12/31/05

475/3A Thimbirigasyaya Rd
Colombo 05 Sri Lanka

I think I mentioned that Ron gave me a book on the birds of Sri Lanka and some binoculars for Christmas. Yesterday I finally took time and sat out on the wall in our roof top garden in the early evening and identified my first SL bird. What a thrill! I've never done birding before but thought it would be fun here with tropical birds. The bird was a red vented bulbul. Ha! Yesterday evening it was actually cool outside (72 degress). I can't remember it being that cool before. We slept with our bedroom balcony doors open(we have screen doors that protect us from mosquitoes). It was the second time we didn't use AC since we have been here. But we were awaken at 1:00 by a very loud party two blocks away. We could see the party house from our bedroom and I can't imagine how loud the music was at the house because it was so loud at our house, two blocks away. Those folks will be deaf when they are my age! So we closed our doors and turned on the AC.

Geeta, our housekeeper, is a godsend. She cleans, irons and cooks. I willnever bethe same! No wonder expats never want to come home. Geeta's meals are incredible Sri Lankan delights. She stayed late for the party we had and did all the clean up. She helped get the food on the table. At Christmas the tradition here is to give the people who provide services for you (postman, newspaperman, housekeepr, etc) money. I gave Geeta a month's salary and the next time she came she brought me a beautiful bouquet! She is fifty-six years old and has a very sweet spirit.

We are enjoying having CNN, BBC and HBO. It is difficult to get much news from home but this is better than the newspaper that rarely has any news from home.

Our party after work for staff Ron works with at the Asia Foundation was fun. One point of interest: the women will only drink soft drinks at parties because they don't want to be thought of as loose women. No comment.

Another thing we have noticed is Sri Lankans don't get in lines at counters whether it is the post office or retail counter.They all just elbow there way in, sort of the same way they drive. No kiddin'.

12-29-05
475/3A Thimbirigasyaya Rd
Colombo 05 Sri Lanka

Ron and I have finally gotten a morning routine. We get up at 6:00 and take a brisk walk for 45 minutes, come home shower and have breakfast and he reads the paper until time to go to work at 8:15. At home, we used to get up at 5:00 and he left for work at 6:40. Ah, island life...The walks have been interesting because there to so much to see when on foot. One thing for sure, we are reminded daily of how incredibly wealthy Americans are (for the most part) compared to folks here. Let me explain. There is a place called Suki's Wok. It's a take out place, with a counter on the street. You don't go into the shop, just stand at the counter and order your food. Yesterday we realized the owner (manager? worker?) sleeps on the counter at night. That's his home. There's another food stand on our walk and we are pretty sure they are sleeping in the tri shaw that is parked next to it. A tri shaw is what I ride around in. It is sort of a motorcycle with covered passenger/driver area. Let's just say it ain't made for sleeping but this couple seem pretty darn creative in terms of how they have converted it. This morning we walked past the Independence Memorial Hall. There is a concrete pond on the site and we observed a disabled man who sits uses a bicycle where you peddle with your hands instead of your feet. At any rate, he had hoisted himself up on the concretre wall and was brushing his teeth in the pond. Mailmen deliver mail on bicycles, the newspaper men are walking or on bicycles. Notice I said men, not boys. Many trishaw drivers are drving barefoot although I can see their shoes on the floor. We have alos spied a man on a bicycle with a big tin container on the back. He is selling bread door to door at 6:30 in the morning. I know not everyone in Amercia is wealthy but our standards are so different than those here.

We have had our first two language tutoring sessions. We love the tudor, Chandani and are having fun learning Sinhala. We will have to work around our travel schedule as the next three weeks we will be on the road starting next week on Wednesday.

The weather here has changed. The rains have stopped and I miss them as they helped to cool things off. Ron thinks it's cooler but I think he has acclimated. I checked today the the past week it has been 86-90 degrees. That doesn't take into account the humidity factor that can add 5-10 degrees. The low has been 68. The morning walks have been wonderful as the sun isn't up and it helps. By the way, being so close to the equator, we get 12 hours of light a day year around. I still sweat due to the humidity but I think I am starting to acclimate also because when I first got here I couldn't stand walking anywhere, now I go at a good clip to the internet cafe and back. I cannot fathom wearing jackets but many motorcycle riders have them on. Maybe it is for protection in case of an accidents. I'd pass out if I had on a heavy jacket.

