The monsoons have arrived. So far every night around dusk the sky unzips and buckets pour with thunder and lightning to add to the excitement. That lasts for about an hour then the rain is reduced to a drizzle for much of the evening. It makes for a very cool evening time and I love it. The monsoons are predicted for the next two months. Yeehaa! I won’t be complaining about the rain.

Well I started this a week ago and things have changed. It now rains any time of day or night and on Friday it pretty much rained all day. The streets are flooded and now 225,000 Sri Lankans have been left homeless due to flooding. People throw their garbage into the canals thus plugging them up and cause overflowing and flooding. DUH! I never cease to be amazed at people’s lack of forethought with their actions. On the up side it is cool for now. Getting my laundry dry is a challenge however.

We have had a great week with our visitor from California, Zarka Popovic. She accompanied Ron to work every day and did some pro bono work. He is most grateful as he nears the end of his time on the project. On Friday we met for lunch and I took her shopping for gifts. We ended the day with a grim Iranian film that was the first movie filmed in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. We followed the movie with a lovely dinner at an Indian restaurant where we had a fabulous vegetarian meal.

On Saturday (yesterday) she headed for the hills, literally. She took off for Nuwara Eliya, Kandy and Sigiriya. She will return on Monday. Because yesterday was the first day of peace talks between the LTTE and the government, there was heightened security. That manifested in road checks of every vehicle that came into Colombo. So Zarka’s driver was two hours late, Geetha was two hours late and Mr. Kularathna was one and a half hours late. What a pain in the neck!

We are beginning to think about leaving our home on Thimbirigasyaya Rd. So Ron is patching holes in the walls caused by hanging paintings and I am cleaning out drawers, closets and cabinets. I am giving a lot of things to Geetha and she is thrilled. We are moving into that phase where we are experiencing a lot of ‘lasts’ such as the last meal of Geetha’s string hoppers, the last time I will see the recycling team that collects our recyclables, etc.

In SL near the end of the year, the tradition is to give money to those who have served you throughout the year. So you would give money to the mail carrier, the newspaper delivery person and the trash collectors. So I have prepared my envelopes and as I enter this phase of lasts I am starting to give out the $’s. I’m not so sure the recipients understand why they are getting their gifts early but it doesn’t seem to matter as most of the recipients make so little money anything is appreciated.

The time will start to fly now as we leave Tuesday for work related travel. We will be gone for ten days and I am guessing in some of the villages we will have no or limited access to the Internet. We will return on November 10th and with any luck we will have news that the Democrats are taking control of Congress. We will have the weekend to pack as the shipping agent arrives early Tuesday morning Nov 14th to pack up our things to ship to the US and to Thailand. We have been here just over a year. Hard to believe. We will move into the Cinnamon Grand hotel, which is where we lived when we first arrived. Somehow it will be easier this time as we know the area and will have more options for places to eat, know where we can go for walks, etc. I am hopeful that we can pack in a way that will allow us to store some of the suitcases that we won’t need and thus give us more space in the room.

I am planning a small graduation celebration for the girls at Shilpa who have completed the career development class. Ron has created a certificate with each girl’s name that one of the trustees and I will sign. I am giving each girl a hand painted box from India and some money. That will be the week before we leave for Thailand.
Well that’s what’s happening in paradise five degrees above the equator. Pray that the peace talks move forward. This place needs a break!!

The monsoons have arrived. So far every night around dusk the sky unzips and buckets pour with thunder and lightning to add to the excitement. That lasts for about an hour then the rain is reduced to a drizzle for much of the evening. It makes for a very cool evening time and I love it. The monsoons are predicted for the next two months. Yeehaa! I won’t be complaining about the rain.

Well I started this a week ago and things have changed. It now rains any time of day or night and on Friday it pretty much rained all day. The streets are flooded and now 225,000 Sri Lankans have been left homeless due to flooding. People throw their garbage into the canals thus plugging them up and cause overflowing and flooding. DUH! I never cease to be amazed at people’s lack of forethought with their actions. On the up side it is cool for now. Getting my laundry dry is a challenge however.

We have had a great week with our visitor from California, Zarka Popovic. She accompanied Ron to work every day and did some pro bono work. He is most grateful as he nears the end of his time on the project. On Friday we met for lunch and I took her shopping for gifts. We ended the day with a grim Iranian film that was the first movie filmed in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. We followed the movie with a lovely dinner at an Indian restaurant where we had a fabulous vegetarian meal.

On Saturday (yesterday) she headed for the hills, literally. She took off for Nuwara Eliya, Kandy and Sigiriya. She will return on Monday. Because yesterday was the first day of peace talks between the LTTE and the government, there was heightened security. That manifested in road checks of every vehicle that came into Colombo. So Zarka’s driver was two hours late, Geetha was two hours late and Mr. Kularathna was one and a half hours late. What a pain in the neck!

