People have asked us about adjusting now that we are back in the US. It was 18 degrees Fahrenheit when we woke up this morning and I’d have to admit, we’ve been cold a lot since returning. Fortunately because it has been cold a lot of the time, we have had clear and sunny days that has helped given we had four cloudy days in 14 months in SL. Another adjustment has been our skin. We didn’t realize how the humidity affected our skin until we came home. We have itchy, stinging skin due to dryness. We both slather body lotion on and listen to the sucking sound from our skin! The other major adjustment has been sticker shock. After living in the land of low cost everything, we have been shocked with a number of purchases here: six pair of socks for $45.00 about knocked Ron off his feet. Our first restaurant meal was $60 not our usual $20 in SL. We have had to have some repairs done since returning. The car needed a new battery and we had to have the power steering repaired. The basement drain pipe needed clearing and that was $190. Oh boy. That job took less than 20 minutes. Then the gutters needed work. So we have decided we are forever ruined by SL prices and may never recover! HA! So we are making our way through our to do list each day, crossing off two or three items and adding three or four items. At first we were somewhat overwhelmed at all there was to do but just took it step by step and have made progress each day. We still are working our way through medical appointments. Last week was the dentist and this week the ophthalmologist and travel clinic to finish our Hepatitis B shot series.

Other adjustments have created laughter between us. It took opening three drawers in the kitchen before I remembered where we kept the knives. When driving, we often take the wrong route or wrong turns when trying to get to our destinations because we have forgotten the short cuts etc. Ron always says right after making a wrong turn, ‘We’re getting old, babe’. So we are experiencing lots of re-learning. Let’s just say it is humbling at times.

We were blessed to have had a family, The Hunts, live on our home from November 2005 until July 2006 and a couple who are really good friends lived here from July until mid September. The house was in great shape from that standpoint. The tenant in the apartment left when his lease was up in November. I can’t remember if I mentioned that we had hired a property management firm to manage the place while we were gone. They found a tenant for the apartment who turned out to be a gun toting Nazi! No joke, he hung a Nazi flag in the bathroom and carried a gun every day. We aren’t using that firm anymore. We are also grateful he left before our return and without incident. There’s some irony here….

I have waked up three times not knowing what country I am in: first I say ‘Am I in Colombo? No, am I in Phetchaburi? No. Oh, I’m home in Vancouver. It hasn’t happened now for over a week so I must be settled now.

I forgot to mention some animals have moved into our attic space while we were gone. We are pretty sure it is a squirrel or two. Just one more issue to add to our to do list. But we have checked off so many things: the office is organized and set up with two computer work stations, the hot water heater is repaired and functioning, the car battery has been replaced and the power steering fixed, the sewer line is unclogged, and the gutters are re-hung. We have three major projects on the list but these will have to wait due to our NEXT ADVENTURE!

TADA!! When we were in SL, a colleague of Ron’s visited us from California near the end of our time in SL. Zarka was so intrigued by Ron’s work she decided to start looking for opportunities on the Internet. She sent Ron an email of a listing she thought suited his background more than hers. In an effort to keep his name ‘out there’ he applied and lo and behold got interviewed and hired for a consulting job in Serbia. The job will start February 19th and go until March 2. He will be working for the UN Development Program and helping them to develop curriculum for local government in southern Serbia. This is exactly what he was doing in SL. I am going with him since we aren’t sure if this will lead to more work in Serbia or not and we might as well take advantage of this opportunity. Our plan had been to take a road trip to the East coast when we returned but now we are thinking about ‘batching’ our trips. Ron has two two-week trips to SL between now and September to finish out his contract. Since we are half way there in Serbia we will try to go from Serbia to SL. In addition his annual ICMA International Committee meeting is scheduled for mid-April in Dublin so we are thinking about going to Thailand and hang out at ‘our’ house in Phetchaburi while waiting for the meeting date. Today we are going to see a travel agent because this trip is way too complicated for us to try to put together. Then we will be able to assess just how possible this will be. If it is possible we will take the road trip in fall.

Given the chance for another travel adventure I will continue the blog in February when we go to Serbia if you are interested in following our adventures. We have gotten lots of positive comments on our blog and we really appreciate it. The blog has been a great way for me to be more observant during our travels as well as giving me a means to record our adventure. In addition it has been an excellent way to communicate with so many friends and family members. We thank our son David for the idea since neither of us had any idea what a blog was when he suggested it.

So the adventure continues. Thanks again for your readership and your comments.

I wrote this over a week ago and yes, we will do the Feb-May trip to Serbia, SL, Thailand and Ireland.

