When I leave a place where I have lived, I become more aware of things that annoy me about that place. Must be some form of separation anxiety. I am annoyed at the numbers of police, military and now private security that line the streets with rifles in their hands, routine traffic checks and block roads for 30 minutes at a time while an important, high level political figure drives by. On Friday there were 1000 security personnel on the streets according to my trusted friend, Mr. Kularathna. I am not exaggerating when I say that on each block at the beginning, middle and end of the block on each side of the street, there were 2-4 men standing with rifles. Three times this week I have waited 30 minutes in traffic for a roadblock to be lifted.

On Friday night we went to a Latin Jazz performance courtesy of the US Embassy. On the way, the road was blocked so we sat for 30 minutes and arrived late. But the musicians were even later, arriving at 7:40 for the 7:00 performance. It started at 8:00, one hour late. The truth is we are not big jazz fans but when you live in a hotel room, you look for things to do out of the hotel. Hence our attendance.

On Saturday we attended a craft show and on the spur of the moment bought a hand made quilt. It is lovely with a very traditional pattern called Baltimore Beauty. I guess all our careful planning with our packing was for naught. I will be shipping a box home if our Vancouver guests who arrive this week to work on Ron’s project don’t have room to take it as extra luggage.

We also went to a park where artists display their work, looking for a gift for Mr. Kularathna. We didn’t see anything we thought was appropriate so tried a gallery. No luck. We decided to get him a photograph by one of SL’s famous photographers so will order it on Monday. While we were at the park, we wandered into a plant sale. Because security is so tight here, there is very limited parking, almost none on the streets. So in these kinds of outings, Mr. K. drops us off and goes to find parking and we always manage to find one another. While looking at orchids, he came up. Since I wanted to give him one I asked which one he preferred. He basically said he appreciated it but not to buy him one. He has a lot of orchids at home and didn’t want me to spend money on him. He is so modest and very unique in a country where so many people are struggling to make $5.00 a day, which is considered to be a living wage. Anyone dependent on tourists is really struggling as the continued fighting here has chased most tourists away, lots of cancellations at hotels and guesthouses. This really impacts people like trishaw and taxi drivers. So with all of this going on, Mr. K gave us five mangos when we got back to the hotel. We have been blessed in so many ways during our time here, including having people like Mr. Kularathna and Geetha in our lives.

Last night we were invited to a birthday party. Veena’s sister-in-love and niece both had birthdays this week. We had a delightful time. There were about 15 adults and children there and we had some great conversations with several of the other guests. We talked about the passivity of the culture and one woman commented that this is the reason people don’t complain when others jump ahead of them in line or in traffic. . This made total sense and I was surprised that I had never put that together. They want to avoid conflict. This week is the first time in 13 months I saw someone confront someone who jumped ahead of her in line. Ron’s trishaw driver also confronted another driver who cut him off in traffic, a very common occurrence. This also was the first time either of us had witnessed a driver expressing anger. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at the party and felt very privileged to have been invited into someone’s home who is a Sri Lankan. We had a traditional southern Indian veggie meal and it was delicious, witnessed by our going back for seconds and unable to eat dessert due to overindulgence.

Today we are going to the latest Johnny Depp movie. Yes, The Pirates of the Caribbean made it to Colombo! We have sorely missed seeing good films here and will never be able to catch up. Guess that’s a small price to pay for such an adventure as this.

Back from the movie. Well I’m not sure I would classify this as a good film but it got us out of the hotel. We had another first: a cue. There were about 100 people who got to the theater before us and they were in an orderly line! We have never seen a long line in all the time we have been here.

The already bad roads are getting worse with each rainfall. The pots holes are deeper and the edges of the roads more eroded. I didn’t realize how damaging rain could be but there are inadequate storm drains and consequently we get a lot of flooding and standing water and the water is tearing up the roads. It is a mess. We are also experiencing an increase in Dengue fever and another mosquito borne disease called Chikungunya. I am thankful to be living in the hotel where we have less exposure to the bites.