We are beginning to think about leaving our home on Thimbirigasyaya Rd. So Ron is patching holes in the walls caused by hanging paintings and I am cleaning out drawers, closets and cabinets. I am giving a lot of things to Geetha and she is thrilled. We are moving into that phase where we are experiencing a lot of ‘lasts’ such as the last meal of Geetha’s string hoppers, the last time I will see the recycling team that collects our recyclables, etc.

In SL near the end of the year, the tradition is to give money to those who have served you throughout the year. So you would give money to the mail carrier, the newspaper delivery person and the trash collectors. So I have prepared my envelopes and as I enter this phase of lasts I am starting to give out the $’s. I’m not so sure the recipients understand why they are getting their gifts early but it doesn’t seem to matter as most of the recipients make so little money anything is appreciated.

The time will start to fly now as we leave Tuesday for work related travel. We will be gone for ten days and I am guessing in some of the villages we will have no or limited access to the Internet. We will return on November 10th and with any luck we will have news that the Democrats are taking control of Congress. We will have the weekend to pack as the shipping agent arrives early Tuesday morning Nov 14th to pack up our things to ship to the US and to Thailand. We have been here just over a year. Hard to believe. We will move into the Cinnamon Grand hotel, which is where we lived when we first arrived. Somehow it will be easier this time as we know the area and will have more options for places to eat, know where we can go for walks, etc. I am hopeful that we can pack in a way that will allow us to store some of the suitcases that we won’t need and thus give us more space in the room.

I am planning a small graduation celebration for the girls at Shilpa who have completed the career development class. Ron has created a certificate with each girl’s name that one of the trustees and I will sign. I am giving each girl a hand painted box from India and some money. That will be the week before we leave for Thailand.

Well that’s what’s happening in paradise five degrees above the equator. Pray that the peace talks move forward. This place needs a break!!

The monsoons have arrived. So far every night around dusk the sky unzips and buckets pour with thunder and lightning to add to the excitement. That lasts for about an hour then the rain is reduced to a drizzle for much of the evening. It makes for a very cool evening time and I love it. The monsoons are predicted for the next two months. Yeehaa! I won’t be complaining about the rain.

Well I started this a week ago and things have changed. It now rains any time of day or night and on Friday it pretty much rained all day. The streets are flooded and now 225,000 Sri Lankans have been left homeless due to flooding. People throw their garbage into the canals thus plugging them up and cause overflowing and flooding. DUH! I never cease to be amazed at people’s lack of forethought with their actions. On the up side it is cool for now. Getting my laundry dry is a challenge however.

We have had a great week with our visitor from California, Zarka Popovic. She accompanied Ron to work every day and did some pro bono work. He is most grateful as he nears the end of his time on the project. On Friday we met for lunch and I took her shopping for gifts. We ended the day with a grim Iranian film that was the first movie filmed in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. We followed the movie with a lovely dinner at an Indian restaurant where we had a fabulous vegetarian meal.

On Saturday (yesterday) she headed for the hills, literally. She took off for Nuwara Eliya, Kandy and Sigiriya. She will return on Monday. Because yesterday was the first day of peace talks between the LTTE and the government, there was heightened security. That manifested in road checks of every vehicle that came into Colombo. So Zarka’s driver was two hours late, Geetha was two hours late and Mr. Kularathna was one and a half hours late. What a pain in the neck!

We are beginning to think about leaving our home on Thimbirigasyaya Rd. So Ron is patching holes in the walls caused by hanging paintings and I am cleaning out drawers, closets and cabinets. I am giving a lot of things to Geetha and she is thrilled. We are moving into that phase where we are experiencing a lot of ‘lasts’ such as the last meal of Geetha’s string hoppers, the last time I will see the recycling team that collects our recyclables, etc.

In SL near the end of the year, the tradition is to give money to those who have served you throughout the year. So you would give money to the mail carrier, the newspaper delivery person and the trash collectors. So I have prepared my envelopes and as I enter this phase of lasts I am starting to give out the $’s. I’m not so sure the recipients understand why they are getting their gifts early but it doesn’t seem to matter as most of the recipients make so little money anything is appreciated.

The time will start to fly now as we leave Tuesday for work related travel. We will be gone for ten days and I am guessing in some of the villages we will have no or limited access to the Internet. We will return on November 10th and with any luck we will have news that the Democrats are taking control of Congress. We will have the weekend to pack as the shipping agent arrives early Tuesday morning Nov 14th to pack up our things to ship to the US and to Thailand. We have been here just over a year. Hard to believe. We will move into the Cinnamon Grand hotel, which is where we lived when we first arrived. Somehow it will be easier this time as we know the area and will have more options for places to eat, know where we can go for walks, etc. I am hopeful that we can pack in a way that will allow us to store some of the suitcases that we won’t need and thus give us more space in the room.

