. I wish wer could be there. What seems to be the response to the death of the minister? And do they have security cameras set up in Colombo near where the bomb went off in the telephone booth. I know that we have security cameras in some of our big cities for safety purposes and I was woondering if they have anything similar in Sri Lanka.
January 9 -- general responses
Hi guys. Hope you are all well. Things are fine here. It is disheartening to see continued violence in the country. I was meeting with our partners Kotagama and Rosa when we saw the news on the TV. There were mixed reactions to this news. Several women in the office got obviously upset on continued going back and forth from their desks to the TV. Kotagama and Rosa seems less responsive mentioning that the minister is himself "a thug". I know that seems a bit harse but political officials here can be viewed in a pretty negative way. As far as security and checkpoints are concerned, I was walking around Nugegoda yesterday and did not notice any response, I will pick up a newspaper today and be ready to respond tonight. Check Andrew's paper for analysis of press bias.
January 8th -- meetings with Dr. Kotagama and Rosa and new contact Thelma (last name to be updated).
I first met with Thelma to discuss ongoing projects. She was the director of museums prior to retirement. While she was active she did have a traveling science bus, but she does not know the current state of it. She now does a lot of outreach, teaching students about deforestation and working with women to use scrap material to make clothes. She is an enthomolgist by trade.
The meeting with Kotagama and Rosa was positive. They said that they would like to do the videoconference, possible the last week of January and will actively do the traveling science center starting in February. They said that there students had prepared some lectures expecting our arrival so if you would like hear about some of these let me know. I asked about taking pictures at the campus and Mendis told me I could get arrested, Rosa also seemed a bit nervous with this. I took some pictures on the offices and will do some video taping in town.
I found this picture of D. M. Dasanayake car that I think shows pretty well what happened. It's kind of graphic and I was supprised that they are allowed to publish these kind of pictures because it's not something that we see in papers. The link is http://www.island.lk/2008/01/09/news35.html
HI :)
We were reading a paper today concering how Sri Lankan's view America and Americans. I was wondering what your opinion is about what Sri Lankans think about America and the American Culture.
I hope that your having a great time in Sri Lanka and everything is going well. I was researching today more about the economy and I was trying to find more about the purchasing power of the dollar. I found that the average salary was about 5,000 US dollars, but I was wondering if you know what this was equivalent to in the US?
'Ello Dr. Coles,
We were talking just now about Sri Lankans opinions of the U.S. I was wondering if you could perhaps elaborate on this for me. How do the Sri Lankans view the U.S. and its citizens? What type of exposure to American culture have they had?
Hope you and the family are still doing well. Bring me back something! LoL!
Hi Dr. Coles, hope you and your family are doing well. In our discussions today we talked a bit about how the United States is seen by Sri Lanka and talked about how we are often seen as ignorant by European countries. Do you feel like you are seen differently by Sri Lankans when you are out in town? Did you have any preconceptions before going to Sri Lanka the first time about how people would act?
Hey Dr. Coles!
Do you think we could see pictures of the area you and your family are living in? I think it would be neat to have an idea of where you are. Also, do you know if there are any countries near Sri Lanka that do not dismiss the LTTE as a terrorist group? I hope you are doing well!
hey dr. coles, in addition to the previous questions regarding the views on american in sri lanka, i was wondering how local opinion is formed about the US. is is primarily from media? also, what kind of US media exposure does the average person in get? in addition to US political news, how prevelent is US music, television, etc
January 9 - general comments. Hi all from Homagama. I think that possibly Sri Lankan group Americans with others from the Western world; however they are a bit more excited to meet an American than say a Brit as they are exposed to many people from parts of Europe due to colonization.
Many Sri Lankan strive to be Westernized. Prior to the last 70's when the economy opened in Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka was self substainable. Now most Sri Lankan are exposed to many Western material items. My family in fact shops at a store called Arpico (this trip is the first time I have been exposed to this store) which is a bit like a super target and I am sure it is affecting the smaller stores (just like Walmart in America).
Now many schools offer English medium curriculum which means that upon graduation these students will look to come to America, Australia, or Europe for their college education. They are actually not allowed to stay in Sri Lanka for college if they take this track. Many choose to come to America since scholarship opportunities are available. Unfortunately, Sri Lanka loses many of its best and brightest to the western world.
Jan 12-Jan 17 Meetings with Sister Alex Molligoda (Sacred Heart Convent, Galle), Mr. Conrad Ranawake (INDESCO, NGO, Matara), and Mr. Saman Chandana (previously at Shastroloka School, Amalangoda). All three meetings went very well. Each person has great projects going that we could consider helping will.
Sir Alex works will many families in Galle, both Tsunami victims and not. Many families are widows from Tsunami with children. Poverty is great. She provides scholarship for education for these children (1000-1500 ruppees per month\$10-$15). She also provides counseling services and helps families with basic needs.
Mr. Ranawake with INDESCO gets support from Canada, Sweden, and Netherlands for 3 main projects. The Matara Children's Centre provides classes to poor children in Cooking, Computers, and Dance as well as a free day care for a few lucky families. His work also provides family assistance programs to women in Matara and Galle, especially about abuse against women, alcohol abuse, and HIV\AIDS.
Mr. Chandana is working with a new school in Ambalangoda which has been designated as a model school. He has started a new community garden and would like to start a band, drama program, and expand his meger library. He also does not have enough desks or chairs for this school, which is a primary school. Shastroloka that he came from still has very basic needs, no equipment in the science lab, very small library, no computers, no playground, just to name a few.
Hi people... you probably don't know me so let me introduce my self to you. I'm Dr.Coles nephew, and I have opened a picture blog to post pictures from SriLanka. But at the moment I have not uploaded much photos, but hope to upload some more very soon. Plus I've posted a link on this blog that leads to the photo blog. Hope you'd enjoy it!
Miyuru Arangala
(miyuru.arangala@gmail.com)
Link: www.elonsciencecentrepics.blogspot.com
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