Elephant Crossing

Elephant Crossing
This is a male elephant crossing the road in UdaWalawe National Park.

A baby elephant nursing!

This was a very playful individual who came within inches of our vehicle and displayed its flexible trunk. Notice the collar around its neck, which reveals it was rehabilitated and re-released into the wild. Although such playful behavior can be amusing, it is not healthy for the elephants to interact with humans in this manner.

A gorgeous leopard snoozing in the crook of a tree. Yala National Park

Crocodile and water buffalo enjoying a watering hole at Yala National Park

How I Avoid the Leeches

How I Avoid the Leeches
How I Avoid the Leeches: From left: Kumara, the guide, Tharanga, Lizzie, Ashani, Ilja

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Confused in Translation

Tuesday was to be the start of the project I am working on, but due to Sameera’s schedule and the need for revisions on the survey, we are holding off until next week. Consequently, I was able to spend Tuesday practicing with the GPS and re-formatting the survey with Shermin and Ashoka’s sister, Kumari. Kumari is finishing her B.A. in sociology and this is a perfect opportunity for her to work on a relevant project. Sameera will administer the survey to the men of the households, Kumari will speak with the women, and I will take GPS points of the house and garden, and take notes on the crops that are present. Hopefully it will be a near perfect system.

Shermin and I were able to come up with an excel datasheet that corresponds to the survey and the original plan was to bring a computer into the field and record data directly into the excel sheet. However, after listening to Kumari and Ashoka’s suggestions we have decided it would be best to administer the survey using pen and paper, as the local villagers are sometimes suspicious of technology and may be apt to give less honest answers if a computer were used. Our change of strategy meant that a new survey sheet had to be created. So when Shermin and the others left for the park, Kumari and I were left to the task of generating a new document. Kumari’s English is a bit rough and she often has difficulty understanding me. Additionally, I still have trouble reading the expression of Sri Lankans. For example, they commonly assume a neutral expression and wobble their heads in a figure eight pattern, which to me looks like a mannerism that would express frustration or even anger in the U.S. However, here it has absolutely no negative connotation and simply means ‘sure’ or ‘OK.’ With these hurdles in mind, I was a little unsure how much we would be able to accomplish.

I had some difficulty explaining reasons for certain formatting to Kumari and I was often not sure whether or not she was following my train of thought. I was often met with a blank stare and I was uncertain whether this meant she had no objections or she had absolutely no idea what I had just said to her. Consequently, I think there were times when I repeated things unnecessarily, which perplexed her because she had understood the first time. There were also instances in which we had to break out the dictionary and puzzle things out together. However, we successfully completed our work with only one large, and hilarious, hiccup.

We reached a survey question about the material of the house’s floor and were brainstorming the possible responses. I figured dirt and tile pretty much covered the possibilities in this region, but Kumari was insistent that there remained a third common option. She couldn’t think of the English word and we couldn’t rely on the dictionary because it only offers translations from English into Sinhalese, so she tried to describe it to me. “Hmmmm, ok – a cow put someone in the ground.” She explained. I looked at her, utterly perplexed. What?? A cow put someone in the ground? Seeing my confused expression, she repeated herself. After a bit of thinking, I realized she probably meant something, not someone. So what does a cow put in the ground? She couldn’t mean manure, could she? A floor made of poop?! I couldn’t think of anything else, so I suggested manure, but the word in the dictionary didn’t match what she was thinking of. Without using the word ‘poop,’ I tried to offer some euphemisms: pellet, patty, etc. None of them were in the dictionary or else they didn’t match the word she was thinking of. It wasn’t until Shermin arrived later that night and we recounted our story that we determined Kumari was in fact referring to cow dung! Guess the non-descript, ratty carpeting in my old dorm is rather appealing after all.

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