I don't know what news you get there but there has been a series of killings in the north. This is in the LTTE controlled area. We are hopeful that the civil war won't resume. If it does, we would need to leave in a hurry. Everyone says no one wants the war to start again. There is a lot of pressure from the international community for peace talks to resume. So please send peace and love vibes to SL now! Thanks.

Last Monday we spent the better part of the day getting materials for a clothesline. Our wonderful driver Mr Kularathne took us to a scrap yard for the posts. First we tried a hardware store that sepcialized in aluminum stock but they only had 12 ft lenghts, no ability to cut it and didn't sell saws! Then Mr Kularathne stopped by a construction site and talked them into welding up the posts with the t-top. Ron went to numerous stores trying to find eye bolts. Guess what, ain't available here or least no one knew what he was talking about and he did a great drawing of one but with no luck. Today I found some nylon rope that we will use for the clothesline. No one here has a dryer. I have been using a couple of wood racks but I will be able to do larger loads and it will dry much quicker. It takes about 30 hours to get towels dry using the racks. I felt like I found a treasure yesterday when I was in a hardware store that had wooden clothes pins. No one uses clothes pins her. All that I have seen available before yesterday was these flimsy plastic things that fall apart after one use.

This week I mailed two packages to our kids in the US. Postage here is about one third of what it is in the US. It cost $70 to mail two jackets (they cost $50 for the two) and a small shopping bag. I won't be mailing anything else at that rate.

Tonight we are having our after work party with drinks and snacks. I'm looking forward to meeting more of Ron's coworkers. About 20 are expected.

Well that's it from SL, where the weather is sultry, the men are goregous and Ron and Tricia are having an adventure.

475/3A Thimbirigasyaya Rd
Colombo 05 Sri Lanka

Tonight we have our first session with a language tutor. We plan to meet twice a week when we are in town. Our hope is to learn enough Sinhala to get by. We don't intend to learn to read or write as the alphabet is totally different. Sorry I can't remember the term but it would be like learning how to write Chinese characters. Not going to happen in this lifetime. It took me about three weeks to learn to pronounce the name of our street. Remember I'm a southerner and anything over two syllables is a challenge.

Yesterday's newspaper had some statistics on the tsunami I thought you may find interesting. Yesterday was the one year anniversary. These are the stats for Sri Lanka:
Loss of lives 35,322
Injured 21,441
Displaced people 516,150
Lost livelihood 150,000
Loss of houses 98,000
Rehabilitation cost $2.2 billion US

The news was filled with stories of tragedy and outcomes a year later. I wept. It is unimaginable.

The longer we are here, the more distressed we are about solid waste. It is a real sad story here. Litter is everywhere. People will dump their garbage anywhere. As I walk to the internet cafe, I pass by an apartment complex that is at the bottom of a steep bank, near the road. People dump their garbage over the bank. It is common to see piles of garbage on the side of the road, where crows, dogs, cats, cows and flies have a feast eating rotten garbage. It breaks my heart. It also makes for an eyesore every time you see it not to mention it contributes to various diseases. 70% of the household gargage is kitchen waste that could be composted. In Nuwara Eliya they have realized the error of their ways and are completely turning it around. They are not fully functional yet but are well on their way and they have a plan for 2006-07 that will put them on top. But here in Colombo, it is a sorry state of affairs. By properly disposing solid waste you can greatly reduce malaria and other insect borne diseases. Well enough said.

We have our first party on Thursday. Ron has invited people from the Asia Foundation who work with his program to come by after work for drinks and snacks. So we will have 15 or so over. I'm smarter than I look-I had it catered. One of the drivers at work has a wife who will do some of the food prep and there is a caterer across Thimbirigasyaya Rd from us so I am giving them a try. Will report back on Friday!

Well it is hot as a pistol in the cafe so I am signing off before I pass out. Just kiddin'.

That's it from Sri Lanka where the weather is sultry, the men are gorgeous and Ron and Tricia are having an adventure!

475/3A Thimbirigasyaya Rd
Colombo 05 Sri Lanka

erry Christmas and Happy Chanukah!! It's Christmas Eve in Colombo and it is 86 degrees. With the humidity factor it feels like 95 according to my favorite weather site. At any rate, it's hot, damn hot. We will have a low key celebration here. Although you can get Christmas decorations I have yet to spy a menorah.

