We are back from Chilaw. Got home around 7:30 last night and we leave tomorrow (Sunday) around 2:00 for Anuradhapura which is about 5 hours away. We will return on Wednesday. I think I wrote that we stayed at a very nice resort about 30 minutes out of town. Often when you trave lto rural areas or smaller towns your choices for lodging are quite limited unless you stay in lodging that costs $2-$10 a night. Those places never have air conditioning, rarely have hot water and the toilets would be out back.

Leaving the resort on Friday morning I saw numerous women gathering at communal spigots to get water to carry home. Oy, water is so heavy so imagine how many trips you would take in a day. I'm sure they use a fraction of the water we do and most probably use a spring or some public bathing place. That would be cold water only. It was rainy on Wednesday and I saw a charming sight: Two men on a bicycle, one carrying an umbrella to shield the two of them. Sometimes you see the same thing only on a motorcycle. Rain gear is a plastic bag if you have one big enough. Again I saw men holding hands or arms draped around one another. It's pretty special to see.

Last week in my neighborhood, I passed a fish seller. He was walking down the street with a long pole balanced on his shoulder.Remember those painting fromChina of such a sight? From each end was suspended a flat basket. One contained a large fish and the other prawns. He also had a small scale and a knife. So you would tell him how much you wanted, he would cut off a piece of the fish and weigh it to charge you the appropriate amount. Don't ask about refrigeration here as it is not required. I think I told you I have never seen eggs refrigerated anywhere in Asia.

Another common sight is bare dirt landscaping. Homes will have no grass but might have numerous potted pants in the yard. I have never seen a stroller here. Small children and infants are carried. Often in the city young women will be begging for money while carrying a small child who may be nursing as she walks along.

When we had our cable tv installed, the installer showed up with no drill. He asked to use ours and Ron said no since he had never used it and we didn't have a masonry bit anyway. So one of the men went back to his shop to get the drill. This is a typical kind of experience here. At the training that was done in Chilaw, copies had not been made of handouts, the printer and projector had not been packed. The person in charge blamed the people to whom he had assigned these tasks. I think I described the sorry shape the training room was in. The facilty is a Catholic conference center. When I asked to use the toilet, I was led into the room used by staff. In order to flush the toilet, you remove the tank lid, reach into the water with your hand and pull the submerged level. Yuk! This was the nice bathroom. I hear the two toilets for conference participants was so bad, one of our staff complained. This facility can accommodate 1000 attendees and has two toilets! What is wrong with that picture?

Suba is one of Ron's team members and he is aTamil (as opposed to a Sinhalese). His sister and her family live in Chilaw so we were invited to their home for lunch. What a feast and what a priviledge! We were given forks but the Tamils ate with their hands. We were served in tin plates which is common here. The plates still had the paper price label on the face of the plate. The tin cups the same. We were served five dishes with rice: soup, dahl, potato curry, brindjahl (eggplant), a salsa like dish, bitter gourd, little fried cracker like things. There was tapioca with raisins and coconut for dessert. Suba's sister served us but did not join us at the table. They are moving in a month into a new home they are having built. We were presented with commercial calendars from the husband's workplace as we left.It was a very special expereince and we are very grateful for it.

One more common sight here is when the road caves in someone will put an upright stick into the hole as a warning. Sometimes they will put an empty plasitc bottle or bucket on the stick to help drivers see it, sometimes not.

Before we went out of town we took Veena and her mother out for dinner as a thank you for all they have done for us. We asked Veena to tell us the story of our house and how it came to be. Her parents bought the land in 1965 and built their home there in 1973. Her mother had planted a large garden on the property. Three years ago Veena decided to build the second home. The house still has a few unfinished areas: one exterior wall needs paining. It adjoins the neighbor's house and we are pretty sure this is the reason for the mildew/mold problem in our closet. We moved our clothes to a closet in another room until the wall gets painted. There are two showers that need enclosing and she has hired someone to do that. A large window in our bedroom needs to be reset as it leaks when there is heavy rain. Some of the interior needs repainting due to water damage. We are happy as clams there and feel very fortunate to have Veena for a landlady.

One last observation for the day. Most light poles and telephone poles are concrete here.
Hope to write fromAnuradhapura.