Tricia and Ron

People have asked us about adjusting now that we are back in the US. It was 18 degrees Fahrenheit when we woke up this morning and I’d have to admit, we’ve been cold a lot since returning. Fortunately because it has been cold a lot of the time, we have had clear and sunny days that has helped given we had four cloudy days in 14 months in SL. Another adjustment has been our skin. We didn’t realize how the humidity affected our skin until we came home. We have itchy, stinging skin due to dryness. We both slather body lotion on and listen to the sucking sound from our skin! The other major adjustment has been sticker shock. After living in the land of low cost everything, we have been shocked with a number of purchases here: six pair of socks for $45.00 about knocked Ron off his feet. Our first restaurant meal was $60 not our usual $20 in SL. We have had to have some repairs done since returning. The car needed a new battery and we had to have the power steering repaired. The basement drain pipe needed clearing and that was $190. Oh boy. That job took less than 20 minutes. Then the gutters needed work. So we have decided we are forever ruined by SL prices and may never recover! HA! So we are making our way through our to do list each day, crossing off two or three items and adding three or four items. At first we were somewhat overwhelmed at all there was to do but just took it step by step and have made progress each day. We still are working our way through medical appointments. Last week was the dentist and this week the ophthalmologist and travel clinic to finish our Hepatitis B shot series.

Other adjustments have created laughter between us. It took opening three drawers in the kitchen before I remembered where we kept the knives. When driving, we often take the wrong route or wrong turns when trying to get to our destinations because we have forgotten the short cuts etc. Ron always says right after making a wrong turn, ‘We’re getting old, babe’. So we are experiencing lots of re-learning. Let’s just say it is humbling at times.

We were blessed to have had a family, The Hunts, live on our home from November 2005 until July 2006 and a couple who are really good friends lived here from July until mid September. The house was in great shape from that standpoint. The tenant in the apartment left when his lease was up in November. I can’t remember if I mentioned that we had hired a property management firm to manage the place while we were gone. They found a tenant for the apartment who turned out to be a gun toting Nazi! No joke, he hung a Nazi flag in the bathroom and carried a gun every day. We aren’t using that firm anymore. We are also grateful he left before our return and without incident. There’s some irony here….

I have waked up three times not knowing what country I am in: first I say ‘Am I in Colombo? No, am I in Phetchaburi? No. Oh, I’m home in Vancouver. It hasn’t happened now for over a week so I must be settled now.

I forgot to mention some animals have moved into our attic space while we were gone. We are pretty sure it is a squirrel or two. Just one more issue to add to our to do list. But we have checked off so many things: the office is organized and set up with two computer work stations, the hot water heater is repaired and functioning, the car battery has been replaced and the power steering fixed, the sewer line is unclogged, and the gutters are re-hung. We have three major projects on the list but these will have to wait due to our NEXT ADVENTURE!

TADA!! When we were in SL, a colleague of Ron’s visited us from California near the end of our time in SL. Zarka was so intrigued by Ron’s work she decided to start looking for opportunities on the Internet. She sent Ron an email of a listing she thought suited his background more than hers. In an effort to keep his name ‘out there’ he applied and lo and behold got interviewed and hired for a consulting job in Serbia. The job will start February 19th and go until March 2. He will be working for the UN Development Program and helping them to develop curriculum for local government in southern Serbia. This is exactly what he was doing in SL. I am going with him since we aren’t sure if this will lead to more work in Serbia or not and we might as well take advantage of this opportunity. Our plan had been to take a road trip to the East coast when we returned but now we are thinking about ‘batching’ our trips. Ron has two two-week trips to SL between now and September to finish out his contract. Since we are half way there in Serbia we will try to go from Serbia to SL. In addition his annual ICMA International Committee meeting is scheduled for mid-April in Dublin so we are thinking about going to Thailand and hang out at ‘our’ house in Phetchaburi while waiting for the meeting date. Today we are going to see a travel agent because this trip is way too complicated for us to try to put together. Then we will be able to assess just how possible this will be. If it is possible we will take the road trip in fall.

Given the chance for another travel adventure I will continue the blog in February when we go to Serbia if you are interested in following our adventures. We have gotten lots of positive comments on our blog and we really appreciate it. The blog has been a great way for me to be more observant during our travels as well as giving me a means to record our adventure. In addition it has been an excellent way to communicate with so many friends and family members. We thank our son David for the idea since neither of us had any idea what a blog was when he suggested it.

So the adventure continues. Thanks again for your readership and your comments.

I wrote this over a week ago and yes, we will do the Feb-May trip to Serbia, SL, Thailand and Ireland.

Tricia and Ron

Home again. We had a grand send off our last night. The Asia Foundation hosted a dinner party at Alix’s house and most of the TALG staff was there and invited guests. Mr. And Mrs. Kularathna, Geetha, Veena, Chandini and Lakshman, Peter, Veasna and Mei all came. It was so much fun and made us both feel really good about our experience there. There was a period of ‘speeches’ and we both were honored by the comments people made about us. The food was catered and sooooo good. Mr. and Mrs. Kularathna stayed until the end because he wanted to drive us back to the hotel. I almost cried when I said goodbye to him. I spent more time with him than anyone else in SL except Ron and had grown quite fond of him.