Today’s headlines in one article states “Thousands of civilians flee rebel controlled areas in the East”. The first line reads, “Scores of civilians continue to flee…” I read the article and counted 55, not thousands as reported in the headlines. This is a non-government newspaper. Yikes!

Another article was on the private bus sector. There are 16,500 registered owners for 17,152 buses. That means most bus ‘companies’ have one bus, folks. It also states that 90% of these 16,500 have pawned their buses to leasing companies. The government determines bus fares. Because the fares are low, it is difficult to make a profit. Malpractices such as heavy passenger loading, collecting passengers on the way and race driving are all done in search of profit. Hence there are accidents every week reported where bus drivers kill pedestrians in an effort to beat their competitor to pick up the next passengers. People often run along side the bus and hop on while the bus is in motion. Passengers also hop off while the bus is moving, sometimes getting run over by a car that is on the left side of the bus where the passenger is hopping off. It is surprising that more aren’t killed due to these practices. There are other accidents reported of buses missing a curve and going down ravines, etc. This is probably due to the overcrowding, making it difficult to control the bus. At home we frequently commute by bus but here I am unwilling to get on a bus. There are not air-conditioned, they are packed so tight that men are often seen hanging on for dear life in the doorways, and the driving is unsafe at best.

We had a great Italian meal tonight with friends from Ron’s work and the restaurant is right in front of our hotel. Life is good here in paradise five degrees above the equator where the Bergman’s are nearing the end of their adventure.

More on Malaysia

After visiting the aboriginal museum we went to Lake Gardens. We visited the world’s largest covered aviary and got to see some stunning birds. My favorites were the Great Hornbill and the Scarlet Ibis. The ibis literally looked like it had been dunked into a vat of scarlet paint. We also visited an orchid garden within the park. We finished the day with a foot massage and a delicious Thai dinner at a very shishi shopping mall that had the floors in the elevator labeled feast, (for dining) indulge, pamper (spa floor), adorn (jewelry) and relish.

The dress in KL was fascinating. Many Muslim women wore prints of garish colored synthetic outfits that consisted of ankle length skirts with a long sleeve over blouse of the same material that hung just below the knees and a matching solid color headscarf. I saw a few girl toddlers 2-3 years old with headscarves also. Some younger Muslim women wore tight jeans, simple blouses and a headscarf. It was rare to see a woman wearing the traditional black dress we associate with Muslim garb. Some who wear the black over dress with a veil that shows only their eyes also wear gloves and closed toe shoes and black hosiery so that the only exposed skin is the area around the eyes. Traditional dress for men is a pastel shirt that isn’t tucked in with matching pants. The material looked like a lightweight synthetic so the look resembled pajamas. Around the waist was another piece of elaborately woven colorful material about 18-24 inches in width that was rolled at the waist to keep it in place. So it looked sort of like a short straight skirt over the pjs.

The major exports are now manufacturing, particularly electronics and electrical machinery that accounts for 67% of exports. The economy has had steady growth since independence. Multinationals have poured billions into the Malay economy due to tax incentives and a pro-business government.

From the ashes of the interracial riots of 1969 when distrust between Chinese and Malays peaked, the country has managed to create a more tolerant society. SL needs a lesson in how to achieve this! An economic policy has increased Malay involvement in the economy, although it has largely benefited the elite. This has helped defuse Malay fears and resentment of Chinese economic dominance but has done little to quell Chinese or Indian fears, or the reality of their being discriminated against by government policy.

The major religions are Islam which was introduced via South Indian traders and was not the more orthodox Islamic tradition of Arabia, Chinese religions of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism and Hinduism that dates back at least 1500 years. The indigenous people of Malaysia practiced animism.

I forgot to mention that the taxi driver who picked us up in Colombo to take us to the airport recognized us from our morning exercise walks. He frequently washed his car at the spring where people bathe. We passed it every morning going and coming back home. Small world, huh? Then when we were ready to leave our hotel in KL, the man who had picked us up at the airport was standing in the lobby and said for 50 ringit he would take us to the Central Station where we could catch the express train to the airport. That’s about $12. We declined and said we would take the light rail to the Central Station so he then offered to take us for free. Go figure. We had decided to take the train to the airport as we had been charged double the standard fare for a taxi from the airport. We had no regrets because we had gotten to see the government seat on the way into town. We also knew that we could get stuck in traffic and wanted to avoid missing our plane.

