Like No Place I've Ever Been

SRI LANKA

It's like no place I have ever been, and it's like every Third World place I've been. The street vendors, trash, poverty, dirt, masses - could be Ghana, or Kenya, the palm trees, tropical fruit stands, mini taxis that weave perilously in and out of traffic - could be Cuba. The traffic, the traffic, the terror - recollections of China and praying for air bags and good seat belts.

And then it is totally unique. The color of the people, their haunted eyes, the bewilderment that crosses their face when they see a lone blonde, blue-eyed Caucasian in the back of a car going where?

Why is she here?

"... struggling to find words for a reality that eludes the nouns and verbs of 'my' vocabulary.."