We got about three hours sleep then got up to catch an early morning flight. In Thailand we were met by two relatives and a friend of Nattawan. They had already arranged a van for us and we all piled in and headed south for Phetchaburi. We went by the house, checked into the hotel then went shopping for some basics. Our Thai friends accompanied us and told us what had already been purchased (toilet papers, soap, brooms, etc.). This made our list much shorter so it didn’t take as long. Back to the house to unload. Then we went back to the hotel and scheduled a two-hour Thai massage.
The next day more friends came by and picked us up. Kay and Bill live in Hua Hin, about an hour south of Phetchaburi. We picked up Nattawan’s friend Su and her niece Thui and headed for a day of goofing off since our household goods wouldn’t arrive until Saturday. We drove to the summer palace of Rama VI. Ron and I had visited it on our first trip to Thailand in 2004 but it had been completely restored since our visit. The weather in Thailand was delightful. Our friends were cold but it was just right for us after 14 months in Sri Lanka. We ended the day with a fabulous seafood meal on the beach, literally the tables sit in the sand.

On Saturday the movers arrived at 9:00 a.m. not 11:00 as expected. We were blessed with an excellent crew who had to carry everything from the front of the property because the truck wouldn’t fit through the gate. It was a distance of about a block . They also unpacked everything to ensure nothing had been damaged. Not a single thing had been. We spent Saturday working hard, putting things away but were able to spend the night in the house. What a thrill! It is so lovely and our furniture and household goods fit in it so well. We thought the living room space actually worked better here. On Sunday we continued to put things away. The movers had left all the trash: cardboard, bubble wrap, and newsprint. The family had arranged for a recycler to come by on Sunday to pick it up. I didn’t realize it but the recycler pays for the paper and cardboard. We made close to $10.00! I spent about an hour or two working with Su and Thui removing tape from the bubbled wrap. Thui wanted to keep it as it is valuable and difficult to find. I sure could appreciate that as I had a heck of a time finding it for sale in SL. I had to go to a commercial packing company to find it.

Su had to return to Bangkok on Sunday. We were sad to see her go. She and Thui worked so hard to help us get settled in and never let us go out for food. We ate cereal in the morning but they prepared or purchased a hot lunch and dinner for us every meal. Oh the Thai cuisine is our favorite. So light, so flavorful, so fresh!

When we first unpacked I was washing all the cutlery and dishes before putting them away. Little did I realize that the kitchen sink had not been completely installed. So when I let the water out of the sink, it went all over the floor. I was in a panic and distraught. I had been on my feet all day and was tired so the thought of mopping the floor was more than I wanted at that point. However I was home alone so first I used squeegee to push the water into the bathroom where there was a floor drain then mopped. It took us two days before we could get to town to buy the part to attach the drain hose to the sink so I was trying to wash using a bucket and it was a royal pain in the neck. Ah all part of the adventure.

Thais do not use hot water to wash dishes or to bath. This was a big adjustment due to the cool weather. We have gone without hot water for ten days in SL once but there our water was stored in a big tank and consequently was never very cold. Not so here. It was almost painful to bathe. Nattawan called and said her relatives didn’t think a shower water heater was necessarily. We assured her it was necessary. So before we left a heater was installed to provide hot water to the master bath.

On Monday Bill and Kay came back to see how everything looked. They were so complimentary and we felt encouraged. Thui provided lunch for all of us and we dined in the great little covered area next to her mother’s home, which is at the front of the property next to the road. Our house is at the back of the property next to the river. Bill drove us to a hardware store and Kay, bless her heart, provided interpretation services so Ron could get the items he needed to finish some of his projects.

We thought Monday would be a breeze but we managed to work hard all day. We spent time cleaning and installing latches for doors so they wouldn’t blow shut, decorative shelves, etc. We were very tired Monday night but so thrilled with the results. The house is almost totally ready to inhabit. It needs some Thai touches, some silk wall hangings or Thai knick-knacks. We intentionally left some things undone so the house could have a Thai flavor. Nattawan will find just the right things to transform the house into a Thai home.

