We are definitely in the count down mode. We have 11 more weeks here. The last four weeks we will spend either in a hotel or in a furnished apartment that we will rent from TAF if they have a suitable one available. I know some of you (Penney) would find it hard to believe but living in a hotel, even a four-five star hotel, can be tiresome. You don’t have windows you can open for fresh air, you eat too much because many of the meals are served buffet and gosh you wouldn’t want to hurt the chef’s feeling by not trying all his/her dishes. Then there’s that dessert table. You resolve that you are only going over there for the fresh fruit and you come back with fruit and three desserts! Oy!! You are confined to one room plus a bathroom. I could go on but I’m sure you get the picture. So we shall see. We have been given a definite date from the shippers to come and pack us up: November 14th. Talk about synchronicity, our lease is up on Nov 14th!!

I am somewhat restless, as I am not working on furnishing our house or the Thai house so there no need to be out and about seeking needed items and checking prices. I enjoy my time with the young women at Shilpa but am bored with career development. Ron is gone this week to Nuwara Eliya (in the hill country where it is always cool, probably 20 degrees cooler than Colombo) and is due back Saturday night. So I am going to a movie Saturday afternoon and tonight. Neither is showing in theaters but rather in small venues and are free, a price I can’t resist. We still are without television (since June) although the lawsuit is nearly resolved and we are told that with a week or so they will be back up and running. We shall see. Things don’t usually go according to plan here.

Currently I am researching places we might go to for our anniversary at the end of November. Gosh could it really be our 21st?? Lordy it seems just yesterday I spied that cute Ron Bergman across the foyer of the Wiseman Center at Rogue Community College and said “WHO is THAT?” thinking what a cutie. Well that was 1981 and we started dating in the spring of 1982 and were married near the end of 1985. He is even cuter after all these years. I’m keeping him! As Rachel, our daughter-in-love, would say ‘ I got me a cute one’. So back to my research. I’m looking at Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and of course our beloved Thailand. It is the closest and I am remembering Chaam where we can lay on the beach under a thatched roof and get foot massages for $3.00 an hour and it is hard to resist but we’ve never been to Malaysia and Singapore is rather romantic too. We were there in 1997. It’s all fantasy at this point as Ron may we too tired from work to go anywhere. There’s also a way cool romantic boutique hotel a few hours down the coast in Galle that we discovered on our last trip there. If any of you readers have been to Kuala Lumpur and care to comment I’d sure be interested in hearing from you. I would actually prefer to go to a smaller city but we don’t have much time and I don’t want to spend it all getting to our destination. We considered the Maldives but it appears to cost and arm and leg both to fly there and stay there. But the place seems to have one industry: TOURISM!

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about our time here and have even started making a list of things I will miss and won’t miss about SL. The ‘I will miss’ list is much longer than the ‘I won’t’ list. When we were leaving the US I asked Ron if having been in the US for three weeks made if difficult to go back to SL. He said no and I agreed. Now that I am here, I am finding some things difficult. I seem to be even less tolerant than before, hard to imagine. The garbage that is strewed in the streets disgusts me. It still irritates me after almost a year. I have to keep reminding myself if you have never experienced the difference, then you don’t know how much better it can be when things are clean. I also have to remind myself that not everyone has a garbage can in which to store their garbage so throwing it in the street is a better option than having it rot in your home. Each morning on my walk this week, I pass a bit of grass where someone has dumped his or her plastic bag of garbage. It is right next to a small canal that carries water to a larger canal. Crows, cats and dogs have managed to tear open the bag and now garbage is strewn hither and yon and into the canal, impeding water flow, making it a prime breeding ground for mosquitoes and Dengue fever! I am tired of being hot and sweaty (amazing that I am considering more tropical countries for our anniversary) but remind myself how cold, dark and wet the NW will be in late December when we return. And let’s face it; there are the closest countries to us, not requiring a visa prior to arrival. The grass is always greener…I’ll let you know about our final decision as to where to go for our anniversary.

Not much else to report at this point. That’s it for today from Sri Lanka where the men are gorgeous, the weather is sultry and Ron and Tricia are having a grand adventure.

