Photos from Chilaw/Mariwilla have been posted

Well we had a delightful time in Chilaw. There had been a cooling rain plus we had ocean breezes. The weather could not have been more pleasant. On Friday while Ron was in his meeting, I walked to my friend’s house (Sahayanie) but she was in Kandy. I took photos along the way. In the village, there are a number of water spigots where the women go to get water for household use. Imagine what you would do if this were the case…I am guessing we all would use a lot less water. I wanted to point out the photo of the pregnant woman who is holding the typical shaped water-carrying vessel. It fits perfectly on your hip so you can wrap your arm around the lip and your other hand is free. However note that the vessel is aluminum. I read an article recently that attributes the increase/preponderance of kidney problems in Sri Lanka to the use aluminum vessels for cooking, water, etc. I have seen the same shaped vessel made in plastic but am not convinced this is an improvement since we now know that some of the chemicals in plastic leach out into the materials in the containers. Oy.

I also saw a man making a fishing net and took his photo. He insisted on me giving him money and his son wanted me to buy a drawing he had done of Jesus with the crown of thorns and his bleeding head. I declined. There is another one of an elderly woman carrying vegetables on her head. It is quite common to see people ‘using their heads’ to carry things. Sometimes I cannot believe the weight they put on their heads. It makes my neck and shoulders hurt just looking at them. I also asked the owner of a small dry goods store if I could take a picture of her and her shop. The shop is in the background and this is a very typical shop here. (In the cities all shops are about 10 feet wide and maybe 15-20 feet deep. No such thing as Home Depot here. And Colombo has the only department store on the island.) The shop owner asked to have her girlfriends get in on the photos. They couldn’t stop laughing. Over and over I find Sri Lankans who are light hearted and have a ready smile. Pretty amazing when you consider the utter poverty they live with. Chandini, our language teacher, told us the per capita income is $800 a year and for India it is $400.

School kids wear uniforms. The girls wear white dresses with box-pleated shirts and down to the knees, white socks and white athletic shoes and sometimes they wear ties. No sandals. If they have long hair, which the majority of SL women do, they must wear it in two plaits. The boys wear either dark blue shorts to the knees or white slacks, white shirts, black socks and black shoes.

On Wednesday night before we went out of town, we had dinner at Chandini’s home with her husband Lakshman and their daughter. We sat outside when we first arrived at 8:00 and had drinks and around 9:00 we went in to eat. Sri Lankans eat much later than we do. We had a delicious SL meal prepared by her housekeeper. I was so impressed with their daughter whose name I don’t know. She is an English teacher and teaches adults. She was educated in Australia because during the civil war Chandini moved them there. Lakshman would spend two months here and then two months in Australia. After three years Chandini came back but the daughters completed their education in Australia. At any rate, the daughter spoke perfect English and was quite assertive. She fully participated in the conversation and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We will have them over once we finish our current round of travel.

I can’t remember if I have already written this but we leave Wednesday, May 24th for Gujarat India where we will stay with our friend Raju and his family. This will compete the professional exchange that Ragu and Ron had arranged a couple of years ago. Raju stayed with us about two weeks before we left to come here. He is the director of pubic works and the emergency services n his town, Navsari. We will return June 1st and then on the 10th we will return to India. This time we will be in SE India in Tamil Nadu at Chennai (Madras) and Pondicherry. Ron’s boss, Jon Bormet, from Washington DC will be there so although Ron won’t get paid for being there, it is a great excuse to see more of India. We return June 14th.

We are at the halfway point in our adventure here. I can’t believe it and given what we have coming up with travel over the next few months, I am sure the time will fly. So far things seems to have calmed down but the newspapers are giving quotes that make it sound like each side is threatening the other. Sri Lanka stands to lose so much if the war resumes. There are so many NGO’s here doing all sorts of programs in addition to all the tsunami work. Millions upon millions of dollars will leave if the war resumes and many people who now have jobs with these organizations will lose their jobs. The economy is limping along as it is so imagine what would happen if the money leaves. In addition to NGO’s there are many companies who have invested in SL since the cease-fire. They too will take a hike. Keep your fingers crossed that the government and the LTTE come to their senses and go back to the peace talks.

It’s late and I’m sleepy so that’s it for today from the land of constant sunshine.