We arrived in SL around 5:30, got through customs and out the door by 6:00. Normally it takes 45 minutes to get to Colombo from the airport but we hit end of day traffic and it took one and a half hours. I asked the driver how many trips he had made into Colombo that day. We were his second trip and his last for the day. He said the conflict keeps tourists away and his income is greatly reduced consequently. Everyone on the island suffers from the conflict even if no one is shooting at you. Most drivers get 10% of the fare so in this case it was $1.80. Ron gave him an extra big tip after hearing his story.

We treated ourselves to room service and got to bed at a decent hour. The next day I unpacked our bags, ironed clothes and organized our one room home. Our room has a desk and two-drawer file cabinet that makes a nice little office for our tiny laptop and an area for paying bills, etc. I feel more settled now and think we will survive this change. Eating in restaurants will grow tiresome but at least we now have a variety to choose from that we didn’t when we arrived 13 months ago and were unfamiliar with Colombo. We have TV that we haven’t had since June in SL due to a lawsuit. Hotels have satellite TV so never lost reception.

Our room faces the Indian Ocean. Our view is partially obstructed by other buildings but we can see the ocean and ships on the horizon. Each morning we take our exercise walk of 45 minutes down by the ocean at what is called Galle Face Green. Since most of the green is sand Ron and I call it Galle Face Brown. Currently a high fence surrounds the green so we are assuming they are trying to green it up! There is a wide boardwalk and there are a number of others out early exercising. During the day this is a very popular place for young couples to court since most SL live at home until they marry. Usually they can be spied sitting close together under an umbrella for privacy as they snuggle and kiss. In the evening there are many families who come to walk, eat treats sold by vendors and to enjoy the night ocean breeze. One of the best parts of being in the hotel is no mosquitoes, roaches and bugs that go bite in the night!

So that’s life five degrees above the equator where Ron and Tricia are having an adventure of a lifetime.

Nov 15, 2006

Well another chapter in the RTSLA. Yesterday the shipping agent and crew showed up at 9:30 and worked nonstop other than a lunch break. By 6:30 the last box was sealed, the truck loaded with most of the household goods. Geetha arrived around 11:30 and I had assumed she would pick up the things we had set aside for her but no, she stayed the entire day, often in the midst of the 7 workmen. When they finished in the master bedroom, I started to sweep the floor because Veena is getting a lot of interest in the house and someone was coming to look at the house. I wanted it to look good. Geetha grabbed the broom out of my hand. No way was she going to let me sweep.

I took Geetha to lunch when the workmen stopped to eat their lunch. It was like a beehive of activity yesterday. In addition to the eight men from EB Creasy shipping agency, we had garbage collection, telephone workman to disconnect the phone, a neighbor coming to see the house and particularly our window screens that are held in place by Velcro, three other neighbors and a potential tenant.

By the end of the day we were exhausted. We called for two cabs around 6:30: one for Geetha and one for us. Geetha started crying and I followed suit. I have grown quite attached to Geetha and I was surprised to see she had similar feelings for us. We loaded three large boxes and two pieces of furniture into the cab. She was still crying as the cab pulled away.

Time flies...this never got posted and now it is Nov 21st. After Geetha left we waited almost an hour and a half for our cab. Apparently the company only has one station wagon that we had requested. Needless to say, we were dog tired by the time we got to the hotel and checked in. We ate a simple meal at a SL fast food place next to the hotel and fell into bed. The next day I went back to the house to meet the shipping guys who needed to load up the last of our boxes and their packing materials and I needed to do some final clean up. Mr. Kularatha, the tri-shaw driver I use, offered to help me. So he swept while I cleaned the refrigerator. He is no ordinary guy! I am so blessed with the people I have met here.