We are home in SL. We had a grand time in the US, seeing Sonia, Ron’s mom and her friend Bob. Then we headed to Texas for almost a week for Ron’s conference with 13 Sri Lankans in tow. From there we headed to Centreville VA, outside of Washington DC to meet Avi, our two week old grandson. What a joy! Being with newborns helps you forget the unrest in the world. Avi is a doll, never complaining and easy to be with. As of yet, there’s no backtalk!!

Our trip home was a long adventure. We discovered two days before we left that our flight from Dulles had been moved up an hour. As it turns out we would have missed our plane (read on) had we not asked our travel agent to get us a layover day in Tokyo as the trip was to take 35 hours with flights and layovers. We are too darn old for that craziness!!

We got up at 3:00 a.m. on Wednesday in order to be at the airport at 4:00, the required two hours prior to an international flight. We were stunned to discover the United counter didn’t open until 4:45, one hour and 15 minutes prier to departure. We were informed by a United agent who quickly disappeared. We were first in line but there were quite a few others by 4:45. At 4:45 the same agent came out and asked if anyone was on an international flight. Then he informed us we were in the wrong place and to go around to the backside of the counter. There we were about 40th in line. Let me say at this point I was pissed. When we got to the counter and said we were confused that we were required to be here two hours prior to flight yet they weren’t opened, the ticket agent said she always arrived three hours before a flight because Dulles was so congested. It was a good ploy to get rid of us because now if was 5:15. We dashed through the airport, going through two security checks and finding one stand opened where we bought two croissants. No time for coffee as you have to drink any beverage before boarding. Imagine up since 3:00 and no caffeine! Bummer!

We flew to LAX and went to visit Sonia and Bob as we had a four-hour layover. Sonia had prepared a feast: scrambled eggs, pecan coffee cake, crackers with herbed cream cheese, cantaloupe and lots of needed coffee. We headed back to the airport and boarded a plane for Narita, the airport that serves Tokyo, an 11-hour flight. We got there in the late afternoon and took a taxi to a ryokan, a traditional Japanese guesthouse. It was lovely. We had a large room with the totani mats and a small sitting room. We had a full bath, complete with a soaking tub. My favorite however was the Japanese toilet seat. If you have never been to Japan, you don’t know what you are missing. These seats are heated, and have a control panel next to the toilet that lets you choose three-spray settings of warm water. Right outside our sliding glass doors was a lovely small pond with bubbling water and koi. We woke up at 6:00 and read by the pond in our sitting room until 8:00 or so then I made tea with the tea set that had been provided, complete with green tea leaves (not bags) and thermos with hot water. We had a leftover stash of muffins in our carryon so had breakfast at a low table with chairs that sat right on the floor (no legs), again Japanese style. We also had been given kimono robes. While in Japanese we saw variations of the toilet seat described above. The most elaborate one had a button you could press that would play the sound of a flushing toilet, I assume to hide any ‘bathroom noises’. Should I say the Japanese are anal? I can say it was a complete contrast to SL in that you could eat off the streets and sidewalks. Narita was a charming town. We had the day to explore and discovered we were quite close to a temple complex with a large Japanese garden, and multiple building built in the early 1700’s and 1800’s. We spent over an hour wandering around and watching school children that were there to draw/sketch.

We walked to the train station to buy our tickets back to the airport, a nine-minute ride and window-shopped. We discovered a coffee shop and indulged in an Americano. Yum! As we were leaving, I spied a noodle shop across the lane that advertised “home made and healthy noodles”. I was sold and suggested we dine there for lunch. We went back and had a fabulous bowl of red chili noodle soup. Double yum! The placed filled with westerners after a short while. A very talkative airline pilot sat next to us at the counter and told us it was a favorite with airline crews. Back to the ryokan. The owner took us to the train station and we boarded our flight at 5:30. We flew to Singapore, a seven-hour flight then changed planes and flew to Colombo, arriving after midnight and we got to bed around 3:00, after clearing immigration, claiming our luggage and going through customs and buying liquor for a friend at the duty free shop. We did not have any idea what time it really was (body time) as we had passed through so many time zones and crossed the International Date Line. We just knew it was pass time to go to bed. With the help of a sleep aid we slept until 10:00 and took it easy all day, hanging around the house. We unpacked, Ron was on the computer and I did laundry. Geetha fixed us a great lunch and we went back to bed in the air-conditioning after lunch to read. Ron fell asleep but I didn’t. It’s now 4:00 in the morning and I have been up since 1:30. I had fallen asleep around 9:30 or 10:00. It takes a few days to get regulated with the sleep. It took us forever to get on a regular pattern in the US. It usually doesn’t take as long coming this way. I have my fingers crossed.