On Tuesday we hired a van to take us to Bangkok. We checked into our hotel and had Jeap drive us to Wat Pho where we had our horoscope and palms read then had a foot massage. Next we ate at a little Thai café right across from the wat. YUM! Next we rested at our hotel then went to another place where we always eat when we are in Bangkok. It is a very romantic outdoor and indoor restaurant with great ambiance. Unfortunately neither of us slept well so we boarded the plane for home very tired. We flew to Tokyo then on to LAX. It wasn’t too bad although the first two hours out of Tokyo we hit turbulence and couldn’t get out of our seats and dinner was served very late. We usually take a sleeping pill to help us endure the long ride but we realized we were at that point five hours out of LAX so decided to take a fourth of a pill and it didn’t help us to sleep. We were traveling business class and the seats recline much more than in economy. The only problem was we were at a slant so you kept sliding down in the seat. I’m not sure I ever went to sleep. Needless to say we took a long nap at Sonia and Bob’s after lunch in Marina del Rey. We had a quick but good visit with Ron’s mom and Bob and on Thursday were ready to head home. We got to the airport two hours before our flight although only 90 minutes are required. Due to cancelled flights in and out of Denver, it took us 90 minutes to get to check in. We had to run to security, and run to our gate. Not easy when carrying heavy carry on bags but we made it. Then we sat for 45 minutes while the back up brakes were worked on.

Alas we arrived home on Dec 21st around 6:00. It was dry and cold but we were grateful to be here. We froze our first two nights and couldn’t sleep well but then, duh, we realized we could turn up the thermostat at night and put flannel sheets on the bed. We stayed up to midnight and slept until 9:00. We continue to do that as we have been sleeping much better.

Our shipment arrived today and we had fun unpacking it. The glass in three photos broke and our treasured antique mask had a piece broken off but all else survived in tact. Now to find space for our new treasures. More old stuff to Goodwill. As part of our reestablishing ourselves, we have exhibited some nesting behaviors: cleaning our drawers. God we have a lot of junk. But we took a healthy load to Goodwill and I think we will have another before Dec 31. As for adjusting, the weather is an issue as you would expect. Coming back to our house, we have forgotten where things are. I had to open three drawers before I found the knives. They hadn’t moved, I just couldn’t remember. We have had two families stay in our house since last November and everything is in tact. We are very grateful to them for their stewardship. And the Nazi left when his lease was up and he didn’t torch the place. We are very grateful for that. Maria comes tomorrow to clean the apartment and then we will look for a new tenant. If you know anyone who wants to rent an adorable studio apartment with great landlords, let us know. It rents for $500 a month with all utilizes but gas and phone included.

The fast-paced retirement of the Bergmans continue. We spend the New Years week-end at the Oregon coast with long time friends. When we come back, we have projects galore. First we need to paint the downstairs as its never been painted in the time we’ve been here… almost 13 years. Ron also wants to build a bed and a chair for our grand daughter, just as we did for her brother. We also plan to take a “road trip” across the US to visit friends and family… as well as to deliver the building projects. Ron has a meeting in Dublin in April as well as a two week consulting assignment in Serbia for the UN in February ( doing similar things there as he did in Sri Lanka ). An of course we want to reconnect with friends in the Portland area. Oh, so much retirement and so little time! And that’s the story from Paradise now 45 degrees above the equator.

We're now off for our traditional New Year's event with 3 other couples. We've shared a beach house in Waldport, Oregon at New Years for the last 17 years. Obviously we missed last year, but we're happy to renew the tradition. Our plan is to post one more blog with our descriptions of re-entry and adjustment. Here's a preview: I can tell you right off, we've got sticker shock!!!! Things cost SO MUCH MORE here than we remembered.

Farewell Sri Lanka

Although we will most probably come to SL again as Ron has more work to do on the project, we thought it would be appropriate to do a farewell blog. We aren’t sure what will happen to the project if SL goes back to war.

What we will miss about Sri Lanka

We will miss being awakened by many different birds singing loudly with tropical tunes we don’t hear at home. We will also miss Buddhist monks’ chants from the neighborhood monastery and the call to prayers that we can hear from the mosque that is nearby.

Being from the great and gray northwest we will most certainly miss the sunshine that we get 12 hours a day. There have been five or six cloudy days in 14 months.

There are some very special people here that we will miss. Geetha who so lovingly prepared our meals, cleaned our home and ironed our clothes. She never failed to appreciate the little extras that we did for her. Mr. Kularathna who drove us all over Colombo and occasionally beyond. He was the greatest resource showing us where to find any items we needed such as aluminum channeling, a welder, drill bits and parts for a clothesline. He and I had many conversations about life, the war, and Sri Lanka. He shall forever be my friend. I spent more time with Mr.K than anyone in SL except my husband. Anton at the Asia Foundation will be missed. He helped us in so many ways: finding doctors, finding a real estate agent who found our home, helping us with our visas, our air shipment arrival and on it went. He was always willing to help us out and we shall never forget his help. There was the staff at the Asia Foundation Suba, Satha, and Lashan, Program Managers who worked in the office … and the Program Officers, Jayatissa, Kumar, Dhilshart and Kukan.. What a great team. And of course I will miss the girls and young women at Shilpa.

Veena and her family will be sorely missed. They adopted us within a short time span of arriving at 475/3A Thimbirigasyaya Rd. Mrs. Bakshi fed me lunch my first day and Veena fed me lunch yesterday. In between we have enjoyed many meals together as well as a few movies and lots of conversations. We very much feel a part of her family and are grateful for it.