On Thursday, we left early for Kuala Lumpur (KL) in Malaysia, about a three and a half hour flight from Colombo. WOW, what a difference! Malaysia is light years ahead of SL. We had no idea. First of all they have a beautiful, large airport. They have real highways with limited access so you can so fast and they have three lanes in each direction. There are skyscrapers all over KL including the Petronas Towers that until 2003 were the tallest buildings in the world (88 stories). And it’s clean in Malaysia! We rarely saw litter and garbage was rarer still. Things appear much more prosperous there. We saw no trishaws only taxis, only a few bicycles and some motorcycles and lots of cars. The government owns the oil companies so we are assuming that accounts for some of the wealth. On the way from the airport our driver took us through a development that housed al the government offices including the prime minister’s office and residence . It was incredible: all new and well planned with train stations (subways), fountains and an artificial lake. We do not know the name of this ‘city’. Our first afternoon in KL we took a walking tour of Chinatown which is where we stayed. KL is quite easy to get around in using mass transit or on foot. All the buses were new and all conditioned. This is so unlike SL, where most of the buses are ancient and none are air conditioned. In addition there are subways, light rail, monorail and other train lines. Oddly enough each light rail train line was built by a different company so transfers between lines is not possible (who was their transportation planner?) but it is easy enough to walk out of one station and into another. We ate lunch/dinner (4:00) at a really neat café, The Old China Café that had been a guildhall 100 years ago for the laundry association. We ate several Malay dishes including an appetizer called Top Hats. These were little pastries shaped just like a little top hat that you filed with shredded carrots, noodles and cucumbers and topped with a chili sauce.

The next morning we stood in line for close to two hours to get tickets to go up to the sky bridge of the Petronas Towers, 41 stories up. Then we tooled around waiting for our assigned time to go up. It was a beautiful building with a great view of KL but neither us of was sure it was worth a morning of waiting around for the event. The base was a very high-end shopping mall. I couldn’t believe how many high-end malls there were in KL, some right across the street from each other. Many of these malls had designer only shops: DKNY, TagHeuer, Kenzo, Gucci, etc. Places where the two of us would never even darkened the doorway…..we pride ourselves on being the ‘such a deal’ Bergmans. We ate at a Lebanese restaurant in Suria, the shopping center. We attempted to buy tickets to a classical performance in the concert hall but couldn’t meet the dress code requirements for the performance with our sandals. We didn’t take anything but casual clothes for the trip and it seemed too much to go shopping for shoes and appropriate clothes to attend a concert.

Later that day we took a walking tour of Colonial KL and Little India. Our feet gave out after dinner at a glitzy Indian restaurant in restaurant row so we took the monorail and subway back home, stopping at an Internet café to check email on the way.

On Saturday we visited the Museum of Islamic Arts. Here was another sharp contrast to SL where the National Museum has a roof that has leaks and has damaged part of the permanent collection. This Islamic Arts Museum was new and gorgeous. Malaysia is a Muslim country and the museum was built with money from a foundation and the government. The museum is 270,000 sq. feet. Four levels. We saw a display of the Qur’an with examples from as early as the 8th century up to the 20th century. They were beautiful and came is all sizes and descriptions, many with beautiful illustrations in gold leaf. There were displays of textiles, house wares, tiles, arms and armor, metalwork, glassware, and one of our favorites was a display of models of famous mosques from around the world including the Taj Mahal, Mecca and Medina.

We were hungry for lunch so looked at the museum café but they were serving buffet, which was a bigger meal than we wanted. We hailed a cab because we couldn’t figure out from our map how to get to Carcosa Seri Negara where we decided to have lunch. Carcosa was the home of a former British governor about 100 years ago. It is a beautiful very large home that now serves as a very expensive, seven room boutique hotel. There was one couple in the dining room when we arrived. We opened the menu and saw that the fixed price lunch menu was about $65 per person. Hey, not what we had in mind but we turned the page and there were ala carte options. I had a to die for pasta dish with lots of cream and Ron had a Caesar salad. We had a dessert that we shared and I had a cup of tea. We were each given a glass of complimentary wine. It was a $50 lunch. Ha! Afterwards our waiter took us upstairs where we could see one of the rooms. Queen Elizabeth stayed here about ten years ago when she visited.