Today is Monday, September 11. Yesterday I visited the Alamo, a very famous site in San Antonio. I was surprised to find in located right in the center of town. I copied the history for your reading below as it was easier than trying to describe it on my own.
Originally named Misión San Antonio de Valero, the Alamo served as home to missionaries and their Indian converts for nearly seventy years. Construction began on the present site in 1724. In 1793, Spanish officials secularized San Antonio's five missions and distributed their lands to the remaining Indian residents. These men and women continued to farm the fields, once the mission's but now their own, and participated in the growing community of San Antonio.
In the early 1800s, the Spanish military stationed a cavalry unit at the former mission. The soldiers referred to the old mission as the Alamo (the Spanish word for "cottonwood") in honor of their hometown Alamo de Parras, Coahuila. The post's commander established the first recorded hospital in Texas in the Long Barrack. The Alamo was home to both Revolutionaries and Royalists during Mexico's ten-year struggle for independence. The military — Spanish, Rebel, and then Mexican — continued to occupy the Alamo until the Texas Revolution.
San Antonio and the Alamo played a critical role in the Texas Revolution. In December 1835, Ben Milam led Texian and Tejano volunteers against Mexican troops quartered in the city. After five days of house-to-house fighting, they forced General Marín Perfecto de Cós and his soldiers to surrender. The victorious volunteers then occupied the Alamo — already fortified prior to the battle by Cós' men — and strengthened its defenses.
On February 23, 1836, the arrival of General Antonio López de Santa Anna's army outside San Antonio nearly caught them by surprise. Undaunted, the Texians and Tejanos prepared to defend the Alamo together. The defenders held out for 13 days against Santa Anna's army. William B. Travis, the commander of the Alamo sent forth couriers carrying pleas for help to communities in Texas. On the eighth day of the siege, a band of 32 volunteers from Gonzales arrived, bringing the number of defenders to nearly two hundred. Legend holds that with the possibility of additional help fading, Colonel Travis drew a line on the ground and asked any man willing to stay and fight to step over — all except one did. As the defenders saw it, the Alamo was the key to the defense of Texas, and they were ready to give their lives rather than surrender their position to General Santa Anna. Among the Alamo's garrison were Jim Bowie, renowned knife fighter, and David Crockett, famed frontiersman and former congressman from Tennessee.
The final assault came before daybreak on the morning of March 6, 1836, as columns of Mexican soldiers emerged from the predawn darkness and headed for the Alamo's walls. Cannon and small arms fire from inside the Alamo beat back several attacks. Regrouping, the Mexicans scaled the walls and rushed into the compound. Once inside, they turned a captured cannon on the Long Barrack and church, blasting open the barricaded doors. The desperate struggle continued until the defenders were overwhelmed. By sunrise, the battle had ended and Santa Anna entered the Alamo compound to survey the scene of his victory.
While the facts surrounding the siege of the Alamo continue to be debated, there is no doubt about what the battle has come to symbolize. People worldwide continue to remember the Alamo as a heroic struggle against overwhelming odds — a place where men made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. For this reason the Alamo remains hallowed ground and the Shrine of Texas Liberty.
Afterwards I came home and rested as the day was hot, although not quite as hot as SL. I had been walking a lot and had been on my feet for hours tooling around town. Ron got home around 6:00 and I was sound asleep as I had yet to have a complete night’s sleep. We changed and went back downtown to a reception, and then had dinner with our good friends Dale and Lynn. After dinner we came home and changed again as we had another reception to go to. Ron wore his Sri Lankan batik sarong and matching shirt and I wore a kurtha with pants and a scarf. We were the hit of the reception as Ron was the only man their in a skirt (sarong). The Sri Lankan attendees were totally thrilled to see their native dress and took photos of us. We got to bed at 11:30.
It was my first night to sleep through but Ron had set the clock mistakenly for 5:45 instead of 6:45. Neither of us could get back to sleep so we got up. I put on my athletic shoes, t-shirt and shorts and took off for a long walk by the river and ventured into apart of town I hadn’t visited. I discovered restaurant row by the Riverwalk. Today I will ask our B&B host if any of them are good or simply tourists’ traps with mediocre food. It is raining this morning but that suits me. I prefer it to the heat.
Oops. It is now Sunday and we are in Virginia with our two sons and their families. I managed to let the blog get by me without posting it so will post it now. We are having a grand time here with our family. Ron is doing house projects for Mark and Rachel (like installing pull down attic stairs to help them have better access) and I am cooking and doing laundry. It is super to see everyone and neither of us can believe how BIG Jacob, four years old, and Tess, almost two years old, are. We have continued to enjoy cool weather. Yeah!
That’s it for now.

