Glimpse of my life in Lanka

My placement is about to come to an end, barely two months from now. For weeks, for whatever reason, I have been looking back as to how I live my life here then and now. I could trace a big difference, not that it is so distinguishable but I am getting accustomed to living here and it actually is becoming my comfort zone.

I am woken everyday by the bell and the chanting from a nearby Buddhist temple. Not that it bothers me; in fact somehow it makes me feel safe and secure. I don’t know, I don’t even understand why I felt that why. Perhaps because, this reminds me of home where I am also woken up by the bell from a nearby church.

After my morning routine of shower, preparing my lunch (either a sandwich or salad) and my breakfast (bread, coffee, hotdog or egg and sometimes cornflakes) I am ready to leave for work. I live in a self contained, second floor of a lovely white house with its own gate and a little garden which my landlady tended everyday. A few meters is a trishaw terminal where the drivers knew me that as soon as they see crossing the street, the trishaw is ready and they don’t bother to ask as to where I am going. As a routine, they will drop me at the library hall where I will commute in a bus for 40 to 45 minutes to a town called Talawa, 17 km away from the Anuradhapura city. This goes almost the same with the bus unless I happen to go into a bus I have not boarded before. Before the bus reached Talawa bus stand, I normally stood up to give way my seat to another passenger, also to make it easy to get down. Then I will ride again in trishaw for at least 5 to 10 minutes to AKASA. Looking for trishaws in this side of town is not difficult; in fact the trishaw is almost ready as soon as they see me stand up before the bus halt. The ride is always relaxing and refreshing. It is very green, combination of trees, brush and grass intersperse with paddy fields, irrigation canals, tanks and lakes. The entire scene is of green foliage, beige brown land and endless horizons. It’s almost like traveling from Samar to Manila in so short a time.

I reached home at about 6 to 6:30 pm. In some days I will stop at the supermarket to pick up some supplies. In most days, I head straight home, dropped my bag and went back to street with my garbage bag to throw in a garbage bin a few meters away and pick up fruits in a small fruit stall across the road where the man is already ready with papaya and banana for me. Then second stop would be the vegetable store where the lady cordially awaits my choice of vegetables for weighing in. Third stop is the fish stall where I always ended up lurking and trying to make up my mind of what kind of fish I will buy for at least 5 to10 minutes. Not that I am looking for a particular fish because in all honesty I don’t pay attention to types or kind of fish way back home as long as its fresh, and there is little choice here anyway but all because I don’t want to buy fish with its red eyes and almost bloated look. Fourth stop is at the communication center where I buy cards for my phone and last stop is the bakery where the two young ladies await with my “podi pan” (small loaf of bread).

After storing my veggie and fish in the fridge and eat my dinner, I sit in front of my laptop which became my best friend and readied myself to first check my mails, then chat with some friends and finally watched news or dvd’s and am fast asleep as soon as my head touched my pillows.