Ayubowan

Hi friends, finally, my long awaited trip to Colombo, Sri Lanka happened and I am here. 
Ayubowan, the Sri Lankan greeting means May you live long! 

Sri Lanka Air Hostess Greeting Ayubowan
(Photo courtesy of Flickr) 

Colombo, the capital is very much like Lagos and yet quite different. Humidity is higher, that's the first thing that hit me. Traffic is chaotic, I'm told (arrived Saturday so haven't witnessed that yet) but the picture I was shown looked saner than Lagos. The air is clean and so far electricity only went off for about a minute and a generator came on, only to be turned off just a minute after it was turned on.

Colombo seems to be the Lagos of Sri Lanka. The rest of the country isn't as cosmopolitan, I'm told. Unemployment is low, at 5.1% and inflation is just 4.7%. Literacy is high - 95% of the population are educated to age 15. At the airport, the guy that helped with our luggage asked for "help money" so that was familiar to me at least. It was probably strange to my fellow students from the UK.

Street lights work and I saw plantains at a shop on the way in! History has it that most Sri Lankans are descended from someone who came down from India so there are quite a few similarities. The most immediately noticeable one for me is the use of the head as part of communication, something I first noticed on a trip to India a few years back. Sri Lankans smile a lot and get into your personal space, quite unlike the western world.

Tourism is a big earner for Sri Lanka (generated $2bn in 2009) and they boast a diverse array of animals, birds and vegetation. I plan to see a live elephant, I'm told they can sometimes be found walking on the streets in some areas. That's how prevalent they are. The big blue whale can be found in the south but I don't think I will get there. Tea is one of Sri Lanka's famous exports. They were formerly called Ceylon and we all know Ceylon tea don't we?

Interestingly, just like Yorubas in Nigeria, Sri Lankans show respect to their elders. They do so by "worshiping" them. This act refers to kneeling in front of an elder and touching their feet. Both men and women do this, however, which is different from the Yoruba tribe. Men in Yoruba land prostrate flat on the ground. The women kneel but we don't touch any part of the body of the person we are greeting.

So what else? Ayurveda is a massage therapy I'm going to try. There's a plateau, Horton Plains that actually gets as low as -3 degrees. I won't get there unfortunately, it would have been interesting. My visit outside Colombo will probably be to Kandy. That's the tea area and they also have some Buddhists temples there I'm told. 70% of the population is Buddhist. I've seen a catholic and a Methodist church as well. Well, I mustn't forget a shocker i got. Our apartment toilet didn't have toilet paper and apparently that was across all the apartments. One would have thought that would be standard but it seems the use of water is standard. They did give us on request, thankfully. 

Crabs for Dinner

Ha - One last thing. I had my first ever meal of crabs last night, at a place called Ministry of Crabs. It was quite nice, though not very filling. We filled up the space with a nice Leek Rice.

Colombo By Day - View of Indian Ocean

Ok, so that sums up my impressions and knowledge of Sri Lanka so far. The real work starts tomorrow. We are here to help a small business with a business problem for the next 5 days. There are 25 of us in total and my group comprises 4 of us. I'm looking forward to the assignment, it's the reason I chose Sri Lanka. I wanted a field trip where I could do real work and solve a problem. I will be writing about that experience next week and the week after will be back to my cultural experience and all my touristy activities!

Be good and lend a helping hand this week. Stay tuned for more on my helping hand.

Blessings on you and yours,

Your Friend,

Olubunmi