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.