Ayubowan - Around Sri Lanka with Isuri #3

And we're back after some traveling and catching up of the island. I'll take off where I stopped, and what today's blog post is about is:

"The importance and significance of Tea in Sri Lanka"

A little history lesson before I go on to tell you what I learnt, is that, Sri Lanka was under the British, Dutch and Portugal Colony back when we were referred to as Ceylon. Our import roots start from way back then. Our biggest import trades were tea and spices: cinnamon etc. Tea has and is one of the biggest prides to any Sri Lankan. We'd have ginger tea, or a milk tea or a good plain tea either at home in the evenings, at offices for tea, or from one of the little shops along side the roads.

One of the biggest world renown tea brands come from Sri Lanka, and that is Dilmah. Dilmah is found in almost any country you go to. "Dilmah is not just another brand of tea." Ranging from normal black tea flavors to anything you imagine, Dilmah along with many other fantastic brands of tea will produce and import. Come to me and tell me that you like your Lipton tea and can't live without it, and I'll give you a pack of some solid Lankan tea for your taste buds to compare. Us Sri Lankans take the production of tea very seriously and personally; Where every single cup of tea you'll drink is made of love and culture, from the origin of the leaves, to the beverage you drink.

However, the point I'm trying to make here is the fact that we take our cup of tea for granted. Most if not all of the tea estates are located in the central part of Sri Lanka where there are the hills and the climate is nice and cold. (Yeah, it's actually cold. Surprising huh? Despite the 24/7*365 heat.) Most Sri Lankans visit the hills during the April season as tradition with their families. Myself and my family included, we've travelled past these tea estates a numerous amount of times, but we take for granted how the tea leaves we consume, get to the supermarkets that we purchase them from.

This summer, I visited a tea plantation along with my best friend Mayumi and her sister Miyuko, and we were shown how one plucks tea leaves, and we were able to experience a very tiny glimpse of what it's like to be a tea plucker. The less sophisticated part about your china cup of tea, is the fact that the women who pluck the leaves, drop their kids off to a less equipped and low maintenance day care at 7.30am and get to work in the estates by 8am. The women who run the daycare are of the same community too and try their very best to provide for the children, a fraction of an education. There are approximately 20-35 families living in one estate, where each one of these families work for and dedicate their lives to the companies/people who own the estate. That's poverty for you. That's what makes your cup of tea.

Before I proceed to introduce you to the reality of the job, let me tell you the challenges we faced.

• We couldn't stay out in the sun on the job for more than 15-20 minutes. 
• The tea bags are worn around your heads and are insanely heavy to keep up with. 
• It was hard to wear a saree and move through the trees. 
• It was insanely difficult to figure out which tea leaves qualified for plucking. (No not everything you see is good to be plucked. That's a whole other story.) It was hard to have made at least a handful of a collection, let alone 20kg.

These women, then work tirelessly under the sun till about 1.00pm, after which they take a lunch break and get back to work till 4.30pm. However these times may change, as each tea plucker is assigned an area of land and are required to make a daily collection of a minimum of 20kg of tea leaves, for which they get paid 600/= a day. ($4.50 daily wage, in comparison to your minimum $8.75 hourly wage for us New Yorkers.)

Companies like Dilmah help to take forward the name of our country into the lifestyles of those all around the world. With something as small as tea, yet such a large industry in Sri Lanka, you can get to know what our culture is like.

I'd love to write another blog post making some good jokes and talking about the nice cultural and tropical views of the island, but I think it's time you and I both appreciate what we take for granted. I'm not ashamed to say that we have poverty amongst us, but I'm voicing it out so that something can be done to at least provide for the children a proper education. Yes, I'm privileged, and I'm thankful for it. So are you. You're reading this now because of your privilege. Next time you sip on your cup of tea, think about it. Think about all the hard work that goes into that little cup.