Christina Swan

Greetings from Sri Lanka!

We have arrived safely and are enjoying the many palms, the sun, and the friendly Sri Lankan hospitality. So far, we have visited an Adventist school/orphanage in Kandy (middle of the island), and today we treated ourselves to a little Western luxury - we paid to use the swimming pool and a private beach in a nice hotel. This is a hotel we're staying at when the rest of the tour group from Stromme foundation come, and we are looking forward to it! Sooo fancy! But it was lovely to swim in the pool, and catch the waves on the beach. Can't remember the last time I swam in the sea and lay on a beach, it must be a few years ago. 

Tonight we are staying in Colombo with some people that Britt Celine knows, and then we're off to the village in Monaragala (close to the dangerous bits in the east) tomorrow. We are staying with locals the time that we're alone on the island, and then staying in hotels when the rest of the group comes from Norway.

So far, my impressions of Sri Lanka are:

Yippee! On Wednesday I am off to Sri Lanka for one and a half weeks! I am the lucky winner of a free trip to the island with Strømmestiftelsen - the organisation I went to Bolivia with. The more donors or "friends at heart" you manage to get to support the organisation, the greater your chance in winning. I had a one in four chance of winning (for every 20 donors they choose a winner, and I got 5 donors to support Strømmestiftelsen), and I WON!!!

So I am escaping from: cold weather, practice placements, work, bills to pay, petrol to buy, etc etc, to travel around Sri Lanka for one and a half weeks. Luxury!! The whole program lasts a week - we will be a group of around 17 people visiting different projects that the Strømme foundation runs on the island - microfinance projects and tsunami affected families. I am, however, travelling down four days before the rest of the group comes, together with a girl who did an exchange programme on Sri Lanka a few years ago (the same programme, Act Now, that I did in Bolivia). Britt Celine and I will be travelling to places and people she knows - to the "jungle", to an orphanage, and various other places. She has done lots of planning so that we will travel safe. We have to be extra careful seeing as we're going to a wartorn part of the world where it can be dangerous to be Norwegian. Norway has negotiated a peace agreement between the Tamil tigers and the Singalese on the island, and the Tamil tigers don't want any peace - they want independence and their own state, so they have been known to burn Norwegian flags, put bombs on public transport, etc etc. I find comfort in the fact that it's more dangerous to go to London than to Sri Lanka... and if the Sri Lankans can live on the island, so can I, for one and a half weeks!!

I am struck by a mixture of looking forward to it and thinking that I've only just come to Norway again - why am I going off to travel again? This time it's not my own "fault" though, as I won this trip - but what a privilege to get an all-expenses trip paid for, to Sri Lanka!!!

I will update you in two weeks' time how the trip was!! :-) Wish me luck and a trip free from diarrhoea and malaria ;-)!

Christina