25 March- Poya Day and Good Friday!

"well, once again I am blocked. i have this wonderful synhalese writing and it seems I can not paste it on this page! I have followed all the directions in blog and hello with no luck. stay with me and I will eventually get this sorted. Wouldn't it be simple to cut and paste? NOT!" sorry, technology challenges- martha



Happy Poya day from Sri Lanka in Sinhalese

I must tell you that no true Buddhist would wish you Happy Poya Day as it is a day of calm reflection at the temple, not a joyful celebration. I am not sure that Buddhists are big on celebration at the best of times. I am not sure there is a happy Good Friday either. What is good about Good Friday? I do not think I am very well verse in any religious traditions, but I am learning.

Does it seem like some serious holiday time happens here in Sri Lanka? The other side of the coin is that many people work a seven day week, so the holiday times do not reflect actual off-work time.

Some of you have asked for more personal information on this blog, so here is my learning from the night.

It is wise to wear slippers when you get up at night, and it is also wise to turn the light on. Cockroaches make a seriously uncomfortable crunch under bare feet in the dark!

The deal about cockroaches is, they somehow get flipped over on their backs and die there. Then they are really gruesome to step on.

March is the hottest month of Sri Lanka’s continual tropical weather, and so my 15 minute walk to work feels much like the inside of a sauna. (I was going to sat furnace, but that is dry heat). My computer hard drive does not like the heat and has seized up, taking with it music, photos, and documents, etc… some was saved as the thing went through a series of death throws before finally giving up completely.

I will not be updating this blog for the next 11 days as I am away in Bangkok, city and then beach…I look forward to swimming, air conditioned room, and all those delicious food treats I expect. I have also learned that gin and tonic is very helpful in a medicinal preventative way to ward off Malaria. I with therefore medicate, preventatively!

On a serious note, I thank the many of you who have offered to send money in support of people here in Sri Lanka. One village describes going from 2 NGOs to now as many as 58 NGOs and they keep coming. The challenge is this. What people need, want and are getting increasingly frustrated in receiving; are HOMES. They do not need temporary homes constructed in areas where they will once again move.

On example is a Muslim community in the South. They need 43 homes, and they used to live in the 100 meter area which is now off limits. They want to live as a community, in a group, and where would they find land for this? And who would fund it? There is money in bits and pieces for programs and some aid, the frustration they feel is toward their government who is not delivering the money for homes. And where would the homes be? Fishermen wish to be close to the sea, not too far in land.

In Kosovo, there was a lot of frustration at people coming from away to offer psycho/social programs when people had immediate needs of home, shelter and safety. It is the same here. We can get funds for fishing line, school books, and the like, and that helps. The bigger need is for homes. Capacity building is about hearing people’s needs and helping them to advocate for homes and becoming settled in their homes.

So I appreciate the offers of funds and support. AHIMSA continues to do the work they have been doing for seven years in Sri Lanka. We will be offering programs including peacebuilding and psycho/social programs in Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim communities in the coming months. We are not the house builders or the ones to coordinate millions of dollars for the kinds of home building initiatives that are needed. We do peace work.

In the event that in July, we increase our work and need help funding peacebuilding and psychosocial programs, we will certainly invite your help. At this time, we appreciate your kind thoughts and interest in Sri Lanka and AHIMSA’s work.

In the next few days, our web site should be up and running. Look for us at www.ahimsa.lk

It is not fully operational now, but should be soon!
We had a wonderful chocolate cake and celebration at the finishing of student project programs, peer mediation manual in draft, and the web site ALMOST done.



Have a peaceful and joyful couple of weeks!
Martha

17 March, 2005

Here is Sri Lanka!

Ah, technology!



I am pleased to show you the map of Sri Lanka so you can get a view of the places I have talked about.
(I have put a map on this blog, but it is not cooperating in showing up.)

AHIMSA is working in Hikkaduwa with a Youth Centre and Buddhist temple which supports a Tsunami relief camp for people who lost their homes. While the distances are short, the trip is over three hours along Galle Road with three wheelers, buses, cars, trucks, oxen and the like filling the road of honking vehicles that are rarely on the right side of the road. They pass on the left or the right and their primary mode of communication is honking.

Our trips to Batticaloa take over seven hours with traffic challenges as described and the added challenges of gravel and dirt roads disrupted with continual presence of military, young boys with weapons, and look out spots along desolate open areas with nothing more than buffalo , egrets, and the rare group of elephants appearing in the hot, dusty daylight.
I am the mum to three sons and have to imagine how these young lads spend their days in uniform, with a weapon, in all the boredom of long hours and days with very little relief or fun.

