Big Battle of Busy Bugs and Bad Banks
This morning I opened a new package of cereal and poured it into the plastic container where I keep cereal to keep bugs out. A few minutes later I noticed a slew of ants in the container. Apparently they were already in the plastic bag the cereal comes in. I was ticked since this is a small bag of healthy cereal and costs $5.00 a bag, which is more than many people make in a day in SL, including my housekeeper. So I now have some very expensive compost working in the bin!

But that is nothing compared to the ongoing saga with Washington Mutual. Since
May 3rd Ron has been unable to access his cash because WAMU managed to change debit/ATM cards vendors. They cancelled his old ATM card May 3rd, assuming he had received the new card. However the post office does not forward such cards. It has taken numerous collect phone calls and almost one month to get him a replacement card. Guess what? They changed his PIN although they said they wouldn’t and they have yet to send the new PIN #. To add insult to injury they managed to choose a vendor that has NO international access to the ATM! Can you imagine having over 11 million customers and having no international ATM access? Someone should get fired for this brilliant decision. The bank told Ron to just walk into any bank that accepts MasterCard and he can get cash on his signature. The only problem with that is the amount of traveling Ron does. If he arrives in Bombay for example on Friday night, he would have to wait until Monday morning in the airport to get a cab to the bank. India does not accept SL rupees so you can’t change money. Ron has been having lots of conversations with the top-level customer service representative. She reports directly to the president of the bank. We are flabbergasted at the incompetence of the people he has dealt with thus far and the incredible inefficiency. We discovered this week the bank cannot send PIN numbers out of the US. So we are having our PIN sent to a friend who will in turn send it to us via email. We are now trying to open a US account with an international bank to get a real ATM card! Hopefully we will be able to do this before we go to Thailand in July. A coworker of Ron’s is meeting us in Chennai this weekend and bringing us some Thai currency and some US currency. She is stationed in Thailand and her husband works for the US consulate. Thank god for small blessings! My ATM card is due to be changed the 19th so then we will have no access to ATMs. Lovely! I have been stockpiling cash in various hiding places for a week. So, if you have money at Washington Mutual, better move it someplace else... These folks are INCOMPETENT!

This episode has been a wee bit stressful for the big guy. Work is increasing again so I am hopeful this scenario with WAMU gets resolved real soon and that the HSBC comes through for us. I commented to a friend via email that living in a foreign is stressful because the simplest things aren’t so simple. Everything takes extra effort. When shopping, whether for groceries or clothes or gifts, you find that whatever you saw last week on the shelf is not there now and won’t be for some time, particularly if it is an imported food item. I had to wait close to a month for the soymilk we drink to be in stock. I had resorted to using apple juice and Ron was eating his cereal dry because apple juice didn’t appeal to him. We take a lot for granted in the US. Life is so abundant and so much excess lulls us into thinking we can get whatever we want, whenever we want it. Not so in a developing country. At least one fourth of the time whatever ATM I am using is out of order here. One day I am allowed to withdraw $200 from Hatton Bank and the next day I can only withdraw $100. When you have a whole series of events that are frustrating or difficult, you can get a rather sour attitude about where you are. We have had such a week here. I am not complaining so much as trying to paint a picture. Living abroad is a wonderful experience and we wouldn’t trade anything for it. But it has its moments of trial and tribulation. There are days when you just want to go home and have the easy life with a minimum of hassles. Living in a developing country is what we wanted and were thrilled to get this assignment but let me warn you, living in a developing country is not for the faint hearted!

Yesterday I met a woman at Shilpa, the children’s home where I volunteer and teach the career development classes. Her husband works with the US embassy here. I asked how long she had been here and she said three years. I thought to myself ‘oh my god, I’d never make it!’ Of course, I bet her life is just a wee bit different than mine. I saw her driver pull up in the air-conditioned car. She probably doesn’t go grocery shopping…I had a grand time getting some toiletries for the 50 girls at Shilpa. They had asked for soap, bath powder, toothbrushes and toothpaste among a few other items. I went to the two biggest stores in town because neither of them had 50 of any of these items. So I bought some toothbrushes at one store, and then went to another store to get the balance. The amazing thing is how far $100 goes. An Oral B toothbrush here costs $0.30. I think they are close to $2.00 at home. I think next time I will see if I can buy case goods to save the hassle of multiple stores.

We leave Saturday morning for Chennai (Madras) on the SE coast of India then on Sunday we head south to Pondicherry, once ruled by the French. It is supposed to be quite pretty with the architecture, etc. Ron will be working pro bono with his boss from DC who is there doing a project. We will return on Wednesday, June 14th. I will celebrate my 61st birthday on Sunday, June 11th. I am not sure how I got to be this old because in my heart I am still just 30 something but when I look at my skin and in the mirror, my mother is looking back at me. Goodness!

Colombo has cooled a bit. They say April and May are the hottest months and I would agree. But lately we have been having a light breeze that has been delightful. Don’t get me wrong it is still hot here but somehow it feels more tolerable. Well I just checked my handy weather site and discovered that it is 95 degrees today BUT the humidity has dropped to 49%! That is huge. Usually the humidity is 95% here. No wonder it feels cool.

Tricia has been cleaning the blades of the ceiling fans. This is the second time we’ve had to clean them since we’ve been in the house since last Thanksgiving. The blades are black with grime from the air. Makes you worry about the quality of air we breathe everyday. Yuk!
So much for happenings in paradise only 5 degrees north of the equator!