10-31-05
Happy Halloween! We managed to get our hinnies down to the gym this weekend and work out on the treadmills both days. Ron didn’t sleep well last night so he slept in then headed off to work. I went to the gym and used the treadmill then started lifting weights. Oh my, it’s been awhile!

I spent several hours walking (slowly with an umbrella in this heat and humidity) and pricing various household items. Once we sign papers on the rental, we can store things there until we move in so I am doing ‘research’ now on what’s available and what things cost as a means to anticipate our expenditures. I will quote some prices but keep in mind some of these things are not the same quality we are used to in the states. I found a mahogany bed frame (sort of craftsman style) for $199. Keep in mind they don’t use box springs here so this baby is low to the ground. Same store, same material sleigh bed $350. A sofa with two arm chairs –these are wood frames with cushions-not upholstered-$950. Cotton sheets-the set comes with one sheet and two pillow cases $18.95 for a queen. The biggest shock is stainless steel kitchen utensils like cooking spoons or whisks. The spoons are $1.75 (I pay about $12 in the US) and a large whisk was $2.15. Stainless tea kettle was $9.45. Nice heavy weight drinking glasses were $1.35-$1.70 depending on size. A gorgeous teak table that seats six was $760. The chairs depending on style were $39-$45. I can’t believe the chair prices. Since they don’t carry small tables at the store that had teak, we won’t be getting teak.

Ron came home from work feeling crummy so headed off to bed. I had dinner using room service. My meal was vegetable biriyani with black chicken curry and tomato and onion salad, all for a whopping $4.00! The curry here is not like Indian curry. I don’t think I’ve seen a yellow curry yet. The black curry is delicious and quite spicy. I can’t wait to learn how to make it. That’s about it for the day.

This past week I’ve been traveling around the north east and north central provinces of the country meeting with 9 different Local Authorities that have been added to the program. Some of these are very small operations in rural settings. Only one of them was a city of any significant size. The purpose of the trip was to conduct a comprehensive assessment of each Local Authority and determine if they were a good candidate for our program to improve financial management and community services.

Five of us and our two drivers departed Colombo in two Jeep Wagoneers about 3:00 PM Sunday afternoon for the coastal town of Marawilla. Let me tell you, they drive differently here. Outside the city, the biggest road we found was a two lane highway. Highway is a misnomer; in some places these roads would be categorized as driveways They have no lane markings. I’d say generally they were a lane and a half wide, with about 2 feet of dirt shoulder on either side. This shoulder was not built to be a shoulder, but it’s been developed because vehicles use it in order to pass. Speed limits are generally non-existent or at least not followed…just like the traffic lights in the City. Right of way rules seem to follow the principle of “if you’re an inch ahead, you have the right of way”. Passing is a “sport” generally following the rules of all portions of the roadway and shoulder are kosher and playing chicken with on-coming traffic is just normal driving. And, size matters! As the new guy, I was offered the front seat. I thought they were being nice. Now I know why. I found the only way to keep my heart rate in check was to close my eyes or look down …… all of the time! I wanted to throw-up from anxiety! I quickly learned to move to the back seat when ever possible.

We spent the night at Mario’s Beach Resort. Calling this a resort is like calling an abandoned tenement in New York a luxury apartment. It was nicely located on the beach I took photos all along the trip, but promptly lost all of them as I tried to transfer them to the computer. The mysteries of electronics! The place looked like it was about 26 years old and never had a lick of maintenance the entire time. Not much worked. Several of us had to move rooms because something didn’t work…. The air conditioning; the hot water, the door. It was like we dropped in and they weren’t expecting us… even though we had a reservation. Nobody could figure out why this place had been selected. The room came with half board, which means breakfast and dinner are included. Don’t ask about the food or service. It matched the condition of the place. The next morning, we all decided we should check out and find a different place for our next night. We drove about 10 minutes away and found a wonderful resort called the Palm Bay Club which catered to German and Czech tourists. For the same price we paid at Mario’s we stayed in a very swank resort with a fabulous buffet table for dinner and breakfast. Once we made our reservation for that evening, we set off for our first appointment at Wariypola. Sinhala names are long and contain lots of syllables. You need to pronounce everyone of them…. But remember, h’s are silent. So th is pronounced like a t.

Our appointment was for 9:00, but for our checking out at Mario’s and finding a new place and the condition of the roads, we arrived about 10:20. Nobody was concerned about this but me. Seems things run on Sri Lankan time rather than western time.

Wariyapola is a rural service authority. This is my term because there is nothing about it that resembles a city. The service area is 195 sq Kilometers with a population of 87,000. They employ only 72 people….most of them in solid waste. That means they collect trash and search for some vacant land that they can dig a hole in and bury what they collect.

Meeting with these folks opened my eyes to the conditions local authorities must work under. Although they are called local authorities, there is nothing they have authority over. Although their responsibilities are great, they cannot spend more than 5000 rupees without approval from the province. This is equivalent to $50 USD! Sometimes this approval takes up to two years.

From Wariyapola, we traveled to Panduwasnuwara, another small rural service area serving 70,565 residents with only 82 staff. Total budget is $190,000, including salaries for all the employees. This gives you an idea of the salary scales.

After Panduwasnuwara, we went back to the Palm Bay Resort for some great food and what turned out to be the best hotel on the road. After a fantastic breakfast buffet, we headed off to Chilaw.

Chilaw is another rural service provider. It seemed to be fairly well off financially, with a large staff, new furniture and a nicely decorated office building. They service 69 sq. Km with 110 employees. They too had an annual budget of just $194,000 US dollars. Over 50% of the property taxes levied go unpaid.