The next day we went to a museum of the Orang Asli, the aboriginal people of Malaysia. It was out of town about 20 miles but so worth the trip. It was a small museum but what a jewel it was. There are about 18 different ethnic groups in the aboriginal communities of Malaysia, numbering about 150,000. On Saturday we had found a museum/gallery shop that sold masks made by the Mah Meri people so our interest in the museum was piqued when we purchased one of the masks for our growing collection from our travels. The museum honored these people and praised their ability to live with nature and survive in less than ‘ideal’ conditions. It was so impressive and educational with models of their houses, examples of their crafts, house wares, bark cloth clothing, photographs of each ethnic group and maps showing their distribution around Malaysia.

Our cab driver told us a little about Malaysia. All houses are required to have three bedrooms: one for boys, one for girls and one for the parents. He said houses were very affordable and that if you had a ‘proper’ job you could have a house. They cost about $45,000 I think (due to my cryptic notes). I looked up a few more stats: the unemployment rate is 3.6%, inflation 2.9%, about 24.4 million people with 85% living on the peninsula Malaysia and the remaining 15% on Malaysia Borneo Malays including indigenous groups, make up 61.7% of the population, Chinese make up 23.8%, Indians make up 7.1% and others make up the remaining7.4%. Malaysia produces 7.2 million tons of palm oil a year, more than anyone else. Oil was first discovered in 1882. Ninety years later Malaysia set up the national oil and gas company known as Petronas. It continues to have the sole right to develop oil and gas fields across the country. Today Petronas is one o Malaysia’s largest economic entities with assets to the value of RM 239,077 million ($65,486 million), employing 30,000 people in business interests spread across 31 countries.

I have more but will end this for now and add an installment tomorrow. That’s it from five degrees above the equator.

Somehow I managed to lose two blogs while we were on the road so I will attempt to recount what has been happening in the latest chapter of the Rtsla.

We had a four and half hour drive to Chaya Village in Habarana on Oct 31st. Ron and his team did two local authority (LA) assessments and taught a two-day class on road maintenance. I, on the other hand, had a grand time relaxing and touring. I went to Polonnaruwa, an ancient city in ruins one day (my second visit there) and on the second day I went to Ritigala where a family from Colombo was giving alms at a small, poor Buddhist temple. They were preparing lunch for the monks who lived there and offered for me to stay and join them. I declined but did take part in a blessing ceremony with a boy monk and the family. I then went to the archaeological site here that was in great shape. This was a forest hermitage complex that had been occupied by ascetic monks. Brahmi inscriptions here date the site from the third and second centuries BC. There was a beautiful path that we followed as we, the guide and my driver, visited the many structures that had been excavated. It was lovely and somewhat magical. The site is located within a 3,878-acre Nature Reserve where wildlife includes elephants, sloth bear, and leopard.

During the time I was at Chaya Village I saw wild and domestic elephants along the highway, wild peahens and peacocks and a troop of about 35 monkeys. I have come to accept these as almost everyday occurrences when we travel on the island. It dawned on me I wouldn’t be seeing anything like this in Vancouver WA!

We have received several emails from friends in the NW telling us how cold it is. I must admit, it is hard to relate here in the land of perpetual late August! I forget that it is winter back home. There is a lot of flooding throughout the areas where the monsoons are happening. This has driven rats into our house. We got an email from Zarka who was leaving the day after we did and said she went down to the office to send some email around 5:00 a.m. and a rat was on the desk and scurried out the window. They had chewed a hole in the screen. Since then Veena has been diligent about putting out poison and we have kept all the doors and windows shut to protect the screen and to keep the varmints out. The screens are on the inside of the house.