I am planning a small graduation celebration for the girls at Shilpa who have completed the career development class. Ron has created a certificate with each girl’s name that one of the trustees and I will sign. I am giving each girl a hand painted box from India and some money. That will be the week before we leave for Thailand.

Well that’s what’s happening in paradise five degrees above the equator. Pray that the peace talks move forward. This place needs a break!!

We are back in Colombo after being gone for a week. And what a week it was! We spent the first night in Habarana then moved on to a resort called Amaya Lake that was about twenty minutes into the jungle from the main road. Ron was attending a full staff retreat with the TALG program of the Asia Foundation. There were about 25 in attendance plus two facilitators from Canada. The sessions started Sunday night and on Tuesday there was a horrid incident where a suicide bomber attacked a convoy of government soldiers who had stopped for a break. I think we mentioned this in our previous blog. A day or two later, Navy vessels in the harbor in Galle on the SW coast were attached. We had difficulty learning much about the damage there as we didn’t have TV in the resort and newspapers came some days and not others. I know some of you worry about us but I need to once again say that these attacks are always targeted to military or politicians. It is possible to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

So while Ron was working I once again took the role of tourist. I was put off by the price the resort quoted for a car and driver so we resorted to networking. Ron called a young man who is a driver for the Asia Foundation. Samon grew up in the Dambulla area. Ron asked if Samon knew anyone in the area who was a driver with a car for hire. Within five minutes I had my man. Suranga drove me to sights for two full days. On day one I visited Aukana where there is a magnificent 12-meter high statue of Buddha, carved from a single rock. Photos will be posted soon. It has been ascribed to King Dhatusena (459-77). The carving is so perfectly symmetrical that when it rains the water drops from Buddha’s nose down to the center of the 10 cm. lotus blossom upon which he is standing.

We went back to Dambulla where I found some cool batik blouses for $3.50 each. I had lunch back at the hotel with Ron and the gang and Suranga picked me up around 2:30 and took me to a Jeep safari where I hired a guide and we took off for the Minneriya National Park. Suranga joined us. Here I saw wonderful birds like 100’s of painted storks, an adjutant stork that is the only stork that flies with its neck retracted, a beautiful gray headed fish eagle, bee eaters, pelicans, cormorants and lapwings. In addition I saw a jackal, two rabbits, a turtle and a huge herd (around 80-100) of elephants. What a thrill. There was a big grassy plain near the tank (reservoir). Because it is the end of the dry season, many elephants make their way to this region because there is always water and green vegetation here. It was much more lush than Yala National Park. While we were in this region it rained several times.

We got back to the resort after dark and agreed to meet again the next morning at 8:30. Suranga is 25, single and supports his parents and younger sister who is 16. He has seven more payments on the used 1990 van he bought and when he isn’t driving he does wood carvings. On Thursday morning he gave me a gift of one of his carvings, a lovely modern carving of a woman in a thinking pose. I was quite touched. On Thursday I first went to see an ancient temple in Nalanda about 19 km south of Dambulla. This was a small-reconstructed ‘gedige’ (Buddha image house) and shares some features in common with Hindu temples in southern India. Some tantric carvings have been found in the structure that combines Hindu and Buddhists features. I noticed one such carving that looked erotic in nature and very much like carvings I had seen in India. This structure dates from the seventh century. The setting was lovely. We were the only people there and the approach to the structure is along a raised pathway with a canopy of trees overhead. The structure sits on the edge of a tank.

From here we drove to Aluwihare where I visited another temple that dates from the first and second century. I visited here because you can see how monks wrote the scriptures on palm leaves. The leaves are prepared by first drying, boiling and drying again, and then flattened and coated with shell. A stylus was used for inscribing, held stationary while the leaf was moved to produce the lettering (the rounded shape of some Asian scripts was the result of this technology). The inscribed grooves were then rubbed with powdered charcoal and rubbed clean using a little oil. Due to the size/shape of the palm leaf, the scriptures are about two inches wide and 12 inches long. The leaves would be stacked, sometimes strung together and sometimes bound together between decorative wooden covers.