Children are supposed to play. Older Children should have access to work that they choose and furthers their learning. Children are supposed to have futures to look forward to. As I read the report of a colleague, Angie’s research discussion children’s views of conflict in 7 communities across Sri Lanka, I am struck by the harshness of children’s lives here.

The UN convention on the Rights of the Child speaks to children:

Article 3: In all actions concerning children the best interest of the child should be the primary consideration.

Article 6: The state has an obligation to protect a child’s right to life, and to ensure that children are able to develop fully.

Article 12: Children have the right to express opinions in any matter which concerns them, and their views given due consideration in accordance with their age and maturity.

Article 29: The purpose of education is to develop children’s personality and talents, to prepare them for active adult life, to foster respect for basic human rights, and a respect for the child’s own culture and those of others.

Sri Lankan children are often forced by family to stay home and work in the home instead of attending school. I remember a similar 11 year old girl with dark circles under her eyes in a Calgary school. Her parents, new Canadians, cleaned office buildings at night. So this little 11 year old had been up all night as she cleaned her home and looked after a sick baby who had a fever. She had trouble staying awake in class, let alone learning.

Sri lankan children when asked about conflict , described alcoholism, violence and abuse, witnessing their mothers being hit, and a lack of support for children in homes and communities. There is no 800 number to call here, there is no one who knows where to report abuse if a child does tell. And where would a child go to be safe? Police, staff who look after children, are not a sure protection. One child care worker said, “I think you have an expression- ‘out of the frying pan, into the fire’?” So there is a silence around here, and speaking up could in fact bring more danger. Life is so very painful some times.

I asked a little girl how all the dogs know how to stay safe when the traffic is so bad on the roads (I do not see dead animals struck by vehicles here). She told me that dogs and children know how to keep alert to danger, because there is so much of it. “You are always aware of danger.”

Tonight, tuck a little one into bed, or look with compassion at that young lad who is trying to break into your car; and know that life can be hard for children… everywhere. Lads do not take up a weapon and join militant forces, or children do not turn to the streets for excitement; the fact for the majority of these young people is that life is full of pain at home. We, who have a meal, a bed, safety and health, it is we who must speak up for the children.

On Maha Sivarathri Day

A Hindu holiday on Tuesday, March 8th is the celebration of Shiva.

We traveled to Rakwana on this day as on the 9th, we listened to the presentations of student projects by A level students who have worked with AHIMSA staff over the last year.

It is true that Sri Lanka celebrates many holidays with the diversity of people and faiths here. Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Christian holidays make for many holidays in any given month.

Hindu faith is rich with diversity and colourful kovil (temple) are full of bright statues showing many different deity and their various modes of travel from a rat for Ganesh who resembles an elephant, peacock and a lion. Hindu faith is as diverse as its many gods and goddesses, estimated at over a million!

Here are some of the basic beliefs help by the majority of Hindus.


• The three-in-one god known as “Brahman,” which is composed of: Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the Preserver), and Shiva (the Destroyer).
• The Caste System.
• Karma. The law that good begets good, and bad begets bad. Every action, thought, or decision one makes has consequences – good or bad – that will return to each person in the present life, or in one yet to come.
• Reincarnation. Also known as “transmigration of souls,” or “samsara.” This is a journey on the “circle of life,” where each person experiences as series of physical births, deaths, and rebirths. With good karma, a person can be reborn into a higher caste, or even to godhood. Bad karma can relegate one to a lower caste, or even to life as an animal in their next life.
• Nirvana. This is the goal of the Hindu. Nirvana is the release of the soul from the seemingly endless cycle of rebirths.


At the same time, Hinduism teaches that all living things are Brahman in their core. In other words, all living things are Brahman, or god. Enlightenment is attained by becoming tuned in to the Brahman within. Only then can one reach Nirvana. The release from the wheel of life that allows access to Nirvana is known as “moksha.”

Hindus recognize three possible paths to moksha, or salvation.

The first is the way of works or karma yoga. This is a very popular way of salvation and lays emphasis on the idea that liberation may be obtained by fulfilling one’s familial and social duties thereby overcoming the weight of bad karma one has accrued.

The second way of salvation is the way of knowledge, or jnana yoga. The basic premise of the way of knowledge is that the cause of our bondage to the cycle of rebirths in this world is ignorance. According to the predominant view among those committed to this way, our ignorance consists of the mistaken belief that we are individual selves, and not one with the ultimate divine reality – Brahman. It is this same ignorance that gives rise to our bad actions, which result in bad karma. Salvation is achieved through attaining a state of consciousness in which we realize our identity with Brahman. This is achieved through deep meditation, often as a part of the discipline of yoga.
The third way of salvation is the way of devotion, or bhakti yoga. This is the way most favored by the common people. It satisfies the longing for a more emotional and personal approach to religion. It involves the self-surrender to one of the many personal gods and goddesses of Hinduism. Such devotion is expressed through acts of worship, temple rituals, and pilgrimages. Some Hindus conceive of ultimate salvation as absorption into the one divine reality, with all loss of individual existence. Others conceive of it as heavenly existence in adoration of the personal God.
My blog is a chance to share the many diverse faiths and I appreciate those of you who have written to share your thoughts and experience.

