I am hearing Thushan utter this sentence occasionally since I had arrived here.
You would think this guy is past the struggeling. His name is probably the most mentioned name in Sri Lanka travel guide books. In the sea turtle world it is known by everyone anyway. His Turtle Conservation Project turned turtle egg poachers into tourist guides, gave whole villages alternative livelihoods and was the driving force behind the establishment of the Rakawa sanctuary (a protected area, similar to a national park). He won one award after the other and during peak times, the project employed 108 people.
So isn’t it time to lean back and watch the fruits of your work grow?
That turns out to be exactely the problem. Apart from the fact that guys like Thushan have troubles to keep their feet still, there doesn’t seem to be anybody suitable to take his place (or at least some of it). Somebody who combines the general love for nature and the enthusiasm for fieldwork with a profound scientific groundwork and interest in high quality research. Somebody who is able to see nature AND the people and is willing to go the extremly energy-sapping path of compromising between the two.
And there is still so much to do!
Meanwhile Thushans wife is a highly appreciated pulmonologist. She is working in a hospital. Several hospitals that is to say. Not every hospital in Sri Lanka has a chest-department. And not every chest-department has a pulmonologist. So she is obliged to work in all of them for a certain period of time (usually one year). Even if this hospital is at the other end of the island, hours away from her home and family.
In the end, she is the one who makes sure of a reliable income for the family. Because as successful and recognized Thushans work may be, it always relies on another approved proposal for funds or other external donations.
Sometimes you can see how tired the both of them are. Or how things of the day are still buzzing in their head when they come home in the evening. But then there are the kids. Three of them. One still a toddler and one with what would be considered special needs in Germany. And they come with all the troubles kids come with: Bad grades in school, sibling rivalry, effervescing emotions, the demand to explore and try out while still being so vulnerable and in need of protection. And a sheer endless thirst for activity in a world that puts more and more limits to their free moving space.
After a day of work it is impossible to meet their needs for affection, attention and testing their limits without neglecting your own. Â
At least there is a grandma to look after them and the house during the day. But grandmas don’t grow younger with time, do they? …
And so they struggle. To get it kind of done, to keep some kind of balance.
What to tell Thushan? To let go of the work of his lifetime? To ask his wife to give up her job, in a country where gender equality still is a foreign concept to many? To send the kids to a boarding school for a while, to find a moment to breath and recover?
To hang in there, everything will be fine?
Well, it won’t.
Life is a struggle.
P.S. I was writing this entry, when the news of the bomb attacks arrived. The first notion was, not to put it up as this wasn’t fitting. But when you think about it, it fits quite well, doesn’t it?
Traveltimes 