Coming close to the end
Fri Sep 23
We are back in our old haunt of Hikkaduwa- wanted to spend time with Kala and this is one way to do it on the long rides back and forth. Left Colombo at 630 am and it really is hot here-and no shade- most of the trees were wiped out by the tsunami and it is just hotter.
Weds I was teary on and off and just felt sad. We went to a nearby crafts center and saw tons of hand made stuff- it was overwhelm- but much of it was very beautiful. We watched part of Amadeus until Albert fell asleep.
Yesterday we had a long work day, but went off and had a farewell lunch with Emily and Rosanna, her partner. They are working on gay rights in Sri Lanka which is a tall order in such a conservative society. Rosanna is working on the steering group for the Out Games to be held next summer in Montreal, so we might be able to see them then. Of course I got teary again, and felt so thankful to Emily for her care of us when we first got here- we knew so little and she was so gentle and helpful.
She reminded me of how culture shocked we were when we arrived and pointed out we would likely feel the same on our return to the US. For example, I have been noticing I am getting more used to looking to the right when we go to cross the street and after we leave India we will have to switch gears again. Oh yes. And who am I now anyway and who have I become? I sure feel more relaxed. Wonder if I can stay with it back home.
Kala asked me to put together some case studies for a report she has been working on so I spent most of the day doing that Thursday> today, while she was meeting with her staff, I worked on another proposal. I am getting pretty used to cranking them out, but I am also noticing my writing in general is just flowing and I am so grateful for that- it feels like I have recovered part of myself- sure I can remember how to do grant proposals, but to be able to write my own thoughts and ideas is a gift.
We had found an artist whose work we liked when we were here last time and we hope to have Kala meet him today- very bright colors and cheerful designs- I hope we can make another match, but I know so much more now about watching, letting it happen- would like to keep that with me too.
We went to see our friend with the drum shop today- we may get another drum, but of course I expect it will decorate our living room like the other one- oh well- when he plays it it sounds so great- but it is really nice – made from coconut wood and goat skin. We are in the clinic in Hikkaduwa as I write now. Albert just spilled tea all over himself, so his friend Wimal went next door and brought a white sarong and orange shirt for him to wear- he had his final blood test today until we get home. We rea so taken care of here. I hope I can be so gracious when we have guests when we get home.
Blog Sep 16 Friday
Kala and Kamala have just left to go to a national education reform meeting of bigwigs in a flurry of paper and computer sticks. Kala pieced together her report from the parts I corrected and Albert corrected. It is a program that revolves around including underserved students and having parents and the community involved in the schools and advocating for better use of education funds. This was a pre tsunami project, so having to write a paper and create a presentation has been an added burden at this juncture. Kala was doing the main presentation and a group of education professors and govt people were going to be there.
I absolutely cannot see how Kala can do all she does. We are trying to teach her that she has the option to say no and in fact she is realizing that something has to change – she is overextended beyond belief- and knows that she can’t keep up this pace. Amazingly she usually has such a positive attitude- it is extraordinary- but she is exhausted and it is worrisome.
I think to myself that the only reason she can have the stamina she does is because she is 36,not 50 something, but I remember that it was only when I compromised my health by overworking that I began to slow down. Even now, as our time in Sri Lanka winds down and I realize I can’t do and see everything, and really don’t have the energy in the heat , I still have a million things I want to be doing!!
We worked late with her and Indika Thurs night to try and help get things moved along. Indika and I brainstormed about their web site- the guy who is going to help with it was supposed to show up this morning and didn’t- I was really excited about it as I have a lot of ideas, but it is just as well as A and I were working on this paper all morning. I hope he does come next week as I think this will be one of the most important things I can contribute with a face to face meeting.
We have both been working on various projects all week besides doing this with Kala. The folks from UNIFEM- the United Nations Women’s program are here for a field visit, so there is more to be done this evening to prep for that> we had met the head of the org at the Joan Kroc center at USD-she was part of their lecture series and was very inspiring- her staff is inspired by her too. I actually did some more on that on Fri afternoon
Monday night Kala , Indika and their kids and Amah took us to the huge book fair nearby, which actually has been going on all week at the big exhibition hall. I got more goodies (books, workbooks) for the children’s program, a book for each of the kids, and got a history of Sri Lanka and a guidebook for India- we now leave in 21/2 weeks- it seems utterly amazing that our stay is almost over-I am trying to stay conscious and appreciate every minute—
A couple of nights ago A and I went to an Indian restaurant for dinner, had some yummy curry and met some young people from Switzerland and had a fun time bashing the policies and blunders of our current govt.
Tuesday we went to see a great Indian film about a hero of the rebellion of 1857- Mangal Pandey very inspiring- I am sure it will come to the Ken at some point- a real epic story- 3 hrs with intermission where a guy comes down the aisle with peanuts and candy, and a room materializes off of the corridor where there is a bar for drinks!!
Tonite we go to our Bangladeshi consultant friend’s for dinner-we really enjoy them.
Sunday Sept 18
We leave 2 weeks from today. It is now Sunday and both yesterday and today we had late morning naps. I got a big cold sore on my lower lip from being too exposed to the sun last weekend and it has been painful and wearing, so it has been nice to rest. We went and got some dvds and watched Fiddler on the Roof last night. Had this whole plan to go to a place an hour away and watch the huge sails on the fishing boats and go on a boat trip to see birds in the late afternoon and it was just too hot. So we had a nice a/c lunch and came home and slept some more and saw the movie on A’s laptop.
Today we went swimming and then went grocery shopping- fruit and yogurt and eggs and tomatoes and we finally found whole wheat bread. Then went back to sleep! If we can muster up the energy we may go back to our Buddhist meditation practice this afternoon which I would love to do. The heat has returned and I realize how lucky we have been to have the heavy clouds and rain the last 2 weeks- it really is very livable then in terms of heat, but pretty intense otherwise. Albert does a lot better with the heat than I do- I just wilt. Swimming every day has been a joy and has made so much difference.
We are reading our India guidebook and I am feeling overwhelmed. How do we begin to see India in 2 weeks- and the places I want to go are on opposite sides of the subcontinent! We will be with the Jewish community of Bombay- now Mumbai- for Rosh Hashana and have a hotel reservation. Hope to meet the AJWS volunteers who are there-have been emailing. One of them is working for one of Siyath’s chief partner/funders here called Action Aid in India, whose home is Great Britain. Have also written to the JCC that has reform services, so will see where we end up. I am hoping we might be offered a holiday meal somewhere which would be really nice. Not sure yet where we will be for Yom Kippur.
The wife of our Bangladeshi consultant is from Calcutta, where they met at the university, and there is a big festival there in Oct so we may go there and get to see the city from a native’s viewpoint which would be great. Our guidebook says there are still 100 Jews there so maybe we will find them for Yom Kippur.
I also want to go to Pondicherry and Auroville, the home of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. I have written to Gurumayi’s website about visiting Ganeshpuri but it may not be possible as they only seem to accept visitors for a minimum of an 8 day program or a month long stay and one has to apply and be a long term Siddha Yoga practitioner. But I will see-I read that there are hot springs there which sound very appealing. I really don’t want to spend all that time in cities. Our friend told us to get air tix in India, as they can be very cheap- so we will see. We may also take a long train ride to see some of the countryside.
Appreciating the slower pace here and realizing that it won’t be long until it changes—it will be much more intense in India-2 weeks of travel- and then we get to NY on the 18th a month from today-after 22 hours traveling- we have a 4 hour layover in Zurich-but luckily we have a few days to sleep before the wedding on the 22nd!
Later Sunday
Went to meditation after picking up laundry and what turned out to be dinner rather than lunch from the Indian restaurant- may be too spicy for me. Enjoy the way it is structured- intro, sitting, walking , then sitting again. I luxuriated in having bare feet and getting to walk on the lush grass in the garden. Hard to stay conscious, especially with the heat. Had a nice chat with the Dutch monk who seemed happy to see us. He has a nice subtle sense of humor. It turns out he had a Jewish father- A and I talked about our Jewish observance , R. Zalman and the holidays and I explained we would be in Mumbai for Rosh Hashana. He told us about some caves which will be fun to see in India, not far from Mumbai by train.
A has to finish his continuing ed for his taxes tonight so I will read and maybe do some more writing. I want to do a summary of our work experience to try to capture what it feels like at this moment in time and see if it changes over the next two weeks. It really may be that we will just have grabbed moments with Kala and Indika until we leave, and that we will just need to leave them what we have written up. Not what I would have hoped, but part of my lesson here is getting to see that it is not only a different culture and a different way of seeing and being , but also that the people are incredibly, unbearably stressed and the last thing we want to do is add more stress. I think it would be too bad, but it may be impossible for them to prioritize taking time away from each urgent thing they are coping with to really work with us for a block of time.
One part of me is very frustrated with the whole thing- going back to even before we came and how hard it was to have them decide and agree to us coming. Maybe that should have been a sufficient red flag for us to have tried to look elsewhere. On the other hand, it isn’t about us and our contribution. We are really here to serve, and maybe our service has more to do with our presence and our willingness than it does with our concrete results. I am so results oriented and so accomplishment oriented that its hard to know if we will have made any real difference if we don’t get to create a comprehensive plan and timeline together . Maybe that’s the real lesson. I have had to do so much letting go and it really is important for me to keep doing that and getting that lesson.
