The Monsoons have landed

We came back to Colombo after a week of traveling and the weather has changed. I do believe the monsoons have arrived. Apparently it rained every day while we were gone. Not so in the south where we were. But now everyday there are torrential downpours. It is amazing. I haven’t had to water the gardens since I got back and that gives me an extra hour each day!

Today’s rain has just started, as I was ready to leave for my career development class at Shilpa so I am waiting to see if it will abate in order to spare myself getting soaked. Sure enough it is letting up a bit. I only use an umbrella here as it is too hot even with rain for a rain coat but when the rain comes it often is accompanied by wind and it is easy to get soaked.

Ron left for work at 5:30 a.m. and traveled five hours south to give a presentation. He returned at 8:30 p.m. We had supper and headed for bed. Yesterday’s headlines read “Government not waging war”. What a joke. There has been continuous fighting for 11 days now in the northeast with the Air Force bombing the heck out of the LTTE controlled areas. Talk about denial! Today’s headlines were about eight suspects being arrested in the US for offering huge bribes to get the LTTE ban lifted. The group also conspired to buy surface to air missiles! Yikes! I have grown cynical about Sri Lanka in regards to the cease-fire/civil war. There has been killings reported everyday in the paper, I think since I have been here: ten months. The government talks about making things better for the Tamils but has done nothing to improve their lives. Now almost 47,000 people are internally displaced. Yesterday a ship loaded with food left Colombo headed for the Jaffna peninsula because the conflict has made it impossible to get food into the area. Roads are closed and crops were ruined when the LTTE cut off a major water canal for three weeks. There was a huge fight over that and now both sides claim they opened the canal. It is shameless to say the least.

We still feel safe in Colombo and where we travel in the country, work to avoid any conflict areas. The Program is following recommendations of the US Embassy and not traveling to the North, or areas in Trinco and Batticaloa (the northern part of the east coast). We’ve heard lots of concern from friends and family and we want to assure them that we are not fool hardy. If things heat up and we are unsafe, we will come home.

We’re looking forward to visiting the US for three weeks in September. We’ll be in LA seeing Ron’s Mom; then to Texas to the ICMA conference, and finally to Washington DC to help Mark and Rachel with their first child, due to arrive in a matter of days. Ron is buried with work trying to get ready for the trip. He wants to get some things completed before he leaves. He says he has three weeks of work to do in the next 10 days. That’s about all from what could be paradise just 5 degrees north of the equator.
PS – pictures from the trip to Yala, described yesterday will be posted soon- probably this weekend.