Camino & Sri Lanka meg egyebek: 2014

02 June 2014

Last week / utolso het

The last week flew by - a few of us from the house who had been there a few weeks went to a clean springwater river with the manager, assistant managers and cooks from Work the World. On another night we had a cooking demonstration where I showed off my skills stretching and slapping dough, a South Asian specialty, rotti. A lot more awkward and difficult than it sounds. And on Friday I went to see a rugby match between two prestigeous teams from Kandy (Kingswood) and Colombo (St Joseph's) with one of the physio students and the couple I met on the train to Colombo a few weeks back, Surath and Shehani. Surath went to this boys' school in Kandy (Kingswood), which is also the school that introduced rugby to Sri Lanka in 1892 or '95 or so.

Az utolso het pikk-pakk eltelt. Nehanyan a hazbol, akik tobb hete Sri Lankan voltunk, elmentunk egy tiszta forrasvizu folyohoz a Work the World csapattal, vezetoseg es szakacsok. Egy masik nap fozobemutato volt, ahol en is megmutattam, mit tudok: del-azsiai tesztat, rottit, sutott a szakacs, amit ugy kell nyujtani, hogy az ember jol odacsapkodja a deszkahoz a tesztat. Sokkal trukkosebb, mint ahogy hangzik. Penteken pedig rugby meccsre mentem az egyik fizio diakkal meg a parral, akikkel a colomboi vonaton baratkoztam ossze, Surath es Shehani. A meccs ket johiru fiuiskola kozott zajlott, egy kandy-i (Kingswood) es egy colomboi (St Joseph's). Surath is a Kingswoodba jart - ez az iskola hozta be a rugbyt Sri Lankara 1892-ben vagy '95-ben.

by the river / a folyonal

the House / a Haz

clean / tiszta

farmers / foldmuvesek

keszul a rotti / rotti underway

the Team / a Csapat

K-I-N-G-S-W-O-O-D!

A B-kozep / the hardcore fans

B-kozep... / hardcore...

home side wins / a hazai csapat gyoz

Weekend 4 / 4. hetvege: Trincomalee beach

For my last weekend I went to the East coast to enjoy the sunshine, the shade under palm trees and the warm, clean Indian Ocean. I was going to do whale watching as well, but they had very small boats and I heard nothing but sea sickness stories of whale watching in small boats so I decided to go snorkelling instead. No regrets, it was beautiful to snorkel around rocks and see colourful fish, sea stars and the odd coral; most of the coral around here is dead so it's not the best of the best places to snorkel but i really enjoyed it.

My room was on the beach, a few steps away from the ocean and we could use the neighbour gueshouse's lounging thingies as well (see picture below). I watched the sunset in the mornings and at night went to the water, dipped my hand in it and as I moved it, a thousand sparkles followed my hand - planktons :) And the clear sky with the stars above - it was the most peaceful time I had in Sri Lanka.

Az utolso hetvegen a keleti partra mentem, hogy kielvezzem a napsutest, az arnyekot ado palmafakat es a tiszta, kellemes Indiai oceant. Ugy terveztem, hogy balnakat is nezek majd, de eleg kicsit hajokat lattam csak a part menten es mast se hallottam mint durva tengeribeteg sztorikat a kis hajobol torteno balnafigyelesrol, ugyhogy inkabb buvarkodni mentem (nem oxigenpalackos merules, hanem buvarszemuveg, pipa, bekatalp). Nem is bantam meg, nagyon szep volt a sziklak mentem korulnezni a tengerfeneken, rengeteg szines hal, tengeri csillag es nehany korall is volt; a legtobb korall ezen a kornyeken elhalt, ugyhogy nem ez a vilag legtutibb buvar helye, de azert en nagyon elveztem.