Gosh, food at home will seem so bland after so many spicy Sri Lankan and Indian meals. We often eat at fabulous Indian restaurants here and of course Geetha prepared Sri Lankan meals three times a week for us. Yes, we will miss the cuisine.

Year round flowers blooming in the garden and all over the island. It’s a 365-day a year growing season and what colors! Oh the orchids, yes they will be missed. As will the hill country, with tea plantations, waterfalls and yes, cool weather. We even get to wear socks and sweaters there. The wonderful tropical fruits: mangos, rambutan, mangosteen, pineapple, papaya will definitely be missed as well as year round fresh veggies.

We will miss the beaches down south with coconut palms, sandy beaches and sea breezes. The wildlife will be missed. Seeing wild and domestic elephants along the roads, leopards in the national park, crocodiles, water buffalo, wild boar and elk, incredible birds and lizards, oh my.

Then there is the shopping where the cost of things, whether it was food or crafts always caught me by surprise. Limes for a penny, cotton shirts for $3.50, mangos for a dime. Then there are the saris, truly a feast for our eyes. Beautiful color combinations, jewels set in the fabric, silver and gold threads. The beauty of seeing several women standing or walking together with a rainbow of color. It never ceased to take our breath away. We never saw an ugly sari.

We will most surely miss the lifestyle where we traveled a great deal, and never had to worry about money. It was pretty great to have a housekeeper who ironed our clothes, cleaned the house, did the marketing and prepared our evening meals three times a week. We ate leftovers three nights a week and managed to go out the other night.

Oh yes we will miss the wild rainstorms with lots of thunder and lightening. Great gushes of rain, flooding the streets temporarily. We will miss the sweet nature of the Sri Lankans we met. The ready smile that greeted us so many times whether from a friend or stranger, what grand smiles they have here.

Then there are a few things we will not miss: bugs, mosquitoes that carry Dengue and Chickamungaya, ants with a fierce sting, really nasty cockroaches, and whatever those bugs were that would find their way into our bed and bite us multiple times in the night.

We will not miss the inefficiency and bureaucracy of the post office. Then there is the incredibly bad and reckless driving and bad, bad roads choked with traffic from trishaws, bicycles, motorcycles, trucks, buses, more buses, cows, dogs, bullock carts, and pedestrians. We will gladly leave the air pollution that causes lots of respiratory problems, burns your throat and eyes and corrodes metal.

And of course this wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t mention our pet peeve: garbage! We will not miss the smell of a neighbor burning their garbage each day, with the acrid smell of burning plastic. We won’t miss seeing garbage littered every single place we visited although it was the worst in Colombo.

We will not miss the continuous fighting between the government and the LTTE, with its senseless killings. We won’t miss the daily lies reported in the news with each side accusing each other of wrongdoing and both were right!
But all in all, this has been a FABULOUS experience that has exceeded our expectations in every respect. This has been a difficult year in some ways and easy in others. But it will be something we will remember for the rest of our lives. This has truly been Ron & Tricia’s Excellent Sri Lankan Adventure!

WOW! What a whirlwind. On Friday I thought I was hosting a small graduation ceremony for the Shilpa girls who had taken the career development classes I had been teaching for months. Not quite. Instead the entire home was there: all the girls, the trustees and some parents. Three different groups of girls performed dances, the entire group sang a song about ‘you are an angel’ (of course I cried), the girls I taught made speeches in ENGLISH! I was presented with a book of photos of each girl and a letter from each one. I was given a beautiful tablecloth made in SL. And it ended with food they had prepared. I was truly overwhelmed by their efforts and felt honored.

Then Ron joined me and we took off for Mohan’s, an Asia Foundation driver, who had invited us to his home. Unfortunately, Mohan had to work that night and couldn’t join us. He is the executive director’s driver and the director had decided to go out to eat that night. His daughter Priya who also works at TAF was there and her mother had prepared a lovely meal for us. Sri Lankans prepared a minimum of five dishes so there was more food than we could ever eat. Priya gave each of us a gift.

On Saturday we got up early and had Ruwan drive us to Jayatissa’s for lunch. He lives about 2.5 hours northeast of Colombo. Jayatissa is one of Ron’s program officers. He lives with six women aged 12-85: his wife, three daughters, his wife’s aunt, and his mother. They had prepared 15 dishes. In the SL culture it is common for the guests (if Western particularly) to dine while the hosts watch you eat, making sure your plate is never without food on it. So Ron and I ate, Jayatissa sat at the table some of the time while mother and daughters glided around the room taking care of our every need. Before lunch we walked down to the river and skipped rocks. We got to see a ferryman who ferried villagers back and forth across the river. You only pay when you go back to the far side of the river. It cost five rupees each way. The ferry was a boat carved from a log with an outrigger for balance. Women would remove their shoes and pull up their saris and wade into the river to board the ferry. There are many things in SL that are done the way they were done 100 years ago. I think I have mentioned that they still use bullock carts here for transport.

