Ron has been great about posting new photos so if you haven't checked out our photo site lately, do so now. www.rtsla.photofreeway. com

I somehow thought we were leaving today for South Africa but realized yesterday that we leave tomorrow. That gave us a day of rest. So we cleaned our first floor window screens this morning. It is a simple task as they are screen cloth held on with velco. So we took them to the roof top, rinsed them in a large plastic tub we use as a beer cooler for parties and hung them out to dry. They were filthy. Remember we have been in the house since Thanksgiving but the air here is quite dirty plus we live on an unpaved lane. The combination makes for a whole lot of dirt. Makes me wonder about my lungs! Veena and her mother invited me over to see how to make chapatti and then gave us pumpkin curry and a curried cabbage dish for luch to go with the chapatti. On my goodness it was delicious! Later we took a little nap. Such a life we have here.

Yesterday was St Patrick's Day. As most of you know since 1994 Ron and I have had big St Paddy's Day parties at our house where we bake potatoes and serve salad and dessert. Our guests bring toppings for the potatoes. This year we had Veena and Mrs. Bakshi over for our usual fete. They brought Ron's favorite dessert-rice pudding. He was so pleased. It was quite lovely to sit and visit with them. Mrs. Bakshi sang a tradition Hindu blessing for us before we dined. It was very sweet.

So we really leave tomorrow for Cape Town/Paarl South Africa where we will stay with friends we met in2000 when Ron did an exchange with a city manager from Paarl. We are so exicted to be going back to Africa and to see our South African family. We will be there until Friday and then we fly to Johannesburg where Ron has his annual International Commmittee meeting. It is unfortunate it is in Jo'burg as it is known for its street crime. So we will be cautious. No cameras or flashy jewelry or big wads of cash. On Thursday we fly to Mumbai (formerely Bombay) where we will stay until very early Monday morning, April 3rd. I think we leave at 3:00 a.m. Who booked this flight anyway? Ron and I have wanted to go to India for about five years so you can imagine our excitement. So excited that when he gets a break about two weeks later we are flying to Kerala in SW India to visit another part of the country. All this means blogging may be somewhat more sporatic than usual, all depending on Internet access. Bear with us. Til next time, Mama gehing ennang. (I'm leaving now)

New photos posted at www.rtsla.photofreeway.com

We left on Saturday for the hill country with Larry and Susan who are visiting us from Portland. What a treat to have company. Anyone else game? We love showing off Sri Lanka and have a spare queen sized bed for the adventurous. We had a great driver and a roomy van. We checked into the St Andrews Hotel in Nuwara Eliya. It is a century old colonial building with great atmosphere and really great food. At breakfast they served French press coffee that was the best I have had in SL. I asked for the brand and when I returned to Colombo discovered Barefoot carries it. Yahoo! I am no longer insecure about the coffee supply. Our recent guests, Dick and Pat and Larry and Susan, had brought replenishments but the end is in sight. Another friend, Ellen, is mailing some as I write this. Now I can buy coffee here. It is a Sri Lankan coffee.

Back to my story, we walked around Nuwara Eliya after having a picnic in our room. Mrs. Bakshi and Veena had given us home made pickles and a casserole the night before and I couldn’t stand the thought of freezing it. Susan suggested we bring it with us and it turned out perfect for a light lunch in our room. It was rainy in the late day but we had umbrellas so were undeterred by the rain. That night we ate at the hotel and were quite pleased with the offerings. The breakfast the next morning was the BEST SL breakfast I have had. I went back for seconds it was so good. Then we took off for Kandy. The main road was closed due to a slide and construction so we took at secondary road and the trip was a four-hour journey not counting the stops. We stopped to do a tea factory tour and have a cuppa. I had almost forgotten how absolutely beautiful the countryside is. We all were running low on batteries for the digital cameras but have posted some photos for you perusal. We got to Kandy and checked into another older colonial hotel but it wasn’t has lovely as St Andrews. It was conveniently located so after checking in we got our driver to take us to the market where we bought spices like cardamom, cloves, vanilla beans, cinnamon sticks and mustard seeds. Ron had a meeting at 6:00 so we took him to the meeting then we went out to dinner. We asked out driver who is from Kandy to suggest a place. He chose a place that drivers take tourists to. It was forgettable. Many places give the drivers a fee for bringing in customers. The restaurant was situated high above Kandy Lake and had a lovely nighttime view but that was it. There were no Sri Lankans at the restaurant but lots of westerners and a few Asians.

The following day Ron had an all day meeting so Larry, Susan and I went to the Kandy Botanical gardens. It was world class. We were impressed and got to see some fascinating plants and trees. The giant ficus covers 1900 sq meters! It was incredible and they are three photos of it at the photo site. Next we headed for a cool drink and sat on the veranda of a guesthouse that was across the street from the gardens. We were struck by how cool it was as we were so hot. We sipped ice-cold sweetened limejuice and chatted. Off we headed to the crafts’ store and Larry found a mask for his nephew and I found a shirt for a friend. Next we went to the Temple of the Tooth that houses one of Buddha’s teeth within seven caskets. We hired a guide who was a delightful 72-year-old man with a twinkle in his eye. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel for a 3:30 lunch of rice and curry. That night we ate at the hotel and Larry and Ron got beaten by Susan at snooker. Can I say they got snookered?