I asked about who you turned to in times of difficulty as an adolescent. Thank you for your responses. It seems that many people speak with their peers, whether it is a sibling of similar age or a friend who is also a young person. The reason I asked this of you is that I am currently working with a peer mediation program here at AHIMSA. There is a culture of silence in that children do not often s[peak of abuse or difficulties to adults. If this program is to train peers to mediate they will be the front line for learning of much which is difficult and abusive in children’s lives.

I have pre-empted the peer mediation program with training for the whole group of young people in peer support. Peer support teaches skills to just what it says, peers support each other and learn listening and speaking skills and problem solving as well. I will describe one children’s club which shows how children fear getting adults involved because of their potential over reaction.

A young boy takes a girl’s gold necklace. The father threatens the boy who took the necklace. Another boy goes to the girl’s home to see if he can help work things out. The girl’s father, uncles and brothers attack this boy. He dies of an axe wound to the head. The various families on the girl’s side are burned out and driven out of town. Eventually an uncle serves time for the murder.

Children are wary to tell adults for fear of their strong reactions, and youth taking a third party role may not be well received. There are complicated issues in providing skills and support to children to support each other and at the same time understand the complexity of family and community roles in Sri Lankan society. The child who went over to try and settle the dispute over the gold necklace was not involved in any mediation training, or going with any particular training and support.

We will be heavily involved in field testing this program in diverse and also more homogeneous communities. Batticaloa is largely Tamil, and both Hindu and Muslim populations have fairly separate schools. Down south in hill country, in Rakwana, where we were this week, the population is mixed.

Monica grew up in Rakwana and as we met her family, she shared stories about hiding in the forest during 1971 riots. The riots found JVP forces attacking Jaffna Tamils, and Monica’s father was a Jaffna Tamil who was overseeing tea plantation workers. Monica said her father brought the families special clocks and the clocks made noise in the forest. Monica’s mother was raised in a Hindu family and there are ten children in Monica’s family. Monica met some of the teachers who she remembered as fellow students when she was in Rakwana. It is powerful to see so many girls in white school uniforms speaking with Monica. Monica was invited to Kennedy school of Management at Harvard to speak as a founding member of women waging peace and she has gone through out the world as she seeks to learn more about peace and share her experiences as well. It is true that many people leave Sri Lanka for education and work and immigrate to other countries, not to return. Monica will never leave Sri Lanka, she is as rooted here as the ancient Bodhi tree in her village. One of the young people’s presentations was about the Bodhi tree which is 200 years old in Rakwana. It grows just outside the rest house where we stayed.

This has been a bit of a wandering blog, without much structure. For the young person who wrote about various animals I have seen so far, I saw two crocodiles (not together) making their way across the road between paddy fields on the road down to Rakwana.

March 8th was International Woman’s Day, as we observed all the Tamil women carrying tea leave harvest on their heads down the hill to the factory. We gave a couple of women a ride up as we drove up to into the forest to a retreat centre. I am very sure that very few of the Tamil tea pickers had ever heard of women’s day. I expect they would have had a good laugh as they got up before dawn to get their children off to school and end the fast of Shiva’s Hindu holiday. Shiva is one of the God’s one would connect with for fertility. You can imagine all the interesting adornments to celebrate his holy day! As a Tamil tea picker I think my prayers would be the reverse of fertility!

So another blog week in Sri Lanka ends with crocodiles, tea pickers, children’s presentations, and the homey touches of fresh lime juice at Monica’s family home. I send you all my greetings and a special note to the Canadian woman sending home-made bears, I will let you know when and if the first brave 10 bears make it through the duty and excise taxes without getting confiscated by the government. If they make it, the other 350 can come!

Peacefully,
Martha
marthamcmanus@hotmail.com
(My email at Bradford is closed now, so please use this email address.)

On Maha Sivarathri Day

A Hindu holiday on Tuesday, March 8th is the celebration of Shiva.

We traveled to Rakwana on this day as on the 9th, we listened to the presentations of student projects by A level students who have worked with AHIMSA staff over the last year.

It is true that Sri Lanka celebrates many holidays with the diversity of people and faiths here. Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Christian holidays make for many holidays in any given month.

Hindu faith is rich with diversity and colourful kovil (temple) are full of bright statues showing many different deity and their various modes of travel from a rat for Ganesh who resembles an elephant, peacock and a lion. Hindu faith is as diverse as its many gods and goddesses, estimated at over a million!

