On Smiles, Head Wiggling and Arrack
Our conference in Matara has wrapped up, and the Canadian delegation is leaving tomorrow morning to head back to Colombo, where Imran and I will strike out for the hill country, and with it... adventure! Adventure and tea.
Last night we had the opportunity to see a pretty spectacular sunset over the Indian Ocean from the beach right in front of our guest house. It was even more awesome because every other night here has been exceptionally rainy and overcast. In addition to the majestic sunset, we also got to experience a bit of cultural exchange, as we ran into a group of local high school kids who were exceedingly drunk on arrack, which is fermented and distilled coconut sap. They were friendly for the most part, and pretty curious as to what a bunch of foreigners were doing wandering around the beach (tourism is not real hot right now). With the exception of one kid who seemed to think I wanted to pick a fight, we got along great.
Speaking of international communication, I've been extremely surprised by the amount of currency a simple smile carries here. In Canada, if you smile at someone, you're almost certainly likely to get a very polite, but extremely cursory smile, devoid of much actual happiness. Not here. I'm not sure if it's the fact that I look ridiculously out of place here, but every time I smile at someone, I get huge, tooth-filled, whole face grins that leave no doubt as to the happiness of the wearer. And of course, you can't help but fill your own smile with a similar amount of happiness. It's a contagious custom I think we'd do well to import to Canada.
One more note about social interactions: our traditional up-and-down nod motion for "yes" is used here, but it's sometimes replaced by a sort of side-to-side head wiggle that, to my uninitiated eyes, looks more like "I am extremely uncertain about that statement" than "yes". However, after several days of observation I've determined that it is indeed yes, which is information that significantly uncomplicates my first few attempts at conversation in retrospect.
Now, I've got about 2 hours left before sundown. Time for a swim!*
*Note: the Indian Ocean is extremely rough around this time of year. By "swim", I mean put on my bathing suit and go get my feet wet.
Last night we had the opportunity to see a pretty spectacular sunset over the Indian Ocean from the beach right in front of our guest house. It was even more awesome because every other night here has been exceptionally rainy and overcast. In addition to the majestic sunset, we also got to experience a bit of cultural exchange, as we ran into a group of local high school kids who were exceedingly drunk on arrack, which is fermented and distilled coconut sap. They were friendly for the most part, and pretty curious as to what a bunch of foreigners were doing wandering around the beach (tourism is not real hot right now). With the exception of one kid who seemed to think I wanted to pick a fight, we got along great.
Speaking of international communication, I've been extremely surprised by the amount of currency a simple smile carries here. In Canada, if you smile at someone, you're almost certainly likely to get a very polite, but extremely cursory smile, devoid of much actual happiness. Not here. I'm not sure if it's the fact that I look ridiculously out of place here, but every time I smile at someone, I get huge, tooth-filled, whole face grins that leave no doubt as to the happiness of the wearer. And of course, you can't help but fill your own smile with a similar amount of happiness. It's a contagious custom I think we'd do well to import to Canada.
One more note about social interactions: our traditional up-and-down nod motion for "yes" is used here, but it's sometimes replaced by a sort of side-to-side head wiggle that, to my uninitiated eyes, looks more like "I am extremely uncertain about that statement" than "yes". However, after several days of observation I've determined that it is indeed yes, which is information that significantly uncomplicates my first few attempts at conversation in retrospect.
Now, I've got about 2 hours left before sundown. Time for a swim!*
*Note: the Indian Ocean is extremely rough around this time of year. By "swim", I mean put on my bathing suit and go get my feet wet.
posted by Bryce at
3:35 AM
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