What I hadn’t realized was that this temple has depictions of a chamber of horrors illustrating punishments doled out to sinners by eager demons, including spearing of the body and pouring boiling oil into the mouth. The demons were painted black and reminded me of racist’s art. Photo will be posted. Next came the Matale Heritage Center that is known for its quality crafts: needlework, batiks and metalwork. I saw women working on batik designs on a custom order for a hotel. I watched as they dyed batiks in huge vats outside and heated the boiling dyes with wood. I watched women create beautiful cushion covers with intricate needlework. It takes seven days to make one cover and they sell of $15. I have two that I had bought in Colombo where there was a mark and they sold for $20. For seven days work! I didn’t buy anything but enjoyed watching the various processes. This is a privately owned organization that has been around since the sixties. The women are trained for six months and then earn their living by working for the Heritage Center. If I understood correctly, they are paid while learning but not as much as when they are finished with the training. Next I stopped at a government facility where they make hand loomed cotton items. I have purchased quite a few articles of clothing for family members, friends and us and wanted to see the process. It is quite labor intensive, as you would imagine. I took photos but unfortunately our camera malfunctions sporadically and this was one of those times. I came back to the hotel for a quick lunch with Ron and the gang and asked Suranga to take me to the craft center where he has his woodcarvings. There I visited a metal smith and bought a tea caddy for Veena and bought an elephant carving for Geetha that Suranga had made.

We were to take a bus provided by the resort back to Colombo but learned that it stopped to drop off staff that lived along the way. It took six hours for the bus to get to the resort and since there would be five extra passengers (those of us who had taken a van up there) we decided it would take forever to get home. We called Suranga and hired him to bring us back to Colombo. We left on 8:30 this morning (Friday) and we were stopped twice at security checkpoints. Both of these were staffed by national police. The driver always has to get out of the car and take his papers to the police who are standing by the road. At the first stop one of the policemen told Suranga he wanted 200 rupees since he was ‘driving tourists and had a lot of money’. Suranga talked him out of it. However at the second stop, the policeman said Suranga had ‘crossed over the pavement marking’ and fined him 1000 rupees. This is an enormous amount of money in SL. Suranga begged him to not fine him. You should know that everyone who drives in SL, crosses over the lines all the time. It was obvious that this was nothing other than graft because when you are fined, they take your license, you go to the post office, pay your fine and return to pick up your license. Suranga was not sent to pay the fine but requested to pay the officer directly. There was no receipt given for the fine so we know the policeman pocketed the money. He also said, ‘you are driving rich tourists so you have plenty of money’. I was furious so when Ron paid Suranga he threw in an extra 1000 rupees. I suggested that Suranga hide his cash in the car next time so when asked to ‘pay money’ he can open his wallet and only have one or two hundred rupees so the officer will leave him alone. As it was, Suranga had all the money I had paid him for two days work and the money from the carving I bought so he had almost 14,000 rupees on him.

So that's how it goes in paradise, five degrees above the equator.

We are back in Colombo after being gone for a week. And what a week it was! We spent the first night in Habarana then moved on to a resort called Amaya Lake that was about twenty minutes into the jungle from the main road. Ron was attending a full staff retreat with the TALG program of the Asia Foundation. There were about 25 in attendance plus two facilitators from Canada. The sessions started Sunday night and on Tuesday there was a horrid incident where a suicide bomber attacked a convoy of government soldiers who had stopped for a break. I think we mentioned this in our previous blog. A day or two later, Navy vessels in the harbor in Galle on the SW coast were attached. We had difficulty learning much about the damage there as we didn’t have TV in the resort and newspapers came some days and not others. I know some of you worry about us but I need to once again say that these attacks are always targeted to military or politicians. It is possible to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

So while Ron was working I once again took the role of tourist. I was put off by the price the resort quoted for a car and driver so we resorted to networking. Ron called a young man who is a driver for the Asia Foundation. Samon grew up in the Dambulla area. Ron asked if Samon knew anyone in the area who was a driver with a car for hire. Within five minutes I had my man. Suranga drove me to sights for two full days. On day one I visited Aukana where there is a magnificent 12-meter high statue of Buddha, carved from a single rock. Photos will be posted soon. It has been ascribed to King Dhatusena (459-77). The carving is so perfectly symmetrical that when it rains the water drops from Buddha’s nose down to the center of the 10 cm. lotus blossom upon which he is standing.

We went back to Dambulla where I found some cool batik blouses for $3.50 each. I had lunch back at the hotel with Ron and the gang and Suranga picked me up around 2:30 and took me to a Jeep safari where I hired a guide and we took off for the Minneriya National Park. Suranga joined us. Here I saw wonderful birds like 100’s of painted storks, an adjutant stork that is the only stork that flies with its neck retracted, a beautiful gray headed fish eagle, bee eaters, pelicans, cormorants and lapwings. In addition I saw a jackal, two rabbits, a turtle and a huge herd (around 80-100) of elephants. What a thrill. There was a big grassy plain near the tank (reservoir). Because it is the end of the dry season, many elephants make their way to this region because there is always water and green vegetation here. It was much more lush than Yala National Park. While we were in this region it rained several times.

