Today I am waiting on our couch delivery that I was told would be this morning before noon. Ron got a call and was told afternoon. So it goes. The awning guys have returned and hopefully will finish today. The electrician came by late yesterday. Seems we need a new doorbell and a new something for the water pump. Pretty amazing since this a brand new house. But then again, we are getting the kinks worked out here. I think my landlady hates to see me assuming that something is wrong if I am coming over. I like to tell her when I am leaving the house as workman need to get in and one of us needs to be here to let them in.

Yesterday I saw my first monitor lizard here. I was walking down our lane and heard this thrashing in the grass. I looked over and there was this black lizard as big as my arm and about as long. Yikes! I’d hate to find one of those in my house.

I just got a call and now the couch is due at 11:30. I’m sure there is a reason for the multiple calls and times given as this has happened before with another store delivery. I just can’t tell you what the reason is.

11-30-05

Today is a special day, our 20th anniversary. What a thrill to be so happy and to have had so much abundance in 20 years. We are truly blessed; first and foremost to have each other and to have the love and respect we share after twenty years. Does it get any better? I can’t imagine. Usually we give each other about four cards but this year is different. The cards I bought are sitting in my desk in Vancouver and I didn’t even think about trying to find cards here. Fortunately Ron didn’t either so no one’s feeling got hurt.

We usually buy a piece of art each anniversary so hopefully we can find something here. Ron is traveling down the coast next week and there is a town along the way that is most famous for its masks. We treasure finding masks from around the world so are looking forward to finding something there. Apparently there is a series of 18 masks that are used for exorcism, depending on the need; one of the 18 is used. I can hardly wait to see them. The photos I have seen are gorgeous, very brightly painted, with wild expressions. They would definitely rid you of any demons that may be causing you trouble!

Yesterday the house was filled with workmen, finishing up projects: the outside awnings, the curtain rods installed, the electric water pump repaired, the doorbell repaired, the mailbox and slot installed, the garage door lubricated so it is easy to open (yes, it’s manual, you slide it to the side for deliveries or for your car that we don’t and won’t have). One of the workmen was the metals guy. He made the garage door, the mailbox, the address plate, the curtain rods, the awnings, the window grills, the stair railings and the bathroom shower door. Pretty amazing. Anyway, it feels great to have things almost finished here. The screen man returned and spent a lot of time with Veena working out solutions. I think they will be installed at the end of the week.

We did get some bad news yesterday. We are on a waiting list for ADSL. We have no idea how long it will be. That means Ron can’t work from home, it means we can’t use the computer for phone calls and it means I will be walking about 4 blocks to an internet café. Thank god there is one in the neighborhood. I am most grateful for that but disappointed about the inconvenience to Ron and that we can’t use the computer phone that costs two cents a minute!

Today I will go to the Internet café to catch up on email and do more house shopping. Veena gave us some lovely wrought iron pieces for decoration: a fruit bowl, an urn stand with urn and two floor candlesticks. They go perfectly with the decor. I promise photos as soon as we are completely hooked up. It is obvious that this project is a labor of love for Veena. The design, the attention to detail, the consistency of design, it all is so beautiful. Ron told her yesterday how delighted we were to be living here. It is really starting to come together with furniture and décor. We are having four guests to dinner on Saturday. We are eager to show the place off and to start our social life.

Ron brought home a shower rack that we’ve needed, but I couldn’t seem to find. He went to lunch at a place I’ve shopped at many times, but never saw the racks. Oh well. At least we have it now.

For our anniversary, we had a very romantic evening at an upscale restaurant. We st on the veranda of a 110 year old colonial mansion overlooking the front garden. It was a very pleasant evening. We had a lime juice drinks to start off (very refreshing), then had an hors d’ouvre of onion and carrot strips wrapped around a fresh mozzarella cheese. This had a balsamic vinaigrette over the top and was quite good. We both had pasta for the entrée. Ron had a spicy prawn linguini and I had a duck filled ravioli. We capped it off by sharing a fabulous dessert of apples, meringue and a flaky crust. Yum Yum.

Sunday ended up being a quiet day here as we spent the morning waiting for a delivery that never arrived. When Ron called to find out what happened they said they didn’t know of our delivery and would call back. When that didn’t happen, Ron called back and the man said he would try again. Then the man called back to say sometime before 4:00 at which point Ron said we had already spent the morning waiting for a delivery that was promised before noon. Ron asked the man to be much more specific about delivery time. So then the man said, 3:30. We left the house and walked down the lane to the fresh market. It is difficult for me to carry much weight for any distance so having my own sherpa with me, I bought more groceries. As we were walking home, my phone rang and it was the store saying they were on the way with the delivery. That was 1:30. Guess what, SL time is different and the sooner the Bergman’s learn that the better. After waiting for almost an hour the furniture (patio table and four chairs) showed up. We took another walk on Thimbirigasyaya to the hardware store and got an extension cord for the office. I wish you could see Ron’s set up. He is brilliant. The things you have to do to ensure your equipment doesn’t blow up/burnout because of the differences with electricity, plug patterns, and the like. I wouldn’t know where to begin.

This morning I called the store that sold us our couch to find out when it would be delivered and was told they would call back by noon to let me know. It’s 1:00 now and ….well you get the picture. We are still on the learning curve here.

I am also waiting for the electrician to show up. Our lack of hot water is an electrical problem with the pump. Veena called the electrician last night and he told her how to use an extension cord to give us water until he could get here. Fortunately, his solution worked so we had water and hot water this morning. The awning guys left Friday but left their tools so I am assuming they would have been back today to finish but we all know about assumptions…and contractors-the most undependable, least reliable to all workers. We’re also waiting for the screen contractors to return and finish the job of putting mosquito screens on some of the windows. Fortunately, very little is critical to our comfort. It’s just that I can’t leave the house unless Veena will be here to let them in. So today I have hung around the house and read my book called Culture Shock-Sri Lanka. Today’s chapters dealt with time and work patterns. Pretty timely I’d say.