This will be brief because it's so hot in the internet cafe. We are fine although we sure are lonesome for family anfd friends. I've been a little teary this week but it is to be expected given the season. We got four dvds ($8 for 4, gee could they be bootleg?) today as everything will be closed tomorrow. Ron is taking Monday off and getting a massage. I found a wonderful massage therapist yesterday and will book him monthly. He is a blind Sri Lankan and in his 18th year of practice. A man we met at a party told us about him. He works out of the Hilton, which is not a convenient location but who cares!!!

We wish you all a wonderful holiday, and a New Year filled with joy and peace. Pray for peace here as the LTTE is acting out as of late in the north, testing the new president.

You may have noticed that Ron and Tricia's writing styles are a wee bit different. I bury you in details and Ron is the big picute guy who gives you a general idea of things. Given that, I thought I would give you some more detail on city offices in Nuwara Eliya and Hatton where we were last week.

The day we met with the commissioner in NE they had a big celebration because they had just gotten an award for being the best run city in their province. I think there are three cities but don't quote me on that. So we were meeting with the commissioner about solid waste training in January. He had to leave in the middle of the meeting to go to the celebration. So we went into the area where the computers are that are part of Ron's program.

Let me describe city offices in Sri Lanka. They are thread bare: raw concrete floors, the mayor's office had carpet that was paperthin with runs/pulls in the threads. Table tops are chipped. There is no NCR paper and everything is done with carbon paper. Furniture is very old, some in need of repairs. File drawers are ancient. The mayor's photograph has a plaque labeled "His Worship". Someone please suggest that to Tom Potter and see what he thinks of the idea. Ha! Everything needs a good wanshing and a coat of paint. Lighting is poor. Manual typewriters are the standard and computers are almost nonexistent. Everytime we have had one of these meetings, you can expect a number of people to enter and leave the room during the meeting, sometimes speaking with the person you are meeting with. In addition, expect them to take numerous phone calls from their cell phone and the one or two phones on the desk.

When we were in Hatton, I asked to use the restroom and they took me into the chairman's office. He has a bathroom in his office. Oh my god....the toilet didn't drip, it flowed, out the back of the tank onto the floor. What a waste. It was in such bad repair, you had to bucket flush it. That is, there is a large bucket of water with a smaller bucket that you fill from the big bucket then pour it into the toilet bowl. For a country that doesn't have adequate water, this is a real crime. But it is one of the strange things about SL: people don't repair what is broken here and I don't know why.

Well, I'm off to a movie date. It is rare to find a movie here that we can understand but tonight the Iranian Embassy is showing a film by a famous Iraninan director. The film, The Taste of Cherry apparently won a Cannes film award in 1997. Being film buffs, we are starved so are going.

By the way, did I tell you the Bergman's have ordered cable??? You need to know neither of us has ever had cable but again we are desperate for news from home and cable is the only way to get it other than the internet and we don't have that yet either.

Happy Holidays to all you readers out there. We wish you a season of peace and joy. We have seen lots of Christmas decorations in the bigger stores and the hotels but I don't believe Sri Lankans , other than the Christians which is a very small number, celebrate Christmas as we do with gift giving and decorations. I have not spied a menorah here so I think we will have a quite celebration here. My driver told me today everything will be closed on Sunday.

We’ll we’re back from a week and a half on the road doing financial management training for local authorities. We spent one week in the South (two training sessions) and a half-week in Central Province (one session). For those who want more information on the program I am working with I thought I’d give a little background.

In 2004 USAID awarded a contract to the Asia Foundation and ICMA as partners in a program called Transparent Accountable Local Governance. This program was designed to help strengthen and build the capacity of local authorities as a way of demonstrating that democracy could work and help encourage more reliance on government generally as a prelude to peace between the rebel Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government. Only 15 local authorities were included in this program. Within a week of when the contract was awarded, the tsunami struck and USAID responded by increasing funding so that the number of local authorities could be expanded to 33. Special emphasis was focused on tsunami-affected communities in the east and south.

The program has several key elements. The first is strengthening and building the capacity of local authorities. This is where ICMA and I fit into the program. Our job is to do an assessment of each local authority, and then design training programs in financial management and service delivery to help improve the level of service to the public. So far we have conducted computer training and supplied each local authority with two PCs. We’ve conducted budget training to about half of our local authorities, and the post tsunami group were selected too late for the first round of training. We’re just finished half of the local authorities doing financial management training. We’re also helping to build or strengthen associations of local officials.