Here are some of the basic beliefs help by the majority of Hindus.


• The three-in-one god known as “Brahman,” which is composed of: Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the Preserver), and Shiva (the Destroyer).
• The Caste System.
• Karma. The law that good begets good, and bad begets bad. Every action, thought, or decision one makes has consequences – good or bad – that will return to each person in the present life, or in one yet to come.
• Reincarnation. Also known as “transmigration of souls,” or “samsara.” This is a journey on the “circle of life,” where each person experiences as series of physical births, deaths, and rebirths. With good karma, a person can be reborn into a higher caste, or even to godhood. Bad karma can relegate one to a lower caste, or even to life as an animal in their next life.
• Nirvana. This is the goal of the Hindu. Nirvana is the release of the soul from the seemingly endless cycle of rebirths.


At the same time, Hinduism teaches that all living things are Brahman in their core. In other words, all living things are Brahman, or god. Enlightenment is attained by becoming tuned in to the Brahman within. Only then can one reach Nirvana. The release from the wheel of life that allows access to Nirvana is known as “moksha.”

Hindus recognize three possible paths to moksha, or salvation.

The first is the way of works or karma yoga. This is a very popular way of salvation and lays emphasis on the idea that liberation may be obtained by fulfilling one’s familial and social duties thereby overcoming the weight of bad karma one has accrued.

The second way of salvation is the way of knowledge, or jnana yoga. The basic premise of the way of knowledge is that the cause of our bondage to the cycle of rebirths in this world is ignorance. According to the predominant view among those committed to this way, our ignorance consists of the mistaken belief that we are individual selves, and not one with the ultimate divine reality – Brahman. It is this same ignorance that gives rise to our bad actions, which result in bad karma. Salvation is achieved through attaining a state of consciousness in which we realize our identity with Brahman. This is achieved through deep meditation, often as a part of the discipline of yoga.
The third way of salvation is the way of devotion, or bhakti yoga. This is the way most favored by the common people. It satisfies the longing for a more emotional and personal approach to religion. It involves the self-surrender to one of the many personal gods and goddesses of Hinduism. Such devotion is expressed through acts of worship, temple rituals, and pilgrimages. Some Hindus conceive of ultimate salvation as absorption into the one divine reality, with all loss of individual existence. Others conceive of it as heavenly existence in adoration of the personal God.
My blog is a chance to share the many diverse faiths and I appreciate those of you who have written to share your thoughts and experience.

I asked about who you turned to in times of difficulty as an adolescent. Thank you for your responses. It seems that many people speak with their peers, whether it is a sibling of similar age or a friend who is also a young person. The reason I asked this of you is that I am currently working with a peer mediation program here at AHIMSA. There is a culture of silence in that children do not often s[peak of abuse or difficulties to adults. If this program is to train peers to mediate they will be the front line for learning of much which is difficult and abusive in children’s lives.

I have pre-empted the peer mediation program with training for the whole group of young people in peer support. Peer support teaches skills to just what it says, peers support each other and learn listening and speaking skills and problem solving as well. I will describe one children’s club which shows how children fear getting adults involved because of their potential over reaction.

A young boy takes a girl’s gold necklace. The father threatens the boy who took the necklace. Another boy goes to the girl’s home to see if he can help work things out. The girl’s father, uncles and brothers attack this boy. He dies of an axe wound to the head. The various families on the girl’s side are burned out and driven out of town. Eventually an uncle serves time for the murder.

Children are wary to tell adults for fear of their strong reactions, and youth taking a third party role may not be well received. There are complicated issues in providing skills and support to children to support each other and at the same time understand the complexity of family and community roles in Sri Lankan society. The child who went over to try and settle the dispute over the gold necklace was not involved in any mediation training, or going with any particular training and support.

We will be heavily involved in field testing this program in diverse and also more homogeneous communities. Batticaloa is largely Tamil, and both Hindu and Muslim populations have fairly separate schools. Down south in hill country, in Rakwana, where we were this week, the population is mixed.

Monica grew up in Rakwana and as we met her family, she shared stories about hiding in the forest during 1971 riots. The riots found JVP forces attacking Jaffna Tamils, and Monica’s father was a Jaffna Tamil who was overseeing tea plantation workers. Monica said her father brought the families special clocks and the clocks made noise in the forest. Monica’s mother was raised in a Hindu family and there are ten children in Monica’s family. Monica met some of the teachers who she remembered as fellow students when she was in Rakwana. It is powerful to see so many girls in white school uniforms speaking with Monica. Monica was invited to Kennedy school of Management at Harvard to speak as a founding member of women waging peace and she has gone through out the world as she seeks to learn more about peace and share her experiences as well. It is true that many people leave Sri Lanka for education and work and immigrate to other countries, not to return. Monica will never leave Sri Lanka, she is as rooted here as the ancient Bodhi tree in her village. One of the young people’s presentations was about the Bodhi tree which is 200 years old in Rakwana. It grows just outside the rest house where we stayed.

