shift

Greetings family, friends, and curious strangers!

Let me preface this entry by informing you that the "SHIFT" key on the keyboard from which I am typing is malfunctioning. As a result, capitalizing anything requires significant effort and a fair amount of luck to get the button to hit just right and capitalize my letters. Indeed a rather frustrating predicament for my debut in the blogging community. So, if it is alright with you, I will cease to capitalize from this point forward (unless it is really important and worth the effort). i promise that my commitment to grammar will return as soon as i am able to write from a fully functioning keyboard.

this unfortunate circumstance does however allow me a convenient (though slightly cheesy) segue into this post. "shift" is appropriate to describe the next day, week, months of my life as i enter into something completely "other." today, in approximately 8.5 hours, i will be boarding a plane in toronto that will inaugurate my journey of shifts as i leave canada to travel halfway around the world to live in sri lanka for 3(minimum) to 6(maximum) months. there are certain things that i am expecting to experience, but i am aware that there is little that will prepare me for much of what i will live/learn/be exposed to while i am there.

some "shifts" i am expecting:

-from -4o degree celsius canadian winters to +25 sri lankan winters (with an average relative humidity of 70%!)
-from english to sinhala. sinhala is the language spoken by the majority singhalese population. tamil is spoken by the minority tamil population. both are official languages of the country.
-from living as a member of the majority population, to occupying the minority foreigner role
-from driving on the right side of the road to the left
-from the vast open, unpopulated countryside of southern alberta (canada has a population density of 3.2 people/square km) to densely populated little sri lanka (298 people/square km)
-from momma's good 'ole "meat 'n potatoes" dutch style cooking to spicy, spicy curry. i have heard that sri lankan curry is one of the spiciest curries around. apparently it isn't uncommon to eat curry for breakfast either! i am hoping that this radical shift in input doesn't result in too radical a shift in output... ...
-from coffee breaks to tea time (sri lanka is one of the world's largest exporters of tea)
-from a "christian" nation to a buddhist nation. in sri lanka: buddhists - 70%; hindus - 15%; muslims - 9%; christians - 6%
-from a place where i can freely worship God and attend a church, to a country where christians are seen as suspect. though outright persecution of christians is minimal, the buddhist government is worried that other religions are encouraging young buddhists to abandon buddhism. christianity is seen as the main threat.
-from a peaceful country to a country who is just starting to recover from a three decades war that ended (by media and government reports) in may of this year.

i am excited about shifts. i am excited about the opportunity to be confronted each day with a way of life that is radically different from my own. i hope that my own worldview is refined and challenged when held up against the fabric of a completely different way of life and thinking. hopefully this blog will be able to relay some of the changes in my thinking and being. more than just regurgitating my weekly events, i hope to give anyone who ventures upon this blog something to think about. i undoubtedly will be doing a fair share of thinking myself as i undergo a shift in my life which is sure to leave its mark long after my adventure in sri lanka comes to a close.

p.s.
i hope to post at least once a week at least so be sure to check back! and, since this is the primary communication i will have with most people back home, PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS!

p.p.s. i promise i will use proper capitalization next time