Yesterday we headed home with a stop at a spice garden that was a tourist trap. It turned out to be a place to buy medicinal potions after you were given a tour of herbals plants. The prices were way high, even by US standards so there were no sales from our group. Larry and Susan left this morning at 4:30 for Singapore where they will wrap up their vacation before heading back to River City, Portland. We were sad to see them go as we had had a wonderful time. We have just hosted two couples back to back and had a delightful time with both.

Saturday, March 18th we head out to South Africa. It will take a long time to get there but on Sunday at noon we will be with our South African family, the Sauls. Anthony Sauls and his parents hosted us in 2000 when Ron did an exchange with Anthony. We have wanted to go back ever since. Ron has a meeting in Johannesburg so we are taking extra time to visit our family near Cape Town. We are so excited! Then after Ron’s meeting we will spend a few days in Mumbai, India. Ron and I have wanted to go to India for about five years so we will get a taste soon. Ron has a couple of holidays back to back in April so we have booked a flight to Kerala in Southern India for a long weekend. We think it might we easier for us to take small bites of India rather than spend three weeks there. We will try this and see how it works out. Our friend Raju who stayed with us in Vancouver right before we left for SL, will meet up with us in Mumbai for a visit. Later we will go to his town in Gujarat and meet his family.

Well that’s the latest from SL, where the men are gorgeous, the weather is getting hotter all the time and the Bergmans are having a grand adventure! By the way, Susan agreed with me about the men here.

Photos of our trip to the Colombo zoo with Dick and Pat have been posted.

www.rtsla.photofreeway.com

It’s been a while since we posted but we have been busy with company. First we had our in laws from Japan/Maine. The day they left, Larry and Susan arrived from Portland. Tomorrow all four of us take off for Nuwara Eliya and Kandy, returning on Tuesday. So today I am running errands, shopping for gifts for our African family and packing. In the afternoon, I have my career development group. We will go out for dinner, which will make my life sane! We are in good spirits and thoroughly enjoying our company. Both Dick and Pat and Larry and Susan have been the world’s easiest guests. Very laid back and willing to go with the flow. It will seem very quiet when they leave on Tuesday but then we leave the next Saturday, March 18^th for Johannesburg, South Africa. Ron has a meeting with the International Advisory group (he’s the chair, YEAH!) for ICMA, his professional association. While in Africa we decided we would go to Cape Town to see our South African family who hosted us in 2000 when Ron did a professional exchange with the city manager in Paarl, just out of Cape Town. We are so excited to be going back!!!

Ron has had a super week at work with very few people in the office so he has gotten caught up with work and feels he can leave for Africa in a week with no problems. We have reached the point in this adventure where things are clicking along and we are having a grand time. The stress has abated and we are enjoying the experience in a way that we didn’t/couldn’t initially due to all the adjusting and work pressure for Ron. It has been five months already. We can hardly believe it and the next month will fly by with the trip to Africa and a trip to India in April when there is a long weekend due to religious holidays and the New Year here.

Financially this has been a bonanza. In addition to paying off the mortgage we were able to send our financial planner a big check this month for two IRAs. We will have some travel expenses this month but will be able to send Bob, the Ameriprise rep, more money at the first of the month. Ron is much more relaxed about retirement now that we are adding to our nest egg instead of drawing it down. Our only expenses are transportation, food, Geetha and the gardener. We will start to take short trips on long weekends to India or Thailand or other nearby places.

Yesterday while I was gift shopping for our South African family I saw a Sri Lankan painter’s art exhibit and talked Ron into coming to see it with me during lunch. We bought one of the paintings and will bring it home after the show ends in April. Traditionally for many years we have bought a piece of artwork for our anniversary each year. This practice began fairly early in our marriage. Initially, we gave each other gifts such a shirts or sweaters but Sonia, Ron’s mom, told us we were way too boring! She was 100% right and thus began the idea of purchasing and collecting art. Yesterday, Ron was a little taken aback by buying art when it wasn’t our anniversary but recovered quickly. What a guy! We have a lot of bare walls here so it will be great to have something to hang on the empty space. I also will have a piece of hand loomed fabric made into a wall hanging and that will probably hold us until we leave. I thought we could take these things to the house in Thailand when it is ready. Our dear friend Nattawan is building a house in Phetchaburi just a couple of hours south of Bangkok and has invited us to live there for a few months every year. I think I have mentioned this before as we plan to ship all our furniture and household goods we purchased here to Thailand when we leave. The construction should be finished about the same time.

This is a brief posting but I thought better than none. I gotta go!