We next went to Kalpitiya at the tip of a peninsula that extends into the Indian Ocean. This little community seemed VERY poor. They service 165 sq. Km and a population of 108,000 with just $180,000 US per year. Almost 2/3 of the employees are devoted to Pre School and the library, although most of these are part timers who handle the pre-school. Clean water was the biggest issue here as most of the wells have some level of salt water intrusion, being surrounded by ocean. The Provincial Public Health Officer had been educated in the US and came to our meeting. He gave us a book he’d written on HIV/Aids.

The office was so run down and dirty, I wanted to shower as quickly as possible. At least wash my hands, however no opportunity presented itself. Thank goodness for the bottle of waterless hand wash I carry in my bag.

We then drove several hours to Anuradhapura, where we stayed three nights. On the trip I asked one of the Sri Lankans to tell me how to count to ten in Sinhala. He gave me the names and by the time we got to the hotel, I had them memorized. This is an ancient city with many sacred sites. I was hopeful that we’d get some free time to visit these important sites. We arrived too late to see any of the sites. We had a quick dinner at the hotel and went to bed for an early departure the next morning.

About 7:30 we departed for Horowupathana. We arrived about 9:30 for our meeting. This is a very unusual community as the central government dissolved the Council and the operation is being run by an appointed Commissioner (like a City Manager). The reason for the dissolution? 7 of the 14 Council members were indicted for misappropriation of funds. This little berg serves 845 sq. km near the Tamil controlled sections of the Country. There are only 32,000 people in this big geography. Total budget is just $56,000 per year that supports all 13 employees.

After our meeting we had to hustle off to the next Local Authority. An hour’s drive later we arrived at Kahatagasdigilya. We arrived about 2:00 pm without having lunch. They served us a very Sri Lankan meal consisting of fried local fresh water fish, potato curry, Millet & Dhal, Chicken, Jack Fruit (this was prepared in a way that resembled stewed meat in both consistency and taste), Poppadums, salad, and beans. Bananas were for dessert. Frankly, I was a bit nervous about eating the meal. I couldn’t determine how it was made, how clean the preparation was and how clean the plates were. It seemed as though I’d make a scene if I didn’t partake. So I took a plate, some silverware and served myself a small plate with choices that looked the least likely to be problems. I was just about to start eating when I realized I and the other American were the only ones using silverware. Everyone else was eating with their hands.

We had read about this before we left, but this was my first experience with it. We actually had dinner with a Sri Lankan in Portland before we left who gave us instructions on how to do it without making a complete mess. The key is to keep mixing the rice and the curry until it is fairly dry. Then you make a good sized clump of food with your fingers, and then flip in your mouth with your thumb. It sounds harder than it is. So I wanted to try this, but in a more controlled situation when I felt better about the cleanliness. However, I vowed to be more observant next time so I wouldn’t be the ugly American by not observing local customs. My chance came the very next day.

I’ll spare you the details, but this was one of the smallest Local Authorities we visited with just 33,000 people.

We came back to Anuradhapura to the ancient sacred city. Here we saw the great Ruvanwelisiya Dagoba that had to be over 100 feet tall. It contains relics of Buddha. I got some great shots in the batch that disappeared. I’m so frustrated, but hope to return soon to get the shots again. We also visited a sacred tree which is supposed to be the oldest sapling taken from the tree under which Buddha received enlightenment. It is said the tree is over 2300 years old.

The next morning we drove to Kebitigollewa. This Local authority serves 400 sq. Km with only 18 employees and a budget of $48,000 per year. When our meeting was over, they served us lunch at the Mayor’s house. Even though he was one of the more wealthy people in the community, he had a very modest house. The outside was nicely painted. Inside it was bare concrete walls and floor. The underside of the tile roof served as the ceiling. And the space between the wall and the roof created by the roof rafters was open to the outside. He lived there with his wife and children and house servant. They served us rice, several kinds of curry and dhal, poppadums, and bananas for dessert. Here I tried eating with my hand. I had to remember not to eat with my left hand, as it is considered unclean. Well the lessons in Portland worked. I think people were impressed with how I did….. nary a drop on the floor and I managed to keep from getting food all over my face and limited to a few finger tips. I expected that I’ve have food dripping from my elbow.

After lunch we all departed for a meeting with the Municipal Council of Anuradhapura, the City containing all of the ancient ruins. This was the largest Local Authority we visited and served. The geography is only 36 sq. Km but they have 128,000 people. The organization is much more like a US city with a City Manager (called a Commissioner) and over 500 employees. The organization was the most professionally run. They even had regular financial statements, program budgets, and expenditure tracking. Made me feel like home.

That evening, we met with 8 representatives from the local media and NGOs. It was a way of getting a different perspective on what we saw on the trip. As a group, they were pretty jaundiced about local government. The entire government structure is clouded by politics. Historically, the country swings back and forth each election between the two big parties. The national elections are not held at the same time as local elections and Local Authorities tend to be ruled by the party that is not the party controlling the national Parliament. Members of Parliament do not want leaders of the Local Authority to become too successful as they will then become rivals for the coveted MP seat. In fact some of the policies intentionally cripple Local Authorities just so they won’t become rivals. All in all, it was a fascinating evening.

The next morning we visited our last Local Authority of Nuweragampalatha. This was another small organization service 1193 sq. km and 78,000 people. However they only had a 22 employees and a $48,000 budget. I was trying to encourage our group to make a quick get away as we had a 5 hour drive back to Colombo. Just as we were ready to leave, in came lunch. So we enjoyed a quick lunch of rice and curry with a chicken drumstick. Again, it was eaten with the hand. We made our get away in about 30 minutes.