This has been a bit of a wandering blog, without much structure. For the young person who wrote about various animals I have seen so far, I saw two crocodiles (not together) making their way across the road between paddy fields on the road down to Rakwana.

March 8th was International Woman’s Day, as we observed all the Tamil women carrying tea leave harvest on their heads down the hill to the factory. We gave a couple of women a ride up as we drove up to into the forest to a retreat centre. I am very sure that very few of the Tamil tea pickers had ever heard of women’s day. I expect they would have had a good laugh as they got up before dawn to get their children off to school and end the fast of Shiva’s Hindu holiday. Shiva is one of the God’s one would connect with for fertility. You can imagine all the interesting adornments to celebrate his holy day! As a Tamil tea picker I think my prayers would be the reverse of fertility!

So another blog week in Sri Lanka ends with crocodiles, tea pickers, children’s presentations, and the homey touches of fresh lime juice at Monica’s family home. I send you all my greetings and a special note to the Canadian woman sending home-made bears, I will let you know when and if the first brave 10 bears make it through the duty and excise taxes without getting confiscated by the government. If they make it, the other 350 can come!

Peacefully,
Martha
marthamcmanus@hotmail.com
(My email at Bradford is closed now, so please use this email address.)

On Maha Sivarathri Day

A Hindu holiday on Tuesday, March 8th is the celebration of Shiva.

We traveled to Rakwana on this day as on the 9th, we listened to the presentations of student projects by A level students who have worked with AHIMSA staff over the last year.

It is true that Sri Lanka celebrates many holidays with the diversity of people and faiths here. Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Christian holidays make for many holidays in any given month.

Hindu faith is rich with diversity and colourful kovil (temple) are full of bright statues showing many different deity and their various modes of travel from a rat for Ganesh who resembles an elephant, peacock and a lion. Hindu faith is as diverse as its many gods and goddesses, estimated at over a million!

Here are some of the basic beliefs help by the majority of Hindus.


• The three-in-one god known as “Brahman,” which is composed of: Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the Preserver), and Shiva (the Destroyer).
• The Caste System.
• Karma. The law that good begets good, and bad begets bad. Every action, thought, or decision one makes has consequences – good or bad – that will return to each person in the present life, or in one yet to come.
• Reincarnation. Also known as “transmigration of souls,” or “samsara.” This is a journey on the “circle of life,” where each person experiences as series of physical births, deaths, and rebirths. With good karma, a person can be reborn into a higher caste, or even to godhood. Bad karma can relegate one to a lower caste, or even to life as an animal in their next life.
• Nirvana. This is the goal of the Hindu. Nirvana is the release of the soul from the seemingly endless cycle of rebirths.


At the same time, Hinduism teaches that all living things are Brahman in their core. In other words, all living things are Brahman, or god. Enlightenment is attained by becoming tuned in to the Brahman within. Only then can one reach Nirvana. The release from the wheel of life that allows access to Nirvana is known as “moksha.”

Hindus recognize three possible paths to moksha, or salvation.

The first is the way of works or karma yoga. This is a very popular way of salvation and lays emphasis on the idea that liberation may be obtained by fulfilling one’s familial and social duties thereby overcoming the weight of bad karma one has accrued.

The second way of salvation is the way of knowledge, or jnana yoga. The basic premise of the way of knowledge is that the cause of our bondage to the cycle of rebirths in this world is ignorance. According to the predominant view among those committed to this way, our ignorance consists of the mistaken belief that we are individual selves, and not one with the ultimate divine reality – Brahman. It is this same ignorance that gives rise to our bad actions, which result in bad karma. Salvation is achieved through attaining a state of consciousness in which we realize our identity with Brahman. This is achieved through deep meditation, often as a part of the discipline of yoga.
The third way of salvation is the way of devotion, or bhakti yoga. This is the way most favored by the common people. It satisfies the longing for a more emotional and personal approach to religion. It involves the self-surrender to one of the many personal gods and goddesses of Hinduism. Such devotion is expressed through acts of worship, temple rituals, and pilgrimages. Some Hindus conceive of ultimate salvation as absorption into the one divine reality, with all loss of individual existence. Others conceive of it as heavenly existence in adoration of the personal God.
My blog is a chance to share the many diverse faiths and I appreciate those of you who have written to share your thoughts and experience.

