Desperate Times...

Our smoke house was burgled three weeks ago! I belive it is more of a sabotage activity.

Few days before the incident, two drunken villagers who worked in our garden had told the Builder that I had not paid them well. The truth is that I had paid more than what they deserve, but the cunning villagers wanted more and more with no or less work. There were nearly 60 rubber sheets in the smoke house, only 19 sheets were stolen. They have broken the door and taken the sheets away.

If it was a thief, he would have taken the whole lot away. That is why I think that it is a mear act of sabotage, just to teach me a lesson. I was very disappointed. By that time, I didn't earn a single cent from the Estate. It was raining heavily during the months of March and April. Most villagers didn't have any work duirng that time. They had their food because of the money they got by working for me.

We need to look after what we have. We stock piled our rubber in Builder's house after this incident. I hate to depend on others, but I am helpless. But when we tap the whole garden, the area over the hearth of their kitchen will not be adequate. How I wish that my husband is with me, just to take care of the garden and its yeild! The workers who are constructing the house, wonder around unproductively. They don't want to complet the house soon, because it will dry out their income source.  I have none to supervise the work during the weekdays.

We don't have a place to live, I am so desparate to complete our house. The house we rented has a leaky roof, bat, rat and ant infested smelly bedroom, where we sleep on the bare floor. The roof over the kitchen and bathroom is very much decayed, don't know what time it falls on our heads. Last week we didn't have water too. I hate to spend nights there. In this circumstance, I think we need to give up the idea of building a spacious house, because of the labour problem and expenses we have to bear constantly. Against all these odds, I like our Estate very much. It sooths my dying sole...

Misconceptions about Rubber Harvesting

Harvesting rubber is a tricky business. You can never do realistic estimates going by average daily yeild by acre (0.40 hectare). That is one mistake we did when we bought the land. There are so many factors affecting on the daily yeild; the age of the plantation, size of the tree trunks, fertility of land, way of tapping and period of tapping. We had no idea that rubber trees need to be tapped continuously to train the trees to produce more latex.

During the period of the land transaction, our plantation was not tapped over nearly three months. When we started tapping in early last May, it was a nightmare. The trees refused to produced latex. It took nearly 10 days of tapping to bring the plantation to a level of decent yield. At the end of May and the first week of June 2011, we had monsoon rains. When we restarted tapping after 14 days, we had to start the production from square one; the yield followed the similar pattern. But this time come back period is shorter than the previous time; it was 6 days of continuous tapping.

When we tap the plantation more and more, I hope that we will be getting a decent harvest close to an average daily yield of 8 kg per acre. Conservatively we are expecting a daily yield of 5 kgs per acre. Given the size of some trees and length of the period with no fertilizing, we have to expect a modest yield from our plantation.

Our trees had been tapped so badly over last five years. The trees were damaged and neglected. The trees were not fertilized nearly 7 years. What can we expect from  such a plantation at our early stage of tapping? Isn't it give and take business? We need to take care of our plantation, before we expect something in return.

Letter from Son to Dad

My son Ewan is just six  years old. One year ago we left New Zealand because of my work commitments. We left his dad at home.  It was a terrible separation. We have never been away from each other. We miss each other terribly. The most affected is my son; the little fellow misses his dad very much. My husband plans to come next month, still days are too long and we are counting the days. 

Ewan the Bike Rider at the Age of Five (Just before we left for Sri Lanka)

Here is a scanned copy of the first letter my son wrote to his dad. You cannot convince a six year old to write the way you want. The letter starts from the bottom.  It tells you the whole story...

Ewan's First Letter to Dad

After reading the letter, the Dad was very emotional. Oh, we terribly miss him every moment.

We left New Zealand for a purpose. We both had very good jobs; me working in the University of Auckland and him working as a Network Engineer. We have a house in South Auckland. But we were frustrated. I have been away from my parents for 10 years, that was too long and I was too emotional. We also could not save much. Without family and friends around, the life was monotonous and meaningless.

Most of all, Year 2009 was a turning point for us. My husband went through three heart surgeries. We were lonely not knowing how to cope, without the family around. I also wanted to give a chance for my husband to change his lifestyle. When the opportunity came to undertake this consultancy, I garbed it. Ewan and I left New Zealand at the very end of May 2010, precisely on 31st of May 2010. We left husband there. It was a very drastic decision on any body's standard. But I had my determination to make it. 

After one year of our departure, when we turn back, we made it the way we want, but at an emotional cost. It drained us out. When my husband joins us next month, we can conclude this unfinished emotional story with a happy end...   

Tree

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

~Joyce Kilmer, "Trees," 1914~

The Big Day

Yesterday the 9th of June 2011, we signed the deeds of the Walpolakanda Estate. The seller gave up his rights to the land in fornt of my lawyer . Two people witnessed it.

It was a big event for me. As my husband was away, I was all alone. But my husband talked to me over the phone and assured that he was with me through out the whole thing. At the end of the day, I was relieved, but I felt lonely. What a long and hard journey that I had all alone!    

Monsoon Rains of Sri Lanka

The inter-monsoonal rains lashed out with no mercy yesterday morning ending hot, humid weather prevailed during last few weeks. The heavy rain poured down like a bucket of water fell down from the sky amidst of thunders and lightening. It was same today too. I was reluctant to drop my son to the school in the heavy rain. But the rain is an integral part of the life in Sri Lanka.

Rainfall of Sri Lanka is mainly influenced by its geographical location. Sri Lanka is situated in the North Indian Ocean, just southeast of the southern tip of the Indian sub continent, lies between 6 °N and 10 °N latitude and between 80 °E and 82 °E longitude. The highlands, mostly above 300 meters, occupy the south central part of Sri Lanka with numerous peaks (Pidurutalagala -2524m, Kirigalpotte - 2396m), high plateaus and basins and are surrounded by an extensive lowland area. The central part of the island is the source of the major rivers of the country, numbering over a hundred, which flow across the lowlands into the Indian Ocean. Total area of Sri Lanka is 65610 sq km. The maximum length and width of the Island is 435 km and 225 km respectively.

Sri Lanka receives a relatively high average rainfall due to its tropical and monsoonal climate. Rainfall of the Island is highly variable seasonally and spatially creating periodic shortages of water for both agricultural and domestic use.  There are four major rainy seasons in Sri Lanka;

• North-East monsoon from December to February
• South-West monsoon from May to September
• First inter-monsoon from March to April
• Second inter-monsoon from October to November.

Out of which, South-West monsoon from May to September and North-East monsoon from December to February are the major rainy seasons that bring rains to the Island.

During the South-West monsoons, the southwestern part of Sri Lanka receives a significantly high rainfall averaging around 5080mm annually. Being situated in the western part of the country, our rubber estate: Walpolakanda is badly affected by the South-Western monsoons of this year. The rain is still continuing and the production is badly affected by rains. The southwestern monsoon in this year started a little late, on 24th of May and it is still pouring down for last two weeks. We had 15 tapping days in May, but we could only tap just two days in this month. The rain is gradually reducing and we hope the weather favours us in comming weeks.