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!