Other parts of the program that are being managed by the Asia foundation are public participation training, and citizen involvement; building political will to make changes to the system of local governance; and finally strengthening the rule of law as a way to minimize the political impacts on local governance.

It’s a tall order for a two-year program that was 6 months into the time line when I came on board. As context for all of this you need to understand that nothing in Sri Lanka works. The transportation system doesn’t work, the tax system doesn’t work, the political system doesn’t work, and local authorities are at the bottom of the food chain as national policies control the structure and role of local authorities. However the national government has devolved authority for local governance to the Provinces. These quasi states have vastly different ways of managing local authorities. The Provincial Commissioner of Local Government is a politically appointed person who has unilateral control over local authorities. Each local authority has an approved “cadre” that makes up somewhere around 50% to 70% of the local authority employees. However these are Provincial employees assigned to the local authority and the local authority does not have the authority to manage these employees, discipline these employees, or even ensure that they come to work. In fact, many do not. If one of these positions becomes vacant, the local authority must ask for permission to have it refilled. Sometimes this happens, sometimes it doesn’t. It can take up to 2 years to get a decision. People in these positions are part of the “government service” and good ones get transferred to other ministries or positions at the will of the Province. The Local Authorities have the ability to fill casual labor positions if they use their own money…. which in most cases isn’t much. However in some Provinces, even these require approval of the CLG (Commissioner of Local Government). Much of the revenues of local government go through the Province. And guess what, the Provinces are not good about passing the money on. In some cases it takes up to two years for this to happen. If the two-year mark is passed, the Local Authority looses the title to the money and it becomes the property of the Province.

So where is the political accountability? Well the system is designed to not have any. All levels of government (National, Provincial, and Local) use proportional representation. So voters vote for the Party, not the individual. The party then selects the people from the party that will fill the number of slots that the party received in the election. So the Party, not the people, selects the Mayor or Chair of the Local Authority. The political situation is complicated by a practice that seems to happen here in Sri Lanka. With high dissatisfaction in government, people tend to swing at each election between the two major parties. So at one election one party will win and the next the other will win. But unfortunately local and national/Provincial elections are not held at the same time. So, Local Authorities tend to have one ruling party while the Province and National government tend to have the opposite party in power. So, Local Authorities tend to not have much impact on the political system.

But beyond the political system things just don’t work well here. In our trainings, we invited each participating local authority to send 5 people from the finance department. Some agencies sent 6 while others sent 7. One said they’d send people but sent none. One agency sent some people day one and different people day two. Apparently they view these training opportunities as an employee benefit and want to spread it around.

We had a local vendor install new two new computers at each Local Authority. We spent hours going over with them how they were to be set up. It was all documented. However, as we checked local authorities, guess what…. They were not set up correctly. When we called the vendor he agreed to go back and correct it. Did it get corrected after that? Not on your life. The things we pointed out were correct on one computer…. but not the other. So the vendor now has to come back a third time. Who knows what will be left undone this next time.

On our way back from Nuwara Eliya in Central Province we encountered considerable traffic as a result of an accident. Because roads are so narrow and alternate routes unavailable, it took us two hours longer than expected to get home. It was a good thing we didn’t have plans.

It seems that when things don’t work, you try to get them fixed correctly; so you do it again or have it done re-done. But it’s still not the way you want so you try a third time. Wyhen this doesn’t work, you kind of give up and then shrug and try to work around it. But when you then move on to something else yo find that this piece won’t fit with the first because it wasn’t done they way you had intended. And the saga continues.

People in the know say this is typical of work in developing countries. I’m finding it quite frustrating… but I continually work on self-talk about this is a normal part of adjustment to a new system… and that I can’t expect things to be like the US here in Sri Lanka. When I finish with that I fall back to the serenity prayer. About changing the things I can, accepting the things I can’t change and knowing the difference. I sure hope I know the difference!!!!!

This morning I took another walk in the area. I heard this incredible screeching noise and looked up in the trees above me. There were hundreds and hundreds of fruit bats, hanging from the limbs of several trees. Fruit bats are about the size of a crow or raven: big by our standards. I was fascinated. Yesterday I saw white egrets and a heron, looked like a night or green heron but until Christmas comes, I can’t be too sure about my identification of birds. (I have asked for a pair of binoculars and a book on birds of Sri Lanka for Christmas.) There are so many unusual birds and each morning I hear so many different bird songs that I really would like to know more about them.