We got back to the resort after dark and agreed to meet again the next morning at 8:30. Suranga is 25, single and supports his parents and younger sister who is 16. He has seven more payments on the used 1990 van he bought and when he isn’t driving he does wood carvings. On Thursday morning he gave me a gift of one of his carvings, a lovely modern carving of a woman in a thinking pose. I was quite touched. On Thursday I first went to see an ancient temple in Nalanda about 19 km south of Dambulla. This was a small-reconstructed ‘gedige’ (Buddha image house) and shares some features in common with Hindu temples in southern India. Some tantric carvings have been found in the structure that combines Hindu and Buddhists features. I noticed one such carving that looked erotic in nature and very much like carvings I had seen in India. This structure dates from the seventh century. The setting was lovely. We were the only people there and the approach to the structure is along a raised pathway with a canopy of trees overhead. The structure sits on the edge of a tank.

From here we drove to Aluwihare where I visited another temple that dates from the first and second century. I visited here because you can see how monks wrote the scriptures on palm leaves. The leaves are prepared by first drying, boiling and drying again, and then flattened and coated with shell. A stylus was used for inscribing, held stationary while the leaf was moved to produce the lettering (the rounded shape of some Asian scripts was the result of this technology). The inscribed grooves were then rubbed with powdered charcoal and rubbed clean using a little oil. Due to the size/shape of the palm leaf, the scriptures are about two inches wide and 12 inches long. The leaves would be stacked, sometimes strung together and sometimes bound together between decorative wooden covers.

What I hadn’t realized was that this temple has depictions of a chamber of horrors illustrating punishments doled out to sinners by eager demons, including spearing of the body and pouring boiling oil into the mouth. The demons were painted black and reminded me of racist’s art. Photo will be posted. Next came the Matale Heritage Center that is known for its quality crafts: needlework, batiks and metalwork. I saw women working on batik designs on a custom order for a hotel. I watched as they dyed batiks in huge vats outside and heated the boiling dyes with wood. I watched women create beautiful cushion covers with intricate needlework. It takes seven days to make one cover and they sell of $15. I have two that I had bought in Colombo where there was a mark and they sold for $20. For seven days work! I didn’t buy anything but enjoyed watching the various processes. This is a privately owned organization that has been around since the sixties. The women are trained for six months and then earn their living by working for the Heritage Center. If I understood correctly, they are paid while learning but not as much as when they are finished with the training. Next I stopped at a government facility where they make hand loomed cotton items. I have purchased quite a few articles of clothing for family members, friends and us and wanted to see the process. It is quite labor intensive, as you would imagine. I took photos but unfortunately our camera malfunctions sporadically and this was one of those times. I came back to the hotel for a quick lunch with Ron and the gang and asked Suranga to take me to the craft center where he has his woodcarvings. There I visited a metal smith and bought a tea caddy for Veena and bought an elephant carving for Geetha that Suranga had made.

We were to take a bus provided by the resort back to Colombo but learned that it stopped to drop off staff that lived along the way. It took six hours for the bus to get to the resort and since there would be five extra passengers (those of us who had taken a van up there) we decided it would take forever to get home. We called Suranga and hired him to bring us back to Colombo. We left on 8:30 this morning (Friday) and we were stopped twice at security checkpoints. Both of these were staffed by national police. The driver always has to get out of the car and take his papers to the police who are standing by the road. At the first stop one of the policemen told Suranga he wanted 200 rupees since he was ‘driving tourists and had a lot of money’. Suranga talked him out of it. However at the second stop, the policeman said Suranga had ‘crossed over the pavement marking’ and fined him 1000 rupees. This is an enormous amount of money in SL. Suranga begged him to not fine him. You should know that everyone who drives in SL, crosses over the lines all the time. It was obvious that this was nothing other than graft because when you are fined, they take your license, you go to the post office, pay your fine and return to pick up your license. Suranga was not sent to pay the fine but requested to pay the officer directly. There was no receipt given for the fine so we know the policeman pocketed the money. He also said, ‘you are driving rich tourists so you have plenty of money’. I was furious so when Ron paid Suranga he threw in an extra 1000 rupees. I suggested that Suranga hide his cash in the car next time so when asked to ‘pay money’ he can open his wallet and only have one or two hundred rupees so the officer will leave him alone. As it was, Suranga had all the money I had paid him for two days work and the money from the carving I bought so he had almost 14,000 rupees on him.

So that's how it goes in paradise, five degress above the equator.