That night we dined with Peter and Veasna. In our conversation with them, we learned that we might have worms from eating lettuce here. We decided to de-worm when we get home since we will be eating raw veggies between now and then. We are sort of eating our way out of SL and gaining weight in the process!

On Sunday we met up with Ahmad who is here from Vancouver WA working on a project for Ron. We asked him to join us and we went to two art shows and an exhibition of hand loomed creations. In addition there was a sale near the hotel of the most beautiful embroidery I have ever seen. Ahmad managed to complete his Christmas shopping with the embroidery sale and the handloom sale. I now need to mail a box home because we keep seeing beautiful things to buy as gifts or for us. We ate lunch at an Indian vegetarian restaurant and came back to the hotel.

bThen at 6:30 Mr. Kularathna’s son picked us up and took us to the Kularatna’s home for dinner. What a great evening! Mr. K and his son live next door to each other. His son is married to Aspara and they have a four-month-old daughter. Aspara’s brother and his family (three kids and his wife) were visiting for the weekend; Aspara’s mother lives there also. In addition to Mr. K, and his wife, their youngest daughter lives with them. So it was a party! We started with sweetened limejuice and conversation at the son’s house. Then we moved to Mr. K’s for shish kabobs and alcohol drinks (beer and wine) then back to the son’s house for dinner. Again, Ron and I ate while many hands waited on us and attended to our every need. It turns out Mr. K did much of the cooking and what a feast it was. We had seer fish prepared two ways: SL and western. There were shrimp, hoppers, string hoppers, sambol, seeni sambol, jak fruit, cucumber and tomato salad and I can’t remember what else. Mr. K is a very shy and humble man but Aspara kept the conversation flowing. We had a GREAT time and were honored to have been invited. Although it was dark out, I could tell there were perhaps 100’s of orchids in Mr. K’s yard. He is very creative. In his kitchen he had created a wall that looked like a typical SL mud hut with a thatched roof. He also showed us his ‘ships in a bottle’ collection. I think I mentioned he has given us one for our anniversary. I found out that his son had asked for one and still is waiting for one!

Ron and I decided to give Mr.K some artwork as our gift since he had taken us to numerous art shows in our time here and he often would join us once he had parked his vehicle. We bought a photograph taken by Dominic Sansoni of Mirissa at sunset. It is a beautiful seascape on the south coast of SL. I wrote on the back that I had spent more time with him (Mr. K) than anyone in SL except Ron. So we had lots of laughs about not having jealous spouses.

There was some good news in the paper about SL for a change. A firm that makes paper and paper products from elephant dung and recycled paper won the World Challenge Award. The name of the firm is Maximus, which is the species name for the SL elephant. This is a firm that employs 35 people and now pays villagers to collect wild elephant dung. I’ve seen photo frames, notepaper holders and similar products made by Maximus. Google them to learn more about their process. It is fascinating.

When Pat McDonnell and Tanya Grey were here last week, I took them to Barefoot to buy gifts. Tanya wanted some tea to take home for friends. She had picked up a box of loose tea that is called ‘fannings”. It is the dust of processed tea. Tea is sold as whole leaf, broken leaf and fannings. I had remembered this from our tea tour so I told her I didn’t think that fannings was a very good grade of tea. I asked a clerk who said ‘no, fannings is the best!’ Upon further conversation I discovered that he meant to Sri Lankans fannings was the best because they like a really dark, strong tea with lots of milk and sugar. He told me the French liked the whole leaf the best. The light went on for me at that point.
It is Monday and we leave Thursday early. I will do a farewell to SL blog on Wednesday. Until then, that’s it from paradise five degrees above the equator.

It’s time to leave SL. I just ran out of Starbucks decaf!! I had brought some coffee back with us when we went to the US in September and have been making coffee in our room each morning since we have been at the hotel. The tea and coffee here are awful. I figured we have made enough concessions in the 14 months we have been here and giving up decent coffee was too much to ask of us. I have found one good brand of Sl coffee but decaf is unheard of here unless you drink Nescafe Instant. YUCK!

We had a fabulous restful weekend in Galle. I came down with a bad cold on Friday night while we were having a celebration dinner with Veena and her family. We had a royal feast at a vegetarian Indian restaurant. I ate with my hands for the first time here. The meal was served with various Indian breads and not with rice so my task was manageable. Eating with my hands is a real trick due to my arthritis. The last joint in each finger is almost ‘frozen’ with very little if any flexibility so I have declined eating without utensils until Friday.

