Week 1: July 17 2018 Kandy

***Hey does anyone know how to use blogger so I can improve my blog??***

It's strange.  It's strange being in a foreign land. It's strange because half of you comes from that land. it's strange because it should be your land too.  It's strange that your family, whom by definition ought to be familiar, is composed of strangers.  It's strange because people look like you,  but they don't talk like you. It's strange because I am a mix of old and new. I am an uprooted sappling, full tree grown going to meet her roots for the first time. 

I met my family on both my grandmother's and grandfather's side when I came with my mother. Maybe I didn't notice it because my mom was there and could translate,  and she bridged the 18 yr gap of communication,  maybe I didn't notice because I hardly spent anytime with them except to eat, and went gallivanting off to tourist sites and ancient ruins. So now, being among them really getting to them I notice the gap, the strangeness. 

Quick Recap: I am staying with my Grand Uncle, he is my grandfather's younger brother.  My grandfather comes from a family of  9 (including himself) of whom 5 are still living.  I am staying with the grand uncle my family unanimously agrees is probably the most similar to my late grandfather. They studied the same thing in school, attended the same college, have similar interest and personalities.  Uncle Sure (pronounced Suh-rey) has a son and daughter.  His daughter has two sons, ages 2 and 6. From Friday to Sunday the whole family was here, and since it was his son's wife's birthday her parents visited one night as well. 

It was easiest to play with the 2 children since I don't need to speak the language well to smile and make silly faces and chase them around the house. It was also fun for everyone to be over since they all knew my grandfather and were happy to tell me tales of his wild adventures, which include possibly stealing a beehive and bringing a water-buffalo into his dorm. Sri Lanka has plenty of animals roaming around, and apparently it occurred to my grandfather to goad this massive water buffalo into coming to the top floor of the dorm, during exams mind you, and tie the doors to the beast so that they can't open the doors. No one is able to get the Water-buffalo back outside and eventually at night my grandpa sneaks back and coaxes the animal out. (or something like that) His senior year, he got kicked out of the dorm, moved in with a friend did more senior shenanigans.  I'm also told he had a big heart.

When Uncle Sure told this story it got everyone laughing.  There is something very universal about family gatherings and laughter.  I once heard that all happy families are the same.  I could see it then, with the laughter.  It felt like my cousins, and grandparents on my black side had all gathered for good food and stories.

I have been given plenty of books to read since, I asked Uncle about books on Sri Lankan culture and history, he gave 13 books ranging from the life of Buddha to Sri Lankan epic Kings.  (I've read 271 pages of the Epic Kings book in 2 days).
The first story I read was ... Discomforting.  The sum of the story is this.

There once was a Princess. She was beautiful but didn't listen and she ran away and married a lion. They had 2 children, Sinhabahu and Sinhasivali (Sinha is literally lion). They leave the lion, and he finding his family missing, (the lion is freaking out, rightfully so) he starts going from town to town destroying everything in his grief. The king offers a reward to whomever kills the lion.  Sinhabahu goes to kill the lion, and the lion,upon seeing his son, is delighted and goes to greet Sinhabahu. The lion is swiftly killed. He then becomes king, and marries his sister.  (I Know, right?! But now if that's  not messed up enough, here is how they relate to Sri Lanka).

I took this pic from website. Shows Vijaya and Kuveni

Sinhabahu and Sinhasivali have a whole litter of kids, the oldest of whom is named Vijaya. (They are the ancestors to the Sinhalese). Vijaya is very mischievous and straight up bad. So him and 700 of his best friends (all men) get exiled onto a massive ship and have to leave Lala (which is present day Bengal) and they sail. Vijaya offers the Gods that he will  give up his wickedness if he could only find land. He lands in Sri Lanka, where the Yahhkas live.  (Yahka literally means devil).  After a series of misadventures, he marries the Yahka queen (Yahhkas have amazing gender equality) and has two children with her. Still Vijaya is unhappy because he wants a proper wife. So one of the 700 people go back to India and convince someone to send Vijaya a princess, and 700 beautiful maidens for the rest of the men. Vijaya delighted at having a proper wife tries to tell Kuveni, his Yahka wife, that he can't have her and their kids around any more.  Kuveni is pissed and goes to live in another Yahka village. However she is killed for being a traitor to the Yahkas since Vijaya almost exterminated them. Her 2 children give raise to the current Sri Lankan native population known today as Veddas.

So that's problematic history for you. The way they describe Yahkas in the book are as very dark skinned, ugly, people with wild hair.  Somehow I find myself empathizing with the Yahkas/Veddas.  But the Sinhalese are my people, and Sri Lanka's native inhabitants were almost exterminated by them.  The same history of genocide that happened in America I could always say "Not me, I'm black. I didn't genocide the native population." But here, my people did do that exact thing.

I also noticed I am darker than most Sinhalese people which is funny because my color comes entirely from my mother.  My dad is very light skinned, but yet I'm dark as my mom. So since colorism is a thing,, and my hair is wild, what does that make me I wonder?

Kandy Exploring

Okay enough mulling, back to fun.  I explored Kandy all by myself.

 I took a bus, and people assumed I was Sinhala until I spoke. Inevitably, when I spoke people always wondered from whence I came and what was my parentage. I have gotten enough broken Sinhala to say I am American, but my mother is from Sri Lanka.  I went into the city and walked around the lake.  There is a massive lake and it took me about 1.5 hour of getting lost and wandering the city for me to finally find the lake, which is silly since apparently I was never more than 6 minutes away walking distance.



Picture is not mine ^ above

While out and about I bought rumbutan.  Which I found a picture on google and attached below (left).  It's my favourite. I've heard all about this other fruit mangosteen (left) and thought I wanted to buy some. I went to a vendor and asked the price in perfect Sinhala.  The man said 20 rupees. I pulled out a 20 and force of habit asked again in English.

  The man smiled and said 40 Rupees. I was confused and he starts speaking in Sinhalese.  I don't like trouble, I don't like to be awkward. I don't like confronting people, and I feel mildly guilty haggling.  So I just paid the 40 Rupees.  I was quite happy with this though I had a nagging feeling that I was getting ripped off.  I told my uncle yesterday that I paid 40 Rs. He started laughing so hard I thought he might cry, I found out that Mangosteen should only ever cost 15 - 20 Rupees, and I had been swindled for 20 extra rupees.  To be fair the exchange rate is $1 usd = 160-/ Rs, so the mangosteen was 40 Cents, a price in the  USA I would be happy to pay. But still I learned a lesson. I then walked around the whole lake, which is man-made.  I am always impressed buy such things. I saw fun animals while walking.

Here's a cute beastie I saw while walking.  I saw a whole lot of these actually.  Also there are  a LOT, like A LOT of dogs in Sri Lanka.  They are all super nice. They just roam around looking for scraps, or sleeping. I saw 2 cute little puppies today.

Some birds I thought were cool (below).

 Once again if you have comments, or thoughts, or suggestions or just things you want me to talk more about or less about, please comment below.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/142506689@N05/   

^I will eventually post more pictures to this Flickr, I swear.  P.S I won't post again till next week. Tuesday.