Well we have spent four nights here and absolutely love the house. Every time I cook a meal, I realize there more things I need in the kitchen. I am having one heck of a time finding spices in jars. They come in plastic bags that are really inconvenient when cooking. I have looked for little jars but am not having any luck. Houses here are different. They are not airtight so it is easy for critters to come in, like ants, mosquitoes, etc. This morning when I went out to the kitchen I spied the biggest roach I have seen since I left Florida in 1970. I debated whether to kill him or not and decided that I didn’t want to have a roach problem so into the trash he went. Also screens aren’t generally used here but the ex pat community seems to demand it so it is possible to get them. We are not yet screened although Veena is working on it. Because we don’t have screens in our bedroom yet, we are sleeping in air-conditioning. We prefer not to use it but can’t handle the heat with the doors closed. Hopefully, we will be able to screen our balcony then sleep with the doors open and use the ceiling fan. If not, then I am grateful for the AC!

It hasn’t cooled off here yet. We had a week of cool weather when I was recuperating from the flu but it is long gone and we still have warm days here. April and May are the hottest. Hopefully, that will be when we take out first break and go somewhere cool for a vacation.

From a work perspective, things are really heating up. We have a new training module on financial reporting that we are going to start for the Local Authorities in the south next week. The program manger in charge of financial programs was supposed to develop the training materials… but what he’s produced is almost useless. I’ve had to completely develop all of the materials and approaches myself. It’s frustrating dealing with someone who’s very nice, but not reliable to get the job done. I’m told he’s the best that was available. I’m thinking we need to look again, but this is definitely not the Sri Lankan way. All the advice I’m getting is to keep working with him. Maybe this is more of the learning curve.

I’ve built a rather large Excel spreadsheet that the Local Authorities can use for financial tracking and management reporting on how their revenues and expenses are tracking with their budget. Seems as though the Local Authorities here prepare a budget each year, because they are required to, and then never look at it again…. They don’t track their actuals against what they forecast in the budget. Strange! Someone said that the LAs track their revenues and expenses the way the 19th century Britts taught them. They account for every penny, but report it in a way that doesn’t tell anybody what they actually did. It’s pretty amazing.

I guess that’s why we have a capacity building project and I get this experience.

It’s Saturday and we are settling into our house and loving it. SL Telecom is here now installing our landline so we can sign up for ADSL, which ain’t nothing like what we have back home but it’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Hopefully we will be on line early next week. It took three men a little over an hour to install the phone.

Last night we had salad for dinner here as the cooker (stove) wasn’t fully hooked up. We have what we would consider an apartment size stove with one electric burner and three propane burners. We have what I would guess is a five gallon tank for gas. You call the hardware store down the street when you need a refill and they charge 50 rupees for delivery. That’s $0.50 for those of you who didn’t know a rupee is worth a penny. The gas is $8.50.

The mosquito net folks were here last night but couldn’t finish the job so they will return today. The main problem with mosquitoes in Colombo is dengue feve.r Unlike malaria there isn’t any prophylactic for it. You can end up in the hospital with dengue fever. It is impossible to completely avoid mosquitoes but we spray ourselves in early morning and early evening and so far so good! The mosquito screen is help also. We need to take anti-malarial pills due to Ron’s travel to rural areas as malaria isn’t an issue in Colombo. Malarial drugs are really hard on your system so our doctor here recommended taking them two times a week instead of daily.

In the afternoon, we bought a bunch of electronic stuff (boring) to make the computers and appliances functional. We have two kinds of plugs in the house and no matter which kind of plug your appliance has, the wall socket will be the other one! Then we went to Paradise Road, which is a fabulous store with house wares, furniture, etc. We got a rattan/wicket set for the patios. We have little balconies off each of the bedrooms, a patio off the living room and the roof top garden has a small patio. So we will put some chairs on some of the patios. Not sure yet which ones. I’m eager to sit and watch for tropical birds. One is singing out my window now. We wrapped up the shopping at Aprico Supercentre which is like a Fred Meyer sort of. Got more Tupperware for food storage and bought our first eggs. Yikes, they don’t refrigerate eggs in Asia.

We came home and I made marinara and linguine, salad, and toast. Our first real meal in the house. Made my honey happy. After clean up, we headed for bed. It was 8:30 but we were beat. Must be the heat/humidity factor. We ran out of hot water, literally. None comes out of the hot water faucet. So we had a cool refreshing shower. We woke up during the night to a tremendous electrical storm, lots of thunder and lightning. That’s two nights in a row. Very exciting when your entire bedroom is lit up by lightning.

11-27-05

We will need to check with Veena as there still isn’t any hot water. We are on a solar system here so maybe there’s some trick or switch we don’t know about. We had our traditional weekend breakfast of eggs and toast. The eggs yolks are almost white. I’ve never seen such light colored eggs and it sure makes me miss the wonderful farm fresh eggs we got in Vancouver. I’ll look for a source at the fresh market. Yesterday was our first cup of homemade coffee. Oh my god, what a treat after the stuff the hotel was serving. I bought six pounds with me. I have found a source for good coffee here but it is $11. for 10 oz. Oh well, it’s only money! Life is too short to drink bad coffee.

So it’s Wednesday, the sun is out after flooding rains yesterday and I am praying our mattresses will be delivered today. I was told this afternoon but I have learned that Sri Lankan time is like a rubber band, it expands.

If we get to move, we will be without internet services until we can get a landline with DSL so don’t fret if you don’t hear from us for awhile. Things do not happen quickly here. I still do not have a date as to when our bed will be ready. If it rains, they close the factory, it seems.

I spent the afternoon at the house, unpacking, and washing new dishes, glasses, etc. I’m tired but thrilled. The mattresses were at the house when I arrived. The workmen are still doing last minute touches, installing more overhead fans and such. They will be there for a few more days but tomorrow, Thanksgiving, is moving day as far as we are concerned. I told Veena, our landlady, I didn’t care about the workmen, I just wanted out of the hotel. I can hardly wait.

Tonight we will pack up our stuff, which has gotten a bit spread around and check out in the morning. I’ll take a cab over with our suitcases. We also have our air shipment at Alix’s that we will need to retrieve. I still need to do more shopping for practical stuff like brooms, mops, clothes drying racks but we can make do until I get it done. We are going out to dinner tomorrow night with a couple we have never met. Gordon Glick works here and his parents are good friends of Ron’s aunt and uncle. Gordon works for the US Chamber here. I am relieved to not cook my first night in the house as I imagine I won’t have the energy or creativity needed for cooking.