Train trip to the East

This past week I had an adventure. Two folks visited me from ICMA (one from Washington DC and one from Thailand) to see how things were going on the program. They were here on the 20th and 21st of February. This was right after spending a week in North West province and North Central province doing training. We were scheduled to do training in the east beginning February 23rd. The crew left Colombo on the 22nd, but I had some work and personal things to attend to, so I decided to take the night train on the 22nd to arrive in Batticoloa on the morning of the 23rd at 4:00 AM. That would give me a few hours to get myself cleaned-up for the day. I know I’d be OK since I got tickets for what I thought was an air conditioned “sleeper”. I arrived at the Colombo Fort train station about 30 minutes before the train was to leave… just to be on the safe side. I arrived and made my way through a throng of humanity and found the track and boarding location. I wasn’t sure I was in the right location because my ticket was written in Sinhala. So when the train pulled up, I jumped on with my luggage and started asking for help from some of the locals. Guess what, I was on the wrong car.

So I tried to make my way through the train, only to find a locked door between cars. I found a helpful railway employee who had me get off the train and wait by the side of the track as he said my car was going to be opened when the engine was connected to the head of the train. Sure enough a few minutes later an engine backed up to the train and a few minutes later the lights on the dark and locked car came on. He opened the door and showed me my berth. What was supposed to be an A/C sleeper was in fact a sleeper. I had the lower berth. I put my luggage next to the bed, under the window. What I noticed right off is that the place was a pit. Looked like it hadn’t been cleaned since independence some 58 years earlier. There was a clean towel over the naugahide pad on the sleeper though and a pillow. And NO AC. The place was very hot. There were two fans on the ceiling, but only one of them worked. By berth partner showed up and he was about 50 pounds overweight and had to hoist himself up to the upper bunk. I was a little worried about the condition of the car with all that weight above me.

Then the conductor came in and told me to move my luggage from away from the window, as someone might put their hand through the window and grab it while I was sleeping. I pointed out the bars on the window and he indicated it didn’t matter, I should move the luggage. So my compartment partner got himself down from the top bunk and we re-arranged the luggage under the sink to hold both of our belongings.

Just before the train was about to leave the station, nature called so I slid into the toilet area shared with the adjoining compartment. WOW, what an awful pit. The place stunk, and was very groady. When I got back into my compartment, I thought seriously about cooling myself with a drink from my water bottle, but then I remembered I’d be on this train for 9 hours… and I really didn’t want to use the toilet anymore than I might have to….. so I held back on drinking.

I passed the time reading a novel by flashlight since the reading light didn’t work and with little cat naps of about about 30 minutes at a time. The train was hot, noisy (ka-klank, ka-klank, ka-klank and rattle, rattle, rattle, and bam, bam, bam) let alone rocking and shaking with each turn and change in grade. Slowly but surely the long night turned into an arrival at my destination. I was greeted at the station by a driver who took me to the hotel that was an $18 dollar a night place that seemed to be clean (at least in comparison to the train) where I had a 2 hour nap… arising for a shower and breakfast so I could do training all day.

It turned out that the hotel was only about 5 minutes by car from the location of the training, but was very isolated from town. So for the 6 days I was in Batticoloa, I ate all our meals there, with the exception of the box lunches that were provided to the trainees and instructors. Saturday was not a day of rest, as there was a special meeting we had to conduct for Local Authority leaders in a neighboring town. However, the highlight of the day was an opportunity to go shopping for a batik sarong. This is a piece of batik material (about 1 meter by 2 meters) that is sewn into a circular piece that Sri Lankan men usually wear as bedclothes and some wear as daywear. Basically it’s a skirt that ties or tucks around the waste so it doesn’t fall down. Turns out it’s surprisingly comfortable! I haven’t had the nerve to have my picture taken with it on yet.

Sunday as a free day and I took a long walk along the beach, did some exploring around the town. I found an Internet café and paid a whole 60 cents an hour. Prices for internet cafes range from this rate to $4.00 per hour. Don’t ask me to explain it…. That’s just how it is.

After two more days of training and a second special meeting for local authority leaders on Monday night, it was time to return to Colombo on the Tuesday night train. Our local person bought the ticket for me and I was heartened to hear that it was an Air-conditioned sleeper car. About an hour before I left for the train station however he said that the sleeper really wasn’t available and that it was a very comfortable chair, but that he’d made arrangements for me to be upgraded,

I got to the station about 30 minutes early,,, just to be safe. The train was an hour late for the departure. And, there was no upgrade… and the comfortable chair had about 10 inches for my feet. Luckily, there was nobody in the seat next to me, so I could at least sit diagonally in the seat for a little more legroom. The car was tired, but passable for Sri Lankan standards. The toilet started out as OK and as the trip progressed became worse and worse. By the time it was half over it smelled like a septic tank. I have to tell you I was ever so thankful to be a man so I could stand and pee!

Again I cat napped and read the night away… and the 9 hour ordeal stretched to 10 as the train was even later than the one hour delayed departure.

I don’t think I’ll try the train again. Sarong to the train!