Our driver, Suneel, estimated only 4 hours to get to Colombo. It was clearly a 5 hour drive by all sane estimates, but you know what? We drove up to the hotel within 5 minutes of his estimate. I won’t tell you about “Mr. Toad’s wild ride” through the rural areas of Sri Lanka.

I was glad to be home and out of the car.

10-29-05

YIPEEEEEE! We found our house today. Actually, I saw it yesterday and arranged to see it again today with Ron since he wasn’t due in until 5:00 yesterday. It is so great. It is brand new, and adjoins the owner’s house which is very common here. Veena is probably about 40 ish and is a Muslim, according to our realtor. She has had a direct hand decorating the place and has done an excellent job. The house is on a quiet lane. Since the street is poorly maintained, no one will be using it as a short cut to another street. You have to drive very slowly on our street.

The house has three floors. The first floor has a very tiny servant’s quarters (small sleeping room with sink and separate room with toilet and shower). This is standard in all houses here. In addition, there is a large living area with room for dining, an area called a pantry which is like a serving area for food with cabinetry and a sink. The actual cooking space is across the hall. Most places that come unfurnished have no refrigerator and no stove. Both will be provided here. The kitchen has some attractive tile work behind the counters. Again there are lots of cabinets and another sink.

There is also a guest bedroom and a bathroom with beautiful tile work. The foyer has an atrium with lovely plants thriving in the light well that goes clear to the third floor. Veena created a focal point by creating a wall collage using left over bits of tile that had been part of the construction materials.

Entering the second floor is another pantry-serving area if you wanted tea or coffee or other drinks. The large master suite with bath is on one side of the house with a small balcony and there are two bedrooms and a bath on the other side. The pantry area separates the two sleeping areas. Going to the third floor there is another bedroom, a laundry room and another bathroom. But the greatest thing on the third floor is the roof top garden, a grass floor with planters filled with lovely blooming plants, many of which I’ve never seen. Incredible. To your left is Veena’s roof top, in front of you is a view of Colombo. There’s a spiral staircase for the gardener to service the area. So far, Veena has been the gardener.

Each bathroom has beautiful tile, each one different. All the bathrooms have showers and there are no bathtubs. If you know me well, you will know that this is a big sacrifice for me as I like to relax in the tub nightly before going to bed. But heck, last year I gave up butter so I figured this year it would be tub baths. Given the other five houses I looked oat, this is the best option. Many of the bathrooms were scary given either the conditionor the choice of tile. Some of the tile was almost day-glo. Yikes!

The other really cool thing Veena has done is paint the two solar water tanks that sit on top of the house. They are black with great mask like faces on them. When we move it, we’ll include photos. All the floors are a light gray/taupe tile. I couldn’t keep up with which rooms would be air conditioned but I think most of the bedrooms will be. Overhead fans are essential in this climate and very effective. I forgot to check and see how many rooms had fans. The house is brand new and construction should be finished within two weeks. Keep your fingers crossed as I am getting tired of restaurant food.

We had to do a bit of negotiating as her rent was higher than our allowance from ICMA. She seemed eager to have us and came down on the rent. In Sri Lanka landlords ask for a year’s rent in advance. I’m not sure how people do that but we told her ICMA would pay her three months, then the balance. She agreed to those terms also. I was thrilled to get this house and am very eager to get everything settled. After a contract is drawn up, we have to send it to D.C. to get approval. After it is signed, Veena said we could store stuff at the house while construction is wrapping up. Keep in mind we brought nothing in the way of furnishings with us so I get to do a lot of shopping once the contract is signed.

We spent the afternoon going to various stores to get a feel for what is available and the costs. Some things surprised us in terms of cost. But we are looking at antique shops and interiors shops. I am excited about what is available. We popped into Odels which is a great department store here. I had visited it earlier in the week but Ron had never been. Before we got out of there he bought 2 leather belts, three short sleeve cotton shirts and one polo shirt. His bill was a whopping $45.00!

Tomorrow we are going to check out the want ads for furniture and grab our favorite three wheel driver and go searching for used furniture. Don’t know if some of those ads are ex pats who are returning from whence they came.


It’s Sunday and the used furniture idea was a bust. We went to several furniture stores and saw some really ugly, cheap furniture and some not so bad. More research, but we have time.

10-27-05

I saw another house at noon today. It had one bedroom downstairs plus ‘servant’s quarters’ and four upstairs. It was completely unfurnished (no stove or refrigerator) but it also was in need of lots of updating. To start with all the bathrooms needed to be ripped out and redone. It rented for $500 and is in the Cinnamon Gardens area which is considered to be the best residential neighborhood in Colombo. From the little I have seen we will be paying around $1,000 a month to get the kind of place we want.

I am supposed to see another one this afternoon through a contact in the newspaper. Then Anton has me lined up to meet with a broker tomorrow around 9:30. Onward.....

Today I ate at the food court in the small (newest) mall next door. I decided to eat at the Sri Lankan ‘café’. Rice and curry is the ‘national’ dish. I‘ve had it in some of the restaurants but today I had it as Sri Lankans have it. Oh my, we are talking chilies! Holy moley, Ron Bergman, aka Dragon Mouth, would love it. I, on the other hand, felt like my mouth was on fire! The dish came with three vegetables along with the rice and meat curry. With the bottled water my bill was $3.80! Such a deal.