So wish us luck. I wasn’t sure this day would ever arrive. Remember we won’t have email or internet access for a week or so.

Yesterday at 4:00 it started pouring rain and it didn’t let up until 3:00 today. You wouldn’t believe how hard it rained. There are two ways to get to the breakfast area: one is an open walk down a flight of stairs and the other is a covered walkway and covered stairwell. This morning it was raining so hard we decided to take the covered route. There was so much rain that the stairwell resembled a fountain with water cascading down the stairs ending in a lovely pool which we managed to jump over. What a mess.

Earlier, Ron went to exercise before breakfast and reported that thee was an inch of water on the floor of the exercise room. Needless to say, he skipped out on exercising.

Due to the rain, our mattresses couldn’t be delivered today, meaning we can’t move yet. I finally went out at 3:00 to get a few more things for the house-door mats, rugs to wipe your feet on when entering the house and a clothes hamper.

Veena said we could move in whenever we are ready. The workman still need to put a sealant on the bedroom window that leaks but it needs to be completely dry to do that so we will move in and have them seal the window after the fact. I was glad to know that there wasn’t anymore major work that had to be done that would prevent us from moving in.

There is light at the end of this tunnel!!! I am enthusiastic that we will get to move in tomorrow or the next day for sure. Tomorrow I will do the kitchen shopping which should be a trip, not knowing any brands here. There is a store here that reminds me of Fred Meyer where you can buy house wares and groceries. That is a rarity here, folks. We have so much convenience stateside that we forget it isn’t like that everywhere. The produce I have seen in the grocery stores is bad but today I found a good fresh market near the hotel. There is a fresh market at the end of our lane and I am hopeful it will be as good as the one I found today.
I had a coffee in the lobby this morning and watched workmen working on sanding the wood floors with a floor sander, both men were barefoot! Oy! One of my favorite sights is laborers in hard hats and flip flops.

OUR MAILING ADDRESS is 475/3A Thimbirigasyaya Rd, Colombo 05 Sri Lanka. I have yet to pronounce all the syllables in our street name. It is an impossible task for a southerner to say that many syllables!

Well I’m back among the living! Boy oh boy was I sick. I almost have a normal appetite but still get a nervous stomach when I see a buffet. I just don’t make eye contact with the food and limit my intake to bread and a little fruit. I managed to eat half a portion of spaghetti for lunch. I am so ready to eat some home cooking. You can’t imagine how much we will miss Thanksgiving with the Wisbrocks in Salem! They put on a feast you wouldn’t believe. Nobody serves a finer meal. Trust me we have had dinner there for so many years, I can’t remember how many and every one of them was memorable.

It is Monday and pouring rain. It hasn’t rained for a week or two but it is making up for lost time. I managed to get some shopping in today. After breakfast I went back to bed, which has been my pattern since getting ill. After an hour and a half nap, I managed to get out the door. Shopping is a wee bit different here. Today I decided to buy towels. Unfortunately you can’t buy towels, washcloths and hand towels at the same place. It must be an American thing. So I bought black washcloths at one store, black towels at another store and have not yet found any hand towels. There is only one department store that I am aware of. There may be more but this department store is the best thing going here and they only carried towels. I have another bathroom to furnish but will wait until I am more sure of the colors. Our bathroom is black and butterscotch.

I found some ready-made curtains and am praying they will work in our bedroom. If they do then I’ll pick up a second set for the front bedroom. There are actually four bedrooms but we will probably just furnish two initially. Doubt that we will need any more unless a whole bunch of you decide to come for a visit at the same time. Wouldn’t that be fun!

I also picked up an entry rug but still need some outside mats for foot wiping. I found a great handheld blender that will be great for pureed soups. Yum! Got a dish rack and some kitchen towels and a couple of trash cans. I bought some cutlery. We haven’t been able to find what we wanted so this was the best of the choices we’ve seen. We have inquired at two restaurants where we ate but both of them imported their cutlery from Thailand!

Dare I tell you about sheets? Fitted sheets are as scarce as hens’ teeth. Then you have to realize that there are two sizes of queen sheets and our size is much harder to find (of course!) When you buy sheets here, they come one to a package or a fitted sheet and two pillowcases but I have yet to see a complete set of sheets here. They are just as expensive as the states and are made here. So far, we bought a duvet cover, and one fitted sheet with four cases. We had one choice of color if we wanted a duvet cover. I constantly feel like I am hitting a brick wall. You cannot imagine how many stores I’ve been to to find the size we need then most of the sheets are poly/cotton. Sorry I only do 100% cotton. What a pain in the tushie! Today’s shopping was a bit difficult because traffic was horrendous. My driver said it was because so many people were off last week with poya day and the election plus some stayed away the day after the election for fear of violence that never happened, thank god!

Well the adventure continues…

The election results were interesting. The LTTE (Tamil Tigers) who control the North and North Eastern sections of the country would not allow people to vote until 30 minutes before the polls closed. Because of the conflict, the government set up mass polling places for these areas just inside the government controlled areas. The LTTE set up barricades and burning tires to prevent people from crossing over the “border” to vote. In one voting district only 1 vote was cast. The final vote elected the new president who was the least inclined to pursue peace. He won by less than 200,000 votes. Had the people in the controlled area been allowed to vote, the other candidate might have won. In any case, there was virtually no violence. There were no curfews called, and Colombo and the Country are making a smooth transition to the new leadership.

We received notice that the hotel had more electrical work they needed to do and that they were going to shut off the power for 12 hours each day Saturday and Sunday. They offered to put us up in a sister hotel for the same cost and provide transportation over and back. Because we have so many clothes and items, we were concerned about having to pack everything up just for the two days. We asked if we could leave most of the items in our hotel room and only move what we needed for the week-end. They agreed, so we moved to the Trans-Asian hotel on Friday night.

By Friday Tricia was still not up to full strength, but was getting better with her ability to eat more at each meal. I tried making another appointment with another Doctor recommended by one of the folks at the Asia Foundation, but Tricia thought she was on the mend. We had a quiet dinner Friday night at the new hotel in a Thai restaurant. It was very good, and She did eat more than she had been, but still not a full meal.

