Or so says Lonely Planet.

Apparently 74% of the population here on the island is Sinhalese, while the Tamils constitute about 18% of the population. Each group has their own language, but apparently everyone uses English to talk to each other. That, however, is a bit optimistic. Yesterday we sent time running around Colombo running errands. Interviewees didn’t show up, computer equipment was a challenge to locate, and through it all trying to talk to people was tricky.

No one who has spent any time abroad will be surprised, but it was the people at McDonald’s who were the easiest to talk with. We were supposed to meet a programmer there for an interview. It seemed the most obviously American place that we could produce on the fly. Without much surprise, he didn’t show. A text “Sorry, I’ll be late. Can you email me the details instead?”

This from the programmer who was supposed to show up a week earlier, never called, but apparently was in the hospital. We later found out that his father shares the same name, and it was him who was incapacitated.

So, we called people tonight to set up interviews. Talking on the phone is impossible, and reading resumes is more of an artistic experience. You know that objective portion that is on every Microsoft Word resume template? The one that we hate to fill out in fear of being so ego-maniacal? Well, throw 3rd world and bad English in there and you get something like this:

“Becoming a professional with multi disciplinary specialization and contributing through knowledge to create humanitarian society by setting examples in leadership, interpersonal relationships and good conduct.”

Say what?

(By the way, on the stats portion this applicant was quick to include “Skin Tone: Fair.”)