The End of the International Hostel

I can't remember if I ever mentioned this, but Sewalanka calls my house the "international hostel." This has been slightly problematic because 1) it causes people to treat it like a hotel rather than someone's home, and 2) I've been the only foreigner there for a while.

Well apparently the name means something because when I leave on Saturday the house will be closed. Sewalanka doesn't own the house, so I guess they figure without a full-time staff member there they don't need it anymore. They were using it to house senior female staff when they are in town (this, alone didn't actually bother me, it was the fact that no one felt I needed to know when people would be there that bothered me) and special international guests, but I guess they are going to figure something else out for that.

I guess this also means that Sewalanka is serious about no more foreigners.

Since Barbara left people have been asking me who else lives in the house and what they are going to do about it. I think a lot of people are irritated that I have this huge house to myself. Heck, I don't want to live in this huge house by myself, but there are no other foreigners (Jo-Anne is VSO and they get their own housing).

I didn't have an answer for the house question before, but today as I left the security guard asked if I was leaving for America this month. I said, "yes, this week in fact," (it is just easier to say I'm going home then to try and explain four months of travel). Then he started to cry and explained that they are closing the house and he is out of a job.

I'm not sure what to do about this information. I can tell that the situation with the security guards is going to be a bit uncomfortable for the next few days. I don't really know what he wants me to do. I'm not going to stay to keep him in a job.

And I really don't understand the problem. He is not directly hired by Sewalanka, he works for a service. Can't this service find him a new place? I mean I'm sure that might take some time, but it doesn't seem like he'll be out of work forever. Isn't that sort of the point of working for a service -- they find you a position?

So that was my morning. Now I can appreciate the fact that Sewalanka is paying me for the pots I bought because they won't actually need them. I wonder what they will do with all the stuff in the house. I wonder if they will let Jo-Anne have the washing machine? Hmm.