Today is Friday and we arrived in San Antonio around noon. We had spent four days in Marina del Rey outside of Los Angeles with Ron’s mom and her friend Bob. What a treat! Both were doing well and it was so wonderful to see family again. How we have missed them. The air was wonderful as was the temperature. We never broke a sweat! We spent a day finding and packing boxes and mailing clothes we never wore in SL to our friend in Vancouver who will store them until we get home in December. We also had a bunch of gifts to send to family and friends. It was a whole lot cheaper to ship them from southern California than from SL! In the four days we were there our sleep patterns never got stabilized. I would wake up every morning around 3:00 and Ron would fall asleep around 3:00. You would think we would be awake at the same times. Fact is stranger than fiction. At any rate we are eager for a good night’s sleep. About the time we get on a US time schedule, it will be time to go back to SL. Bummer. Ron spent a morning with some minor plumbing repairs at his mom’s house. Most of the time we just relaxed and read our books and visited and ate great food! Sonia is the world’s best cook.

As soon as we arrived today we grabbed a quick bite and Ron went to work, going on a landfill site and recycling operation site visit with the 13 SL participants that are here for the conference and a study tour. The conference starts tomorrow and the SL participants have been here on the study tour since Monday.

Sandi, Ron’s sister, had predicted that we would experience sticker shock when we got to the US after being in SL. The only time that happened was this morning at the airport. We ‘dined’ at Starbucks due to the early hour. We had two coffees, two Danishes and a bottle of water for $12.50. That would buy a lovely meal for two at a fine dinner house in SL. Our lunch today in San Antonio was $14.00 and much better than our breakfast.

It was overcast here today that made it cooler. It was about 85 degrees. Last week it was 103! Oy! I’m so glad for cooler weather. This evening it rained. I’m not complaining. We are staying in a lovely B&B that is about a century old and located within walking distance of the conference. The ICMA conference usually has about 4,000 attendees. It’s a big deal. I enjoy seeing people who Ron’s works with on the international committee and hanging out with some of the spouses. San Antonio should be fun. I’ve never been to Texas so I am interested in seeing the Alamo that is right downtown, the Riverwalk that is a redevelopment project in the downtown area (30 years ago) and a marketplace that has lots of crafts from Mexico. I told my students at Shilpa I would bring them something back from our trip.