We think we were scammed again yesterday-no loss to us but a rather overly friendly person claiming to know us from the Royal College (he must have heard us talking about this with a tuk tuk driver who wanted too much money) and trying to help us- and then suddenly needing money for medicine. Before he asked to borrow money from us, a lot more money than the scammer on the train in Galle- I let him know right away we were not going to lend him money and he disappeared pretty fast- sigh-
So here’s what I have done so far- after the two weeks of field work-
Edited and rewrote an 80 page report and a 30 page report and a series of charts
Contributed to several summary reports and monthly updates both writing and editing
Wrote a series of microlending documents and microlending forms
Wrote a fundraising plan
Wrote a two page proposal for funding to replace the funds lost in the fire of Sept 1
Started to make calls about a children’s savings and insurance program
Have done some work on web site suggestions and material and donation plan-
Researched local banks to handle donations on the web
Have half finished a proposal for a comprehensive coordinating center in Hikkaduwa area
Have done work on an ecotourism proposal regarding an artisan’s village they want to create down south
As I read the list I am actually pretty impressed, its just that we have barely been able to discuss most of these with Kala and Indika- to get feedback and develop ideas further- let alone take the time to show them the documents-
though our web conversation last week was exciting and heartening.
SO, will I only feel that it didn‘t meet my pictures? I think not- in many ways its been more wonderful than I could have imagined, especially because we adore Kala and Indika and Kamala and the rest of the staff so much. It is a joy to be with them. One of the things I will surely miss is having a group of people to work with. I think I need to do that with my volunteer efforts, whatever those turn out to be. One job needs to be to help Siyath get 501c3 status, not a fun thing but really necessary- We want to get them on Skype so we can talk for no cost when we get back.
Monday morning
You would have thought that with all the naps and meditation we would have been up early and ready to go but I slept until almost 8 and we didn’t go swimming. We came into the office and it turns out Kala’s child care person has run off with someone. So it happens even in conservative Sri Lanka!! She also told us avery funny story about getting crabs and it turns out they were live. She didn’t want to boil them so she put them in a tub of cold water and in the meantime they were scuttling around the house, the two little boys were up on the table and it sounded like a great comedy scene- but I am sure it didn’t seem so at the time.
Indika has come back from a paper factory he is involved with, carrying a big box of gorgeous samples of paper notebooks of all kinds made with indigenous products- banana leaves, rice leaves, etc Very exciting!These would do well at any high end paper store like Papyrus etc.
Not sure what I want to focus on at this moment but its time to get to work.
Tues the 20th
Went swimming this am and it was crowded- turns out no school this week for some reason so that may be part of it. It was amazingly also a few degrees warmer than last week- it is amazing how much the water tempof this big pool can be affted by the sun- it was almost too warm! A father was bringing his 10 year old in to the women’s locker room and hung around to make sure she could take a shower properly. Absurd~It was more than a little disconcerting! In the pool it felt like we were being ruin down by swimmers who didn’t care if we were already in the lane they wanted to swim in- Albert had a collision. Not fun. Most of the time most of the people are so warm and wonderful and sometimes a few people can be so unconscious and rude. I guess it is that way everywhere .
Kala took us alogn with her and Indika to a reputable three generation jeweler today where she goes, and I got some beautiful and unusual rings and other things. Very fun. Nice to be in a/c today. Also, needed to have a break from work and it was so nice to actually be able to do one of the things Kala had wanted to do with us. Tomorrow is their 7th wedding anniversary.
Last night we went to the Mt Lavinia hotel which was formerly the governor’s mansion and since has had extensions built on it. It is on a hill above the ocean with beautiful rocks to look at and terraces for dinner and a lit up swimming pool. We got shown the gorgeous ballroom and took some pics- it turns out that this is where Kala and Indika got married. We ate dinner at a nearby restaurant and walked a few blocks and took the bus to near out place and took a tuk tuk home. This was our first bus experience and Kala was worried that it was really not a good idea.It was so jerky that it was impossible to stand up and not get kind of knocked over. We appreciated how buses are king here!~
Weds 21st
Today is Kala and Indika’s 7th anniversary- they brought their wedding album for us to look at. I got all teary again about leaving. Kala has given us Sri Lankan names- mine is Sumanavati which means-tell you later. Kamala calls us ---- which means the sun and the rain. I , of course am Ahuwa because all v’s are pronounced as w’s.
September 24, 2005 1645 Hrs Kandy, Sri Lanka
We have driven in a van with Indika and Kala, and his parents and her nursemaid, who is for the second generation the nursemaid and family member for their two sons. We got off to a slightly late start about 10:30 AM. The jolly crew of his father in front with the driver, Ahouva and me in the middle seat, and Kala, his mother and the nursemaid. Indika rotated between the middle seat and the back seat, depending on the demands of
It was a normal Sri Lankan road trip with stops for whatever moved the various member of the group. Food is paramount on such an adventure. Traffic is impossible, and we all thankful for the driver. He’s the pilot and its his problem, when to pass and when to be passed; when to move slowly and when to speed along.
Stop for tea; stop for pineapples; stop for VJ in Kandy and car repair; stop at the house that was rented; eat lunch of rice, fish curry, greens, dhal, tomato & cucumber, beet salad of onion, beets, spices etc.; taking pictures of the kids, their cute; dressing for the alms-giving ceremony in the tooth temple…..
Imagine entering the holy of holy and being invited in through the magic of a drummer set, that is three drummers, who normally will accompany Kandy dancers. Then add the musician with his double reed instrument. He repeats a simple melody, which sounds like a bad kazoo player’s nightmare, until I discern the melody in its full complex structure and rhythm. With the complex drum beats and the intertwining melody, the hypnotics of the ceremony set in. We are standing inside the Tooth Temple, in the space before the bottom of the tooth shrine. The tooth shrine is on the second floor, so to speak.
The is a curtain in front of the “ground floor” entrance to the tooth shrine. At 6;30 pm the ceremony begins. A drummer begins drumming and as he finishes his solo, the other two drummers begin their rhythms and the musician begins to play his double reed instrument. The master of ceremonies, dressed in white jacket and pants with a red and gold ribbon buttons across one shoulder, draws back the curtain and reveals an ornate silver door. Those people, who have been given the special privilege of providing the offering of the evening, are ushered in through the silver door and disappear from view. The drummers keep playing and the musician keeps playing his tunes which begins to have a sound so hypnotic.
The alms giving ritual is very special. The folks, who are honored to give the symbolic food for the offering, gather in the tooth temple about a half hour before the ritual begins. These special people bring the prescribed foods in relatively small quantities as symbols of the foods offered in days of old. The brought, packaged foods, appears to be just so many grocery bags full of food. These plastic grocery bags are taken to a special room in the tooth temple and present to the monks in the room, who are going to prepare the offerings.
As this was Indika’s special day, we were included in the groups, who brought the foods and who were then taken into the inner sanctuary for the actual presentation of the offerings. We stood before the tooth shrine and waited.
The drumming and the musician began. The chamberlain opened the curtain, exposing the ornate silver doors which lead to the chamber below the tooth shrine vault. The door was opened and the food providers entered, after the costumed supernumeraries in their puffed sleeved, white outfits, with short mess jackets, and, of course, white loongies. And the usual assortment of orange/yellow robed monks. We were ushered in and up the narrow stairs to the level of the tooth shrine vault. Then in a side door of the shrine vault which placed us directly in front of the vault entrance. In front of the shrine is a thick glass partition. There is a table (altar) in front of the glass partition. The first time in, we were handed flowers to place on the table in front of the glass partition. The shrine, itself, is white gold, encrusted with precious stones, flanked by ornaments of gold and jewels. When we have completed our flower offering, we are placed outside the vault on the side in the corridor where we entered. We wait. The curtain to the vault is closed, the flowers are cleared from the altar, and the second offering begins.
The second offering is handed to each of us in turn by the supernumerary with the puffed sleeved mess jacket. We are each given a gold bowel, the size of an ice cream dish, with fitted lid and an ornate embroidered cloth. We carry it into the vault, place it on the altar, as instructed by hand motion of the monk standing to the right of the altar. Then we are ushered over the most ornate (please don’t step on it) door lintel and out of the vault once more.
The third “pass” is made next, when each of us is ushered once more in front of the shrine vault with the curtain drawn closed, and instructed to touch the large white gold, ornately tooled box, next to which is a shiny gold tray and an empty gold bowl. The gold tray is for the cash offerings. We make ours. And we are ushered out.
It was surely the most intense and special experience.
