Cockroaches in FLIGHT :O

9th March 2008

Negombo. Arrived at my cousin's house yesterday afternoon. Flight came in 20 minutes earlier at 3:15 pm so I hung out at the airport with my new American flight homie, as I awaited my family and he awaited his fiance “sugah”.

We got to my cousin's place and reunite after years. My nephew is so grown up! Relaxed and caught up… felt good. Mosquito’s. Damn, forgot about them. Had a shower... COLD. Forgot about them too. Outside temperature was just over 32 centigrade so the cold shower is appreciated. Simplicity of my surroundings and a slow pace, what used to be a part of my own life has now become so foreign. 32 degrees again and I am a bag of emotions, new and old.

As I’m sitting out on the veranda with my cousin and nephew there is a domestic going on in the tree’s, parrots v's squirrels v's woodpecker. Later in the evening we drove down to another cousin's in Colombo, Pellawatta. What a reminder of the chaos on the roads. Firstly it was pouring due to early monsoon. This resulted in flooding of the main road (near airport) and bad visibility. People are huddled under the aluminium sheet covering of roadside bus stops standing in approximately a foot deep muddy water, some waiting for buses, others trying to get shelter. Seven years later and the drainage systems have gotten worse. It rained heavily for about half an hour and people walking about on the street were soaked to the bone. As if the rain wasn't bad enough, general driving discipline has not changed. Or lack off. The same can be said for the road conditions. Between the airport and Colombo alongside the main road is a McDonald’s drive thru, KFC, and a Domino’s pizzeria inside of a bank building. Do the people who live in the surrounding areas really eat these foods? Things have definitely changed. It is apparent that government spending is still being channeled into the war, and a newly developed priority investment of foreign king pin western businesses. As always, our money earnings within our country is flowing straight out and being lost abroad.

Same problems except they have been supersized.

My cousin has a beautiful house… I’m so happy for her. Was re-acquainted with the flying cockroaches which wasn't so happy. Forgot about them too.