This afternoon I saw two more houses, both were furnished. One rents for $1200 and one for $1500 a month. The first one had black granite, marble, terrazzo(???) floors on the first floor. Very sleek but not very Bergman. The furniture was actually quite attractive but not very Bergman. The second one had very seedy furniture and as I was leaving a woman walked up to the tuk-tuk and held her hand out for money. I can’t imagine leaving my house each day and having someone begging for money.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with another broker. I think I’ll give up on furnished places.

I have mentioned that our hotel is undergoing a major renovation but I forgot to mention they are painting the outside-with rollers! This is a 600 room hotel folks.

Tonight I dined outside with nine turtles and hundreds of koi. One of the six restaurants at the hotel is an outdoor dinner house that is located on the deck that surrounds some of the fish ponds here. So you sit right on the edge of the pond. So as I was eating nine turtles were swimming around me. The smallest koi I saw was about ½ an inch and the largest was about a foot in length. I don’t really know pond fish but am assuming they are koi. It was better than dining alone!

10-25-05

Reading the English edition of the local paper is not unlike reading the National Enquirer at home. Here are some example headlines of articles:

Local man fined 20,000 Rs for killing an iguana for food

Pregnancy confirmed after deliver-that’s right, a mother of one child told the doctor she wasn’t pregnant then gave birth. I am always mystified when I read these things.

When the current president retires she wishes to work on environmental issues because Ministers and Deputy Ministers indulged in environmental degradation by denuding the forests. Several politicians were illegally cutting down trees.

Chief jailor remanded for taking bribe from pedophile prisoner.

Who needs television with this kind of entertainment?

Someone asked about the weather here. The lowest temperature in the night is around 76 degrees. However, humidity ranges from the high 70’s to the high 90’s making it feel warmer than it is, in the same way a wind makes it feel cooler than it actually is. So today the current temperature at 4:00 p.m. is 84 but with 79% humidity it feels like 94! It’s what we call hot, damn hot. The weather.com site is my source of facts and figures.

Our hotel is located near a mosque so I can hear the call to prayer throughout the day. It is quite lovely and I will miss it when we move. Who knows, we may be located near a mosque when we move.

10-26-05
Somehow the day got away from me. Not sure how that happened since I spent most of the day in my room waiting for a call from Anton who is to hook me up with real estate brokers. Turns out he was out of town and they forgot to tell me that when I left a message in the morning.

This morning was actually cool. I don’t know what the temperature was but I could actually walk along Galle Face Green next to the ocean at a rapid clip which I have avoided until today due to the heat. It lasted about 30 minutes then the cloud cover lifted and it got hot again. I loved all 30 minutes of the cool weather.

Galle Face Green was built in 1863 (if I remember correctly) for the ‘benefit of the ladies and children of Colombo’ by a British governor. It is a wide promenade along the Indian Ocean and a wonderful place to walk. Many young couples can be seen there in the morning (I usually go around 9 or 10 to avoid the heat). They sit close together on the many benches that face the ocean. It is very sweet. My guess is there aren’t many places to “court” here. Due to the economics, I would guess young people live at home until married. Along the promenade, there are vendors every 50 feet in identical stands that are about 10’ x 10’. Most are closed that hour of the morning but the ones that are open sell the identical foodstuffs-cold drinks, bottled water and snacks like chips and candy. Yesterday I passed an ice cream vendor who was selling ice cream at 10 in the morning. Yikes!

Today I got to see my first rental. It is near Ron’s workplace and fully furnished. I do mean fully. All we need to move in is food in the pantry. The owner was quite nice, got a master’s degree on a Fullbright in Indiana in 1955. The house was fine but I wasn’t wild about his taste in furnishings. I told him Ron would have to see it and made arrangements to return on the weekend. This came to us via networking. Someone who works at the Foundation was at a private hospital where the owner’s daughter works and somehow he found out about the rental. I hope to see more starting tomorrow.

Last night I went by Richard’s apartment, another TAF employee. I did this to get another idea of the possibilities. It was a great apartment, plenty of room and a fabulous roof top terrace. Great place for entertaining and growing pots of bougainvillea. One consideration here is security. Most homes have high walls and/or hired security guards. I am hopeful we will be able to find a place that doesn’t require a guard but will hire one if needed. I don’t want to have to worry that our computer will disappear if we leave the house.

By the way, we will add photos to the blog just as soon as we get our air shipment that has our technical equipment needed to display the photos. It’s here we just can’t have it until it clears US Embassy customs. Don’t ask because I don’t understand either.

Someone noted that I (Tricia) was doing most of the blog entries. That would be because I am not working and don’t have much else to do until I start house hunting in earnest. If we get an unfurnished place, I will be doing a lot of shopping so maybe you will be treated to entries by that cute guy Ron.

10-24-05

Well it’s another gorgeous day in Sri Lanka. We’ve been here a week. Today is hot, damn hot but I’m lying low and Ron is traveling north of here. Fortunately the car is air conditioned but the drivers are totally insane.

I think I mentioned that they are doing a major upgrade to our hotel but here’s an observation from the past couple of days. We are on the sixth floor. The rooms are on the outer perimeter of the hotel with the center being open (like an atrium) down to the first floor. In other words you can open your door to exit your room and walk over to a balcony and look down to the first floor. They are sanding the wood floors in the hallways in order to refinish them. However they are also repainting the walls, at the same time! Sorry but seems to me the dust from sanding it going to be getting in all that wet paint????????? What do I know….