Saturday morning, she ate a respectable breakfast, but she wanted to rest some more. I went to work, where I had arranged for them to unload two desks and chairs from their storage area. After they agreed to give them to us, they announced to all the staff that that Saturday morning, people could come and claim anything they wanted in the storage area as they were cleaning it all out. Anything left would be given away.

So I took them to the house. A man was available to help me. The two trips to the house with the man and van cost $7.00. I called Tricia who felt better, and we agreed to meet at a store where we wanted to buy kitchen utensils and items. We then went to another store where we bought dishes. We arranged for the dishes o be delivered to the house.

I took Tricia home to rest, because we were going out to dinner at the Director of my program’s house (Alix), and Tricia wanted to be as rested as possible. That afternoon, we went for tea in the hotel and she really seemed to be perking up. We went to dinner, where we met other western expats that Alix knows (all Canadian, except us two). Before we left, we had heard of expats that had been away for so long they had forgotten how to do laundry and cook. Well, we met some of those folks. One couple with small children have been living abroad (Sri Lanka (twice) and Africa for 15 years. Another fellow has been abroad for even longer., A single woman and her daughter (about 6 years old) were also there and she’s spent her entire professional career abroad. It was a fun evening. This was the first meal that I could really say Tricia ate a full helping. We stayed until about 11:00 and went home.

Sunday morning, Tricia was back to normal. We went shopping for bed linens, kitchen appliances (small), and other needed items. We still haven’t found side chairs for the living room or flatware. It’s kind of fun setting up a new house. One of the shops we went to had all the lights off and the aircon off because they didn’t think many people would be hopping. Strange way to save money.

As most of you know, Tricia and I have decorated our house in Vancouver with Antiques or older style furniture. With the exception of an old or reproduction coffee table, most everything is more modern looking. Hopefully we’ll be able to post pictures soon, as we’re almost in the house and we can set up all our computer equipment.

Tricia and I were both reluctant to get our haircut here, but finally realized we needed to do it sooner or later. Tricia got hers done several days ago, and I took the plunge on Saturday. Actually, I was very pleased at how it turned out. I think I’ve found the barber I’ll be using… and it only cost $8.00 plus a buck for a tip.

Well, it’s time to pack up and move back to our regular hotel. We’re counting the days until we can move in to the house. The critical path is getting the mattress delivered, and that’s planed for Tuesday. With any luck, we’ll be settled by Thanksgiving…. And our anniversary that follows several days later on the 30th

This has been a stressful week. Saturday we shopped till we dropped. We bought a dining room set, a cabinet for the dining room, a couch, a coffee table, and two nightstands. The dining set, coffee table, and cabinet were all delivered to the house that day.

Tricia came down with the flue that afternoon and has been wiped out ever since. Saturday night she had a high fever and lots of aches in her back. We had the hotel doctor come by to see her on Monday. He came with is nurse. They gave her about 4 different medications and the bill came to a whopping $27.00. The Dr. said she had classic symptoms of a flue that was going around, and that it would run it’s course in 4 days. She started feeling a bit better, but continued to be weak and slept a lot. She just didn’t feel like eating…. And so didn’t. On Wednesday, the Dr. checked in again, and because she wasn’t feeling all better gave her a round of new medication. Today at breakfast, she felt like she was gong to faint. I got her back to the room and the Dr. was called again. Tricia had very low blood pressure and he advised that she needed to relax, do better about eating, and not lay down so much. He gave her a B complex supplement to help build her strength. She seems better. Hopefully she’s on the mend now.

The lease has been signed for the house and hopefully my employer will make the payment tonight. The owner of the house is very nice and easy to deal with. She’s more than happy to let us store our things there while the last of the work gets done. The aircon needs to be installed, the ceiling fans installed, and a few other minor things. We’re shooting to be in by the 25. The key will be getting our mattress. Once that’s in we can move there. We’ll be so happy.

We still have more things t buy, like dishes, linens, flat ware, TV, a couple of side chairs for the Living Room, and a bed for the guest room. We ordered the mattress, but not the bed yet.

Today was Election Day for the President of SL. Historically thee has been violence the day after the election, so we’re holding tight to see what happens. Most knowledgeable observers are predicting that things will be calm. In any case, I’ll be checking on the status of things before I decide about going to work tomorrow. Again, most people are confidant things will be peaceful. There are 13 candidates running, but only two major ones. One has been very strident about the Tamil rebels while the other one is more conciliatory and pro business oriented. It’s really hard to follow all the details in the paper, because of the lowbrow nature of the reporting in the English newspaper. It reads like a Jr. High version of the National Inquirer. However, you’ve got to hand it to them here, there’s very little advertising in the paper…. And I do get my jumble.

Work continues to be a challenge, as we deal with a host of scheduling issues that require lots of adjusting due to a very strange sense of time here and not much capacity for workers to know how to follow through with assignments and get all the bases covered. Add this to the number of holidays here and not much gets done. There are 13 full moon holidays, plus 8 religious holidays (2 for the Buddhists, 2 for the Hindus, 2 for the Muslims, and 2 for the Christians). Plus other cultural holidays. Folks get either a half-day or full day off for Election Day, depending on whether they are voting in the area of the country where they work. Lots of people are taking the day after the election off too.

Here in the hotel we get lots of ambience. We hear all the Muslim calls for prayer, as there is a mosque not far from us and they use very high power loud speakers. We’re enjoying our adventure and wouldn’t trade it at all.

We miss all of you. As we look forward to moving into our own space, we’re excited about visitors. Plan your trips. So far the calendar is open!