But back to the beginning, Indika has invited us to join his family for this “alms giving” ceremony along with his family, his mother in law and Kamala. Of course, the children’s nursemaid comes along because she is really an important member of the family. Kamala and Kala’s mother both begged off at the last minute, feeling pains and ills. So, when we got to Kandy, we met up with Indika’s good friend, V.J,, who had been our host and guide for the Perahera. We drove along time across Kandy and up into the hills above the city on to a tea plantation. The house in which we stayed is the old plantation owner’s home. Called a bungalow, the 6 or 7 bedroom house includes two living rooms, a dining room, a full kitchen, and a private bath with each bedroom. A house staff of three or four men take care of every need. They prepared and served us lunch about 3:30 PM We had rice and fish curry, beet salad, dhal, papadam, cucumber & tomato and greens. Wow!!!! What a feast!
After a bit of roaming about the garden and enjoying the house, we prepared to go to the temple for the alms-giving ceremony. We dressed for the very special occasion and drove to the Temple of the Tooth
After the ceremony describe above, we drove across town and up to the top of a hill on which a huge image of the Buddha sitting is located. The image faces the tooth temple and keeps an eye on the most precious reliquary in Sri Lanka.
The drive home was involved mystery to the shoes. First, one of the shoes of the youngest son of Indika and Kala, age 2, lost a shoe. We found it at the garage where we had parked for the ritual described above. So we claimed that the super-shoe-finding Superman or another superhero, assisted with the shoe finding.
Now the tail becomes more complicated. While making a brief stop for water and the Spiderman plastic blow-up images, a shoe of Inika’s managed to leave the van at a wide spot in the road, where we had halted. The lost shoe was actually missed only 12.5 kilomoters down the road, when a stop was made to get string-hopper molds. So we turned the van around and drove back the 12.5 kilometers to the wide spot in the road, across the street from the plastic blow-up vendor. Sunday traffic and all, the return trip took another twenty minutes during which poor Indika was mercilessly teased about the lost shoe. Once arriving at the spot where the shoe should be, surely enough, the superheroes were with us. The super-shoe-finding superhero had left it plane site so that we couldn’t miss it. Success. And perhaps the beginning of a new Superhero, the Super-Shoe-Finding Superhero. Able to scale tall buildings, able to withstand adversaries, able to sniff out the lost shoes of the world, Super-Shoe-Finding-Superhero comes to you all the way from Sri Lanka.
A&A
September 23, 2005, Dodanduwa, Sri Lanka
We’re here, in “Galle” meaning District Galle, on the Southwest Coast of Sri Lanka, just a few kilometers south of Hikkaduwa. Left Colombo at 6:30 AM. Had “road breakfast” at the little “hole-in-the-wall” restaurant facing the Hikkaduwa fish harbor. The food offered was chunks of white bread and string hoppers, and two different fish curries (“white” fish curry and “red” fish curry), a chicken curry, a plate of “poached” eggs, and coconut sambol. Wash it all down with a cup of milk tea and we called it breakfast.
As is the custom on these drives south, we eat together with the driver. We also see a changing scene of Sri Lanka life, with the cows out walking, the farmers driving their half tractors down the road pulling their pay loaded wagons at 7.5 kilometers per hour. The tuk-tuks are zooming along at up to 35 miles per hour. The cargo trucks are moving down the road at whatever speed their load and the engine allows, even though their mudflap states 45 kilometers per hour. The buses, kings of the road, are zipping along at whatever speed they can get out of their engines and blasting their horns loudly to get everyone and every thing out of their road. The simple auto cruises as best the driver can maneuver among the other vehicles. We have observed ox-drawn carts, but they have always been parked when observed. Their max speed is probably 5 kilometers per hour.
So the trip, which on some occasions takes two and a half hours, took three and a quarter hours this morning.
It is our last trip to this lovely paradise on the Indian Ocean coast. For a while we will no longer walk along the beach at sunrise and dip in the warm ocean. And the friends and connections we have made in this community become memories, and yet are an intricate piece of the fabric which we know as Sri Lanka. Sadness wells up and gratitude overflows. These farewells began with yesterday’s lunch.
Farewell to our guide and guardian, Emily Paul, the AJWS country person. We lunched together and shared the company of her charming partner, who is very active in the GL&BS community in Sri Lanka, in the Asian organization and is instrumental in the Out Games which are planned for Montreal next July.
We have been so very fortunate to have such fine folks to guide us and help us through the adjustment to another culture so removed from our own. We experience the sameness of all people. And we have been shocked, amused, rendered thoughtful, etc. by the many differences. The custom of observing the full moon as a monthly holiday is so terribly civilized. The custom of the lunch packet leads directly to the custom of eating with the right hand, no silverware. What skill is required to gracefully mix on your plate the curry, vegetables, rice, and condiments. Then there’s the moment when a south-paw like me, forgets and starts to eat with the left hand or with both hands. Both of these errors are worse than bad manners. Refer to the earlier story of the amusing of the Krishna XXX restaurant crew early in our stay. The dress is also very different. The sarong or loonggi is a long skirt worn by men. The bottom of the skirt is tucked into the waste to shorten it for practical purposes. Shirts may compliment or clash with the sarong. Depending upon the weather and the mood, men often wear only the sarong. As far as I know, all sarongs are two meter pieces of cloth sewn with a single seam into a tube. Women wear saris tied in the “Indian” style or the “Sri Lankan” style. From my point of view, the “Indian” style is the one we often see in the US. The cloth is folded and gathered in front and the balance is drawn across the body and worn over the shoulder. The “Sri Lankan” style, the cloth appears to be wrapped several times around the body into a sort of straight skirt, then a piece of the 6 yard cloth is drawn across the body and worn over the shoulder. The Sri Lanka style requires the woman to fold the piece worn over the shoulder into neat perfectly ironed folds, leaving the patterned edge exposed. That patterned edge is also the decorative bottom of the skirt.
Next came a meeting with Wimal. He was his usual gracious, hospitable self, and served milktea with sugar. As I had my computer open to discuss what I had been doing for him, I preceded to spill the cup of tea without breaking the cup. Wimal went next door to his home and brought back a shirt and a white loongi. Naturally, when selecting friends in Sri Lanka, especially friends whose clothes you will borrow, select only those who are your size. The shirt fit perfectly. The loongi, of course, fit. And we continued the meeting as though nothing had changed except my costume. When Kala arrived to pick up Ahouva and me, I heard a great deal of humor about how difficult it is to take me anywhere. The clothing will be returned to Wimal on Saturday, October 1, International Children’s Day, which we will celebrate in “Galle.”
Lunch with Wimal was at the same lace we had breakfast. The restaurant was wiped out by the tsunami and has been back in operation for a month. Lunch was fish curry plus buffalo curd in individual clay pots about 2.5 inches in diameter and a half inch deep. There was honey floating on the curd. Paradise has this dessert, just in case I was thinking about leaving in tact. Not only do I leave my heart, but now my taste-buds and my appetites will not be still in California.
We a torrential down pour while at the restaurant. It is the season of the south west monsoons. However, we’ve managed to avoid most of it. This was a crashing downpour of the type where the heavens open up and the drenching down spouts of Heaven all open simultaneously. The temperature drops one or two degrees Celsius. The humidity drops one-tenth of one percent.
We checked out a house which may serve as a child care center and collection center. It was a nice big house, but it had been ruined by the tsunami. The owner is building a new house elsewhere. Siyath may get a good deal on the house, because Wimal’s nephew, the owner of the house, has been given a plot on which to build his new house.
So back to Colombo and more work. A&A
September 22, 2005 Colombo, Sri Lanka
The professional habits of 45 years of practice clicked in in the past few days. I’ve been working on the projections of sales, inventory build up and related matters using a spreadsheet of my own design. It’s like working in the halls of finance once more. There’s a certain leisurely progress through the steps of estimating a future cash flow. First comes the grand design of listing out all the expenses, and determining whether all the expenses have been listed. Asking again about some aspect of the operation, as though none of the questions had been asked previously, the professionalism and the experience of asking questions kicks in. Then the spreadsheet begins to fills and the estimated cash flow begins to take shape. Like a good soup or goulash, or more appropriately, good curry, the details, the spices of the mixture begin to flavor and create a new reality. The seasoning must become damp and mix with the other ingredients. It has to rest for a time and change in nature by being left alone. Save that spreadsheet and return to it later. Do some unrelated work, and return to the spreadsheet after an hour or more. Reexamine the assumptions which form the silent formulation of spaces between the cells. Test the assumptions by having conversations with my inner self. “Is this a reasonable set of assumptions?” “Have I overlooked an assumption which needs to be included?” “What’s my hurry, there’s more to this than just a set of numbers.” “Imagine the store, the enterprise, operating with furniture and fixtures inventory, staff, utilities and security.” “What’s missing?” And over and over again, “is this assumption reasonable, not too conservative, conservative enough?” It is a rich use of all my instincts which are the Pavlovian salivation responses of years of glandular stimulation. I am in the store, surrounded by the inventory and the customers in the newly decorated space, experiencing life in a different dimension. And the mathematical formula in each cell which automates the spreadsheet gives life to the cash flow projection. Change one number or one assumption and the rest of the creature changes itself. Hundreds of hours of hand work become parts of seconds in the electronic wonder of my laptop computer. And now, in the middle of the night, which is midday in San Diego, I calmly reconsider the whole process and prepare to finalize one of the pieces of work for which I have come to this warm, humid world, so tropical, so lush, and so very much like everywhere and nowhere I have been before. A&A
September 19, 2005, Colombo, Sri Lanka
September’s full moon has come and gone, and we didn’t go for a long trip to somewhere of interest. We had scheduled Noralya, (wrong spelling) overnight first class train and all, BUT the train was fully booked. And our plans then sank into less and less ambitious journeys. First we thought about Negombo and the coastal area north of Colombo.
