Visits with the Aunts

When he was young, Toby lived for a while in the same house as his aunts, in Colombo. The same house the aunts live in still. During our visits, I was very happy when his aunt Moi (Moira) showed me around, shared a few stories, and taught me how to prepare some traditional Sri Lankan foods!

The aunts' house is about 90 years old.  The decor hasn't changed much for a long time. But it's very clean and tidy . With everything in its place. For me, that was charming. It was a glimpse into Toby's past.

The most interesting part of the house was the little back yard and its open shed.  Like many Sri Lankan back yards, this one has several plants that provide food, including bananas. On our last visit to the aunts house, Toby and I got to harvest some. Totally cool!!!

The shed was also magic!   It was only about 8' x 4'.  But this is where the family dairy cow used to live!  Until the aunts grew up. Except for every evening, when a hired man took the cow out for a good exercise walk!  The shed also had lots of neat tools.  A little clay stove and pot holder used to make tea and string hoppers. A coconut shredder that you could sit on.   And mortar and pestle for grinding spices! Every day.

The kitchen was also really neat!  There, his aunt Moi showed me how to make string hoppers, sambal, and potato curry. 

Pictures
1-Me, chopping the trunk of the banana plant into small pieces for the garbage/compost truck to accept.  Look at my knife action!!!
2- Toby proudly holding the bunch of bananas we harvested.  Most of them were green.  But enough were ripe that we got to eat some that day, and some before we flew home to Canada.  Yum!!!!
3- The trunk of the banana plant is made of layers that look kinda like corrugated cardboard full of water.  Pretty easy to cut.
4-Toby and his aunt Moira with a piece of dried coconut shell.  In the little shed in the backyard.
5-Toby with the mortar and pestle used to grind spices each day.
6-Aunt Moira steam cooking the string hoppers.  String hoppers are like little flat piles of thin rice noodles.  Very tasty with dhal and other curries!
7- The countertop coconut grinder, and a bowl of fresh coconut milk.
8- The tool to make the string hoppers. Like a playdoh press.  And little piles of string hoppers on a plate.
9- The inside of the aunts' house.  Like stepping back in time into a cool calm space.
10-11 Toby used to take a steam train from the Dematagoda station, near his house, to the Maradana station further from his house, then walk to school.  This is the steam engine from his youth!  And the Maradana station, looking almost exactly the same as back then!

 12- When we arrived at the Maradana station, looking a little lost, this lady stepped right up to offer directions.  So charming!  Then she crossed a crazy busy 4 lanes of traffic like it was a walk in the park!  We also crossed that street, using the overhead pedestrian walkway....
13- The front of the aunts house.  Located on a very pleasant quiet dead end street.

A Good Cause- Pitipana Mahavidyalaya

This blog entry is about a good cause.  A school in Pitipana, close to where I’ve stayed in Negombo, Sri Lanka, needs classrooms and supplies.  Maybe folks who read this, will be able to help? 

Pitipana is a community with 175,000 inhabitants on a narrow piece of land between the Indian Ocean and the Negombo Lagoon. Many of the people who live there are fishermen with very low incomes. 

The Pitipana Mahavidyalaya (school) is the largest school in the area. It has over 1,400 students from ages 4 to 20.  At present, there are 9 buildings on the school grounds and a total of 37 classrooms.  This includes several specialty rooms for science, IT, dance, art, cooking, and the library.  Some of these buildings/rooms are fairly new and in nice condition.  Even by Canadian standards.  And meet the needs of the students and teachers well. 

But some of the existing buildings/rooms are in poor condition.  Even by Sri Lankan standards.  Several of the buildings are divided into classrooms only by partial walls or walls made of cardboard. Which are very poor sound barriers.  The noise makes it difficult for the teachers to communicate, and for the students to hear and concentrate. 

There’s a shortage of classrooms.  So, the science lab is being used as a general classroom instead.  Because the cooking classroom has no stoves or cooking utensils, it’s also being used as a general classroom. 

The only classroom with air conditioning is the IT lab.  Some rooms have ceiling fans, but many do not.  The average temperature in Negombo is 30 degrees Celcius. Sri Lankans are well adapted to the heat.  But it would be good to have ceiling fans in all the rooms.

Some of the washrooms at the school have recently been renovated with new floor tile and toilet fixtures. But others are in disrepair. 

A British man, Tom Goffin, has donated his time and 3,000 British Pounds of his personal money to help the school. In the last year, he has installed new floors and walls in one classroom; plumbing, toilets, and ceramic tile in 20 bathrooms; 4 ceiling fans; 4 large whiteboards, and 45 lockers for teachers. He has also bought stationary and a mobile library; and repaired the main water supply for the school.