My favorite thing I saw this morning was a man on a bicycle with a long pole. He would ride up to a street light, take the pole and hook one end into a ring high above him and pull on the pole, thus turning off the light. You got it; they turn the streetlights on/off by hand! I hope I am able to keep my amazement the entire time I am here. It is like being in another century.

Today I was packing for joining Ron on the coast. I pulled out our camera and the case was covered in mildew. Welcome to the tropics! But my favorite thing is I have a gecko living in my closet. Every time I open the door, he greets me. He is small and pretty cute. Can anyone tell me if they are good to have around or should I be evicting him? We once killed some giant spiders in our motel room in Zimbabwe and caught hell because “they are flatties. They eat insects”. I wouldn’t want to evict a mosquito-eating gecko.

I feel like I have died and gone to heaven. The past two evenings Veena’s mother, Mrs. Bakshi has brought me supper. The first night it was Indian pancakes with dhal and coconut chutney. Oh my goodness, they were good. Last night she made string hoppers again with dhal and a different coconut chutney. String hoppers are like fresh tiny thin noodles and oh so good. Can you tell I am a carb freak? It was great to not have to cook for one with Ron being gone.

Today I spent some time shopping, trying to get our office set up. My tuk tuk driver found a great office supply store. Great by SL standards. I asked for file folders and was sold flat, colored stiff paper that you fold…a folder. At any rate, I found the items and needed and feel a bit more organized.

I’m off to the market to try to find something to control the roaches that are leaving evidence that they have invaded my kitchen. Anyone know of any ‘natural’ deterrents? I really don’t like using toxic chemicals any time I can avoid it.

Cheap thrills…I was walking back from the market and got a whistle. I look up and a construction worker high above me waves. I use a broad brimmed hat so imagine his surprise when this 60-year chick waves back. I’m a hot chick all right, sweating hot that is.

Trouble in Paradise: On closer inspection of my closet, I just discovered most of my clothes are covered in mildew. Another problem to be solved. Stay tuned as I search for solutions. Anyone from Florida out there…I’m listening to your suggestions. This happened to me before when I lived there…oh my, that was in the sixties. I left in 1970! Yikes..I’m older than dirt…

12-12-05
Today is our son David's birthday. Thrity-three and kicking. Happy Birthday David.

Yesterday, Sunday, we came to Nuwara Eliya where Ron is doing a two day workshop and on Wednesday morning he has a meeting with the local authorities. We read the schedule that said we were leaving at noon, but Ron thought we were leaving at 1:00. We left at 2:00. We call it Sri Lanka time.

Nuwara Eliya is at 6,000 feet so the weather is delighfully cool here. I actually wore my light wool jacket last night. It took 5.5 hours to get here (65-70 miles). Our other car got here in 4.5 hrs. which is a record but they didn't have an overheated radiator and have to wait by the spring, filling litre bottles to cool off the engine and then refill the radiator.

This is the tea plantation area that I have written about before. We got home from Hikkaduwa Friday night about 8:00 pm and had a wonderful dinner in the refrigerator that Geeta, our housekeeper, had prepared. What a delight! We had potato curry with rice, green beans with tomatoes, and a wonderful eggplant dish. I had given her $5.00 for shopping. In addition to the groceries, she bought a bucket for housecleaning and I had $1.65 in change. Did I tell you I bought a tape measure (15 ft and it cost $1.40 or $1.60 I can't remember which)?

Our bed finally arrived. We ordered it Nov 4 and we got it Saturday. Unfortunatley, we did not realize that it came with a mattress so we now have three matresses. We bought mattress for $175 each. Our bed iscustom made as we changed measurements (taller) and had it built out of larger stock (we call it Bergman built. For those of you who know Ron well, you know he likes big and heavy.) and it cost $315 including the mattress. Amazing! I don't think we will adjust to the cost of things here.

Today I am going jacket shopping for David. Nuwara Eliya is famous for its stalls that sell name brand winter parkers for a few dollars: Columbia Sportswear, Gap, Nike, etc. I'll report back how I do.

That's it for today from the central hills of Sri Lanka.

Yesterday we bought our 20th anniversay present. When we were first married, we used to buy each other a sweather or shirt for our anniversary. Sonia, Ron's mom, said we were pretty boring. So we changed our ways and started buying an artwork that we selected together each aniversary. Thanks to Sonia we now have a decent collection of art and lots of good memories from the process. Yesterday we bought the Fire Devil mask. It is about 25-30 years old so it shows some wear but it is a magnificient mask. Yes, once we can send photos we will.