A szobam a strandon volt, par lepesre az oceantol es meg a szomszedos vendeghaz fabol es palmalevelbol keszult heverojet is hasznalhattuk. Reggelente napfelkeltet neztem, ejszaka pedig bementem a vizbe, beletettem a kezemet a vizbe es ahogy soportem a vizet, ezer csillogo plankton uszott a kezem utan :) Meg a csillagok az egen - ez volt a legnyugodtabb idom Sri Lankan.

first glimpse at the ocean / elso pillantas az oceanra

fishermen's village / halaszfalu

cricket / krikett

sunrise / napkelte


looking at my room from the water / kilatas a szobamra a vizbol az ember palmafara maszik; az egyetlen eszkoze a bokaja kore fogott vaszon / this guy climbs palm trees with only the help of a piece of linen around his ankles

he's up there cutting down coconut / fent van a fan, vagdossa le a kokuszt

he's posing now / itt most pozol

fishermen in the morning drawing the net out / halaszok huzzak ki a halot reggel

a small portion of the catch / a kapas egy elenyeszo resze

Hindu temple / hindu templom

sunrise / napkelte

28 May 2014

Temple of the Tooth / Fogtemplom

Kandy is a significant Buddhist centre due to the worshipped relic, Buddha's tooth, being guarded in this city. Normally it's quite expensive to visit the temple but some volunteers can go in for free; it so happened that at 5:30 am they thought I was one of those volunteers so I was allowed in at the local price, nada. I liked the temple twice as much.

Kandy jelentos buddhista kozpont, mert itt orzik Buddha fogat, ami az egyik legfontosabb buddhista ereklye. Altalaban viszonylag draga bejutni a templomba, de nehany onkentes ingyen mehet be; ugy esett, hogy reggel fel 6-kor azt hittek rolam is, hogy egy ilyen onkentes vagyok es igy a helyi arat fizettem, nullat. Igy ketszer annyira tetszett a templom.

temple / templom

entrance / bejarat

ceiling / plafon

offerings / felajanlas Buddhanak

drummers / dobosok

column with carving / faragott oszlop

bejarat szerzeteseknek / entrance for monks

burners / gyertyak

templomudvar / front garden of temple

week 4 / 4. het: saree / sza'ri

Ez egy kicsit kellemetlen ekezetek nelkul, de a lenyeg, hogy volt rajtam sza'ri :) Mikor megkerdeztem, hol tudnek a varosban felprobalni sza'rit anelkul, hogy meg kene vennem, a kedvenc kollegaim felajanlottak, hogy hoznak be ok nehanyat es fel is adjak majd. A meret nem problem, a sza'ri gyakorlatilag egy hosszu anyag, amit trukkosen megkotnek ugy, hogy szep legyen. A felsoresz pedig nincs osszevarrva, elol biztostukket tartjak ossze, hogy jo legyen a meret. Ha valakinek a karja es / vagy mellkasa sokkal kisebb vagy nagyobb, akkor gyorsan atalakitjak tuvel-cernaval.
2 sza'rit hoztak be, az egyiket sri lankai modra kotottek meg (a pirosat - a szoknya resz be van turve egy madzagba es fodros a derek korul), a masikat pedig indiai modra (a keket - a szoknya elol van osszehuzva, hogy passzoljon es ettol szerintem noiesebben nez ki es nincsenek fodrai). Nagyon tetszett nekik, hogy feloltoztem sza'riba, igy masfel orat rajtam volt, a gyogytornasz osztalyra is igy mentem be, bar beteg mar nem nagyon volt :)

I had a sari on :) 2, in fact. I asked my colleagues where I could try on a sari without having to buy it, so they offered to bring some in for me! Even though they all are a half foot shorter than me, the skirt is basically a long material that is fixed in a way to fit everyone of different sizes and the top (called a jacket) is open in the front, held together by safety pins to match the size. If someone is much smaller or bigger, they aptly adjust the size with thread and needle.
They brought in 2 sets - the red one was done in the Sri Lankan way (the skirt tucked into a rope around my waist), the blue one was styled in the Indian way (simpler and more mature looking in my opinion). They were all very happy to see me wearing a sari, so I had it on for an hour and a half, went into the department like that - most patients were gone by then!