I asked about who you turned to in times of difficulty as an adolescent. Thank you for your responses. It seems that many people speak with their peers, whether it is a sibling of similar age or a friend who is also a young person. The reason I asked this of you is that I am currently working with a peer mediation program here at AHIMSA. There is a culture of silence in that children do not often s[peak of abuse or difficulties to adults. If this program is to train peers to mediate they will be the front line for learning of much which is difficult and abusive in children’s lives.

I have pre-empted the peer mediation program with training for the whole group of young people in peer support. Peer support teaches skills to just what it says, peers support each other and learn listening and speaking skills and problem solving as well. I will describe one children’s club which shows how children fear getting adults involved because of their potential over reaction.

A young boy takes a girl’s gold necklace. The father threatens the boy who took the necklace. Another boy goes to the girl’s home to see if he can help work things out. The girl’s father, uncles and brothers attack this boy. He dies of an axe wound to the head. The various families on the girl’s side are burned out and driven out of town. Eventually an uncle serves time for the murder.

Children are wary to tell adults for fear of their strong reactions, and youth taking a third party role may not be well received. There are complicated issues in providing skills and support to children to support each other and at the same time understand the complexity of family and community roles in Sri Lankan society. The child who went over to try and settle the dispute over the gold necklace was not involved in any mediation training, or going with any particular training and support.

We will be heavily involved in field testing this program in diverse and also more homogeneous communities. Batticaloa is largely Tamil, and both Hindu and Muslim populations have fairly separate schools. Down south in hill country, in Rakwana, where we were this week, the population is mixed.

Monica grew up in Rakwana and as we met her family, she shared stories about hiding in the forest during 1971 riots. The riots found JVP forces attacking Jaffna Tamils, and Monica’s father was a Jaffna Tamil who was overseeing tea plantation workers. Monica said her father brought the families special clocks and the clocks made noise in the forest. Monica’s mother was raised in a Hindu family and there are ten children in Monica’s family. Monica met some of the teachers who she remembered as fellow students when she was in Rakwana. It is powerful to see so many girls in white school uniforms speaking with Monica. Monica was invited to Kennedy school of Management at Harvard to speak as a founding member of women waging peace and she has gone through out the world as she seeks to learn more about peace and share her experiences as well. It is true that many people leave Sri Lanka for education and work and immigrate to other countries, not to return. Monica will never leave Sri Lanka, she is as rooted here as the ancient Bodhi tree in her village. One of the young people’s presentations was about the Bodhi tree which is 200 years old in Rakwana. It grows just outside the rest house where we stayed.

This has been a bit of a wandering blog, without much structure. For the young person who wrote about various animals I have seen so far, I saw two crocodiles (not together) making their way across the road between paddy fields on the road down to Rakwana.

March 8th was International Woman’s Day, as we observed all the Tamil women carrying tea leave harvest on their heads down the hill to the factory. We gave a couple of women a ride up as we drove up to into the forest to a retreat centre. I am very sure that very few of the Tamil tea pickers had ever heard of women’s day. I expect they would have had a good laugh as they got up before dawn to get their children off to school and end the fast of Shiva’s Hindu holiday. Shiva is one of the God’s one would connect with for fertility. You can imagine all the interesting adornments to celebrate his holy day! As a Tamil tea picker I think my prayers would be the reverse of fertility!

So another blog week in Sri Lanka ends with crocodiles, tea pickers, children’s presentations, and the homey touches of fresh lime juice at Monica’s family home. I send you all my greetings and a special note to the Canadian woman sending home-made bears, I will let you know when and if the first brave 10 bears make it through the duty and excise taxes without getting confiscated by the government. If they make it, the other 350 can come!

Peacefully,
Martha
marthamcmanus@hotmail.com
(My email at Bradford is closed now, so please use this email address.)

On Maha Sivarathri Day

A Hindu holiday on Tuesday, March 8th is the celebration of Shiva.

We traveled to Rakwana on this day as on the 9th, we listened to the presentations of student projects by A level students who have worked with AHIMSA staff over the last year.

It is true that Sri Lanka celebrates many holidays with the diversity of people and faiths here. Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Christian holidays make for many holidays in any given month.

Hindu faith is rich with diversity and colourful kovil (temple) are full of bright statues showing many different deity and their various modes of travel from a rat for Ganesh who resembles an elephant, peacock and a lion. Hindu faith is as diverse as its many gods and goddesses, estimated at over a million!

Here are some of the basic beliefs help by the majority of Hindus.


• The three-in-one god known as “Brahman,” which is composed of: Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the Preserver), and Shiva (the Destroyer).
• The Caste System.
• Karma. The law that good begets good, and bad begets bad. Every action, thought, or decision one makes has consequences – good or bad – that will return to each person in the present life, or in one yet to come.
• Reincarnation. Also known as “transmigration of souls,” or “samsara.” This is a journey on the “circle of life,” where each person experiences as series of physical births, deaths, and rebirths. With good karma, a person can be reborn into a higher caste, or even to godhood. Bad karma can relegate one to a lower caste, or even to life as an animal in their next life.
• Nirvana. This is the goal of the Hindu. Nirvana is the release of the soul from the seemingly endless cycle of rebirths.