I was so pleased yesterday to find some Tiger Balm, a ointment that is good for headaches and twenty other remedies and a tennis ball to make a parking aid for our landlady. You hang the ball from a string so it will touch your windshield where you want to stop in your parking space. Hope that makes sense. As it is, she will park her car, then get out and realize she is too close to the house and you can't walk around the car. She gets back in and moves the car six inches. This way, she will know exactly where to stop. So I get back to the hotel, open the Tiger Balm package and discover the jar has sat in the sun and salt air so long you can't get the top off and the tennis ball has no bounce. Fortunately, it doesn't matter for our usage.

I had my first Ayurvedic massage yesterday. It is almost a nude massage (you keep your u.p.s on: up=underpants) She used about a half of a cup of oil on me. I could slide back to Colombo when done. She gave me a wonderful head massage but it took forever to get all the oil out of my hair. Yuck! I hate oily hair-so picky she is. The massage was more of a soothing rub than the therapeutic massage that we are used to. It made me miss Don O'Dell, the massage therapist in Vancouver. He has thumbs of steel. It hurts but your muscles are relaxed when Don is finished with you. We have heard about a blind massage therapist at the Hilton in Colombo so will try him, hoping to get something more helpful for our tight muscles.

We head back to Colombo late this afternoon, around five when the workshop ends. I hope to do a bit of sight seeing today. I come to the Internet cafe before the heat makes it unbearable in this small room. Although they have a air conditioner, they don't use it due to the expense. SL has power problems. The power has gone off in our hotel two-three times, although it was brief, several minutes.

That's it for today.

12-09-05

I wrote an entry yesterday but didn't have time to post it so this will be a bit out of order. Today I am in Hikkaduwa, about 2.5 hrs south of Columbo right on the ocean. It took 2.5 hours to go 101km, about 60 miles. Again I think you average about 25 km an hr here no matter where you go in SL.

Hikkaduwa became quite popular with the surfers/divers (non native) in the 60's and today it seems some of them are still here, just gray like us. Our hotel has quite a few guests and 90% of them are Caucasian and are in beach garb, even in town. I have never worn shorts outside of the house in deference to the culture. Here it seems no one would notice if I wore shorts to town.

Ron is doing a two day training at the hotel and I get to be a beach bum. Not a bad deal at all. The area we are in was hit by the tsunami last December. You may recall the news clips of the train that was knocked off the tracks and where many died while trying to escape. That village is quite near here. There are lots of 'temporary houses' that have been built to house those who lost their homes in the tsunami. These are one room wood structures that we would consider shacks. Most do not have windows, just one door. I saw two tents used as housing yesterday also.

The hotel we are in is right on the beach, which is quite narrow. Apparently two members of the training team was here in March and stayed in our hotel. At that time there were no windows on the first floor and no AC . Only one floor out of the four floors was available for guests. Today it appears mostly restored. It is a beautiful setting, looking out at some rocks and a coral reef, which is endangered due to a bleaching that occured in 1997 that caused the reef to reject the algae on which it is dependent. It is also threatened by the unregulated number of glass bottomed boats that go to the reef for tourists and the amount of garbage dumping from the resort hotels. I will not be going out on the glass bottom boat consequently.

This morning I went out of the dining area onto the patio and was asked to go another way. I realized they were 'restaining' the tile patio. I had never seen that before. It also appeared they were cutting the lawn using a weed eater as opposed to a lawn mower.

Coconut trees abound here, loaded with coconuts. It is very pictureques. There are hundreds of crows that last evening at sunset were making quite a racket. I arrived shortly before suset which was beautiful. Sunsets in SL are brief, apparently because we are close to the equator. Last night the sun was a brillant coral orange. This morning I spied lots of chipmunks on the grounds. It is considerably cooler here, with a constant sea breeze. May be a good place to escape to when the heat gets to be too much in Colombo.

When Ron is finished today we are going to Amalangoda that is famous for carved masks. There are 18 designs used for exorcising various illnesses. We like to collect masks from the variuos places we have visited so today will be fun as these masks are large and highly colored.

That's it from SL for today.