We left at 9:30 Saturday and stopped at a turtle hatchery along the way. The hatchery has been rebuilt since the tsunami and appeared to be privately owned and operated. Our host said he has returned 250,000,000 turtles to the sea. It was a small operation but the tour was fascinating. Once we got to Galle we had lunch in the old Dutch fort, overlooking the ocean. We then checked into our boutique hotel (6-7 rooms) and were given the newest suite, a beautiful bedroom, a bathroom that would sleep four and a small sitting room. The hotel was originally a Scottish planter’s home in the early 1900’s. I promptly went to bed as I was worn out from sneezing, coughing and blowing my nose. Not so romantic. We lazed around until dinner and ate at the hotel. We had eaten here on our last trip and were eager to enjoy another meal prepared by their chef. It was delicious. We sat outside (just us two were there) under a porch that overlooked the pool and garden. Our glass top wrought iron table had candlelight and was strewn with white flowers. Music played in the background.

On Sunday it was drizzling which is a good thing. It means it was cool for walking around the old fort. There were about 200 homes within the fort walls. Today people are buying them up, rehabbing them either for boutique shops or private homes. So we strolled along poking around various shops and antique stores. I had two chains made for pendants I had bought here and Ron found a lock for the antique trunk we had bought for the Thailand house.

Then we went on a wild goose chase for an eating establishment mentioned in our tour book. We asked for directions numerous times but never found the place. We gave up and just stopped at the first place we saw. It had mediocre food but it was three feet from the ocean. I am sure it got wiped out in the tsunami.

We came back to the hotel and I napped, then we read and in the evening we went over to the living room where we listened to music, perused books and magazines and enjoyed a ‘cocktail’-sweetened lime juice. Dinner tonight was their signature dish: rice and curry. We had decided to eat in again as the food, including breakfast, is so good here. It was the best rice and curry we have had in SL. Lots of coconut cream and milk. It was soooo good. Then there was dessert: mine was coconut flan with passion fruit sauce. Oh my…divine. Ron had five-spice panacotta with plum sauce. Yum!

We were invited to see their other property across the street. The Dutch House is also a boutique hotel built in 1912. The décor here was very different but quite lovely. We loved the artwork and recognized an artist whose work we had bought for the Thai house. The rooms were huge and even more expensive than ours across the way. But it was fun to see how the rich and famous live! If you want to see photos you can google both places: The Sun House and the Dutch House, Galle. Ron will post our photos when he has a moment. Given that we leave in eight days, he doesn’t have a lot of free time. He is wrapping up things at work, he has consultants from Vancouver here and colleagues arriving from DC this week and next. In between we have lots going on socially: dinners with friends to say goodbye, a tea hosted by a consulting firm Ron works with, a farewell party, etc. It is great to have so much happening as it make the time fly by.

We left Galle after breakfast and Ruan, our driver, invited us to his home. He said he had never taken tourist to his hoe before. We were honored as it is rare to be invited into someone’s home here. This was the third time I had been in a SL home: Veena’s, her brother’s and now Ruan’s home. Ruan’s mother and sister-in-law had prepared a feat for us. We were overwhelmed. It was a day for eating. We had dinner at Veena’s and she had prepared an Indian feast for us. God, we will put on all the weight we have taken off if we aren’t careful. Anyway, it was a delightful day with excellent home cooked food. We are truly blessed in our experience here.

As you probably know from the news, a LTTE suicide bomber tried to kill the president’s brother on Friday. He killed two security personnel and injured 14 others. Now the government is really clamping down. Streets were blocked yesterday when I was out and a significant number of roads had become one way, creating havoc for drivers not to mention screwing up bus routes since this was not a planned activity. Each side is accusing the other of failing to honor the cease-fire agreement. What a joke. Neither side has honored the agreement since we have been here. Thousands of people have been killed and even more injured with the senseless fighting. They have learned nothing in 20 years of civil war.

The roads are in bad physical condition. Because the infrastructure cannot handle the amount of rain, there is often standing water or water bubbling up out of the storm drains. I am seeing more and more erosion. Yesterday a part of the road about 12 to 18 inches square had caved in about a foot deep. Someone had struck a small tree branch into the hole as a warning but the branch had been run over so you wouldn’t see this hole until your tire got wedged into it. Oy! There isn’t enough money for proper infrastructure here but the war continues at great expense to the country not to mention the cost to individuals.

Mr. Kularathna, the trishaw driver I use, can no longer park on the street outside the hotel. So the group of twenty drivers has had to hire a man to stand outside the hotel and when someone needs a vehicle, he signals the drivers who are parked off the road across the street. In addition, tourism is way down due to the escalation of violence and this means everyone earns less money. We went to a very nice new restaurant last night and were the only people there. Another couple came in as we were leaving. In Galle, one of the staff at our hotel told us they usually have their rooms full this time of year but not this year. We were the only guests at the Sun House and no one was at the Dutch House. The facility had at least 7 staff members some of whom are dependent on tips or service charges for their livelihood. It breaks my heart. It also pisses me off that the politicians and government huff and puff but do nothing of consequence to improve the lives of the Tamils. If the Tamils were treated equally under the law, the LTTE would have no cause and no support. What can you say about High Military and defense officials who own companies that operate as arms brokers. They make lots of money on every arms purchase. What incentive do they have for ending the war?