At the same time, Hinduism teaches that all living things are Brahman in their core. In other words, all living things are Brahman, or god. Enlightenment is attained by becoming tuned in to the Brahman within. Only then can one reach Nirvana. The release from the wheel of life that allows access to Nirvana is known as “moksha.”

Hindus recognize three possible paths to moksha, or salvation.

The first is the way of works or karma yoga. This is a very popular way of salvation and lays emphasis on the idea that liberation may be obtained by fulfilling one’s familial and social duties thereby overcoming the weight of bad karma one has accrued.

The second way of salvation is the way of knowledge, or jnana yoga. The basic premise of the way of knowledge is that the cause of our bondage to the cycle of rebirths in this world is ignorance. According to the predominant view among those committed to this way, our ignorance consists of the mistaken belief that we are individual selves, and not one with the ultimate divine reality – Brahman. It is this same ignorance that gives rise to our bad actions, which result in bad karma. Salvation is achieved through attaining a state of consciousness in which we realize our identity with Brahman. This is achieved through deep meditation, often as a part of the discipline of yoga.
The third way of salvation is the way of devotion, or bhakti yoga. This is the way most favored by the common people. It satisfies the longing for a more emotional and personal approach to religion. It involves the self-surrender to one of the many personal gods and goddesses of Hinduism. Such devotion is expressed through acts of worship, temple rituals, and pilgrimages. Some Hindus conceive of ultimate salvation as absorption into the one divine reality, with all loss of individual existence. Others conceive of it as heavenly existence in adoration of the personal God.
My blog is a chance to share the many diverse faiths and I appreciate those of you who have written to share your thoughts and experience.

I asked about who you turned to in times of difficulty as an adolescent. Thank you for your responses. It seems that many people speak with their peers, whether it is a sibling of similar age or a friend who is also a young person. The reason I asked this of you is that I am currently working with a peer mediation program here at AHIMSA. There is a culture of silence in that children do not often s[peak of abuse or difficulties to adults. If this program is to train peers to mediate they will be the front line for learning of much which is difficult and abusive in children’s lives.

I have pre-empted the peer mediation program with training for the whole group of young people in peer support. Peer support teaches skills to just what it says, peers support each other and learn listening and speaking skills and problem solving as well. I will describe one children’s club which shows how children fear getting adults involved because of their potential over reaction.

A young boy takes a girl’s gold necklace. The father threatens the boy who took the necklace. Another boy goes to the girl’s home to see if he can help work things out. The girl’s father, uncles and brothers attack this boy. He dies of an axe wound to the head. The various families on the girl’s side are burned out and driven out of town. Eventually an uncle serves time for the murder.

Children are wary to tell adults for fear of their strong reactions, and youth taking a third party role may not be well received. There are complicated issues in providing skills and support to children to support each other and at the same time understand the complexity of family and community roles in Sri Lankan society. The child who went over to try and settle the dispute over the gold necklace was not involved in any mediation training, or going with any particular training and support.

We will be heavily involved in field testing this program in diverse and also more homogeneous communities. Batticaloa is largely Tamil, and both Hindu and Muslim populations have fairly separate schools. Down south in hill country, in Rakwana, where we were this week, the population is mixed.

Monica grew up in Rakwana and as we met her family, she shared stories about hiding in the forest during 1971 riots. The riots found JVP forces attacking Jaffna Tamils, and Monica’s father was a Jaffna Tamil who was overseeing tea plantation workers. Monica said her father brought the families special clocks and the clocks made noise in the forest. Monica’s mother was raised in a Hindu family and there are ten children in Monica’s family. Monica met some of the teachers who she remembered as fellow students when she was in Rakwana. It is powerful to see so many girls in white school uniforms speaking with Monica. Monica was invited to Kennedy school of Management at Harvard to speak as a founding member of women waging peace and she has gone through out the world as she seeks to learn more about peace and share her experiences as well. It is true that many people leave Sri Lanka for education and work and immigrate to other countries, not to return. Monica will never leave Sri Lanka, she is as rooted here as the ancient Bodhi tree in her village. One of the young people’s presentations was about the Bodhi tree which is 200 years old in Rakwana. It grows just outside the rest house where we stayed.

This has been a bit of a wandering blog, without much structure. For the young person who wrote about various animals I have seen so far, I saw two crocodiles (not together) making their way across the road between paddy fields on the road down to Rakwana.