I failed to mention a few other observations during our road trip. We passed lots of coconut trees and some rubber trees at the lower elevations. I believe rubber is another important export for SL. We also passed rice paddies at the lower elevations. When you dine out in restaurants, the service is included. It adds about 30% to your bill with taxes and service (10%). Many of the mid sized trucks here have wooden sides. When we can get our photos on the blog, we have pictures to show you. A car wash here is a couple of people standing by the roadside with a hand-lettered sign where there is a natural spring. We passed a lot of road construction on the way from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya. Much was done with a shovel. They were building low walls to help with rain runoff. Instead of rebar for structure, they would use an oblong rock and sit it on end into the concrete base. Fascinating how you can make do. And lastly, the flora I’ve seen has amazed me in how much is found in the US: poinsettias (a low scrub here), canna lilies, calla lilies, and nasturtiums. We also passed a vegetable growing area at the higher altitudes. Apparently the Brits introduced a lot of their veggies when they were here so we saw tomatoes, potatoes, cilantro, cucumber, squash and the like. One last observation: the men here are extremely handsome. When we were in Thailand we noticed that the women are probably the most beautiful in the world. Here it is the men. Ron was the one to point this out to me so it’s not a woman’s bias…

Last night around 10:00 we got an email saying our lease has been approved. Yahoooo! That means we will probably sign this weekend and can start shopping for household items and taking them to the house. We can’t move in probably until our mattresses arrive in another ten days. By then I should be able to have the house habitable. God, we are so eager for a routine and home cooked food. The food we have had here has been delicious but we are anxious to just have a meal at home. I mentioned to Tricia that living in a hotel was a preview for assited living. All of our belongings are in a single room, and we go downstairs for communal dinning anytime we want to eat. Someone comes in to clean and make the bed. All we need now is someone to give us a bath.

We have ordered a wrought iron bed to be made, ordered mattresses and have narrowed down a couch but need to determine the wood. The storeowner whose sons were educated in the US has offered to have the manufacturer send up the two samples so we can pick which one will suit us best. What a sweet and helpful offer. We have narrowed down dining table choices and will make a decision this weekend. We have picked out dishes. Now for cutlery.
Yesterday after much searching I found some pots and pans I like. Most of them here are very light weight, very thin material (stainless). I found a store that sells to hotels and they had some professional grade stainless pots. I didn’t bother to ask how much but am going back today since they had to take me to the storeroom to see them as they had just arrived and weren’t unpacked. We were in another store looking at furniture and saw a table we liked. Ron asked the cost and they didn’t know as it had just arrived. It’s different here….

The next morning we were off to Nuwara Elya. In Singhala this means City of Light, but our tour book calls it City of Blight. In our estimation it was one of the more vibrant communities we visited. The City is located in the highlands at an elevation of 6182 feet. This is over 3000 feet higher than Kandy in just 50 miles of road. Needless to say there was a lot of “up” as we traveled. We were really surprised to see pine trees and lots and lots of waterfalls.

As we got higher, we began to see tea plantations . The higher the elevation,the better the tea. The tea is all picked by hand, generally by women, but there were a few men as well although they seemed to be pruning the plants or weighing each woman’s harvest. The pluckers as they are called traverse the hillsides barefooted with large bags suspended over their back, but held up by straps that go over their heads. Most of the slopes they were working on were a minimum of a 45 degree angle. We could only imagine how tired they must be at the end of the day.

Tea plants are harvested once each 7 days. Only the top two leaves and bud are picked. And the plants is viable for 45 years.





Once harvested the tea is taken to the factory. Here it is spread on a screen table were a fan blows under the screen to take out some of the moisture. These are called withering troughs. The tea is then rolled apressedsed in a machine to express the juices which coat the leaves. The tea is then left to ferment in a contolled humid environment in order to produce the desired aroma. The fermenting process takes two and a half hours. Finally the leaves are dried by passing them through a heated drying chamber and then graded-the unbroken being the best quality down to the fannings and dust, the lowest quality. The entire factory process takes as little as 18 hours.

Tea was introduced to Sri Lanka by James taylor in 1849. It was an experiment to find a crop to replace the unfortunate diseased coffee. The coffee plantations in Ceylon were destroyed by a leaf blight around that time. After textiles, tea remains Sri Lanka's second biggest export. Although introduced by the British, the tea industry is a source of immense national pride. Sri Lnak is the world's third biggest producer of tea and the largest exporter with a 20% share of the global demand. Pretty impressive when you consider how small SL is.

We spent two nights in Newara Eliya at the Grand Hotel. A very tired dowager from the colonial period. However, the garden was spectacular in a very formal English way. After a morning of meetings with Officials from two Local Authorities, we played in the afternoon and went to lunch at a restaurant that specializes in strawberries. Almost everything on the menu has strawberries: shakes, ice cream, waffels with strawberries, pancakes with strawberries. And get this, strawberies are in season all year long! Unfortunately they're not the big plump variety we're used to in the Northwest, but good none the less. From there we went to a botanical garden that was established in 1861. That's right, the same year the Civil War started. We surmised it was the brain child of a bored Governor's wife. Who knows?

That night we walked throuh the local market where you can buy Columbia Sportwear and Helly Hansen parkas and jackets for $5.00 to $15.00. Yes, the same ones we spend $150.00 or more on.

After a fine dinner buffet, Alix, the director of the program I'm working with and I played a plebian game of snooker on the biggest pool table I've ever seen. It wasn't so much that I won, as Alix lost.

The next day we travelled to a third Local Authority called Hatton, which is about an hour and half west. From here we scouted out places to stay, for future trips. We found an absolutely gorgeous bungalow from the 1920's that had been a plantation caretaker's, but has now been transformed into a very upscale resort. Only $200 per night, but that included all the meals and libations. Too bad it's too far from the main road (only 20 km along a dirt path), and way above the budget.

Getting back to the main road, we traveled southwest towards Colombo through the most spectacular scenery imaginable. We passed endless watefalls, gorgeous vista, and picture postcard scenery. Passing through Kitulgala, the Sri Lankan whitewater capital on the Kelani River with class 4 and 5 rapids!

We arrived back in Colomb about 4:00 PM. We were pooped from 4 days of hard travel. We had to check back into the hotel, as we'd packed up all our belongings here, and left most of it with the Bell Captain; and only took a small carry-on sized bag. We had to unpack and re-iron all our stuff. Can't wait to get into a house!

Next day, back to working the office and shopping for furniture and houshold items. Hopefully the lease will be approved by ICMA and we can plan the move to the house. Our goal is the 15th of November, but that may be too optomistic.

