The Honeymoon is Over!

Reality slowly sets in for me as I begin my second year in Srilanka.

Immigration rules and exploitative business owners have soured my romance with this country.




Starting with the news from the immigration that I will have to pay forty thousand rupees every year to live and work here. I am reminded that I am a legal alien…and I ask myself why I choose to live in Srilanka despite the increasing disadvantages.


I seem to forget that i am a foreigner here until i am charged double what locals pay, (e.g for my Child Psychology Diploma) then i become very upset by what i consider an unfair treatment.
There doesnt seem to be any advantages of being a foreigner, except the annoying call of trishaw drivers "Taxi Madam"... they call out at me as i scurry to the nearest bus halt.
I have since stopped using Trishaws or three-wheelers as they are called here, as the cumilative monthly cost is almost the same as my rent. I wonder why they cant have meters like taxis?



I used to think that once you where granted a Residence Visa you could live and work like a local. How completely wrong i was.
Sometimes i miss the lack of restrictions one gets living in one's own Country. Lots of topics i was researching and hoping to write about in Nigeria has been put aside. This i must admit is the only true loss i have experienced by leaving Nigeria.





Considering how green, clean and beautiful Abuja is… Colombo is Hell! The garbage in the streets, the flowing sickening gutters that line the narrow walkways continues to repel me.



I have often asked myself why am i here?, Why have i opted to live here?



The obvious answer is my children's education!

My boys are thriving here, they are happy and balanced. yet sometimes i wonder....


In some ways my life was better in Nigeria, while in other ways it was terrible.

Basically i had a job i loved and lived in a beautiful place, yet i was greatly dissatisfied with life.



I have exchanged one life for another, one set of worries for another.

i have gone from having everything done for me by house girls and gardeners, and going in AC driven cars to going in public buses and washing the maggots out my trashcan.