chronicling

Came back from a trip up north, the first in three months and the first since the talks have begun. It went by in a flurry of site visits, building monitoring visits. Stationed our engineer from Moneragala up there for a couple of weeks to hasten the completion of some much overdue projects. Had some confrontations and staged some interventions. Hotter than Hades up there. Sweltered in a two-bit cinema to watch a two-bit Tamil film one afternoon because there was nothing else to do. Only Elephant House's pani cadju saved the day. The schools are coming up, but ever so slowly. On Monday back out to Maskeliya and the tea country which will be a welcome relief. Over the weekend, a close cousin announced an impending marriage and the festivities continued late into the night. Apparently I'm next and the subject of much ragging from aforementioned cousins. I. Am. Tired. and the pace doesn't look like it will let up. Must do more, but oh, am so tired. also was the weekend of the big match in Colombo, the infamous Royal Thomian, a three day binge-drinking fest. I didn't attend as I was not up to it: old boys haranguing women, getting drunk, getting into fights and occasionally watching a bit of cricket. Big match season in Jaffna too. Johnians were out in full force on hospital road with red t-shirts tied around their heads and drums and loudspeakers. One boy stood dressed in a dress, with oil-slick sunglasses, on a motorbike. Sigh.