Oh my, the British have left their mark with the most bureaucratic experience yet. When Ron and I left Portland, we left our hats in Bruce and Donna’s car. Just too much to track with all the luggage and excitement of leaving. Donna packed the hats and sent them off to us and they arrived today. I went to the post office armed with a 12-page form that had been delivered to Ron at work. When I got to the post office, I was directed upstairs to the parcel section. The first thing I was asked to do was put our address in six places on the form and to sign it in three places. Just wait. I was directed to have a seat and told to wait until my number was called.

After about 10 minutes I was directed to the counter where someone looked at my papers and directed me down the hall. I went to foreign parcel section and again someone handled my papers and instructed me to customs. Two people handled my papers in customs. One person interviewed me about the hats: were they my hats or was I importing them? What were they made of? Oh straw. Where were they hats made? Beats me. They will need to go into quarantine in case there were bugs in them. Sir, my husband’s hat is two years old. So we went back and forth and he sternly told me he was going to let them through but in the future they would be quarantined. I was then directed back to foreign parcel section where someone handled my papers and sent me back up front where someone else handled my papers and sent me back to customs. Customs is on the other end of this block long building. I said I have already been to customs and he said go again. I went back to customs where a different person in a different office handled my papers and I was sent up front again. A different person handled my papers and a different person opened the box and showed the hats to another person. Another person put a string around the box. I was told to have a seat until my number was called. Two more people handled my papers then I paid 100 rupees ($1.00) to yet another person. All told over ten people wrote on the papers. Nothing is on a computer. Everything is hand written and entered into paper journals.
It seemed like I had stepped back in time to another era, another century or two. The process took one hour. I was terrified that at noon they were going to tell me to come back at one but fortunately I finished about five to noon! DO NOT SEND US ANY PACKAGES FOR CHANUKAH OR CHRISTMAS OR ANNIVERSAY OR….. Thanks. I hope I don’t have to go through this every time we have mail forwarded. So far none has arrived. I know of one more package that has been sent and it contains our mail order vitamins. I can hardly wait to repeat this activity.

11-9-05

We’re back in Colombo after four days on the road. Wow! What a trip. Since we have lots to report we’ll break it up so as not to overwhelm you with details that I (Tricia) am so fond of !

We left at 9:40 Saturday morning to travel 70 miles (116 k) It took just over three and a half hours. You would not believe the roads (very narrow with no shoulder) and such heavy traffic. The roads are crowded with buses (private and public) as this is how many people travel to and fro since many people cannot afford a car. Then there are tri-wheelers everywhere we went, motor scooters, motorcycles, and bicycles. Since there are no shoulders, the road is shared by pedestrians who walk on the road, and are crossing dogs, and the occasional cow. You average 25 k an hour due to traffic. Also adding to the problem is the roads go through the center of each town. The street in the center of town is lined with small shops selling everything-food, clothes and hardware and there dozens of each type of shop in each town. How does anyone make any money? So there are many people standing in the street in front of the shops so traffic becomes a crawl once you hit town. The roads are never straight so your driver is constantly speeding up and braking. They pass on curves, hills and all those places we would never pass. If you are driving along and the on coming traffic has someone who is passing and is in your lane, you stop so there won’t be a head on collision. It’s just a rather casual way of driving. You know those lines down the middle of the road to determine which is your side of the road? Well here is it merely a suggestion. It is quite common to drive straddling that line so you can get three cars or more riding abreast on the two lane roads. As I said it’s just a more casual approach to driving. Because I have ridden so much in the tri-wheelers, the driving didn’t bother me so much. But what was exhausting was the being flung side to side as we went around curves and the constant acceleration and braking. You had to constantly brace yourself. When we got home yesterday, we were quite tired and went to bed a little before 9:00 and slept until 6:30!

So along the way to Kandy, which is northeast of Colombo, we passed through areas that specialized in making the following which were displayed in numerous shops on the roadside: car seat upholstery, leather goods, wicker furniture, terra cotta pots, batik, plastic blow-up toys, and cashews. In addition, Saturday is a big shopping day so every town and there were many, had hundreds of shoppers who were standing in the street or crossing the street (forget at intersections, they cross anywhere they please here. There are no traffic lights in these small towns. All of this makes for very slow going.

We got to Kandy around 1:30 (we made one short stop to look at wicker furniture) ate a quick buffet lunch (buffet meals are the standard in the hotels here), and took off for the 2:00 meeting we had with the local training center. The training center had one large room with tables and chairs packed into every available inch, one small white board and an overhead projector (no not the fancy digital kind, the old fashion kind that uses transparencies) and that was it. Their trainers get paid $4.00 an hour! Some travel all the way from Colombo to teach and they require at least three hours of teaching in order to make the journey (remember this is a 3.5 hr journey one way!!!) It was a humbling experience. Ski Lankans make do with so little and Americans have such an abundance that we often take for granted. This is the only training center on the island. Their idea of training is straight lecture. Forget interactive exercises or case studies where you work in small groups. Forget AV equipments like video players or digital projectors. The Asia Foundation hopes to use the center for some of their training and will give the center some of its much-needed improvements. If they pay them in cash, the money goes to the general fund and they cannot use the money for the center.

We stayed in a beautiful hotel where the normal rate is $204 a night but we got a special rate of $90 a night. It was a lovely, large colonial architecture building overlooking a river. The hotel has an open format where the dining room is located near the front desk and is open to the grounds-no windows or doors. The lounge borders the pool and the floor of the lounge is at the same level as the pool so you could swim right up to the lounge and order a drink or sit in the lounge with your feet in the water. Very tropical feel. All the restaurant staff, housecleaning staff and porters wear sarongs and are barefooted. More ambiance.

In the afternoon we visited the Temple of the Tooth. That would be Buddha’s tooth. What a lovely place. There was a Hindu temple adjacent to the grounds so we went there also. We left our shoes in the car because you are not allowed to enter a temple with shoes on. Oy, such a tender foot I am.

We ended the day by visiting the local market that sold everything: fish, meat (yuck) vegetables, fruits (I saw apples and looked closely and discovered they were from Washington state! It’s too hot for apples here. I was surprised that these small businesses could afford to buy/sell apples that had been transported half way around the globe.) leather goods, clothes, well the list goes on. Anything you want they have. If we had our house I would have bought some of the fabulous spices: cinnamon, fresh mace, coriander cloves, and pepper. All the shops are about six feet wide by maybe 10 feet or smaller. And everyone one of them wants you to buy from them so there is lots of conversation trying to entice you into their shop. It was easy to resist because I have no desire to shop until we are into the house and I have a place to put things.