Did I say it was hot today? Well it just started raining in order to cool things off. It does that every day, thank goodness.
I woke up at 4:00 this morning. I lay in bed for awhile but decided to get up and read, do computer stuff and some breathing exercises that Raju taught us when he was with us. I showered, read the paper, and had breakfast. At 9:00 I decided to take a long walk along the Indian Ocean. I carry an umbrella because it can start to rain at any moment here but also for sun protection. I'm being super careful about my skin. My trip took about an hour and half plus I stopped at a coffee shop on the way home and had a bottled water because I was so hot and a decaf Americano, my first since arriving. Good coffee is hard to find here and I'm still searching. I actually shipped six pounds over with our air freight but it's not here yet and I won't be able to make any coffee untilwe are moved into whatever housing we end up with. What I had at the coffee shop was definitely better than our hotel's coffee. I am fascinated by the buses here. They all look old and dirty, they are not air conditioned and the driver sort of slows down but doesn't make a complete stop unless a whole lot of people are getting on and off. If it is just one person you sort of have to hop on or run after the bus and jump on as it pulls away from the curb. They are always crowded even on the weekend when there are a lot fewer people around town. The drivers are very aggressive in their driving, frequently blowing their horns for everyone on the road to get out of their way. Actually, all the drivers here are aggressive but the bus drivers take the cake! We usually pride ourselves on using public transportation but I don't think I'll try the buses here.
Ron called last night. I'm so glad we got the cell phones. Ron said the ride yesterday to their first stop took about 1.5 hours and he said he almost threw up when they got there. I asked him if he was car sick and he said ‘no, it was from anxiety of the driving’. Yikes! I’ve ridden in a couple of taxis and a number of three wheelers (tuk tuks) and I agree it is best to close your eyes. I have found one tuk tuk driver who is stationed at the hotel so I call him any time I am going out because he drives half way sanely and he has never tired to get me to go to a jewelry factory which is common here.
Since many of the places he will be traveling to are quite small or very rural, the accommodations will be limited. He said the place they were last night was a bit funky and the only place to eat was at the hotel. I can hardly wait to travel with him! I think the only places where we will find good accommodations will be when we are near some of the larger cities and they are few and far between here. Then again this is what we had expected here. It is very much a developing country and way behind Thailand. Twenty years of civil war has taken its toll. As I was walking today I noticed lots of infrastructure problems (goodness, it must come from hanging around that city manager guy)and I doubt that there are any funds to fix caving in sidewalks and the like. As Ron mentioned this place looks like it has been neglected for about twenty years and I'm sure that is a result of the civil war. Since TAF is on holiday today I can’t hook up with the person who is to get me hooked up with real estate brokers. That left me with time on my hands. So after my long walk, I answered some email then went out to lunch. I’m getting tired of eating at the hotel. There’s a lovely shop down the road that has outdoor dining. So I decided to treat myself to an outing. I sat under the covered area because there was a fan and I had an delicious lunch-pork black curry (oh my goodness it was good), rice, salty pickle something which was a great accompaniment to the curry, salad with mango, red onion, cukes, lettuce and yogurt dressing with tomatoes on the side, 8 slices of garlic bread (seems that is the standard whether there are six people or one person at the table), some crisps which made have been some sort of fried skin, and bottled water all for a whopping $7.80 which is expensive by the SL standards. I didn’t have the right change for a 20% tip so I gave a $2.00 tip. The waiter wasn’t there when I left the money on the tray but came and found me in the shop to personally thank me. I have a feeling I made his day. As Ron likes to say for a couple of bucks, I can be a hero! Some one said they thought a gardener got $3.00 a day and a hotel housekeeper maybe $5. a day. I will do more exploring about wages as I settle in and share what I find. Tuk tuk rides are usually $1.50-$2.00 and a taxi ride is usually $6.50. By the way the curry here is quite different from Indian curry but it is soooo good. I decided to do some shopping and bought a ‘book bag’ made of hand woven fabrics. It quite colorful and will make a great casual purse. It was $8.00. I picked up a paperback that had 5.99 pounds sterling marked on it and it was $6.50 then I got a lovely hand woven, hand made blouse for $16. Such a deal!

That’s about it for a Monday is SL.

10-23-05

Today has been a full day. After breakfast we went shopping at the mall next to the hotel and got items Ron needed for his trip. We came back and hooked up with John, one of the consultants Ron is working with and who is staying at the same hotel. By the way the other consultant is from Portland OR. Ha! We grabbed a taxi and went over to Alex’s house. Alex is the program director for the Asia Foundation program Ron is working with. She wanted us to see her place before we started looking so we would have an idea of what you can get in the way of housing in our price range. We were shocked! She has a lovely home with a garden, tropical plants throughout. All homes are surrounded by walls here as a security measure. There is a covered porch where you can sit outside. Inside there is a good sized living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom (all bedrooms have their own bath apparently) with full bath. In addition there’s a maid’s quarters, with bath, laundry room, garage and another room off the kitchen in addition to a pantry. That’s the first floor. On the second floor is the master suite which is Huge! And a third bedroom. Again each with their own bath. There was a room she used for ironing and hanging out clothes when it rains. There was a sitting room and a roof terrace. On the third floor was a prayer room she used for storage. All this for $1200. Apparently it was listed for $1700 but when the landlord found out she was an older single woman with no kids and that she worked for the Asia Foundation the price was reduced. We should be so lucky.

Tomorrow I hope to go see another employee’s home which is an apartment which rents for $1,000. Both of these are within walking distance to the office which is our goal. Apparently if you are willing to commute 40 minutes, you can live in a gated community in a four bedroom house for $700. We would prefer to live close in.