It is good to get out of Colombo. I am reminded once again how beautiful Sri Lanka is. We started out on Saturday, leaving Colombo around 2:00 and arriving in Haberana around 7:30. I had forgotten how exhausting travel can be, particularly when you have a fast driver. Our driver would pull out of the lane and race ahead of one or two cars and pull back into the correct lane. But each move was with a strong jerk of the wheel so that my back felt raw from sliding back and forth against the seat. Five of us plus the driver were in the van. SL is the only place I can sweat in an air conditioned car/van. I don’t know how but I do it on every trip. I always manage to get on the sunny side of the car. The last hour was the worst because it was dark and I hate traveling in the dark here because there are pedestrians walking on the road, bicyclists with no lights or reflectors on the road and an occasional cow or other animal. A bus literally ran us off the road at one point. We stayed at Chaya Village, a lovely spot surrounded by water in Haberana. I was done in by the time we arrived so I went to our room, showered and rested before dinner. I went straight to bed afterwards and slept in on Sunday. After a great Sri Lankan breakfast of string hoppers and chicken curry and a cup of halfway decent coffee, I grabbed my binoculars and headed for the lake. What a treat. There were about 100 monkeys in the area and they are always a delight to watch although I never get too close as they can get aggressive. I watched egrets, purple herons, yellow-wattled lapwings, black hooded oriole, and painted storks. On the way back to my room I saw an Asian Paradise Flycatcher for the first time. What a beauty with tail feathers longer than his body.

I joined Ron’s staff for lunch. They were spending the day in a training session, role playing how to give better service to the local authorities. Most resorts in Sri Lanka have alfresco dining with high ceilings with fans that help keep bugs away and make the heat tolerable. I will really miss dining outside. The food was great here as were the rooms. There were individual units, with a large bedroom and good size bathrooms. The buildings are almost always stucco in SL. In the afternoon I wrote postcards and got on the Internet to answer email. After working all week, the staff travels half of Saturday and worked all of Sunday. One person asked if they could walk down to the lake but unfortunately we were already late to travel to our next destination about 30 minutes away where there was to be a full TALG staff work planning session starting at 6:00 p.m. So we jumped into the van as soon as our luggage arrived and took off. As it was, some of the staff got lost (not all staff came by van) and the meeting didn’t start until 7:00, making for a late dinner. We went straight to our room after dinner and got ready for bed. Now we are in Dambulla at Amaya Lake, and it isn’t near as nice as Chaya Village but I would guess it isn’t near as expensive.

Today I had breakfast with Ron and some of the staff and afterwards headed for the lake with my binoculars. I watched a man weed eating and realized he is using a weed eater to mown the grounds here that are acres and acres. I took his photo that we will post when we return to Colombo. You may or may not be able to spy him in the photo but that was the point. It is a huge job, one that we would use a tractor or at least a riding mower for in the US. It is proof once again of how cheap labor it here. So I sat on a bench by the lake under the shade of a stand of trees and watched birds, people, butterflies and cows. I took a few photos. As I was sitting there I noticed a bullock carts heavy loaded with who knows what go by so jumped up and tried to get a photo. About an hour later I saw another one go by. It is like being in another century when you see that mode of transportation yet it is a common sight here. I usually don’t have my camera with me when I see one so felt fortunate today to see it.

Speaking of fortunate, there was another suicide bombing today on a naval convoy apparently in Habarana. The convoy was stopped for Tea, when an LTTE truck filled with explosives, rammed into the busses which were parked in a semi circle (side by side). Three busses were destroyed and 117 were killed and 100 injured. We were no where near it so don’t worry about us. Once again I need to say our palm reader in Bangkok said Ron and I would not die by accident and would live to until our 80’s or 90’s. Keep in mind that this is the same fellow who told us we would be moving to an island about four days after we found out that Ron had gotten this job! So I trust him on this one!!

After bird watching I went to the office to inquire about hiring a car so I could see some of the sights. I was quoted outrageous prices and told them no thanks. I then asked about Internet access and was told 30 rupees a minute. That translates to $18 an hour!!! That is even more offensive. The most I have ever paid is $6.00 an hour and usually you pay $0.50 to $1.00 an hour. I maybe could understand the prices if we were staying in a place that charges $200-$500. a night but this is not in that class. Next I need to find out what they charge for a Wi-Fi card where we use our own laptop. Hopefully it will be less.

I have spent the afternoon reading by the pool in the shade, doing a crossword puzzle (thanks Ellen) and working on the blog after dining with the staff.

Surprise. A Wi-Fi card is $2.00 for 14 hours! I’m so happy. Got to go. That’s it from paradise five degrees from the equator where peace talks are slated for the end of the month yet they are killing each other in huge numbers every day.