Saturday
Ron finally managed to have a good night’s sleep. I made it until 3:40 and stayed awake until 5:00. The alarm went off at 6:30. I got up and put on my shorts and t-shirt and walked along the Riverwalk into town and back for a good 45 minute workout. Showered and had a wonderful big breakfast at the B&B. On my walk I saw a great egret and two blue herons hanging out in a tree by the river. What a treat. I also saw four or five plants that we have in SL. I am always surprised when we travel to exotic places and discover some of the same flora that we have in the States.
I'm having a great time just wandering around San Antonio. It is a very pedestrian friendly place. It is a quick trip to downtown by foot and there are many historic sites right downtown. Ron is working so maybe he is having as much fun as I am but probably not! San Antonio is way cool. It's my first foray into Texas. It's such fun to hear the Texas accents. Thanks to the weather goddess, there's a cloud cover and occasional rain and we do love not sweating. Today I walked from our lovely century old B&B down the Riverwalk area to town. I was shopping for my SL girls. I went to a marketplace that isfilled with stuff from Mexico and saw a lot of junk and some neat folk art which is what I ended up getting for the girls. Then I went over to thehigh end shopping area that is housed in a really cool old historic district. Pretty soon I was tried of shopping so walked back to a Tex Mexrestaurant and had a fabulous salad with grilled shrimp. Yum! Tonight we have two do's- a reception and a dinner to go to. Tomorrow I hope to go see the Alamo and figure out what to buy for Ron's staff backin SL. Shopping here is a wee bit different than in SL. Adios amigo! More later.

Ta Daaa
Today our newest grandson was born. Actually it was August 31st there but at any rate Avi Edric has arrived at 6 pounds and 10 ounces. Rachel and Avi are doing well with a brief 15 minutes of pushing from the reports we received. Congratulations to the family!

On a sadder note, things continue to worsen here. The fighting has been going nonstop in the east and north. There are 220,000 internally displaced persons according to today’s newspaper. In addition, yesterday the outgoing head of the SL Monitoring Mission who is from Scandinavia charged the government security troops with killing of 17 aide workers on August 4th. And charged the LTTE with the bus bomb massacre that killed 58 people. Both parties are denying the claims. The killing of the aide workers was done to make the LTTE look bad. Today’s paper also features an article with headlines “Troops advance, capture Kattaparichchan”. Keep in mind the president says SL is not at war. Exactly what would you call this? I am attaching the text of an email that we received today from a friend who lives in Portland but does consulting in SL for a peace organization, Sarvodaya. It brought tears to my eyes and made my heart ache. It follows:

Ten refugee camps in four days. Unending checkpoints, military convoys, and government soldiers stationed about every 50 feet. The stench and squalor of refugee camps during the day, and artillery fire rattling my bedroom windows at night.
I gave up a weekend at the beach for this trip.
My trip to the Sri Lankan northern and eastern war zone was uneventful, in that I got there and back without any additional holes in my body. Although I visited 10 refugee camps, there were many, many more for me to visit.
I could tell you stories that would have you angry, despairing or hopeless. Equally, I could tell you stories of personal heroism, self-sacrifice, and expressions of hope in the face of hopelessness.
Two stories strike me as illustrative of my visit to the war zone:
A Small Victim of War
I was in my seventh or eighth refugee camp. This was in a government held area in Trincomalee, and the refugee camp was set up on a temporary basis in a Roman Catholic school. I had walked the grounds, talked to the officials, spoke to a few residents, and was heading out of the compound. As I was leaving, a woman carrying a small baby caught my eye. The baby (I guessed to be about six months old) seemed very happy and full of life. I stopped and asked the woman the age of her child.