I had trouble logging on today. One of the mysteries of the internet. We had an incredible rainstorm last night, complete with lots of thunder and lightening. I thought the house might flood. With the amount of rain, the ground just couldn't absorb all the rain but alas, it didn't happen. I loved it because it got so cool I actually had to turn off the overhead fan. A first!

We are continually amazed at how dependent the economy is here on someone being at the house all the time. The garbage is not collected at a standard day or time. People do not have garbage cans. So a rep from the collection company walks down your street yelling 'dustbin' (ah the Brits have left their mark in so many ways). Peole gather their trash bags, yes the ubiquitous platic bag and run outside and put them outside their doors. You can't put your bags out in anticipation because of the irregularly and because stray animals would get into them and make a mess. Turst me I see it everywhere because people dump their garbage where ever they like and then it gets spread by animals. What a mess. The same occurance happens another day of the week when they pick up three bags (the equivelant of our recycle bins) of recyclable materials. This is brand new program apparently. I am suppose to get my bags this week.

I have a bottled water service and someone has to be home for the weekly delivery. So far I was told it would be delivered Monday morning, Monday afternnoon, Monday by 5:50 and today (Tuesday) it was delivered. So figure. Also all the meters for utilities are inside the walled homes so you will hear a knock at the door and you let them in so they can read your meters. Everything is so labor intenstive here. At any rate I have spent a lot of time waiting for deliveries. Good thing I'm retired.

I am beginning to see the advantage of live in servants. Although I wouldn't be interested in live ins, I can see why some people prefer it.

Tomorrow I join Mr B on the coast south of here. I am eager to see more of SL. I think I mentioned we are not yet hooked to the internet at home so I am blogging from a Internet cafe near the house.

The past two mornings I got up early and walked for 45 minutes. It's about the only time I can exercise and tolerate the humidity. It was great to start exploring the neighborhood.

There may be a few days break as we often cannot get access to the internet outside of Colombo.
We will be back in town Friday night so will send a blog on Saturday or Sunday. FOr those of you in the northwest who are freezing your tushies off, just remember we are sweating, and have roaches and geckos in our house! See life is fair. Sort of.

Well that its from Sri Lanka where the men are goregous, the weather is sultry and the Bergmans are having an adventure!

12-4-05

It's Sunday and I'm grateful the internet cafe is open. Ron left today for the south coast, Hambantota is the town. They will be doing a training on spreadsheets. He worked Friday night, half of Saturday and a bit more this morning before leaving. He has high standards and is finding it difficult here to see that they are met. I think once they have the training sessions developed his job will be easier. But there will be a continuing number of trainings to develop.

On Wednesday I will join him. A staff member from ohe Aisa FOundation is going to meet up with the training staff in Hikkaduwa, southwest coast and I am catching a ride with him and his driver. Score!

Have I mentioned public bathing here? Many people do not have tap water service in their homes. Hard to imagine, being from America isn't it? So about two blocks from our home is a spring with concrete walls. Mostly men but ocassionally women bath here. They stand in the overflow area, wearing shorts and lather up and rinse off. Tuk tuk drivers loved to wash their vehicles here. Once I saw a woman doing her wash. Oy, if you have ever washed clothes by hand you know how exhausting it can be. Back in my hippie days, I washed my sheets by hand. Once. That was enough for this ole girl to say, I don't think so.

Today I am so happy not to be going anywhere to shop. I consider myself somewhat of an environmentalist. I try to limit my consumerism but let me tell you, when you are setting up a new household, there is so much to buy. And shopping here is a trail to say the least. So I am taking a day off and loving it. Just wish I could write the blog from home.

Last night we had our first dinner party with four guests. It was great to have friends over to see how far we had gotten on the house in 10 days. We still have lots of empty spaces but are proud of what we have accomplished so far.

So after they arrived, I went into the kitchen to put my wondeerful homemade marinara sauce lasagne into the oven. Lo and behold the pan didn't fit into the oven! It was a 9x13 pan and was about two inches too long. Yikes! I laughed (what are my choices?) and was thankful that I had on the spur of the moment bought a 7x11 pan when I had bought the bigger one. I also had a small casserole so cut up my lasagne and put it into the two smaller pans. Then I discovered that I have a one shelf ovnr. This is pretty funny if you have seen my stove in Vancouver. It is a commercial restaurant stove with two huge ovens and six burners and a griddle/grill. Well, I managed to pull it off.