Today, 10-17-06 marks one year in Sri Lanka for the intrepid Bergman duo!

Guess I have enough time to read the paper more than I have been. Here is a heart-breaking statistic: there are 119,775 students to have passed the A Level exams that are required to be admitted to universities in SL. There is enough space for 17,630. In addition those who graduate often have trouble finding work due to an outdated educational system that has created a mismatch between academic training and employment opportunities. Sometimes I get so down about SL because so much doesn’t work here and I have to wonder how will it ever change. Yesterday I was in a shop and the owner (a woman) started up a conversation with me. At one point she talked about how corrupt the politicians are and how they don’t even try to hide their misdeeds. I told her about our experience when we first came to SL and Ron read a piece in the newspaper about “good corruption versus bad corruption”. Good corruption is where a politician takes a bit off the top and pockets it but no one really is hurt by it! Give me a BREAK!!! What kind of culture has produced that kind of thinking?

News flash: a doctor ran over a policeman and didn’t stop. Some doctor.

Yesterday I went to HSBC to see how opening an account with them in the US was going. We started the process in mid June! Gayathri, the young woman who has been helping me, is a stunningly beautiful woman with full lips, come hither eyes, beautiful white teeth and a sari wrapped below the navel. In a word she is comely! It took her twenty minutes on the Internet to find the call center number and she couldn’t get through. She had no record of our paper work and where she had sent it after she had tried Portland. PDX has only a home loan office so our paperwork had to be sent to another branch. She had suggested San Francisco after I suggested Seattle and she said there were no WA branches. She is totally inept but beautiful. I guess that counts for something. So we called around last night and found our account in Seattle. We asked them where our confirmation, checks, and ATM cards were and they had sent everything to Vancouver instead of SL. Oy, are there no functioning banks in the world??? While I was waiting for Gayathri, I looked at her desk and discovered she had 14 rubber stamps in a little holder. What the heck are they for? It reminded me of the old movies about the British Empire where you see someone stamping papers with great authority. Some things don’t change much.

Saturday Oct 14
We are off to Habarana and Dambulla in a couple of hours so I need to post this. We have had rain every night this week except last night. It has made it a bit cooler and saved we watering every day. We will be gone a week and I have no idea about Internet facilities in Dambulla where we will spend most of the week. If I have access you will get a blog. I will be visiting ancient cities in the area and two national parks if all goes well. Ron will be attending a full staff retreat. Such a life here in paradise, five degrees above the Equator!

The rains arrived last night. In the past 18 hours we have had three downpours, overwhelming the storm water system. The streets have several inches of standing water as a result. But let me tell you, it feels so good to be almost cool! The rain only last 15 minutes or so but it comes down in buckets. We were watching ‘Gandhi’ on our computer and had to put it on pause due to the noise from the rain. The movie was made in 1982 and is still a classic. It was so well done. And the scenes from India haven’t changed from what we saw when we visited. We even could identify a couple of places.

Each day I read the newspaper and shake my head. I know we have written about how Sri Lankans drive but the accident reports are a true testament to how crazy they are behind the wheel. One accident today occurred when a bus tried to overtake a truck on a bend! A tri shaw driver was killed. Sri Lankans think nothing of trying to pass on a blind curve. Oy! Another accident occurred when the brakes locked on a bus and it ‘turned turtle’. The conductor died and 38 passengers were injured. The most aggressive and worst drivers are the private bus company drivers whose compensation is dependent on the number of fares they garner each day. So they drive like hell to attempt to make extra runs or to beat out other buses to get their numbers up. Every week you read about bus drivers who kill pedestrians and other motorist due to their reckless driving.

I have gotten several inquiries about the “Thai house”. Our friend, Nattawan, served as the liaison for the Thai project that Ron worked on for two years. Nattawan is from Thailand and has lived in the US since her university days. She accompanied the Portland team to Thailand almost every time they went there. On our last trip to Thailand for the project, Nattawan mentioned that she was building a ‘vacation’ home in Phetchaburi where she has family: an aunt, cousins, nieces and nephews. She invited Ron and me to live in her Thai home when she wasn’t going to be there. Her plan is to be there about six weeks a year. So we were ecstatic to receive such a gracious offer. When we started to furnish our house in Colombo, we suggested that we send the household goods from Colombo to Phetchaburi when we left here. So I hope that clears up any confusion you may have had from reading the blog. There will be photos of the Thai house at our photo website: www.rtsla.photofreeway.com We thought we had posted them but oops, guess not. Coming attractions….

