Today is Saturday, August 12th. We will go exploring for the last of the furniture for the Thai house. We have found a china hutch, a small dressing table with mirror (both antiques) and a daybed that matches the couch only it is deeper, perfect for napping! We have seen a desk and will probably get it because it not only matches the other furniture it is small and will fit nicely into the master bedroom. We have seen an armoire but it is expensive so we will continue to look and today we want to look at antique trunks or chests for storage and go to a town noted for its wood working to consider having a headboard commissioned. That will just about do it.

Tonight we are entertaining two consultants who are doing an assessment of Ron’s program (so far so good) and Veena who Ron just hired to work as their interpreter for week after next. I broke down and cooked again! I’ve averaging once every six weeks and have managed to prepare three or four different dishes in 10 months! HA! Life will never be the same after Sri Lanka. It rained off and on all day yesterday and we just had a tremendous downpour that woke me up. It’s 5:00 a.m. That means it is cool and I am LOVING it! I only took one shower yesterday. That’s only happened one other time in 10 months.

Tomorrow we leave for eight days. We will be traveling with the two consultants down the southern coast of SL. This is part of the assessment that is taking place during the month of August. Our first stop will be Hikkaduwa and probably the only place with an Internet café as it is a small tourist town, a place that surfers come to and never leave. Two days there and we move on to Weligama for a day. Next we go to Hambantota and on Thursday we will be in Tissamaharama (I say Tissa for short because this is way too many syllables for a southerner to say). Friday and Saturday we will be at Yala National Park where the largest concentration of leopards reside, about 30 of them. Wish us luck in spying some spotted cats, what a thrill that would be. We will have a very long day on Sunday, August 20th getting back to Colombo.

I am assuming some of you like following us on a map so that is why I was specific as to where we are going. We should be out of harm’s way in these towns as they are far way from the north and east where most of SL’s problems are. Things have escalated in the northeast over a water canal the LTTE cut off from villagers and farmers. Many Muslims have been displaced over the fighting and a large number of military, LTTE and civilians have been killed or injured. There is no way you can call this a cease-fire and it is a farce for both sides to claim it is still in place. The LTTE has demanded that members of the ceasefire-monitoring mission who are from the EU countries cease to be members of the mission in September. This is because the EU has named the LTTE a terrorist organization and has frozen assets in the EU. The majority of the members are from EU countries. The exceptions are some of the Scandinavian countries-Norway for one. It will be interesting to see what happens. The EU members have agreed to leave in September.

This week the LTTE set off a bomb trying to kill a Tamil politician who has been critical of the LTTE. The LTTE kills anyone who is critical of them. Instead they killed a 3-year-old child who was walking home with her mother. This was in a residential neighborhood in Colombo. The killing is senseless and nothing is ever solved this way. I have become even more of a pacifist being here and have to tell you I am just as disgusted with the government as I am with the LTTE. Both have acted in reprehensive and irresponsible ways with thousands of people being displaced and many civilians being injured or killed. It is a sad, sad state of affairs here with no real leadership. The president says great things but nothing has been done to improve the life of Tamils. Until that happens the fighting will continue. The LTTE is so adamant about being a separate state that negotiations to resolve the conflict are impossible with the government who is just as adamant to retain the unity of the country. Meanwhile, the people of the country suffer. The problems of lack of infrastructure, environmental degradation and economic development go unaddressed keeping the country in a backward state.

That’s about all from paradise just five degrees above the equator.