There is the International Airport, where we landed and from which we shall be departing in just two more Sundays. Adjacent and slightly north of the airport is wetland park where birds are abundant, and wild life long gone from the rest of the island is present and viewable. And just north of the wetland is the color fishing harbor where the sail fish boats are supported to be in their picturesque magnificence. Our guidebook told of access by the combination of train and tuk-tuk.
And Saturday was hot and Sunday seemed even hotter. We enjoyed lazing about as though we would be in Sri Lanka until December. We finally went “downtown,” over to Galle Road, to the shopping center from which we had bought our first round of electronics, i.e., surge protector, assorted plug-ins, etc. The center was closed for Poya Day. We stuck our noses inside the little hole-in-the wall DVD store to ask about the sought-after charger. No luck. A mere smear 100 Rs bought a copy of “The Fokkers” An inquiry about the Majestic Shopping Center across Station Road, and the joyous news that our charge would be waiting at the Singapore Center in the Majestic, and that the Majestic was open.
Though some shops in the center were closed, the center was open, and Singapore Center, within the Majestic was open and had a new charger for my rechargeable AAA batteries. The AAA batteries power my little camera. So, for the past month I’ve been taking less photos and recording less of the trip. The charger was reduced for us by twenty percent, after a bit of bargaining.
Next, across the isle from Singapore Center was a shoe store with just the right sized sneaker from Ahouva. Enough toe space, enough width, and enough “no-too-outrageous-lookingness” were the criteria. And a lovely grey pair of stylish boy’s sneakers filled the bill. The shoes were reduced a bit 20% after a bit of bargaining.
Then a trip to the shirt shop for a Sri Lanka Cricket team polo shirt. This item of clothing sold for 1,200 Rs with no bargaining in Hikkaduwa. The Sri Lankan National Cricketers have been doing fabulous, beating India, West Indies, and Bangladesh while we’ve been here. And these victories were partially unexpected. So the team polo shirts have been at a premium. Usually the sizes have been limited to small and medium. The XL and XXL sizes were simply not available. House of Fashion, the surplus run outlet, had plenty of Cricket team polo shirts, all in size medium and at our 650 Rs price. Now, on Poya Day, Buddha made one available at that price in XL. No bargaining, the owner claimed, because these were rock-bottom prices.
A quick stop at the DVD store to buy a copy of “Dances With Wolves” “Fiddle on the Roof” and “Amadeus” all at the reasonable price of 250 Rs.
A quick lunch at the “Hot Spot”, the restaurant at the top of Majestic was our next stop. They were setting up for a pool tournament. However, their broad menu was still being served and we had a lovely veggie salad, a mustard prawn dish to die for, and a mock duck curry. We ate in the usual slow manner of Sri Lanka. Expect to meal in a restaurant to be served quickly.
Then we were off to the train station at the foot of Station Road, which separates the two shopping centers. The local stop on the ancient intra-urban rail line is the name sake for Station Road. With umbrella open, we preceded down Station Road. It was just too damn hot. So we hailed a tuk tuk, bargained for our ride home, and walked away when the driver thought our 100 Rs to Royal College was appropriate. We were approached by a scammer, who was seeking a free ride to Royal College and a bit (800 Rs) help to get his medicine. We didn’t hear about the medicine “loan” until we had walked with him to his pharmacy. However, we were so abrupt and definite about the proposed “loan” that he went away. And the very next tuk tuk driver was happy to take us home for our price.
So, back to the refuge of our air conditioned bedroom and “Fiddle on the Roof.”
After the movie we made supper of the food in the refrigerator, our small one cubic meter version of a cold box. Just enough space for yogurt, cheese, and fruit that could spoil. Our luxury meal consisted of some tomato, tuna, Buffalo milk curd, and hard boiled egg salad, and whole wheat bread, with banana and peanut butter chaser. Our three story walk-up does have a way of discouraging excess numbers of additional trips to the market on excessively warm days.
So, just two weeks from departure, we must say and extra thanks to our spiritual guide and most learned Rabbi Kohler-Fox, who suggested several cans of tuna, just in case a snack was called for and the shopping would be inconvenient. The Swiss army knife purchased at the Arosa Coop store, and the canned tuna from Whole Foods, Boston, have been lazing day rescuers on a couple of occasions now.
Sunday morning, with full intention of Negambo sojourning, we lazily rose, took our “early morning swim” at 9 AM, bought breakfast makings at our reliable grocer across from the pool, i.e., four eggs, half kilo of red rice, papaya, pineapple, 4 tomatoes, and yogurt. The makings of a luxurious breakfasts was our purchase. Once home, the red rice, a local variety which is available in long, medium and short grain versions, was washed and then slowly cooked on our two-burned, propane stove. 45 minutes later, rice was ready. Because it is a fine two-burner, the eggs were boiled on the other burner. Breakfast was papaya, muesli, yogurt, and cream-cracker-tomato-gouda cheese snack.
Strenuous morning activities required a morning nap.
Because we needed to go to the Laundromat to retrieve our laundry and deliver more of the same, we planned lunch at Shanti, the Indian Restaurant across from Laundromat. However, after the short tuk tuk ride to Laundromat we noted that our lunch was beginning at 2:15 PM and we planned to go to meditation with the Dutch monk out some distance away. So we bought “take away”, i.e., two samosas, two other baked goodies, two buns dipped in a curry, garbanzo bean curry, some of the dipping curry, and a few other little plastic bags of delicious liquids. Back into another tuk tuk and off to meditation. The map of two weeks ago got us to the desired place. We were a few minutes early and heard the end of a recorded talk which was part of the poya day observance and two day intensive. We meditated from 3 to 5 PM, had a pleasant conversation with Dutch monk, and came home for the gourmet dinner, which had been purchase as lunch.
I devoted the evening to completing my tax course which is my continuing education requirement. It was a touch with the world of California and our “normal” life. This activity also brought the feelings of lonely sadness at the prospect of leaving paradise. Yes, friends and faithful readers, we are coming to the end of our journey. Only (and that word is used loosely) two weeks of Sri Lanka, two weeks of India, a long flight to New York, and we’ll be back in our “normal” and “at home” world of US and California.
A&A
September 15, 2005
Colombo, Sri Lanka and the second half of the third to last week. So far this week has flown past. On Sunday, after Saturday’s Perahera in Alamangoda, we went to the Hikkaduwa Sunday Market to buy some goodies which are, of course, no where else available. We were really early, 7:30 AM. As it had rained into the early morning, the crowd was not yet formed, some vendors were still setting up, and everything was wonderful and awesome. The smells of the fresh spice and the veggies and fruits were great. Mixed in among the pots & pans, plastic household wares, knives of all shapes and uses, bananas off the back of trucks, piles of onions, fresh fish being chopped up, dried fish being sold in chunks, were cloth sales folks with two meter pieces for sarong.
We had bought two such pieces for the table clothes, earlier in our Colombo Apartment days. Now we were looking for specific patterns which would double as sarongs, once we were home again. We checked out a number of possible purchases, and settled on a papaya. After market, a quick breakfast at the hotel, and a brief trip to the burnt out Siyath collection center. The fire had destroyed 80% of an order of mats destined for Europe. The fire was caused by and electrical short. A brief nap back at the hotel after lunch at our favorite Hikkaduwa restaurant, Refresh. It was a roasted chicken and some veggies. Then back to the hotel to nap and check out. They tried to do us wrong, BUT we prevailed. And then the adventure of the day, the second class train ride to Colombo. It’s a three hour trip and Sunday afternoon at 3:05PM, the train from Matara, via Galle picks up more folk headed to Colombo in Hikkaduwa. It was standing room only. And after an hour of standing, and older woman graciously offered Ahouva the arm rest of her seat as sitting/leaning space for Ahouva. Though it rained toward the end of the trip, all windows stayed open until the rain started into the coach. The scenery can be awesome when the train goes along the ocean, the Indian Ocean, that is. It is green and wondrous when we go through the rural jungle. And often, like railroads almost anywhere, there are slums and shanty shacks along the railroad, as well.
We arrived in Colombo around six, tuk-tukked home, and began an early to bed routine, just a bit tired.
Monday started with our usual swim and picking up breakfast at our local “rice & curry place. We’ve gotten into a routine of swimming between 7 and 8AM in the 25 meter pool at Thursten College, the other excellent boys’ school on the block across the street from the office. After swim we either go to breakfast at the local workingman’s place for string hoppers & fish curry, egg rotis and fish curry, or paratas and fish curry. Wash it all down with a cup of milk tea and give two rupees to the gentleman standing with hand outstretched outside. When you remember our teacher and friend, Rabbi Schlomo Carlebach of bless memory, you hear Schlomo reminding that this gentleman is relying on us to feed him and his. Family. I gladly give him the 2 rupees change I have gotten from the restaurant cashier. Next door, we buy yogurt, papaya, mango, bananas and water almost everyday. Then back home and time to take the long commute to work (walk around to the front of the building in which our apartment is located and up the stairs into the office).