That night we gave the driver a night off and ate at the hotel. Alix, the program director ordered a margarita without seeing the drink menu and got quite a shock when her bill came and it was $8.50!!! This is the country where you can have a good meal for $2-$4. Needless to say she was less than pleased with the waiter who had suggested the drink. It poured rain that night so I was glad we didn’t go out to eat.

To be continued. My fingers hurt from typing.

11-4-05
(Since we will be traveling this weekend-Tuesday we may not have access to the internet so we will not be able to answer emails or do any blog entries. We will resume communication Tuesday or Wednesday depending on when we get back to civilization.)

It’s Friday and we are excited to be traveling this weekend. On Saturday we will travel to Kandy in central SL, about 70 miles away. We will be traveling with Alix, the program director and a driver. On Saturday we will look at a training facility since there aren’t many (any?) to speak of. Part of Ron’s program involves training city staff on using computers for improving financial management and accountability. The program will also provide the cities with computers. After Kandy, we travel south to Nuwara Eliya, about 50 miles south of Kandy, and it is about 6,000 ft in altitude and supposed to be cold. To be seen! I can hardly wait for a no sweat day. Nuwara Eliya is supposed to be absolutely beautiful. This is the region where tea is grown. There are three grades of tea and the best grade is grown at the highest altitudes. The tea plantations are also supposed to be lovely. Like in the southern US, workers were brought into the country to work the plantations. I believe most came from southern India.

This morning I went over to our house to take measurements, to make sure if a six- person dining room table would fit and look at color schemes for towels and such. Oh my, we really scored with this place. It is so lovely and has so many special touches. I will send photos as soon as we get settled. If you took one look at our street, you would turn away but once you go down the street, there are lovely homes there. It’s just that the street itself is crummy. I think that may end up being as asset because it will eliminate any traffic other than the residents who live on the street, which is about one long block in length.

The house has one bedroom on the first floor and we will make that our office. The second floor has three bedrooms, ours is 10 feet by 19 ft. and has a small balcony that runs about half the length of the bedroom. Veena, our landlady, personally designed the wrought iron that goes on each door and window. I am guessing the iron is for security and it is so attractive. The two guest bedrooms are smaller, one is 9 x 8 and the other is 8x 12 with a bathroom in between the two. Our bedroom has its own bath. Each bedroom has doors that open onto a balcony. The second floor has a sitting area of 11 x 11 where you could have a tv or reading/entertaining area. It includes two counters, a sink and cabinets.

The third floor does not have a bedroom. I think I said it did before but rather it has an open sitting area of 10x 12, a small laundry room for drying clothes on racks during the monsoons and space for ironing. There is a bathroom on the third floor also. In addition there is the fabulous garden on the roof top.

I am eager to get moved in and our target date is Nov 15. That would make a month of hotel living! I am hopeful that Ron can make the changes to the lease today so we can send it off to ICMA before we leave. Then hopefully when we return on Tuesday we would have the go ahead, can sign the papers. Once signed, I can start shopping and store things at the house. Everything needs to be bought, from beds to bed linens, cleaning supplies, towels, kitchen totally outfitted and stocked, window coverings and the list goes on. You can see why I might be just a wee bit anxious about getting all that done in a week. Think of the miles I am going to generate on my charge card. Yahoo!

We found a fabulous store called Article 14. They make beautiful wrought iron furniture. I asked what the meaning of the name was. Article 14 in their constitution is the freedom of expression article. Cool ugh? We found a bed we liked but wanted some modifications. Heavier material, of course; we like that Bergman-built look! So we are waiting for a quote on the price difference. Hopefully we can come to an agreement because the wooden beds we’ve seen we aren’t wild about and they are too close to the floor for us. Probably cooler that way but not to our liking. By the way they don’t use box springs here, just mattresses.

Today is a Muslim holiday, the end of Ramadan so there is no traffic to speak of and schools are out. I think I forgot to mention there are no school buses so children are taken to school by their parents or drivers. You can’t imagine the traffic around schools in the morning and afternoon.

Early Saturday
Ron worked late into the night making the changes on the lease and sent it off to the Veena and the real estate broker Christine. We’ll wait until we return on Tuesday to send it off to ICMA after Veena and Christine have had a chance to review it.

I ordered the bed and it will be ready in about three weeks so I reckon we will be on the floor until it is delivered. We’re off to the hills!

We got our ballots yesterday that were mailed two weeks ago. Unfortunately they had the wrong street number for Ron’s office so I think that was the delay. Since we want the library measure to pass, I am returning them via DHL. We woke up to a tremendous electrical storm at 5:00 this morning. I don’t think I have ever heard such loud thunder. It seemed like it was right outside our window. Given the short lapse between the lightning and thunder, it was quite close. It poured rain. But you could hear the storm move away as the time between lightning and thunder became longer and longer. Made for an exciting wake up call.

Carol, a dear friend asked for some history of SL. Here’s a thumbnail sketch. Thanks for the idea, Carol. Forgive my taking some liberties to simplify the history here. There are two major ethnic/religious groups in SL. The Sinhalese (Buddhist) and the Tamils (Hindus). The Sinhalese came to SL about 500BC from northern India and the Tamils came about 300BC from southern India. There is evidence of domestication of plants and animals and a hunting people here from 17,000 years ago so the two groups described above were not the first inhabitants of the island. Throughout history the Sinhalese and Tamils have been the dominant rulers and have fought back and forth over time. Gee sounds like the Jews and Muslims and the Catholics and Protestants, doesn’t it?