Apparently it is common to hire gardeners, housekeepers/cooks and security here. All are quite inexpensive. From Alex’s we walked out to the street and hailed two tuk-tuks and headed for Barefoot, a delightful store that serves Sunday brunch with live jazz. We sat outside undercover as it rained much of the day. The food was grand and the atmosphere super. Ron and I came back to the hotel to get him off on his travels. He left at 3:00 with two consultants and various team members and interpreters. It’s going to be a very long week here without him. Thank god for email and our new cell phones (hehe).

I decided to be adventurous and took at 1 hour and 45 minute walk around the ‘hood. A couple of things I have failed to mention before. I often smile at folks on the street. When Anthony Saul visited us from S Africa in 2001 he made us aware of how cold and unfriendly Americans are by contrast to people in his country. He said you would never walk down the street without greeting everyone you passed along the way. So I have made a point of doing that here. Without fail, my smile and greeting is returned with a big, warm friendly smile. Sri Lankans have impressed me thus far with their warmth and friendliness. The other thing I haven’t mentioned is dress. Many Sri Lankans, men and women, wear sarongs. A sarong is a length of cloth that is wrapped around the waist so that you end up with an ankle length skirt. It is not uncommon to see men in sarongs. Because of the heat and humidity dress is informal. Suits are worn but are not common. Ron will rarely wear one for work, probably only when he will be meeting with funding agencies for example. So I think that is one of the things we’ll take home when we go for a visit. We definitely need to lighten our wardrobe. I find jeans and even khakis are too heavy. It will be easy to find light weight clothing here.

Tomorrow the Asia Foundation (TAF from now on folks) is closed due to all the overtime while the Board was here so I won’t get to start my house hunting until Tuesday or Wednesday. I am so eager to find a place and make it our ‘nest’ and to start to feel settled. It will take time from what I hear plus ICMA has to approve it before we can sign a lease. But what the heck, after 25 years of working for bureaucracies, I can handle it.

Well this has been a mouthful. I’ll keep you posted.

Yesterday, Tricia didn't feel well and she stayed in bed all day. She was better Saturday morning, so we chalked it up to a 24 hour bug. Ihadn't slept well Thursday night either, but managed to make it through the day. When I got home around 6:00 PM I went right to bed and slept most of the night.

Today we went by Ron’s office to pick up my cell phone that he had left overnight to charge. Yes, it’s true the Bergman’s have been forced into the 21st century kicking and screaming the entire way. We now have CELL PHONES!! Yikes…so because it’s Saturday, the office it locked. There is 24 hour security so the guard gave us a key to the office. We then went inside and had to enter another locked door that goes into Ron’s office. The door was locked but there was a key in the door. Did you get that? The key was in the locked door. I’m sure there is some logic there but it escapes us.

We then went for a ride around the area on a tuk-tuk (a three wheeled motor scooter with a bench seat in the back). We saw the Independence Memorial. We’ll post the picture when our air shipment arrives and the cable for the camera connecting to the computer comes.

We found that the phone we bought for Tricia didn’t work correctly so we had to take it back to the dealer. They were very good about making the exchange, but it did take a little time to get a ride to the shop (another tuk-tuk), make the exchange, and then ride back. We then did some mundane things like go to the laundry shop next door, have lunch (2 nice chicken sandwiches and a large bottle of water for $3.30 – and that’s here in the hotel), and other domesticities.

This afternoon we did a “phone lesson” form Tricia and then we went for a walk to buy cases for the phones. All in all, it’s been a very pleasant day.

Our hotel overlooks the Indian Ocean on one side and the garden/pool on the other. We have the pool view, but that’s OK because there is construction on the other side that goes most of the night.

Our first impressions of SL are that there is lots of poverty. The place reminds of us Thailand, but with 15+ years of neglect.

Tonight we meet up with a short-term consultant who will travel with me next week to do assessments of 8 more communities. We leave tomorrow afternoon until late Friday. There isn’t enough room in the cars for Tricia, so she’ll be staying behind and looking for housing. This is another reason for “phone lessons”, so Tricia won’t feel abandoned. This will be my first experience outside of Colombo. Some of these Local Authorities that we will visit are very small and very poor… a far cry from Portland.

We met up with a few folks from the office for a quick meeting to plan out our trip next week to some of the Sri Lankan cities. We all then went out to dinner at a fabulous Swiss restaurant. It was elegantly served and quite lovely. It was a real treat to dine some place other than the hotel.

It's Wednesday. We woke up around 5:30 and decided to take a walk by the Indian Ocean. It is only a few blocks from our hotel with a wonderful place to walk. It started to rain but it's so warm here you don't get cold when it rains. We came back to the room, showered and had an early breakfast.

Ron has an all day staff meeting today and then he has a staff and board meeting tonight so I won't be seeing much of him today. He feels a bit awkward leaving me alone so much but fortunately I'm so independent it doesn't bother me in the least.

We found out yesterday that I will not be traveling with him on the first trip as there isn't room for me with two interpreters, staff and the consultant who is training Ron. I decided I'll plunge into house hunting. I haven't started yet because the staff person who is supposed to help me with finding a place to live has been working 18-20 hour days accommodating the Asia Foundation board. This is the first time the board has been to Sri Lanka although they have supported programs here for 20 or more years. They leave at the end of the week so Anton, the staff member, will be able to set me up with an agent.

The party last night was a reception not a dinner for the Asia Foundation Board and invited guests. So it was two-three hours of standing on your feet and eating very good, very fattening food. I think Sri Lankans like a lot of fried food as there were batter fried shrimp, fried fish coquettes, and fried chicken. We didn't eat too much as it really isn't on our low fat regime. The women were wearing incredibly beautiful saris. I had to be careful to not stare too much. There were lots of important people there from all over the place. Lots of representatives from various organizations and government offices. None of it meant much to me but I behaved and smiled sweetly. Ha!

