The Gypsies of Sri Lanka: Part 3

Returning the next day around lunchtime, we found just Kumar, his friend and a couple of children in the village. The others had all gone out of the village to work or run errands. Therefore, we decided to ask Kumar to show us what he would usually do on a "work day". Unfortunately, some things got lost in translation and he ended up taking us for a ride in his tuk-tuk around the city centre of Galle. 

After arriving in the centre of Galle, he said he wasn't going to sell incense today. We didn't think there would be much point anyway as there were hardly any tourists in the area due to the economic crisis that was occurring at the time in Sri Lanka. It was decided that we would buy them lunch and eat together back at their village, gypsy style.

Kumar in his tuk-tuk

Kumar suggested a good local restaurant that sold cheap curry and rice to take out. We paid 300 Sri Lankan rupees per packet of food which at the time was about 1 dollar. On the way back to the village the tuk-tuk was about to run out of fuel so Kumar ran into a corner store to buy just 1 litre of fuel in an old, plastic drinks bottle. After filling up the emergency tank, we were on our way again.

After arriving back in the gypsy village once again, we arose from the tuk-tuk to see some other village members in the area. Kumar hinted that we shouldn't speak with those particular gypsies because they posed a danger. However, it was hard to tell if he was saying this because they were genuinely dangerous or if he just didn't want us interacting them for some political reason. In any case, we were happy to have lunch with just Kumar, his friend and his four children. Kumar found some kind of tarpaulin sheet and laid it out on the floor for us to sit on. Sitting on the floor, surrounded by various pieces of disposed plastic, we tucked into our packets of rice and meat with our hands. We didn't converse much whilst eating because we were all actually quite hungry at this point. We were left with sticky hands after our meal, but they had a portable handwashing system that consisted of a jerry can full of sea water and a smaller bucket to catch the water. Not the most sophisticated system, but it did the job in getting the food off our hands.

Kumar's friend sat down for lunch

After everyone was full of rice and sugar from the Coca Cola, we started to talk to them about their lives. They asked us about getting a UK visa and if it was possible to get them one. They asked if I had any girlfriends willing to marry them in order for them to get a visa. They asked if we could even help get them a visa. Although, in our eyes, they were way above what we would class as being in severe poverty, they were looking for a way out of their daily lives for sure.

They all had decent smart phones which had SIM cards with internet, Kumar had a tuk-tuk which at the time was not something cheap to own, the children had fresh haircuts and everyone's clothes were in a good condition. We knew that they were not totally impoverished because they had these material things. A part of us does believe that they were exaggerating how bad their situation really was, especially as we were befriending them as two western tourists. But there was no doubt that they were on the lower end of society here, and if they had a choice, they would rather stay in a house with a solid roof and electricity. 

One of the homes where the gypsies lived

The conversations eventually kept coming back in circles to the topic of not having any money in order to do anything. Any answers to the questions about their future hinged on if they could get enough money to reach their goals. Any questions about the past were answered with stories of their upbringing without money. Any answers to the questions about the present were based on how there is no money due to the economic crisis. At the end of every sentence they said in Tamil "nothing to do", and we believed it too. 

We exchanged numbers with Kumar so we could keep in contact. Perhaps one day we will go back and visit him in Sri Lanka. They gave us a warm goodbye as we walked out of the village and across the bridge that runs over their river. 

The experience in the village has still left us sobered to this day, and we are a little bit more grateful for things in our home in the UK. But more importantly, we learned a lot about recording in these types of conditions and after analysing the footage, we have some conclusions about what to do and what not to do whilst recording in a different language, in a foreign village during a tropical storm. 

Firstly, it is best if you bring some kind of weatherproof camera protection. Luckily we had a few umbrellas onsite, but this was not anywhere near sufficient enough to stop the rain from interfering with filming. The camera was shaking, even if we had a stabiliser I'm sure the camera would have been shaking from trying to steady the umbrella at the same time. There are some shoulder rigs with weatherproof covers that exist and this would have been a better option for this situation.

The umbrella effected the audio as the patter from rain on the material echoed into the mics. Although we did edit this out later, it can still be heard in the background but it makes for good ambience, fortunately. In hindsight, maybe a shotgun mic would have been better. Especially as we had a lot of other villagers talking out of the interviews and we would have liked to include what they said in the footage. It wasn't calm and prepared enough for lavalier mics.

We would like to do a follow up documentary with Kumar and his clan one day, once the economic crisis in Sri Lanka has calmed down. The experience was definitely one to remember and we hope that you enjoy watching our documentary on our YouTube channel Otra Nota Media UK. If you do want to see a follow up documentary, let us know on https://www.patreon.com/otranotamediauk.