Eating With My Hands

Posted by Ellen on Thursday, June 25, 2009

Four days ago Emerge Global was featured on the front page of ColomboPage, a Sri Lankan internet newspaper. With the title "A beaded necklace can transform the life of a troubled teen in Sri Lanka," the article is a beautifuly written tribute to the work that Emerge Global is doing in Sri Lanka. I met the author, Chandrani, when I was back in the United States in August of 2008 and when I found out she would be visiting Sri Lanka, along with her family, I was excited to meet up with them again.

Apparently my love of Sri Lankan cuisine, and the process of eating it with my hands, left a lasting impression. One of the most enjoyable things about living in Sri Lanka has been learning about and immersing myself in the local culture. The point of traveling is to learn and try something new, so trying to eat with my hands always made sense. I have to say I still don't have the technique mastered, and eating string hoppers with your hands is much easier than rice and curry. Regardless, I'm glad that my attempts at cultural acclimation were noticed. Ironically enough, the same day this article was published a matron and nurse at Ma Sevana teased me (in Sinhala, so Nirukshi had to translate) about my inability to eat with my hands correctly. After that, this article was a nice confidence-builder.

I encourage you all to read the article, forward it to a friend, and check out ColomboPage.com for more articles about Sri Lanka.


Until next time,
Ellen

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Muffin visits the girls

Posted by Nirukshi de Lanerolle on Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Muffin was a gift to me by Nadiya, she was two months old when I got her. The very next day I had to go down to the Vocational Training Institute for the beading class and I had no place to keep Muffin.

I packed a bag with her food and the pillow she takes her nap on and took her down to Moratuwa. The girls were overjoyed to meet her, she went from hand to hand, hugs, kisses and cuddles is what she got the second day she came home. That day when I left the VTC Muffin was so stressed that I had to take her to the Doctor as she ran up a temperature. It was too much for her to take all the kisses and cuddles form the girls, the next couple of days Muffin was very sick. I was given strict instructions by Nadiya that I should not take her ever again to see the girls.

This message of Muffin’s visit soon went from the girls at VTC to the girls at Ma Sevana and from that day onwards the girls have been pressing me to bring Muffin to see them.

Muffin turned 6 months last week and I realized that it was time to pack Muffins bags, so she did accompany me to Ma Sevana eventually. The girls were overjoyed to meet Muffin: at the beginning she was quite nervous but by and by she became accustomed to the girls and played happily with them. At 12 noon the babies visited the class and Muffin got stressed once again as she couldn’t handle the kids screams and cries and she got into a shell and curled up by my leg.

Muffin also met Blacky the pet dog at Ma Sevena; however they didn’t seem to get on so very well.

After lunch Muffin came back home dog tired and slept right throughout the night …… it was truly a very stressful day for her.

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