Photos at www.rtsla.photofreeway.com

Monday Jan 30th
Yesterday, Mr Kularathna brought us fish for our pond that is in the atrium. He also brought us a water plant. He never ceases to amaze me. Mr. Kularathna is the trishaw driver I use anytime I have errands to run or shopping to do. He rarely allows me to tip him, he has the lowest prices of any driver I have used and he manages to drive with all three wheels on the ground, which is more than I can say for most of them! I call him when I need a ride and have only used someone else when he isn’t available which is quite infrequent. The most he has ever charged me was 900 rupees and that was for about five-six hours of running around plus his wait time when I am in a store. The fare is usually closer to 300-500 rupees (one rupee is one penny). At any rate, let’s just say we are smitten with one another. He has driven for twenty-five years and has known of every street or place I have asked him to take me to. At some point he went to the Middle East and earned enough money to buy land and build his home. Most Sri Lankans own their homes and a smaller percentage rent. I don’t know how many but I think it is not uncommon for Sri Lankans to go abroad to earn money and send it back home. They will do this for years. I will post a photo of Mr. K and his trishaw as soon as Ron has time to give me a lesson. The younger drivers like to ‘gaudy up’ their trishaws with fancy paint colors, decals, artificial flowers, pictures of Buddha or Hindu gods, fringe and aerials. We saw one trishaw with six aerials on it. Go figure! Mr. K has the plain vanilla variety. Ah, the wisdom of age…

So now I have my first goldfish and guppies at 60. They are quite pretty in the mini pond. One died this morning. Probably the trip from Mr. K’s to here was just too much. Ron spent about an hour or two on Sunday trying to drill through the wall under the steps (everything here is concrete) so he could install an air pump for the fish. Unfortunately, his drill bit wasn’t long enough and our nearby hardware store didn’t have anything that would work. Today Mr. Kularathna told me they weren’t available in SL but he would get a drill bit and have an extension welded onto it so Ron could get all the way through the wall.

We have this week and next at home then the classes start up again and the schedule is getting intense. Ron’s team has to roll out new classes every six weeks to meet the demands of the grant. Classes are scheduled for three weeks in February. I’m not sure which ones I will be accompanying Ron on but I know he will be flying to one of them due to his schedule demands in Colombo. In addition to having family visit in February (Dick and Pat Parker arrive Feb 18. They are David’s wife’s parents), Ron’s bosses from Thailand and Washington DC will be here Feb 20-22. We are very excited to have our first houseguests and even think we are ready!

To keep us humble, John Craig, who lives in Bosnia and with whom Ron works, sent us this cartoon today. Thanks John. Now I’m sensitive about my writing.

http://www.comics.com/webmail/ViewStrip?key=43135492-85a332c27f-FF

Wednesday Feb 1
Oops I forgot to post this. How can you be retired and loose track of time like this?
The American Center here has free movies every Tuesday night. We went to one in November but haven’t been back either because the movie didn’t interest us or more often, because we were out of town. Last night they showed Chicago. We saw it in Portland but needed a night out and some entertainment. It was great the second time. We came home and discovered we had no water. We have been without hot water for several days as the original solar system wasn’t properly installed and was causing water damage to the third floor walls. Apparently when they were working on it yesterday they tripped the electrical system that pumps water into the house. Anyway, Mrs. Bakshi called them at they cam around 9:00 and got us water. We have several more days of cold-water showers. Yikes! Makes for a quick one.

I have a problem remembering what I have said in emails and what I have said in the blog so forgive me if I am repeating myself. Monday or Tuesday I saw my first parakeet with the binoculars. What a thrill to see these beautiful birds. They aren’t like those parakeets we see in the pet stores at home. This was a rose ringed parakeet, much larger than what we are used to. Go to Google and take a look. They are spectacularly colored. Green body, rose ring around the neck, orange beak and teal tail. WOW! And I saw him from the roof top garden. He was back today and holding still for a longer time. They fly quite fast so it was quite treat to see him just hanging out in a tree.

I have been asked to do a project for the Asia Foundation. I am not comfortable with parts of the project as I think it is beyond my skill level. So I asked them if they want me to do part of it or none of it. Waiting for an answer. I also said I would only do it as a volunteer to avoid any conflict of interest with Ron’s work. So we’ll see. I think I mentioned that I will be doing some career development work with young women here.

That’s it for today from Sri Lanka, where the men are gorgeous, the weather is sultry and the Bergmans are having an adventure.