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.