Our housekeeper starts Tuesday. Allix was over last night. She's the program director. Here it is called "Chief ofParty". She uses Geeta three days a week and said she is a fabulous cook but is limited to Sri Lankan food. Good. We love the local cusine. Apparently, you just tell her what you want and she does the marketing and cooking. I am delighted as cooking in my wonderful kitchen is a trail by fire, literally. It is a tiny space and gets hotter than Hades in there. I am such a Magnolia blossom I can't tolerate the heat. So I am going to have her work for us three days a week. I had planned to use her two days a week but she wants to work six: three for Alix and three for us. I asked her what she wanted to be paid and she asked for 5,000 rupees a month. That would be $50. When I first arrived I wondered how people utilized full time servants. It is not unusual to have several. Alix's landlord has eight servants who live on the premises. Now that I have a house, I realize that you could clean the house daily. Our roof is not sealed to the wall. There is daylight that can see seen between the wall and ceiling. We have a light well that goes from the third floor to the first floor and it has two open windows that lets a bit of rain in. You leave the patio doors open but we now have screens on the wrought iron which helps to limit the dirt coming in. Anyway, all of this allows a lot of dirt to enter the house. We have had to cover the laptops with tea towels. So you could sweep, mop and dust daily if you were so inclined. I don't think I'm anal retentive about dirt but this is very different. Another thing about living in the tropics is you can expect lots of mildew and mold. We already have some walls that are covered with mold. I think it is unavoidable.

That's the news from Lake Sri Lanka where the men are goregous, the weather is sultry and the Bergmans are having an adventure.

Oh my, how did it get to be December? We have received several emails telling us how cold it is in Portland. Just so you know, we are sweating every day here-literally! My good friend Gary Perry asked me when it cooled off here. Never! We are 6 degrees north of the equator. Apparently, this is the coolest it gets and trust me, this ain’t cool. I hear April and May are almost unbearable in Colombo. Fortunately, Ron earns a R&R then so we will have two weeks away. We are thinking New Zealand might be nice but haven’t researched it yet. If he is really smart he will schedule a work trip to Kandy or Nuwara Elyia once we return from the R&R. Both are in the interior and at higher attitudes and considerably cooler. Traditionally, many people from Colombo escape to these cities in April and May to get away from the heat.

Yesterday I was at a grocery store and at one point at check out I realized three women were working at my register. Go figure. I think I told you it took five men to process the sale of a coffee maker.

We had a water dispenser delivered yesterday. You can’t drink the tap water in Colombo so I was buying gallons at the store. This is will far superior as they deliver two five gallon bottles every Monday. Because you can’t drink the tap water, cooking can get rather bothersome, where you rinse the veggies in the tap water, then rinse the tap water off with the bottled water.

About the only things left to do on the house are the screens and the other shower doors. We still have some furniture shopping to do. We need a second bed (ours is due next week or the one after), more sheets, more living room furniture-two side chairs. Ron is considering selling our coffee table that he is not wild about. If that happens then we will be in the market for a coffee table.

Yesterday I tried out a housekeeper who came to us via the Asia Foundation. She works for the director of Ron’s program and although she’s not noted for great cleaning skills, she is supposed to be a good cook, good at ironing and very honest, which is worth a lot in these parts. Every time we have workmen here, Veena’s mom tells me to lock up anything of value. Well so far we are missing our very nice pair of surgical scissors and a tape measure.

Have I mentioned the smells of Colombo? Ah, the nasty stench of rotting garbage. They have a real problem with waste management here. It is not unusual for people to dump their plastic bags of garbage on the side of the road. Even in the nice neighborhoods. We have trash pick up on Saturdays (Veena says sometimes). When you go to the fresh markets, the waste is heaped into a giant dumpster. With the heat here, it doesn’t take long to develop a really fine stink! Then there is the un-refrigerated meat section of the markets. I can’t go near them due to the smell. I am developing my capacity for holding my breath here. On the up side, I eat fresh mangoes daily. Bananas ripe on the stalk.

Yesterday I witnessed how the street sweepers operate. The street sweepers are men and women to sweep by hand and put the refuse in a cart they push down the street. A big truck comes by, they take out a tarp, dump the cart contents onto the tarp and then they lift the tarp into the back of the truck. Everything here (almost) is manual, labor intensive and not particularly efficient but then again I’m comparing it to the USA. I guess this way, you can keep the unemployment rate down to 10%.