On Saturday we had a one-hour drive to Polonnaruwa where we stayed for one night to make the next day’s trip a bit easier. The guesthouse architecture was fascinating: it looked like Hobbitville with all kinds of organic looking structures and decorative items like logs and tree roots made from concrete. I look some photos and we will get them posted soon. There were no suitable accommodations between Polonnaruwa and Ampara, our next stop. It poured rained turning the lawn into a lake and the flat roof below our room into a swimming pool. After the rain subsided the water dissipated. We relaxed, had mediocre massages and went for a long walk at dusk by the reservoir with Suba, one of Ron’s colleagues. On Sunday we left early, around 8:30 to beat the worst of the heat. The real delight was stopping by a village of Veddas, the aboriginal people of SL. The Veddas were here when the Sinhalese and Tamils arrived so many centuries ago. They still live a very primitive life: no electricity and a well for water. We met with the chief who oversees the village and who has appointed chiefs for the other 13 villages. There are a few thousand Veddas remaining. His home was beautifully made of clay and cow dung. We were greeted on the porch where we sat on clean straw blankets that were draped over a low wall about six inches off the floor of the porch. The chief sat on a bench-like seat made of the same clay material. Ron’s comment was ‘it’s the cleanest dirt I’ve ever seen’. The porch was immaculate. The chief answered questions using a three way translation: we asked Suba in English, Suba spoke Sinhala to a local man who then spoke in the native tongue of the Veddas to the chief. It was an honor to meet this man and we refrained from taking photos as a courtesy. They were hunters and gatherers until the land where they were living became a national park then they were accused of poaching. They got hunting rights on parts of the land but now make their way with subsistence farming and by selling baskets made from shells strung together with wire, booklets that have been published about the Veddas and their language and wild honey that they gather in the jungle. The men do not cut their hair nor do they shave. The men we saw were all wearing sarongs.

From here we headed into Ampara and stayed at a small guesthouse. Ron had fallen ill in Polonnaruwa with chills, fever and upset stomach. He rested the remainder of Sunday. I read the paper and my book and spotted birds in the paddy field behind the guesthouse from the second floor porch. Ron still wasn’t well by day three, Monday, so we decided to come back to Colombo as Sunil, one of the drivers, was heading back. Sunil’s brother had driven up on Sunday to take over the driving so Sunil could head back to Colombo for a driver training class. His brother had brought his son and Sunil’s son with him and they were going back with Sunil on Monday. We all squeezed into the car and headed out on Monday morning. Otherwise we would have no way to get home until Friday and since we didn’t know what was going on and Ron was afraid he might have dengue fever again, we climbed into the car at 8:30 and got home at 4:30, driving non stop with one five minute pee break in the bushes. No snacks, no tea and no lunch. We were ready to go to bed at 7:30 but I managed to stay awake until 8:30. Unfortunately as often happens when you go to bed too early, we woke up at midnight and read until 3:00 a.m. Ron has since fully recovered and thinks it must have been food poisoning. This can easily happen in hot weather and in hotels that serve buffet meals for two or three hours, giving food time to spoil.

Now we are in the throes of packing up the house. It’s Thursday and the shippers come on Tuesday. I am making three ‘piles’: Thailand, USA and the hotel where we will live until Dec 14th. Ron is taking down artwork, patching nail holes and doing touch up painting. Every landlord should be so lucky.

Saturday is Geetha’s birthday so I went sari shopping. You can get a sari for as little as $6.95 and up. I found a lovely ‘wash and wear’ sari, which is what Geetha wears, a sari blouse and a sari slip. In addition we gave her $$ so she can do some shopping for herself. We will certainly miss her. Today is her last day. Saturday there is a big Asia Foundation staff outing that she will attend and Tuesday the shippers will be here emptying the place out. So that’s it from the paradise where the Army just killed 60 civilians and injured 600 by shelling buildings that housed displaced Tamils while trying to kill the LTTE. Oy!

Today's papers said 'only 23 were killed and 125 were imjured' as though that wasn't as bad as reported previously. One civilian killed is one too many. I grew up in the era of 'make love not war' and it sticks with me to this day.

Oct. 22 2006
Somehow this didn’t get posted so here it is now over two weeks late.

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!!