The “Elated School” got revised from a concept paper into a newspaper article.
The strategic plan got another piece fleshed out, or begun to be fleshed out. Indika is sharing the outlet center, (the Store, office, and restaurant/coffee bar). I had gotten Indika alone in the car and started asking questions. Because of my learning challenge of not being able to read, I developed a great interviewing ability through which I am able to gather much of the information which I need. As we drive around Colombo or down to Galle, we talk about what interests him and I ask questions. The answers may be consistent or inconsistent, but they are the basis of a page or a paragraph which he reads later and marks up. It is a simple way to help him think through the projects and objectives of a strategic plan.
We discussed coco peat, the material which remains when the fiber has been removed from the coconut husk. This is a dust, or semi-granular material which has a number of characteristics which make it ideal from indoor plants, nurseries and large scale farming. When visiting a coconut fiber mills, I observed that the stack or pile or coco peat was very spongy to walk on and appeared to be moist, regardless of where in the area of spreading it was located. My personal interest in agriculture makes these conversations more interesting to me. I also get a cross reference between Wimal and Indika about the potential of agro-business of crops and soil materials.
The early morning calls are very distinct. The six tone calls of one bird, and the calls of the crows mixed with the chirping of the chipmunks gives Natures morning music a special quality which is now Colombo in my ears.
Have we discussed honkies, Sri Lanka style? The auto, bus, truck, motorcycle and tuk-tuk horn sounds are each a bit unique. All Sri Lanka drivers express themselves freely with their sounding device, i.e., vehicular horn. When passing, sound your horn to let the other fellow know you’re there. When he’s about to hit your vehicle, sound your horn. When a pedestrian, or a tuk-tuk or anything is in the way of your vehicular progress, sound your horn. Buses appear to exact the right-of-way from all other vehicles. They appear to be the kings of the road, and the constant sound of their unique pitch of horn makes them quite pronounced. The private automobile nudges in among the trucks and buses and tuk-tuks. The tuk-tuk’s horn sounds something like Road runner in the Wiley Coyote cartoons. The tuk-tuk driver is by far the bravest and most daring of the drivers. He creates a traffic lane where none existed a moment ago. He weaves in and out of traffic, even though his width is only human tusch width less than the standard automobile. The beep-beep of the motorcyclists has to be added to the symphony. These daring riders and drivers zip in and out of traffic. They appear to out number almost every other group of vehicles. And the combination of parents and children on a single motorcycle is amazing at the least. I have observes a gentleman driver with a child seated in front of him on the gasoline tank, a child behind him squeezed in between the driver’s back and his female rider. Such a motorcycle whipped past us while we were clipping along at 80 kilometers an hour. The motorcycles range from motor scooters to medium large motorcycles. No Harley Hogs to be seen. Imagine that occasional motorcyclist weaving in and out of Los Angeles rush hour crawling traffic, and multiply him by 100 and make his maneuvers a standard part of all speeds traffic, and you have a taste of Sri Lankan motorcycling. We forgot the farmers. They drive a half tractor or a regular tractor and pull a wagon at 5 to 8 kilometers per hour. Everyone tries to pass them. And all road, except maybe a few kilometers of street or road in the country, are two lanes. The shoulders are sand or clay. The pavement appears to be gravel, sand and a tar capping. Pot holes are common. And rough road causes all drivers to slow. However, one driver’s too rough road, is another driver’s challenge to destroy your back and kidneys. A three hour drive, anywhere, should be broken into 45 minute pieces, for the sake of your spine, your kidneys and your general well being. The honking and passing keep your nerves in a general condition of alert strain.
A sound of a siren is an ambulance. We have seen and heard no police or fire sirens in this land. However, the air pollution would be dreadful, were it not for the ocean breeze.
For the exotic hit today, think about our morning walk to the pool past a blooming gardenia, a pungent mock-orange or a cousin of the mock-orange, and planarian. Even my nose can smell these wonders of the tropics all mixed together and marvelous.
A&A
We are back in our old haunt of Hikkaduwa- wanted to spend time with Kala and this is one way to do it on the long rides back and forth. Left Colombo at 630 am and it really is hot here-and no shade- most of the trees were wiped out by the tsunami and it is just hotter.
Weds I was teary on and off and just felt sad. We went to a nearby crafts center and saw tons of hand made stuff- it was overwhelm- but much of it was very beautiful. We watched part of Amadeus until Albert fell asleep.
Yesterday we had a long work day, but went off and had a farewell lunch with Emily and Rosanna, her partner. They are working on gay rights in Sri Lanka which is a tall order in such a conservative society. Rosanna is working on the steering group for the Out Games to be held next summer in Montreal, so we might be able to see them then. Of course I got teary again, and felt so thankful to Emily for her care of us when we first got here- we knew so little and she was so gentle and helpful.
She reminded me of how culture shocked we were when we arrived and pointed out we would likely feel the same on our return to the US. For example, I have been noticing I am getting more used to looking to the right when we go to cross the street and after we leave India we will have to switch gears again. Oh yes. And who am I now anyway and who have I become? I sure feel more relaxed. Wonder if I can stay with it back home.
Kala asked me to put together some case studies for a report she has been working on so I spent most of the day doing that Thursday> today, while she was meeting with her staff, I worked on another proposal. I am getting pretty used to cranking them out, but I am also noticing my writing in general is just flowing and I am so grateful for that- it feels like I have recovered part of myself- sure I can remember how to do grant proposals, but to be able to write my own thoughts and ideas is a gift.
We had found an artist whose work we liked when we were here last time and we hope to have Kala meet him today- very bright colors and cheerful designs- I hope we can make another match, but I know so much more now about watching, letting it happen- would like to keep that with me too.
We went to see our friend with the drum shop today- we may get another drum, but of course I expect it will decorate our living room like the other one- oh well- when he plays it it sounds so great- but it is really nice – made from coconut wood and goat skin. We are in the clinic in Hikkaduwa as I write now. Albert just spilled tea all over himself, so his friend Wimal went next door and brought a white sarong and orange shirt for him to wear- he had his final blood test today until we get home. We rea so taken care of here. I hope I can be so gracious when we have guests when we get home.
Blog Sep 16 Friday
Kala and Kamala have just left to go to a national education reform meeting of bigwigs in a flurry of paper and computer sticks. Kala pieced together her report from the parts I corrected and Albert corrected. It is a program that revolves around including underserved students and having parents and the community involved in the schools and advocating for better use of education funds. This was a pre tsunami project, so having to write a paper and create a presentation has been an added burden at this juncture. Kala was doing the main presentation and a group of education professors and govt people were going to be there.
I absolutely cannot see how Kala can do all she does. We are trying to teach her that she has the option to say no and in fact she is realizing that something has to change – she is overextended beyond belief- and knows that she can’t keep up this pace. Amazingly she usually has such a positive attitude- it is extraordinary- but she is exhausted and it is worrisome.
I think to myself that the only reason she can have the stamina she does is because she is 36,not 50 something, but I remember that it was only when I compromised my health by overworking that I began to slow down. Even now, as our time in Sri Lanka winds down and I realize I can’t do and see everything, and really don’t have the energy in the heat , I still have a million things I want to be doing!!
We worked late with her and Indika Thurs night to try and help get things moved along. Indika and I brainstormed about their web site- the guy who is going to help with it was supposed to show up this morning and didn’t- I was really excited about it as I have a lot of ideas, but it is just as well as A and I were working on this paper all morning. I hope he does come next week as I think this will be one of the most important things I can contribute with a face to face meeting.
We have both been working on various projects all week besides doing this with Kala. The folks from UNIFEM- the United Nations Women’s program are here for a field visit, so there is more to be done this evening to prep for that> we had met the head of the org at the Joan Kroc center at USD-she was part of their lecture series and was very inspiring- her staff is inspired by her too. I actually did some more on that on Fri afternoon
Monday night Kala , Indika and their kids and Amah took us to the huge book fair nearby, which actually has been going on all week at the big exhibition hall. I got more goodies (books, workbooks) for the children’s program, a book for each of the kids, and got a history of Sri Lanka and a guidebook for India- we now leave in 21/2 weeks- it seems utterly amazing that our stay is almost over-I am trying to stay conscious and appreciate every minute—
A couple of nights ago A and I went to an Indian restaurant for dinner, had some yummy curry and met some young people from Switzerland and had a fun time bashing the policies and blunders of our current govt.
Tuesday we went to see a great Indian film about a hero of the rebellion of 1857- Mangal Pandey very inspiring- I am sure it will come to the Ken at some point- a real epic story- 3 hrs with intermission where a guy comes down the aisle with peanuts and candy, and a room materializes off of the corridor where there is a bar for drinks!!
Tonite we go to our Bangladeshi consultant friend’s for dinner-we really enjoy them.