And that’s all there is from paradise just five degrees above the equator!

I had a unique cultural experience today. The only department store in SL had a sale today where everything was marked 175 SLR, a little less than $1.75. I decided to go and buy some clothes for the Shilpa girls. The sale was held at a big hall. I got there just as they opened and the place was a zoo. No surprise at those prices. Well this was almost like those sitcoms that show people fighting over clothes. I never saw an actual fight but the pushing and shoving was something to behold. Being slightly claustrophobic I was proud that I even went to this sale. I was literally knocked off my feet twice. No problem I fell into a box of clothes for a soft landing both times. But I persisted and was able to find 30 tops for the girls.

Several days have passed. Today there was a bomb blast in Colombo, targeting the President’s brother who is the defense minister and ho is a strong critic of the LTTE. They try to kill their critics. The news said he was in a bulletproof vehicle and is safe. One is dead but I’m not sure if the was a suicide bomber or not. Fourteen were injured. It just happened a few hours ago so news is not too reliable at this point. We were nowhere near it and are quite safe. I observed several ‘emergency’ vehicles and was reminded how different things are here. After this amount of time you forget how things are different at home. An emergency vehicle here is a truck like vehicle that has bench seats in the back. Some have actually sides and others have a roof but not sides, a more open arrangement. Then the driver honks his horn (no flashing lights or sirens). A passenger in the back sticks his hand out the window to alert other drivers to make way.

Tomorrow (Saturday) we head to Galle to celebrate 21 years of marital bliss. We will stay at a charming guesthouse, oozing ambience. We discovered the place on a previous trip. We had dined at the Sun House and they showed us several rooms. We couldn’t resist. If you want a peek, go to www.THESUNHOUSE.com. Galle is relatively small and we have visited before so we are expecting to do a whole lot of nothing, relaxing and ambling around the old part of town where the Portuguese built a fort in the late 1500’s and the Dutch strengthened it in the 1600’s. There are 200 houses within the old fort area and now some very spendy hotels and shops. We are looking forward to a relaxing, romantic time together. It will be good, as Ron’s work seems to intensify as he tries to wrap things up here.

Last night (our actual anniversary) we dined with the Vancouver WA team who had arrived in the afternoon. They are here to lend expertise to two cities that have large festivals each year and need help with solid waste issues (trash/garbage) and traffic flow problems. Vancouver has the largest fireworks display west of the Mississippi so has some wisdom to share. We have a lovely Asia fusion restaurant at the hotel so dined outside after many of us sprayed DEET mosquito repellant on ourselves, just in case. You may not remember but the last time the Vancouver folks were here in July, one team member and Ron both got Dengue fever. So we are more cautious now when we dine outside.

Today Shilpa had their annual fundraising sale. They sell embroidered pillowcases, tablecloths, placemats, food items, hand smocked children’s dresses, hand loomed bed linens, etc. I got a pair of pillowcases and some handkerchiefs for us and eight dresses for the girls. It’s been a good week for clothes buying. This time I managed to stay upright the entire time!

To say we are looking forward to coming home would be an understatement. We have 13 days to go. Our social calendar is improving: a consulting firm is hosting a tea for Ron, the Asia Foundation program director is having a last night party with us giving a guest list (We have included very special people like Geetha and Mr. Kularathna), neighbors Veasna and her husband Peter are having us over for dinner. Tonight we are taking Veena and her family (brother, his wife and their two girls) out to celebrate Veena landing the consulting job with the Asia Foundation. Monday when we return from Galle, Veena is hosting her family and us and treating us to vegetarian Indian feast. She is an excellent cook so we are very excited. Our favorite cuisines are Indian and Thai. We also have been invited to dinner at the home of Mohan, one of the drivers for the Asia Foundation. In addition, we will travel a bit north to meet the family of one of the program officers whose daughter to eager to meet us. It is a great privilege to be invited into a Sri Lankan’s home so we have been blessed many times over in this regard.

Our household goods have arrived in Thailand and our air shipment to USA has arrived. We are thrilled that things are moving along as planned, mostly. Our Thai shipment requires a step we hadn’t counted on but it only puts us back a day and since we anticipated this possibility we built several days slippage into our schedule. It shouldn’t be a problem.

So that’s the latest from paradise five degrees from the equator where civil war continues with senseless killings. The Bergmans are safe and having an adventure of a lifetime.

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.