In the Eye of the Tiger

So I left again, a bit disappointed that I would be missing the bulk of monsoon season (more on that later), and headed to Phuket to catch up with Spratty again, as he is living in a place called Rawai which is in the south of the island.

Thailand was a great laugh, the Thais are pretty cool people and always up for a beer and a few laughs. IA?a??a??d turned up on the same day as Kristy-Lee and her daughter (SprattyA?a??a??s girlfriend), so it was a bit of a tug of war between me and her for his attentions. I think I won out in the endA?a??A?Spent a fair bit of time on the piss with a couple of English guys that Spratty was mates with, so had a pretty good time but really needed a holiday after it. We went on a visit to the tin smelter that SprattyA?a??a??s old man runs (it was really hot around the furnaces, so I managed to sweat out the previous nightA?a??a??s folliesA?a??A?) then went fishing which was a bit of a disaster but was nice to see the island from a different perspective.

After being roundly harangued for not updating my blog more often (I didn’t realise I had such a big readership) while on holiday, I promptly left it for ages before updating…so IA?a??a??ve broken it down into bite-sized pieces. Good luckA?a??A?

In my last post I was enjoying the creature comforts of Hilton Colombo – big, comfy bed and a hot shower. I was there for about a week or so just tidying up the project stuff and getting everything together for the final claim. Got there in the end, and learnt some valuable lessons from that project. Went back to Arugam Bay for four days or so before going back to Colombo to go on leave to Australia, where I basically chilled out and caught up with friends in Bunbury. I went to the Royal Show in Perth for the first time, with Spratty and his kids. I also managed to catch up with the guys I used to play rugby with as they were having their end of year function the night before I left. I stayed at John and AngeA?a??a??s new place in suburbia, visited everyone at RoadCare (now SRS) but generally relaxed.

I nearly didnA?a??a??t make it on holiday with anything I owned, as the locals where I lived went a bit mad after 10 bodies were discovered in the jungle not too far south of Arugam Bay. They were all Muslim, and had gone to repair an irrigation reservoir and didnA?a??a??t come back. Most people blamed the Special Task Force (STF), the paramilitary Police, as there had been some sort of tension previously. They decided to protest and riot, and consequently UN security wouldnA?a??a??t let me go there to get some clothes to take away, even after it had all calmed down. But thatA?a??a??s another story. I managed to send my driver with another vehicle, and he basically gathered up everything I owned (except the fridge, but that was probably the only thing he left behind) so at least I could pack some clothes to take with me.

It’s been a hell of a month. With the project finishing up, we had to go hell for leather to get it done, as per normal with construction. I’ve learnt a lot off this one, especially about how things “work” in Sri Lanka, so the next one should be a lot easier.We’re being given more money by USAID to build roads, everyone was pretty happy with what was going on and the huge amounts of labour on the sites did look pretty impressive which I think sold it. I met one of the local councillors the other day, and he told me that he was organising a protest outside one of the NGO’s in Arugam Bay that had been given money to build roads using community labour but hadn’t used the labour. They were going to protest that the money should have been given to UNOPS instead, because of what we had done locally. Warm fuzzies…A couple of weeks ago one of the guys that worked for me got shot and killed. Looks like it was the LTTE for some reason or other and not because he worked for us, although him working for us may have been a factor according to word on the street. Wasn’t a fun time, I can tell you. Hopefully I won’t have to deal with that sort of thing again.

Anyway I’ll post something a little more substantial when I’m fully doing nothing, at present I’m enjoying Colombo, staying at the Hilton for a couple of nights for hot showers and a bit of luxury, and then going to stay with Mick and Fergus which I’m sure will degenerate into a drinking binge interspersed with visits to the office. Then back to the east for maybe a week, and back to Colombo to see Pete and Sogol who arrive on the 22nd for 10 days or so. And after that, maybe, just maybe, I might be able to go on a holiday!!!

Can’t believe it’s been 2 weeks since I posted. Oh well…I am going through another maddening phase at work, with so much to achieve last week but then being distracted by a million other things and not really achieving much at all.Last Monday I was lucky enough to get delayed at site in Pottuvil in the morning. I say lucky because there was a bit of fighting near to the office, with a stray bullet leaving it’s mark on the wall of the building. Not a very impressive hole, but it made me think about speeding up construction of the safe room/bunker…If I had left Pottuvil when I planned I would have pretty much driven right into the thick of it.

On Wednesday I went to Ampara town for the security meeting, and I managed to stock up on bacon, sausages and lamb chops for a fry up on the weekend. It’s been a while since I got to eat bacon so I was pretty excited. After sourcing a gas bottle on Sunday morning it was full steam ahead. Tim came over and joined me (he works for the company that is managing the funding of the project) and we enjoyed an English breakfast. Buying a fridge is turning out to be a great idea, not only can I store meat for weekend brekky but I can keep my water and vodka cold, essential in this sort of climate. I also had a water filter delivered, so once I get that plumbed in and find out if it will clean up the well water, then I can get a hot water heater. HOT SHOWERS, YAY! So the house is developing nicely now. I also have a new neighbour (well, kind of). Relief International have their office next door, and Chandra has arrived from Pakistan to work for them.

When I was in Ampara I also bought a great framed poster – it was in a barber shop that I have been to 3 times now over the past few months. When I went the first time I saw it and thought that I had to have it, no matter what the cost. I guess I’m still overpaid. Anyway, the first and second times I went there they wouldn’t sell it to me, but this time a different dude was there and he would. He wanted 1,300 Rupees for it (US$13) which is a bargain as I was prepared to pay a lot more just to have it. Here is a picture, and I’m sure you’ll understand why I wanted it so much. The guys in the shop thought I was mad, but I’m not sure if they thought I wanted a “do” like the dudes on the poster.

Some USAID guys also came on Wednesday and wanted to visit the site on Thursday morning, but they were late and I ended up waiting around for them for 45 minutes, so didn’t make it to the office until 12. So pretty much I lost 2 days in total this week when I really needed it most. However they were pretty impressed with what was going on and want to give us more money to build more roads in the area so that is a good result.

Thursday and Friday I managed to stay up far too late (Friday especially, which made my 2 hour car ride on Saturday morning very taxing). There are a few more people floating around Arugam Bay at the moment, but I don’t know how long that will last. There has been a lot of bombing around Trincomalee, over the Tigers cutting off an irrigation channel which feeds tens of thousands of people’s farms. So the government responded by bombing the crap out of them, then at last report the Army were advancing on the sluice gate to open it up again, but the LTTE were standing their ground and fighting back. Not a good sign for the ceasefire, which is pretty much done for now. It looks like things are rapidly heading for open warfare again, which won’t do anyone any good. Watch this space.

In other news, two of the places where I had projects in Kandahar were overrun by the Taliban, then taken back by the International forces, and Sogol informed me today that another place got the crap bombed out of it. Kandahar seems to have skeleton staff at the moment, so I’m not sure what I’d be up to if I was still there. To be honest I’d rather not know, give me the beach any day.