Sunday Sept 18
We leave 2 weeks from today. It is now Sunday and both yesterday and today we had late morning naps. I got a big cold sore on my lower lip from being too exposed to the sun last weekend and it has been painful and wearing, so it has been nice to rest. We went and got some dvds and watched Fiddler on the Roof last night. Had this whole plan to go to a place an hour away and watch the huge sails on the fishing boats and go on a boat trip to see birds in the late afternoon and it was just too hot. So we had a nice a/c lunch and came home and slept some more and saw the movie on A’s laptop.
Today we went swimming and then went grocery shopping- fruit and yogurt and eggs and tomatoes and we finally found whole wheat bread. Then went back to sleep! If we can muster up the energy we may go back to our Buddhist meditation practice this afternoon which I would love to do. The heat has returned and I realize how lucky we have been to have the heavy clouds and rain the last 2 weeks- it really is very livable then in terms of heat, but pretty intense otherwise. Albert does a lot better with the heat than I do- I just wilt. Swimming every day has been a joy and has made so much difference.
We are reading our India guidebook and I am feeling overwhelmed. How do we begin to see India in 2 weeks- and the places I want to go are on opposite sides of the subcontinent! We will be with the Jewish community of Bombay- now Mumbai- for Rosh Hashana and have a hotel reservation. Hope to meet the AJWS volunteers who are there-have been emailing. One of them is working for one of Siyath’s chief partner/funders here called Action Aid in India, whose home is Great Britain. Have also written to the JCC that has reform services, so will see where we end up. I am hoping we might be offered a holiday meal somewhere which would be really nice. Not sure yet where we will be for Yom Kippur.
The wife of our Bangladeshi consultant is from Calcutta, where they met at the university, and there is a big festival there in Oct so we may go there and get to see the city from a native’s viewpoint which would be great. Our guidebook says there are still 100 Jews there so maybe we will find them for Yom Kippur.
I also want to go to Pondicherry and Auroville, the home of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. I have written to Gurumayi’s website about visiting Ganeshpuri but it may not be possible as they only seem to accept visitors for a minimum of an 8 day program or a month long stay and one has to apply and be a long term Siddha Yoga practitioner. But I will see-I read that there are hot springs there which sound very appealing. I really don’t want to spend all that time in cities. Our friend told us to get air tix in India, as they can be very cheap- so we will see. We may also take a long train ride to see some of the countryside.
Appreciating the slower pace here and realizing that it won’t be long until it changes—it will be much more intense in India-2 weeks of travel- and then we get to NY on the 18th a month from today-after 22 hours traveling- we have a 4 hour layover in Zurich-but luckily we have a few days to sleep before the wedding on the 22nd!
Later Sunday
Went to meditation after picking up laundry and what turned out to be dinner rather than lunch from the Indian restaurant- may be too spicy for me. Enjoy the way it is structured- intro, sitting, walking , then sitting again. I luxuriated in having bare feet and getting to walk on the lush grass in the garden. Hard to stay conscious, especially with the heat. Had a nice chat with the Dutch monk who seemed happy to see us. He has a nice subtle sense of humor. It turns out he had a Jewish father- A and I talked about our Jewish observance , R. Zalman and the holidays and I explained we would be in Mumbai for Rosh Hashana. He told us about some caves which will be fun to see in India, not far from Mumbai by train.
A has to finish his continuing ed for his taxes tonight so I will read and maybe do some more writing. I want to do a summary of our work experience to try to capture what it feels like at this moment in time and see if it changes over the next two weeks. It really may be that we will just have grabbed moments with Kala and Indika until we leave, and that we will just need to leave them what we have written up. Not what I would have hoped, but part of my lesson here is getting to see that it is not only a different culture and a different way of seeing and being , but also that the people are incredibly, unbearably stressed and the last thing we want to do is add more stress. I think it would be too bad, but it may be impossible for them to prioritize taking time away from each urgent thing they are coping with to really work with us for a block of time.
One part of me is very frustrated with the whole thing- going back to even before we came and how hard it was to have them decide and agree to us coming. Maybe that should have been a sufficient red flag for us to have tried to look elsewhere. On the other hand, it isn’t about us and our contribution. We are really here to serve, and maybe our service has more to do with our presence and our willingness than it does with our concrete results. I am so results oriented and so accomplishment oriented that its hard to know if we will have made any real difference if we don’t get to create a comprehensive plan and timeline together . Maybe that’s the real lesson. I have had to do so much letting go and it really is important for me to keep doing that and getting that lesson.
We think we were scammed again yesterday-no loss to us but a rather overly friendly person claiming to know us from the Royal College (he must have heard us talking about this with a tuk tuk driver who wanted too much money) and trying to help us- and then suddenly needing money for medicine. Before he asked to borrow money from us, a lot more money than the scammer on the train in Galle- I let him know right away we were not going to lend him money and he disappeared pretty fast- sigh-
So here’s what I have done so far- after the two weeks of field work-
Edited and rewrote an 80 page report and a 30 page report and a series of charts
Contributed to several summary reports and monthly updates both writing and editing
Wrote a series of microlending documents and microlending forms
Wrote a fundraising plan
Wrote a two page proposal for funding to replace the funds lost in the fire of Sept 1
Started to make calls about a children’s savings and insurance program
Have done some work on web site suggestions and material and donation plan-
Researched local banks to handle donations on the web
Have half finished a proposal for a comprehensive coordinating center in Hikkaduwa area
Have done work on an ecotourism proposal regarding an artisan’s village they want to create down south
As I read the list I am actually pretty impressed, its just that we have barely been able to discuss most of these with Kala and Indika- to get feedback and develop ideas further- let alone take the time to show them the documents-
though our web conversation last week was exciting and heartening.
SO, will I only feel that it didn‘t meet my pictures? I think not- in many ways its been more wonderful than I could have imagined, especially because we adore Kala and Indika and Kamala and the rest of the staff so much. It is a joy to be with them. One of the things I will surely miss is having a group of people to work with. I think I need to do that with my volunteer efforts, whatever those turn out to be. One job needs to be to help Siyath get 501c3 status, not a fun thing but really necessary- We want to get them on Skype so we can talk for no cost when we get back.
Monday morning
You would have thought that with all the naps and meditation we would have been up early and ready to go but I slept until almost 8 and we didn’t go swimming. We came into the office and it turns out Kala’s child care person has run off with someone. So it happens even in conservative Sri Lanka!! She also told us avery funny story about getting crabs and it turns out they were live. She didn’t want to boil them so she put them in a tub of cold water and in the meantime they were scuttling around the house, the two little boys were up on the table and it sounded like a great comedy scene- but I am sure it didn’t seem so at the time.
Indika has come back from a paper factory he is involved with, carrying a big box of gorgeous samples of paper notebooks of all kinds made with indigenous products- banana leaves, rice leaves, etc Very exciting!These would do well at any high end paper store like Papyrus etc.
Not sure what I want to focus on at this moment but its time to get to work.
Tues the 20th
Went swimming this am and it was crowded- turns out no school this week for some reason so that may be part of it. It was amazingly also a few degrees warmer than last week- it is amazing how much the water tempof this big pool can be affted by the sun- it was almost too warm! A father was bringing his 10 year old in to the women’s locker room and hung around to make sure she could take a shower properly. Absurd~It was more than a little disconcerting! In the pool it felt like we were being ruin down by swimmers who didn’t care if we were already in the lane they wanted to swim in- Albert had a collision. Not fun. Most of the time most of the people are so warm and wonderful and sometimes a few people can be so unconscious and rude. I guess it is that way everywhere .
Kala took us alogn with her and Indika to a reputable three generation jeweler today where she goes, and I got some beautiful and unusual rings and other things. Very fun. Nice to be in a/c today. Also, needed to have a break from work and it was so nice to actually be able to do one of the things Kala had wanted to do with us. Tomorrow is their 7th wedding anniversary.
Last night we went to the Mt Lavinia hotel which was formerly the governor’s mansion and since has had extensions built on it. It is on a hill above the ocean with beautiful rocks to look at and terraces for dinner and a lit up swimming pool. We got shown the gorgeous ballroom and took some pics- it turns out that this is where Kala and Indika got married. We ate dinner at a nearby restaurant and walked a few blocks and took the bus to near out place and took a tuk tuk home. This was our first bus experience and Kala was worried that it was really not a good idea.It was so jerky that it was impossible to stand up and not get kind of knocked over. We appreciated how buses are king here!~
Weds 21st
Today is Kala and Indika’s 7th anniversary- they brought their wedding album for us to look at. I got all teary again about leaving. Kala has given us Sri Lankan names- mine is Sumanavati which means-tell you later. Kamala calls us ---- which means the sun and the rain. I , of course am Ahuwa because all v’s are pronounced as w’s.
September 24, 2005 1645 Hrs Kandy, Sri Lanka
We have driven in a van with Indika and Kala, and his parents and her nursemaid, who is for the second generation the nursemaid and family member for their two sons. We got off to a slightly late start about 10:30 AM. The jolly crew of his father in front with the driver, Ahouva and me in the middle seat, and Kala, his mother and the nursemaid. Indika rotated between the middle seat and the back seat, depending on the demands of
It was a normal Sri Lankan road trip with stops for whatever moved the various member of the group. Food is paramount on such an adventure. Traffic is impossible, and we all thankful for the driver. He’s the pilot and its his problem, when to pass and when to be passed; when to move slowly and when to speed along.