Yesterday afternoon I went exploring to some of the shops that were written up in my tour books. I went into one shop that is mentioned in every book I have (4) and oh my, I wanted to buy everything in the shop. They have dedicated themselves to very fine design, they go into villages and set them up in cottage industries and then sell the wares. There were beautiful clothes, pottery, basketry, weavings, linens (sheets, plate mats, tablecloths, etc),toys. I can't wait until we get our own place as I intend to furnish it from the wares at this store. It was more expensive than the few shops I've seen but still way below what we'd pay at home.

There are a number of places where you can buy all those clothes that are made in Sri Lanka, like Polo, Hilfiger, Gap, etc and you can buy the expensive name brand stuff like Polo for $10 and other not as well know for $3-$4. (men's shirts for example). I can't believe the prices here.

I'm not buying anything at this point since we will be moving and I'm not interested in packing and moving any more stuff than necessary.

Since I have all day and the evening to myself, I decided to check out some of the shops that were mentioned in my tour books. Yesterday I had a great tuk-tuk driver. He’s about my age and drives like an intelligent, sane human being. Let me explain. So far, I have ridden in two taxis and two tuk-tuks. One taxi driver and one tuk-tuk driver didn’t bother to stop for red lights. I would NEVER drive here unless I was on a suicide mission. So when I discovered Mr. Kularathna, I decided to make a commitment. He gave me his card yesterday and I called him today. Many tuk-tuk drivers get a commission if they take you to ‘factories’ where you can buy jewelry or tourist stuff. Some are quite insistent about it. So Mr. K doesn’t try to take me anywhere other than where I ask to go and he drives at a normal speed and actually yields to other vehicles. It is refreshing. Yesterday I just had to close my eyes with one driver.

Today I went to two interior shops and two clothing stores. I found excellent quality polo shirts for $4.75 and men’s cotton plaid shirts for the same price. Unbelievable. I ate lunch in a very nice department store. I ordered a roasted chicken sandwich on a baguette. There was so much chicken in it I couldn’t quite eat it all. I also had bottled water. My bill was $3.10. Yesterday I ate at the expensive seafood restaurant in the hotel and had fried crab claws, a shrimp cocktail with a fist full of shrimp and a salad again with bottled water. That was $10 with a 10% service charge and taxes. I could get use to this place with these prices.

The weather is comfortable in the early morning. When the sun is out it’s very warm, the high 80’s I’d guess with high humidity. It is still monsoon season so it rains briefly several times a day. I like that because it makes the heat bearable. Remember I haven’t lived in the South since 1970 so I will need to acclimate to this weather. Well this is more than enough for more sitting.

We had a reception for the TAF board tonight. There was a cultural show with traditional dancing. We got dizzy just watching them twirl and turn to the beat of traditional drums. The buffet dinner was very good and was a good introduction to a variety of Sri Lankan foods.

More tomorrow.

We had the packers in on Friday. We learned that even though we are allowed 450 pounds for air shipping, we only get 400 lbs, since the container weighs 50 pounds. Live and learn. Turns our we had 413 pounds, so we have to pay for 13 pounds ourselves.

The visa situation went well too. ICMA acquired our entry visas through a service in DC. We had to send them our passports and we were sweating whether or not they would get to us in time for our flight. They came Friday morning. We had to fib a bit by saying the Ron wasn't working, but ICMA insists this is beasue there is a flaw in the Sri Lanka law. We just took that on faith.

A good friend of ours took us and all our luggage (4 checked bags and two carry-ons). We had on bag that was over the 50 lb limit by 5 pounds, but the gate agent let us slide, so we didn't have to pay for excess baggage. The others were under, so I offered to move things around, but he said "no sweat."

When we got on the plane in Portland, we realized we forgot to bring our sun hats. Oh well, if that's the only thing we forgot, we'll be doing good. We'll just have to buy new ones.

So now we made it! Twenty-seven hours of travellater we're in Sri Lanka... but let me tell you there is a world of difference flying business class. The seats recline so you can SLEEP! And the food is delicious. We took Ambien for the Chicago-Frankfurtleg of the journey and got about 5 hours sleep. I managed to sleep off andon during the Frankfurt-Colombo leg but Ron didn't sleep as much.

Today is our first day here. Our flight was about an hour late gettinginto Colombo because we left Frankfurt late. We arrrived about 6:00 a.m.Immigration was a snap but getting our luggage took about 30 minutes. Acar from the hotel met us and since today is a holiday (full moom, nokidding) there was no traffic. Normally the drive in from the airporttakes 1.5 hrs but it took 45 minutes. Our hotel is right downtown and wecan see the Indian ocean from our hotel. We checked into the hotel and Ronhad about an hour to shower and change before he went to meet the Board ofthe Asia Foundation where he will be working (they are a partner to ICMAfor the Sru Lanka project). Meanwhile I went to breakfast and spent time getting us unpacked andsettled into our hotel room. I wandered into the mall next door but mostshops are closed due to the holiday. There are 29 holidays in Sri Lanka,counting the full moon holidays each month. All banks and governmentoffices and most shops are closed for "Polya", full moon. I am hoping wecan get massages later today. First impressions: Sri Lanka reminds me of Thailand in terms of the flora.The few residences I saw coming into town also reminded me of Thailand.The major difference was that everything here looks like it could use agood washing down with soap and water and a lot of places need a coat ofpaint. Sri Lanka does not appear to be as prosperous as Thailand. We had a delicious lunch in the hotel as it was pouring rain when we wentdown. I think we are going to love the cuisine here as lunch was spicy! Ohmy, I forgot to mention how inexpensive it is. Our lunch for two was $7.00plus service charge and tax. I had chicken curry and rice and Ron had achicken chili dish. Lots of folks seem to speak english. It probably won't be this wayoutside of Colombo. We did get a foot massage and we both seemed o feel better. More as we get settled..