With money raised by family and friends in the UK, Tom will buy drums, cymbals, trumpets, melodicas, geta beras, and udekkis for the younger and older children school bands.   In May 2020, 4 young adults from the UK, Tom’s friends and family, will live with Tom for a month in Negombo and volunteer at the school to level and tile floors, paint, and clean at the school.  They have raised 6,000 British Pounds to contribute to the school. 

Why is Tom doing this?  He lives in Negombo near the school.  He’s retired.  He can.  It’s a good cause.  All money raised goes directly to the school.  Tom’s accounting is clear and transparent.

Pictures

1- When we visited the school, the kids were so excited to have their pictures taken!

2-Nilmini (means blue gem), the English teacher who gave us a tour of the school.  All the female teachers wear saris to work.  They look beautiful and professional. 

3-The school yard is pretty.  Especially where there are trees for shade. The government provides paint for the exterior of the school buildings. But no money for labour and no paint for the inside walls and desks. Teachers and parents provide the paint for the inside walls, and all the labour to paint inside and out.  Because the climate in Negombo is harsh, and the windows to the classrooms are almost always open, painting is done every year.

4-6 Some of the newer classrooms are well built and equipped.  You can see the teacher and student pride and hard work.

7- This is the media studies classroom.  It is has no outside wall, no fan, and the ceiling/roof looks like it might leak during the monsoon season.

8- This building has 5 classrooms with half wall and 3/4 height dividers.  The noise makes it difficult for the teachers and students to work and concentrate

9-.10 There are toilets dedicated to the various grades at the school.  Twenty of them were recently renovated by Tom Goffin. They are now clean and functional.  But others are still in need of repair. 

11- The girls in the traditional Sri Lankan dance class were proud to strike a pose for the camera. They were beautiful!

12- These little girls were adorable!

13- The playground was nicely decorated with murals. 

Betel and Fun Vehicles

Betel is a vine in the peppercorn family.  It’s sometimes also called paan or quid. People chew betel.  That’s yucky.  But betel is also used for many other interesting things.

Betel leaves are used to wrap wedding invitations, as good luck decoration during a child’s first meal of rice, and offered to the headmaster when a child first goes to school.  At funerals, betel leaves are kept in the house upside down and leaves are offered to guests.  When people are possessed, betel leaves are added to a tray of flowers, rice, coconut and red flowers, for the devil dancing ceremony.   And on New Years Eve, offering betel is meant to build/rebuild friendship.

  

But betel is also used for chewing, like chewing tobacco.  For this, the betel leaves are combined with the betel nut, lime (calcium hydroxide), and sometimes spices and tobacco.  The result is very yucky.  It makes your mouth and teeth red.  Not like fun Kool Aid red.  More like I’m a vampire bat with bad teeth and I just ate a big meal.  Yucky!

The health effects of betel might be yucky too.  The Interweb says some conflicting things….

Some say the leaves on their own contain vitamin C, thiamine, carotene and calcium.  They help treat diabetes by reducing blood sugar, heal wounds, cure headaches, and help lose weight.  Also chewing the leaves increases the ascorbic acid in saliva which prevents oral cancer.  Others say the tannin in the leaves is bad for the mouth. 

Our charming Air B&B host in Colombo, Channa, said that chewing betel with lime was helpful for tea pickers in days gone by.  The base in the lime  would reduce the acidity in their stomachs, and let them work very long days unbothered by their hunger.  That seems possible. Though I couldn’t find anything on the internet about this.

But it seems pretty clear that chewing the betel nut is mostly bad.  It can cause tooth decay and irritate gums.  And the WHO classifies it as carcinogenic.   Especially when chewed with tobacco.  Did I mention it’s yucky????

Pictures

1-This is betel for chewing. You can see the leaf, nut all chopped up, and the pink lime.  It's usually sold as a bundle all wrapped up in the leaf.  Apparently, it's a bit of an art to get just the right amount of lime in a chew.  The lime is sticky. So in days gone by, when more people chewed betel, you could see streaks of lime on telephone/power poles. People getting rid of residue on their fingers.  You don't see the lime streaks anymore.  But you can still see the red spit on the cement from chewing betel.

2-5- I love the old trucks here!  They look like they belong in a vintage circus!  Toby says they're likely the same trucks that were in use when he was a kid!
6-7 -  Some tuktuks are decorated in such fun ways!
8-10  Some of the more colourful buses!  I think the super decked out ones are rental coach buses.  But some of the city buses are pretty fun looking too!  We took the city bus once.  Scary!  They drive fast!  Honk. Swerve in and out of their lane to pass tuktuks and motorcycles.  Accelerate and stop fast too.  I definitely prefer the train!