Gem City During Flood

In Ratnapura it rains every day, that is the first all-truth, and the first Sinhalese sentence I learned. We are in the rainforest zone, in the middle of the mountains, occupying the center of the island. The city itself was built in and around a wide valley where thousands of small streams and rivers meet carrying gems with them. Sri Lanka is a gem–giant, with Ratnapura and its surroundings giving 90 percent of the gems. Ratnapura literally means “Gem City.”

However, the large amount of rainfall means a flood every year, in some years twice, as every house around has its “own” little river. Not long ago, there were rice fields on the lands, but the population, and the village with it, has now grown.

To my great surprise, not only have they learned to cope with the situation, they even managed to see the best in it. Towards the end of April, which is the beginning of the Sri Lankan New Year, everybody starts telling me the news, smiling ear to ear, “the flood is coming!”

Ayanthi is shaking her head in the evening, we might not have a full night’s sleep tonight; the water is coming. At half past twelve we get up, and the family moves upstairs. The bigger boys, led by their father, bring up the bigger pieces such as the fridge, the big cupboard, and the washing machine. The youngest boy, the mother and myself are left with the scraps. Nobody is grumpy or mean, all the big pieces of furniture avoid any damage when setting them down. By three a.m. the first floor is bare, only walls are standing tall, waiting for the attack, which comes shortly after. By the next morning, they are chest–deep in water. When it recedes, they will wash the walls. The more fortunate families will even repaint them, and so the big year–cleaning will be done.

The boats, or rather homemade catamarans, turn up, and the men set out to discover the situation over the paddy fields. There are six or seven of them in a tiny boat. Everybody wants to see friends along the way and ask whether they need any help. If so, why not also have a glass of Arak or two to celebrate the fortunate meet?!

Children run from one edge of the water to the other in joyous excitement, waiting to be allowed to get into the next boat. Even women don’t mind this state of emergency. Although it usually means even more work for them, but there will also be more gossip, more things to talk about for the coming days, and that is much appreciated.
These situations also bring big fish into our little river, so the youth get ready for fishing. They say the best is at night, and I don’t doubt it, but secretly think it is simply more exciting for them.

Our sons, the now 22 year old Lakshitha and his brother, Nadee, 16, and Janith, 8, go under the lead of Chuthy Mama (little uncle), and after a few hours come home wet and shivering with chills, but proudly showing off their prey.
The general party atmosphere goes on for two weeks, then even they start to have enough of the ceaseless rain. I am getting more and more worried, too. Will I see my stones again? Even last year I was able to see the big iron chest with all the stones in it. Isanka had pulled it out from under his bed where it was kept. They promised to take it over here weeks ago, but their house is under water as well. What could take so long?
Then one evening the news comes; we can fetch it. All the stones are in it, sorted and packed as we had put them away so many years before. All the sapphires, topazes, and moonstones stowed away separately, in a neat order.
As it turned out, the water had taken the chest, but Isanka’s father rescued it and cleaned all my stones of the mud, one by one. How else could they return them to me if not in the same condition as I left them?
That is what good neighborliness looks like here. This way even floods can be welcomed.