The woman said, "this child is about six months old; this isn't my child, this baby belongs to my sister. She was killed in the shelling of Muttur. She's dead, along with her two other children. Only the baby survived."
"This baby's father is in Jaffna. He might be in a refugee camp there. He might be dead. If he's alive, he cannot return home because the roads are blocked. He doesn't know that his wife is dead, his children are dead, his house is destroyed, and all he has left in the world is this baby."
What do you say to that? I'm not aware of expressions or emotions that are up to the task of expressing the kind of regret and sorrow that I was feeling at that time.
It doesn't matter whether a government shell or an LTTE shell flattened this baby's house and killed her family. President Rajapakse would say that the LTTE's attack on Muttur was the cause of this baby's plight. Prabhakaran, leader of the LTTE, would blame the government. In a paradoxical way, they're both right. Both sides are criminally responsible for setting the forces in motion that led to this atrocity. Everyone who believes that violence can achieve something other than death and destruction shares the responsibility for the death of this baby's family.
What's the life of one baby matter, in the grand scheme of things, with over 100,000 internally displaced persons wandering this island, looking for the shelter and security that neither the government nor the LTTE can provide? This baby isn't (yet) Sinhalese, Tamil or Muslim. This baby doesn't care whether there is a separate Tamil homeland, a federal system or a unitary government. This baby, and over 100,000 of her fellow citizens, are more concerned about whether they will have food to eat, water to drink, and a dry roof over their heads. They are concerned about whether the latest incoming shell will destroy what little life they have at present.
Those who advocate a continuation of the war, or adopt a hard-line toward the peace talks, are usually nowhere near the war zone. According to the survey work of Sarvodaya's "mobile leaders", the hardness of attitude is in direct relationship to the person’s distance from the war. According to the preliminary results of our survey, 60% of the Sinhalese in the far southern regions believe that the government should expand the war and seek a military victory over LTTE. That number shrinks to less than 8% for the Sinhalese who actually live in the war zone. Those who don't know the horror of war want a military victory. Those who do know want peace.
This reminds me of the Americans who, thousands of miles away from the Iraqi battlefronts, called for our military “victory” in a society we do not understand, a war we can never "win".
"First, We Are Human Beings. Let Us Start With That."
In one of the earlier refugee camps, I spoke with a man who had opened a small bicycle repair shop within the camp. (Some of the refugee camps are so long-standing, they've created their own economic and social life, a gross distortion of life on the "outside". Small vegetable sellers, food preparers and other economic activities can be found within the confines of some of the older refugee camps.) When I asked Mr. Bike Repair his opinions about the war, he was equally scornful of the positions of both sides. "Both sides cause problems for us," he said very directly. (This sentiment was expressed repeatedly throughout my visit, by virtually everyone I interviewed.) He went on to catalog the almost casual violence and disrespect for human life and dignity that the refugees experience from both sides, on an almost daily basis.
I usually end my interviews by asking the participant what he or she believed would solve the present conflict. Most participants from the refugee camps did not answer that question, or said that their present conditions did not allow them to think about the future.
Mr. Bike Repair was different. He grew thoughtful for a few moments, staring into space at either remembered pain or a vision of a better future. He then said, "First, we are human beings. Let us start with that. Our ethnic group, our religion, our party... these things are not as important as the fact that we are all human beings. If we remember that we are human beings, we can then solve our problems. If we forget this, the problems will never go away."
This is the kind of simple, elegant wisdom that comes from the village level. It is a statement without bitterness or hatred. His home and livelihood was destroyed, but he was not seeking to destroy others.
I was reminded of the fact that the resolution to this conflict lies not in the conflicting parties, the political operatives, the military leaders were anyone else... the resolution of this conflict lies in the people.
End
So you can see my world is pretty darn sad. I constantly think about the impact of war on all sectors, even those who are far removed from the immediate danger. I think the only thing that happens as a result of war is death, destruction and the engendering of more hated and distrust. God help us. As a species we just don’t get it!
Today I am busy running around getting us ready to leave on Sunday. We are very excited to be coming to the US for a break and really, really excited to be seeing family, especially our newest member, Avi. We haven’t seen photos yet but hear he has a full head of dark hair. What joy there is in the birth of a child!
I had my haircut today and on the way we passed two police barricades about 150 feet apart in the residential area. It turns out a well-known politician lives one street over and the LTTE has made four attempts to kill him. Lucky guy, my hairdresser said. I’m not so sure…Later I went to the World Trade center here. First of all you can’t get anywhwere near it with a vehicle. Mr. K let me off about two blocks away. Then as I neared the building, I went through a security check on the street. Once inside the building, I had the identical check. It is getting to be not much fun here.
Later I went to the pharmacy to get aspirin and ibuprofen (long airplane rides coming up). I still am shocked when I get my bill for purchases: 15 aspirin, 20 ibuprofen, a roll of Mentos, a pack of chewing gum and a roll of mints. My bill was 98 cents.
That’s it for today from paradise that appears to be crumbling away due to war.