Monday 20th June 2022

I was expecting to go into the Tea Leaf Vision School in Nanuoya today, but all Tea Leaf Vision Schools were closed, so Yad was happy for me to go to GROW to help Donald and Ladushan. I had almost got to GROW - passing a 1km long queue of cars waiting for petrol - when a voice called out to me from one of the cars, and it was Yad's brother, Jayaruben, who was parked almost opposite GROW.

I invited Jayruben to join me for a cup of tea at GROW, as the petrol queue was going nowhere fast - people have been queuing for days now for petrol! He had a short break at GROW, but then went back to his car - just in case the queue moved! He works for a pharmaceutical company, and travels across a wide area, so petrol is essential, although the drugs shortage is equally as disastrous as the petrol one.

It was lovely to be at GROW, as I actually taught a whole one-hour lesson on interview techniques, to a class of 16 Tamil students. although I was so busy teaching that I didn't get round to taking any photographs! When I headed back to Blackpool, I passed Jayaruben on the way, and he was still in the same place in the queue as he was more than 3 hours earlier on when he called out to me!

The problem is that people obviously need petrol, so they queue up for it, with no advanced warning from the government about when it might arrive at the petrol stations. When it does come, there seems to be no rationing of it, so the first vehicles in the queue fill their tanks up, and the petrol runs out way before the queue does, with those cars remaining having to wait for the next delivery of petrol.

If you think all this sounds very depressing, then you are not mistaken - many people have now been queuing up for more than a week for petrol and tensions are rising. I have included a couple of photographs of the queues, but it is hard to capture the desperation of it! The other two pictures are of the evening mist descending at Yad's house, which I am quite enjoying.








Comments

  1. CharlesJune 21, 2022 at 1:53 AM

    Given the news of violent protests and unrest at petrol stations in parts of the island, it is surprising the government or local authorities havn't imposed limits on the amount of fuel each car owner can purchase. Would you say the tensions in the Nuwara Elya petrol queues are currently not going to spill over into unrest? (Of course, it only takes one spark to set off a wildfire)
    On a softer note, it says a lot for your networking skills that you keep on bumping into people you are acquainted with!

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