March 8th was International Woman’s Day, as we observed all the Tamil women carrying tea leave harvest on their heads down the hill to the factory. We gave a couple of women a ride up as we drove up to into the forest to a retreat centre. I am very sure that very few of the Tamil tea pickers had ever heard of women’s day. I expect they would have had a good laugh as they got up before dawn to get their children off to school and end the fast of Shiva’s Hindu holiday. Shiva is one of the God’s one would connect with for fertility. You can imagine all the interesting adornments to celebrate his holy day! As a Tamil tea picker I think my prayers would be the reverse of fertility!

So another blog week in Sri Lanka ends with crocodiles, tea pickers, children’s presentations, and the homey touches of fresh lime juice at Monica’s family home. I send you all my greetings and a special note to the Canadian woman sending home-made bears, I will let you know when and if the first brave 10 bears make it through the duty and excise taxes without getting confiscated by the government. If they make it, the other 350 can come!

Peacefully,
Martha
marthamcmanus@hotmail.com
(My email at Bradford is closed now, so please use this email address.)

March 3rd

It is very hot and I am happy that it is not only me but native Sri Lankans are also feeling the heat. It seems my computer is as well, and the hard drive has seized up twice. Each time it cools down and goes back in the computer it gives me a brief time in order to copy files to cds so all is not lost. I wrote a blog, saved it on disk, and now the disk tries to convert it to Turkish language so the computer, disks and all seem to be feeling the heat with me.

If this works (different computer, different disk, and same writer) I will gratefully head for my flat in the breeze that has come up. I wrote about the dilemmas I am having concerning training we are invited to do in the East at Batticaloa, in ten days. We will provide a week long training trainers program in facing fears. The people requesting this work are finding it very difficult working with children and adults whose fears, post tsunami, seem to spread into fear of going to bed, to school, on the bus, or away from family. They want tools for working with fear.

My fear, I guess based on past experience, is that once one opens the doors to fear and trauma, many things come pouring out. Research describes a culture of silence, concerning abuse, yet it has been there in community and camps and can suddenly move from silence to spoken pain.

I remember when I was first teaching in a Northern mining community in Canada. If you had asked whether any of the students in our little school were abused, I could have answered with a confident and naïve, ‘No’. And I found out during my first teaching year on the total lack of awareness we all had, as a young girl came forward with her sexual abuse in her home. We helped her move to a residential centre for youth and she was the first of many people who spoke of the abuse they experienced. I do not think that a culture of silence around family violence and child abuse is unique to Sri Lanka, but a silencing well known in many communities.


I do not know whether communities, support workers or anyone has the capacity or facilities to handle the likelihood that fears have now awoken in once silenced children.
I look forward to the opportunity of working with a group of committed people who are making it their life work to be there for their community in the difficult times. My belief is that together we can share our experiences of what works, helps and how we can stay in touch as our learning curve builds.

At the same time AHIMSA works with psycho/social issues, we are developing our ADR materials and program with peer support and mediation. This blog can provide a participatory component as I have a question for you.

When you were (or currently are) an adolescent, who did you turn to, to speak about the difficult times you had?
Can you rank in order please: mom, dad, other adult in family, sibling, friend, school counselor, teacher, other?
If it depends on the topic (please include that distinction)

I look forward to hearing your responses: My email is marthamcmanus@hotmail.com
Oh, I believe I have lost my Bradford address, so please write to hotmail.

This week-end I met Sister Nidoshini. She is under 5 foot tall, yet the power she generates is huge. Her grey hair is stuffed under her blue nun’s habit, and she laughs to learn that there is a wine named after her. Sister awoke all her fellow nuns at 4am on December 26th and dragged them out with much resistance to catch a bus from Matara to Colombo, so they would have mass there. Their bus arrived in Colombo just before 9:30, when the tsunami waves hit. Sister says she must have been a snake in her past life as she, like the animals, felt the earth’s tremors before the waves came. Sister has a joyful laugh, the strength to move mountains and the ability to heal in her hands. People come from great distances for she heals wounds both visible and invisible. We are blessed as she comes to AHIMSA to rejuvenate. As we sat telling stories she invited me to come and sit with her as the people come to be healed. She and the master teacher who taught her have both spoken of my healing work in my hands. At the current moment, my hands can not heal my computer, but we continue to work as best we can. Sister and I enjoyed gin and tonic and shared great laughs. All is not hard as the joys are here daily as well.
Sister said if I wrote about her, she would want to thank all of you whose financial donations brought musical instruments to her school as they replace their band instruments. A flute, guitar, violin, and Kandy drums all make the band better. I had thought to invite you to send your used instruments here; only now the government is heavily taxes things and is even taking things to distribute on their own.

It must be getting cooler outside as the clapper (neighbor I mentioned in previous blogs) is now clapping. The heat slows him down a bit.