Stop for tea; stop for pineapples; stop for VJ in Kandy and car repair; stop at the house that was rented; eat lunch of rice, fish curry, greens, dhal, tomato & cucumber, beet salad of onion, beets, spices etc.; taking pictures of the kids, their cute; dressing for the alms-giving ceremony in the tooth temple…..
Imagine entering the holy of holy and being invited in through the magic of a drummer set, that is three drummers, who normally will accompany Kandy dancers. Then add the musician with his double reed instrument. He repeats a simple melody, which sounds like a bad kazoo player’s nightmare, until I discern the melody in its full complex structure and rhythm. With the complex drum beats and the intertwining melody, the hypnotics of the ceremony set in. We are standing inside the Tooth Temple, in the space before the bottom of the tooth shrine. The tooth shrine is on the second floor, so to speak.
The is a curtain in front of the “ground floor” entrance to the tooth shrine. At 6;30 pm the ceremony begins. A drummer begins drumming and as he finishes his solo, the other two drummers begin their rhythms and the musician begins to play his double reed instrument. The master of ceremonies, dressed in white jacket and pants with a red and gold ribbon buttons across one shoulder, draws back the curtain and reveals an ornate silver door. Those people, who have been given the special privilege of providing the offering of the evening, are ushered in through the silver door and disappear from view. The drummers keep playing and the musician keeps playing his tunes which begins to have a sound so hypnotic.
The alms giving ritual is very special. The folks, who are honored to give the symbolic food for the offering, gather in the tooth temple about a half hour before the ritual begins. These special people bring the prescribed foods in relatively small quantities as symbols of the foods offered in days of old. The brought, packaged foods, appears to be just so many grocery bags full of food. These plastic grocery bags are taken to a special room in the tooth temple and present to the monks in the room, who are going to prepare the offerings.
As this was Indika’s special day, we were included in the groups, who brought the foods and who were then taken into the inner sanctuary for the actual presentation of the offerings. We stood before the tooth shrine and waited.
The drumming and the musician began. The chamberlain opened the curtain, exposing the ornate silver doors which lead to the chamber below the tooth shrine vault. The door was opened and the food providers entered, after the costumed supernumeraries in their puffed sleeved, white outfits, with short mess jackets, and, of course, white loongies. And the usual assortment of orange/yellow robed monks. We were ushered in and up the narrow stairs to the level of the tooth shrine vault. Then in a side door of the shrine vault which placed us directly in front of the vault entrance. In front of the shrine is a thick glass partition. There is a table (altar) in front of the glass partition. The first time in, we were handed flowers to place on the table in front of the glass partition. The shrine, itself, is white gold, encrusted with precious stones, flanked by ornaments of gold and jewels. When we have completed our flower offering, we are placed outside the vault on the side in the corridor where we entered. We wait. The curtain to the vault is closed, the flowers are cleared from the altar, and the second offering begins.
The second offering is handed to each of us in turn by the supernumerary with the puffed sleeved mess jacket. We are each given a gold bowel, the size of an ice cream dish, with fitted lid and an ornate embroidered cloth. We carry it into the vault, place it on the altar, as instructed by hand motion of the monk standing to the right of the altar. Then we are ushered over the most ornate (please don’t step on it) door lintel and out of the vault once more.
The third “pass” is made next, when each of us is ushered once more in front of the shrine vault with the curtain drawn closed, and instructed to touch the large white gold, ornately tooled box, next to which is a shiny gold tray and an empty gold bowl. The gold tray is for the cash offerings. We make ours. And we are ushered out.
It was surely the most intense and special experience.
But back to the beginning, Indika has invited us to join his family for this “alms giving” ceremony along with his family, his mother in law and Kamala. Of course, the children’s nursemaid comes along because she is really an important member of the family. Kamala and Kala’s mother both begged off at the last minute, feeling pains and ills. So, when we got to Kandy, we met up with Indika’s good friend, V.J,, who had been our host and guide for the Perahera. We drove along time across Kandy and up into the hills above the city on to a tea plantation. The house in which we stayed is the old plantation owner’s home. Called a bungalow, the 6 or 7 bedroom house includes two living rooms, a dining room, a full kitchen, and a private bath with each bedroom. A house staff of three or four men take care of every need. They prepared and served us lunch about 3:30 PM We had rice and fish curry, beet salad, dhal, papadam, cucumber & tomato and greens. Wow!!!! What a feast!
After a bit of roaming about the garden and enjoying the house, we prepared to go to the temple for the alms-giving ceremony. We dressed for the very special occasion and drove to the Temple of the Tooth
After the ceremony describe above, we drove across town and up to the top of a hill on which a huge image of the Buddha sitting is located. The image faces the tooth temple and keeps an eye on the most precious reliquary in Sri Lanka.
The drive home was involved mystery to the shoes. First, one of the shoes of the youngest son of Indika and Kala, age 2, lost a shoe. We found it at the garage where we had parked for the ritual described above. So we claimed that the super-shoe-finding Superman or another superhero, assisted with the shoe finding.
Now the tail becomes more complicated. While making a brief stop for water and the Spiderman plastic blow-up images, a shoe of Inika’s managed to leave the van at a wide spot in the road, where we had halted. The lost shoe was actually missed only 12.5 kilomoters down the road, when a stop was made to get string-hopper molds. So we turned the van around and drove back the 12.5 kilometers to the wide spot in the road, across the street from the plastic blow-up vendor. Sunday traffic and all, the return trip took another twenty minutes during which poor Indika was mercilessly teased about the lost shoe. Once arriving at the spot where the shoe should be, surely enough, the superheroes were with us. The super-shoe-finding superhero had left it plane site so that we couldn’t miss it. Success. And perhaps the beginning of a new Superhero, the Super-Shoe-Finding Superhero. Able to scale tall buildings, able to withstand adversaries, able to sniff out the lost shoes of the world, Super-Shoe-Finding-Superhero comes to you all the way from Sri Lanka.
A&A
September 23, 2005, Dodanduwa, Sri Lanka
We’re here, in “Galle” meaning District Galle, on the Southwest Coast of Sri Lanka, just a few kilometers south of Hikkaduwa. Left Colombo at 6:30 AM. Had “road breakfast” at the little “hole-in-the-wall” restaurant facing the Hikkaduwa fish harbor. The food offered was chunks of white bread and string hoppers, and two different fish curries (“white” fish curry and “red” fish curry), a chicken curry, a plate of “poached” eggs, and coconut sambol. Wash it all down with a cup of milk tea and we called it breakfast.
As is the custom on these drives south, we eat together with the driver. We also see a changing scene of Sri Lanka life, with the cows out walking, the farmers driving their half tractors down the road pulling their pay loaded wagons at 7.5 kilometers per hour. The tuk-tuks are zooming along at up to 35 miles per hour. The cargo trucks are moving down the road at whatever speed their load and the engine allows, even though their mudflap states 45 kilometers per hour. The buses, kings of the road, are zipping along at whatever speed they can get out of their engines and blasting their horns loudly to get everyone and every thing out of their road. The simple auto cruises as best the driver can maneuver among the other vehicles. We have observed ox-drawn carts, but they have always been parked when observed. Their max speed is probably 5 kilometers per hour.
So the trip, which on some occasions takes two and a half hours, took three and a quarter hours this morning.
It is our last trip to this lovely paradise on the Indian Ocean coast. For a while we will no longer walk along the beach at sunrise and dip in the warm ocean. And the friends and connections we have made in this community become memories, and yet are an intricate piece of the fabric which we know as Sri Lanka. Sadness wells up and gratitude overflows. These farewells began with yesterday’s lunch.
Farewell to our guide and guardian, Emily Paul, the AJWS country person. We lunched together and shared the company of her charming partner, who is very active in the GL&BS community in Sri Lanka, in the Asian organization and is instrumental in the Out Games which are planned for Montreal next July.
We have been so very fortunate to have such fine folks to guide us and help us through the adjustment to another culture so removed from our own. We experience the sameness of all people. And we have been shocked, amused, rendered thoughtful, etc. by the many differences. The custom of observing the full moon as a monthly holiday is so terribly civilized. The custom of the lunch packet leads directly to the custom of eating with the right hand, no silverware. What skill is required to gracefully mix on your plate the curry, vegetables, rice, and condiments. Then there’s the moment when a south-paw like me, forgets and starts to eat with the left hand or with both hands. Both of these errors are worse than bad manners. Refer to the earlier story of the amusing of the Krishna XXX restaurant crew early in our stay. The dress is also very different. The sarong or loonggi is a long skirt worn by men. The bottom of the skirt is tucked into the waste to shorten it for practical purposes. Shirts may compliment or clash with the sarong. Depending upon the weather and the mood, men often wear only the sarong. As far as I know, all sarongs are two meter pieces of cloth sewn with a single seam into a tube. Women wear saris tied in the “Indian” style or the “Sri Lankan” style. From my point of view, the “Indian” style is the one we often see in the US. The cloth is folded and gathered in front and the balance is drawn across the body and worn over the shoulder. The “Sri Lankan” style, the cloth appears to be wrapped several times around the body into a sort of straight skirt, then a piece of the 6 yard cloth is drawn across the body and worn over the shoulder. The Sri Lanka style requires the woman to fold the piece worn over the shoulder into neat perfectly ironed folds, leaving the patterned edge exposed. That patterned edge is also the decorative bottom of the skirt.