We've had a hectic week since the last post. We had a couple of retirement parties, one at Tim's house and one at work. Here's a photo of the Bergman's at the City event. The outfit that Ron is wearing came from Raju Gupta who is the City Engineer in Navsari India. He was staying with Ron & Tricia last week, while doing the first half of a professional exchange. He visited the infrastructure bureaus of the City of Portland and learned how we handle Transportation, water, sewer, stormdrainage, and d-Government, and sustainability issues. Over the week-end we made a quick trip to Los Angeles to say good bye to Ron's mom. It was a fast but enjoyable trip to see her and Bob. Came home Sunday night to face a very heavily scheduled week. We met with moving companies supplied by ICMA to airfreight items (up to 450 pounds). We'll be under that, but we were concerned about finding the time to pack these things up. Lo and behold we found out that we not allowed to do the packing because every customs agent between here and Sri Lanka would want to look inside. So, the movers will pack it up for us... including the computer and monitor, which Ron was dreading packing since we have thrown away the boxes and protective foam that came with the system. We found out that our friend Wayne will not rent our house (which we were hoping for) since he would want us to leave most of our things in place. We were dreading packing up the house and moving our "permanent" home to the apartment above the garage. So, we decided to only rent out the apartment and leave the house for us. That also means that we may not be coming back in December, as we had originally planned. That means we'll need to arrange for the car and trailer to get re-licensed while we're away. In order to do that, we had to get the car inspected, which we did today. So now we're ready to re-license these when the tags expire early next year.

It's been about a week since we last updated the blog. Some important updates have occurred over this time. First, the issue of visas. It seemed there was a desire for us to enter the Country on tourist visas, and renew these each 30 days. Tricia and I were skeptical of this because of the readings we were doing. Then came the idea of us doing an initial 60 days under two successive tourist visas, then leaving the country for at least 3 weeks while a work permit and work visa were secured. Now ICMA is pursuing getting the work permit and work visa right away. This could delay our entry into the Country and as a result our departure from Portland by a few days. This would not be all bad as we still have lots to do to get ready. Unfortunately, there is some legitimate interest in getting me over there as soon as possible so that I can have as much overlap with an out-of-area person who's been doing a good deal of work on the project. He's planning on being there the week of the 17th only. So, any delay in leaving only reduces the overlap time.

In the process of working out the financial and benefit arrangements, we learned that USAID has determined that Sri Lanka is eligible for a 20% post differential. This means that as long as this is in effect, I will get a 20% bonus in my salary. This made my day.

We also learned that we will both need new physicals. We hurridly called our doctor, who usually has a long lead time for these kinds of things and begged for an exception. We were luck and got to see him in a few days. The required report called for lots of lab work and tests. On Friday, we both need to go in for our TB test reading and to submit a variety of bodily fluids for the needed lab work. Oh, what fun!

Tomorrow, we're due to get our third and final Japanese encephalitis shot. I think we'll both be glad when these are over.

I think by the time we stock up on our medications, have all of the inoculations, and get the physicals we'll have spent well over $2000. But thanks to employer reimbursements and flexible spending accounts we'll manage just fine.

I had a long conference call with people at ICMA and learned much more about exactly what I'll be doing and what my responsibilities will be over the first couple of months. The program is to serve 30 or so Sri Lankan Cities. It originally was set to serve just 15, but was expanded to serve another 15 in a contract adjustment. Not all of the second 15 have been selected. When they've all been chosen we're expected to have about 20 cities that are Tsunami related and 10 to 12 non-tsunami related. I will be working through 4 regional coordinators that I will have to hire and get established in the various regions of the country. So not only will I have to do recruitment, but I will have to find locations hopefully through partner organizations or larger cities for these resource locations. The name of the program is Transparent and Accountable Local Government (TALG) and the premise is to increase the capacity of local government to budget, manage their revenues and expenses, and create more efficiencies that can be translated into increased service delivery. A pre program assessment has been conducted on the initial 15 cities and must be done on the new cities, once selected. We're going to provide each city with two new PCs, and train them on their use. We'll then train and coach them in budget preparation, expense and revenue monitoring and reporting, improved revenue collection techniques, and other important financial procedures. We will then help coach these cities to take the efficiencies and translate them into improved or expanded services.... particularly infrastructure related. Then we'll do post program testing to document the results.

It's a big job and will involve lots of travel in and around Sri Lanka. The Country is about 2/3 the size of Oregon, but the roads are in really bad shape so traveling the distance from Portland to Medford can take 10 to 12 hours of some pretty rough roads.

We've got to fill our benefit and employment forms tonight. Oh, what joy!

Tricia has been doing lots of house related things, organizing things we'll be taking, making arrangements for on-line billing with utilities, and other billings. Can you believe some utility providers don't accept credit cards or allow on-line billing? So what to do? They put us on vacation stop. And we give them a small deposit for any miscellaneous charges that may come up while we're gone. Voting is another issue, since we don't have an address yet, we can't have our ballots mailed to us. We're going to use my new work address - just so we can get the next round of ballots that are due out in a few weeks. Tricia has also ordered all of our medications for the next year, dealt with the insurance companies to allow more than a 90 supply at a single purchase, etc. You can't believe the minutia involved in doing these things.