The Portuguese arrived in 1505 and occupied the coastal areas. Ceylon’s spices (cinnamon) were a treasured commodity among the traders. The Dutch arrive in 1656 and oust the Dutch. In 1796 the Dutch surrender to the Brits. 1802 Ceylon becomes a crown colony. Coffee was grown here but had a terrible blight in 1870. Tea replaced coffee as a major crop and has enjoyed fame since then. 1948 Ceylon gained independence. In 1959 Ceylon had the world’s first woman prime minister! 1972 Ceylon becomes the Republic of Sri Lanka (resplendent island). At that time three languages were common: English, Tamil and Sinhala. Tamil and Sinhalese communicated with each other using English. The ruling party decided to make Sinhal the official language and instituted other measures to make Tamils second class citizens. They made it more difficult for them to enter universities for example. Things continued to get worse and as a result Jaffna demanded a wholly independent Tamil state to be known at Eelam The Jaffna secessionists became the Tamil Tigers. Violence escalated and a civil war waged for twenty years. There is currently a three-year ceasefire and work on a peace agreement. Presidential elections are coming up so things are a little edgy here. Don’t worry we won’t be participating in any political rallies.

For some stats, about 74% of the population is Sinhalese, 18% are Tamil, 7% Moors, 1% Malays. 69% Buddhists, 15.5% Hindu, 7.6% Christian (mostly Catholic from the Portuguese), 7.7% Muslim.

The highest mountain is 2524 m and there are nine mountains over 7000 ft. We are 880 k above the equator and the island is 25,299 sq miles in area. It’s about 250 miles n-s and 181 e-w at the widest point. There are about 19 million people here. 21.5% urban, 72.2% rural and 6.3% estate (tea plantations). We are located just off the southern tip of India. The literacy rate is 91.8% and if I’m not mistaken that beats the good ole USA. Isn’t that amazing considering this is a developing country. Average per capita income is US $827. These are 2001 figures by the way.

Carol also asked if the culture was homogeneous. I’d say no, it’s quite diverse. Tuesday was a Hindu holiday (New Year) and Friday is a Muslim holiday (end of Ramadan) and the day we arrived was a Buddhist holiday poya (full moon). I don’t know how Sri Lankans relate to Indians although one of my tour books said assuming they were the same was a good way to insult a Sri Lankan. One last thing, we are 11 hours ahead of the east coast and 14 ahead of the west coast.

Hope this gives you more of an idea of Sri Lanka. Ron asked me last night (we went out to a fabulous Indian restaurant) if I had any regrets about coming here. I said absolutely not. I was thrilled to be here, that is an adjustment but that was part of the adventure. I think it is healthy to see other parts of the world, to see how others live and make do and it is embarrassing how incredibly wealthy we are in the US and how discontent we are as a nation, wanting so much more. Here people ride four to a motorcycle-Dad, mom and two kids and they would probably be considered well off because they have a vehicle. Cars have a 200% import tax so only the very wealthy would own a car.
Since we are going to the mountains this weekend, I bought Ron a jacket today because it is supposed to be cold in the mountains here. I can hardly wait to find out what cold is here. I went to my favorite department store (I only know of two so far) and bought him a nylon jacket with fleece lining. Sri Lanka requires that 10% of the clothes made for export stay in the country. I am guessing that is why I can find a fleece-lined jacket in a city that is hot hot hot!!! So because there isn’t much demand for these warm clothes you can get them for a song. I paid $7.75. They have London Fog jackets for $15-$19. Unbelievable. I’ll never be able to adjust to the US after being here a year. Yikes!

I’ve spent the last two days going to stores that sell furniture trying to determine what’s available and costs. I’m done and ready to go to the house and measure some rooms to make sure we don’t buy a dining room set that is too big or get other furniture that doesn’t fit the scale of the rooms. Hopefully we can do that this week. Our lease contract should be delivered today. We then fax it to ICMA for approval. Once approved, I can start making purchases and store things at the house while final touches are being done to wrap up construction. In between I need to drag Ron out to see what I have scouted and make some decisions about aesthetics and of course cost! There is a variety to choose from, many traditional Sri Lankan styles would include rattan backed, bottomed settees and chairs. It’s not my first choice but is on the drawing board. Given the climate here, traditional upholstered furniture is way down the list. The dining sets we’ve seen include a wood called tri rubber which is a soft wood, C grade as opposed to teak which is a hard wood A grade and about 40% more expensive. Stay tuned…

Given that I’m 60 I can’t remember if I mentioned the staffing in the hotel, stores and restaurants. Most of the housekeeping staff is men. I’d guess 75% or more. A trainee makes 3000 rupees a month, that’s about $30. Men staff the restaurants in the hotel and outside the hotel and the shops are mixed maybe evenly with men and women but by our standards the shops would be overstaffed. Yesterday I went into a craft store and bought some postcards. One person took the cards, took me to a room away from the cashier to write up my purchase. I then went back to the cashier and paid and a third person at another counter handed me my cards.

While I was out yesterday far away from the hotel I got hungry and my tut tuk driver suggested a beach restaurant because we were quite close to the ocean. I asked him to join me but he refused. I have a feeling one never eats with their driver, housekeeper or gardener. I was seated at a table that was under the thatched roof and in the sand. I asked for a menu and a few minutes later the waiter brought out a plate with a raw dead fish, a crab and prawn on top of the fish. There were some raw greens on the side. I pointed to the prawns and he said they would be prepared with garlic butter (what could be bad), rice and vegetables. It took a while but I got about 6-7 large prawns, a huge plate of rice and some lovely sautéed greens. I had ordered bottled water and got a liter sized bottled. My order with taxes and tip was a whopping $7.70! On the beach!!

Another thing I have noticed is that a lot of Sri Lankans do not wear shoes. Not sure if that is for comfort or due to poverty. Many workmen in the hotel remodel are barefooted. The painters and the ones that scare me the most, the guys on the scaffolding which here is 1.5-maybe 2-inch pipe are without shoes. Yesterday there were a number of men (6-7) who were cleaning out the fishponds. They wade into the pond with nets, catch the fish and put them into a pond other than the one they are cleaning. There are lots of fish and some turtles in the ponds. The men were in the foul water (turtle and fish poop and decayed plant matter) and they were barefooted. Yikes! I know Americans are freaks about cleanliness but you could get real sick in that water seems to me.

Being from the NW where it rains all winter, I never thought I would say this but yesterday it rained off and on all day here and the sun never came out. I loved it because it was cool most of the day. It doesn’t get that dark here when it rains and it’s a warm rain so you don’t get chilled. I am anticipating acclimating before we leave at the end of 2006. Keep your fingers for me.