Peace Corps programs in Sri Lanka have been active, on and off, since 1962. Vijay, who features in the second selection, is a native of Sri Lanka, a member of the minority Tamil population, and a close friend of the author's. The minority Tamils use the greeting wanacome.) " ( Ayubowan is the greeting used by the majority Sinhalese population. 'It means that the god in me is greeting the god in you,'. Toner writes that when he encountered his father at the airport, "Before I knew what to do, before I knew if I should shake his hand or embrace him or hoist him onto my shoulders, I pressed my palms together beneath my chin and said, ' Ayubowan, Dad.' Cindy smoothed down his wild hair and explained that ayubowan is the Sri Lankan welcome. Greetings in Sri Lanka are an important ritual. A cease fire and efforts at an enduring peace are under way today. That long-standing struggle was exacerbated in the late 1980s by infighting among the Sinhalese. The Tamils were fighting for independence.
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Sri Lanka, with a current population of just under 20 million, experienced many years of conflict between the minority Hindu Tamils, of the north and east, and the majority Buddhist Sinhalese. Its exports are mostly agricultural, consisting of tea, rubber, and coconuts. Largely flat or with rolling hills, Sri Lanka has high mountains in the south-central region of the island. Sri Lanka is an island about 270 miles from north to south, and 140 miles from east to west, some 18 miles off the southeast coast of India. First under Portuguese influence in the 16th century, then under Dutch influence in the 17th century, the country became a British colony around the beginning of the 19th century. The country was subsequently named Ceylon. The name is the source for the word "serendipity," which means the accidental finding of something good. Serendib, or Serendip, is the name by which Sri Lanka was known centuries ago. Nevertheless, he adjusts to cultural mores remarkably different from his own during the course of his monthlong visit. The curmudgeonly, elderly judge from Cleveland, Ohio, had never been out of the country and appeared ill-prepared to visit the rural parts of a land where he would be besieged by flies and all sorts of imagined crawling dangers, as well as no electricity or running water, no plumbing, and the ravages of a civil war. Toner's book is an engaging story of how a largely estranged father and son came to understand, accept, and respect each other under the most unlikely of circumstances. "Help! My Father Is Coming!" and "The Visit to Vijay's" are excerpted from Chapters One and Six, respectively, of Jim Toner's memoir, Serendib.
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In a captivating and amusing account, the author shows just how challenging it is for someone to move from a familiar to an unfamiliar culture and then deal with adjusting to the new environment. Lesson 1 to Help! My Father Is Coming! and The Visit to Vijay's