The two week vacation with Lou and Ike is up – they’re to fly back to the Maldives today. Off to the airport we go!
But first, remember that second pair of capri pants? The ones I was to sew for Lou for her birthday present? Yeah, those ones. 😀 Got ’em done and they look great on her. Okay, I’m biased, I admit it. But still, they look really really good and I’m happy with how they turned out. Yay!
Anyway, on to the airport.
We get there, we drop them off, and then after they head through the security doors that we can’t go through, we leave.
As the van turns the corner to exit the airport, an army guy – guys with guns, ya know – stops the van and talks to the driver in Sinhalese. A conversation goes back and forth for a minute or so, and finally, we’re on our way.
I have no idea what was happening until Fahim translates for me.
The army guy asked where we were headed. The driver says Colombo (remember, we’re an hour north of Colombo, just south of Negombo, at the airport, so there’s no point in being too specific). The army guy then says that the van has to give some army guys a ride to Colombo. The drivers says he can’t, he’s got tourists (he makes a motion towards me, the pinkie). The army guy finally lets us go.
See, they want free transportation. Nope, they wouldn’t pay the van, nope, they don’t care if it would inconvenience us or not, and yep, we’d likely have to drop them off before being dropped off ourselves. If the driver doesn’t comply, then the driver is harassed after that by the army guys and the police (who also apparently do this), so they’re essentially being blackmailed into providing free transportation.
Nice.