We had a lovely, relaxing weekend with a lot of reading, an occasional nap, took in an art show of 31 contemporary Indian artists and had dinner with some neighbors. Now we are planning our get away after we moved out of the house on Nov 14th. We are going to take a long weekend and go to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. We had decided to go back to Pondicherry in India but when I started to apply for our Indian visas I discovered that your passport has to be valid for 6 months and ours expire in March. Bummer. So off to Kuala Lumpur. We will leave on the 16th of November and return on the 20th.

Then our 21st anniversary is Nov 30th so we decided to splurge and stay at The Sun House in Galle, a very romantic boutique hotel. We discovered it on one of our trips to Galle. We ate a lovely meal there one night and fell in love with the place. Check it out at www.thesunhouse.com

Saturday we leave for Dambulla where Ron will be on a staff retreat for a week. I on the other hand will be a tourist; revisiting some of the nearby ancient cities and going to national parks I have not visited before. There is supposed to be lots of elephants in one of the parks and great bird viewing.

Here’s another horrifying statistics from an article in today’s paper: there are 14 mental health specialists in SL for the 376,000 people known to be suffering from mental illnesses. Good god, and I thought the US was bad for lack of care for the mentally ill. “Because doctors do not choose mental health to pursue their higher studies the government has decided not to allow doctors to select courses on their own. Instead the government will determine what courses doctor’s should follow based on the country’s needs.” It’s a different world.

Yesterday I called a friend in Hugo Oregon and asked what time it was there. It is 8:15 p.m. She asked what time it was here and I told her 8:45 a.m. She couldn’t believe we were 12.5 hours different. My only comment was “Welcome to Sri Lanka”.

News from Sri Lanka
In the newspaper it was reported that a policeman shot himself while cleaning his loaded gun. His condition was not reported but my guess would be his condition is ‘stupid’.

I also read an article about alcohol consumption in SL. The numbers are surprising if not distressing: 43% of urban shanty dwellers, 65% of male estate workers (this would be tea plantations I believe), 25% of female estate workers, and 50% of fathers of school children, consume alcohol in SL. SL has the second highest rate of cirrhosis in the world (55/10,000 population). SL is second to Maldova (foremerly a Russian Republic) a nation of vodka drinkers. Sixty-five percent of the alcohol consumed in SL is moonshine or kassipu. Alcohol consumption rate in SL is second only to France. Ou lala. In SL, alcohol is the leading cause of death in the age group of 25-44 years olds. Alcohol cirrhosis also accounts for 70% of all gastrointestinal deaths, the second leading cause for deaths in SL. In 2003 SL had the highest rate of suicide in the world (55/100,000). Pretty grim statistics.

Today is poya day (full moon), which means Ron, had a holiday. He worked until about 12:30 on reports and such but now is free for the rest of the weekend. He worked on painting a chair (an artwork) and has been reading a mystery most of the afternoon with a nap thrown in. I have had a really bad cold since Monday but feel better today. Then again I went to bed at 7:00 last night. This is our last free weekend on October. Next Saturday the 14th we head out to Dambulla where Ron will have a weeklong staff retreat. I am going along and will explore the area in more depth while he is ‘retreating’. I think I might go nuts if I stayed in Colombo all week by myself since there isn’t much to do now that the Thai house is furnished. The Dambulla area is in the ‘cultural triangle’ where there are three ancient cities so there is lots to see here. We will come back to Colombo on Friday, the 20th. On the 21st, an ICMA friend, Zarka Popovic is coming to stay with us until Nov 1st. She will work with Ron some and tour some.

Saturday
Well I forgot to post this. Today we went out to breakfast at a high-end guesthouse that is nearby. I ordered the SL breakfast: roti (fried bread) with chicken curry and onion sambol (sort of like a relish). YUM! Ron had a waffle and sausages. Then we headed out to an art show of 31 contemporary Indian artists. Afterwards we decided to go clothes shopping for Ron. He needed some new shorts. At the first store he ended up getting two pair of slacks and a wallet. Then I took him to House of Fashion, where Sri Lankans shop. I had been there several times but never on the weekend. Oh my goodness, I think most of Colombo was there. There was a line to get in the door, a line to the stairs, a line between staircases. We went to the fourth floor where men’s wear is located. You could hardly see the merchandise due to all the shoppers. Ron lasted about ten minutes. We got outta there quickly. We never saw any shorts that would work. That’s one thing about developing countries: we can’t always find what you want. They are lots of limitations.

We came home just as Geetha was finishing cooking. So we had a hot lunch. We rested/read much of the afternoon and Ron worked on his chair some more. Tonight we went out to a neighborhood Chinese restaurant with neighbors. Tomorrow we are meeting other friends at an outdoor café for lunch and live jazz. We are just easting our way through the weekend. Such a life. That’s it from paradise just five degrees above the Equator.