Next came a meeting with Wimal. He was his usual gracious, hospitable self, and served milktea with sugar. As I had my computer open to discuss what I had been doing for him, I preceded to spill the cup of tea without breaking the cup. Wimal went next door to his home and brought back a shirt and a white loongi. Naturally, when selecting friends in Sri Lanka, especially friends whose clothes you will borrow, select only those who are your size. The shirt fit perfectly. The loongi, of course, fit. And we continued the meeting as though nothing had changed except my costume. When Kala arrived to pick up Ahouva and me, I heard a great deal of humor about how difficult it is to take me anywhere. The clothing will be returned to Wimal on Saturday, October 1, International Children’s Day, which we will celebrate in “Galle.”
Lunch with Wimal was at the same lace we had breakfast. The restaurant was wiped out by the tsunami and has been back in operation for a month. Lunch was fish curry plus buffalo curd in individual clay pots about 2.5 inches in diameter and a half inch deep. There was honey floating on the curd. Paradise has this dessert, just in case I was thinking about leaving in tact. Not only do I leave my heart, but now my taste-buds and my appetites will not be still in California.
We a torrential down pour while at the restaurant. It is the season of the south west monsoons. However, we’ve managed to avoid most of it. This was a crashing downpour of the type where the heavens open up and the drenching down spouts of Heaven all open simultaneously. The temperature drops one or two degrees Celsius. The humidity drops one-tenth of one percent.
We checked out a house which may serve as a child care center and collection center. It was a nice big house, but it had been ruined by the tsunami. The owner is building a new house elsewhere. Siyath may get a good deal on the house, because Wimal’s nephew, the owner of the house, has been given a plot on which to build his new house.
So back to Colombo and more work. A&A
September 22, 2005 Colombo, Sri Lanka
The professional habits of 45 years of practice clicked in in the past few days. I’ve been working on the projections of sales, inventory build up and related matters using a spreadsheet of my own design. It’s like working in the halls of finance once more. There’s a certain leisurely progress through the steps of estimating a future cash flow. First comes the grand design of listing out all the expenses, and determining whether all the expenses have been listed. Asking again about some aspect of the operation, as though none of the questions had been asked previously, the professionalism and the experience of asking questions kicks in. Then the spreadsheet begins to fills and the estimated cash flow begins to take shape. Like a good soup or goulash, or more appropriately, good curry, the details, the spices of the mixture begin to flavor and create a new reality. The seasoning must become damp and mix with the other ingredients. It has to rest for a time and change in nature by being left alone. Save that spreadsheet and return to it later. Do some unrelated work, and return to the spreadsheet after an hour or more. Reexamine the assumptions which form the silent formulation of spaces between the cells. Test the assumptions by having conversations with my inner self. “Is this a reasonable set of assumptions?” “Have I overlooked an assumption which needs to be included?” “What’s my hurry, there’s more to this than just a set of numbers.” “Imagine the store, the enterprise, operating with furniture and fixtures inventory, staff, utilities and security.” “What’s missing?” And over and over again, “is this assumption reasonable, not too conservative, conservative enough?” It is a rich use of all my instincts which are the Pavlovian salivation responses of years of glandular stimulation. I am in the store, surrounded by the inventory and the customers in the newly decorated space, experiencing life in a different dimension. And the mathematical formula in each cell which automates the spreadsheet gives life to the cash flow projection. Change one number or one assumption and the rest of the creature changes itself. Hundreds of hours of hand work become parts of seconds in the electronic wonder of my laptop computer. And now, in the middle of the night, which is midday in San Diego, I calmly reconsider the whole process and prepare to finalize one of the pieces of work for which I have come to this warm, humid world, so tropical, so lush, and so very much like everywhere and nowhere I have been before. A&A
September 19, 2005, Colombo, Sri Lanka
September’s full moon has come and gone, and we didn’t go for a long trip to somewhere of interest. We had scheduled Noralya, (wrong spelling) overnight first class train and all, BUT the train was fully booked. And our plans then sank into less and less ambitious journeys. First we thought about Negombo and the coastal area north of Colombo.
There is the International Airport, where we landed and from which we shall be departing in just two more Sundays. Adjacent and slightly north of the airport is wetland park where birds are abundant, and wild life long gone from the rest of the island is present and viewable. And just north of the wetland is the color fishing harbor where the sail fish boats are supported to be in their picturesque magnificence. Our guidebook told of access by the combination of train and tuk-tuk.
And Saturday was hot and Sunday seemed even hotter. We enjoyed lazing about as though we would be in Sri Lanka until December. We finally went “downtown,” over to Galle Road, to the shopping center from which we had bought our first round of electronics, i.e., surge protector, assorted plug-ins, etc. The center was closed for Poya Day. We stuck our noses inside the little hole-in-the wall DVD store to ask about the sought-after charger. No luck. A mere smear 100 Rs bought a copy of “The Fokkers” An inquiry about the Majestic Shopping Center across Station Road, and the joyous news that our charge would be waiting at the Singapore Center in the Majestic, and that the Majestic was open.
Though some shops in the center were closed, the center was open, and Singapore Center, within the Majestic was open and had a new charger for my rechargeable AAA batteries. The AAA batteries power my little camera. So, for the past month I’ve been taking less photos and recording less of the trip. The charger was reduced for us by twenty percent, after a bit of bargaining.
Next, across the isle from Singapore Center was a shoe store with just the right sized sneaker from Ahouva. Enough toe space, enough width, and enough “no-too-outrageous-lookingness” were the criteria. And a lovely grey pair of stylish boy’s sneakers filled the bill. The shoes were reduced a bit 20% after a bit of bargaining.
Then a trip to the shirt shop for a Sri Lanka Cricket team polo shirt. This item of clothing sold for 1,200 Rs with no bargaining in Hikkaduwa. The Sri Lankan National Cricketers have been doing fabulous, beating India, West Indies, and Bangladesh while we’ve been here. And these victories were partially unexpected. So the team polo shirts have been at a premium. Usually the sizes have been limited to small and medium. The XL and XXL sizes were simply not available. House of Fashion, the surplus run outlet, had plenty of Cricket team polo shirts, all in size medium and at our 650 Rs price. Now, on Poya Day, Buddha made one available at that price in XL. No bargaining, the owner claimed, because these were rock-bottom prices.
A quick stop at the DVD store to buy a copy of “Dances With Wolves” “Fiddle on the Roof” and “Amadeus” all at the reasonable price of 250 Rs.
A quick lunch at the “Hot Spot”, the restaurant at the top of Majestic was our next stop. They were setting up for a pool tournament. However, their broad menu was still being served and we had a lovely veggie salad, a mustard prawn dish to die for, and a mock duck curry. We ate in the usual slow manner of Sri Lanka. Expect to meal in a restaurant to be served quickly.
Then we were off to the train station at the foot of Station Road, which separates the two shopping centers. The local stop on the ancient intra-urban rail line is the name sake for Station Road. With umbrella open, we preceded down Station Road. It was just too damn hot. So we hailed a tuk tuk, bargained for our ride home, and walked away when the driver thought our 100 Rs to Royal College was appropriate. We were approached by a scammer, who was seeking a free ride to Royal College and a bit (800 Rs) help to get his medicine. We didn’t hear about the medicine “loan” until we had walked with him to his pharmacy. However, we were so abrupt and definite about the proposed “loan” that he went away. And the very next tuk tuk driver was happy to take us home for our price.
So, back to the refuge of our air conditioned bedroom and “Fiddle on the Roof.”
After the movie we made supper of the food in the refrigerator, our small one cubic meter version of a cold box. Just enough space for yogurt, cheese, and fruit that could spoil. Our luxury meal consisted of some tomato, tuna, Buffalo milk curd, and hard boiled egg salad, and whole wheat bread, with banana and peanut butter chaser. Our three story walk-up does have a way of discouraging excess numbers of additional trips to the market on excessively warm days.
So, just two weeks from departure, we must say and extra thanks to our spiritual guide and most learned Rabbi Kohler-Fox, who suggested several cans of tuna, just in case a snack was called for and the shopping would be inconvenient. The Swiss army knife purchased at the Arosa Coop store, and the canned tuna from Whole Foods, Boston, have been lazing day rescuers on a couple of occasions now.
Sunday morning, with full intention of Negambo sojourning, we lazily rose, took our “early morning swim” at 9 AM, bought breakfast makings at our reliable grocer across from the pool, i.e., four eggs, half kilo of red rice, papaya, pineapple, 4 tomatoes, and yogurt. The makings of a luxurious breakfasts was our purchase. Once home, the red rice, a local variety which is available in long, medium and short grain versions, was washed and then slowly cooked on our two-burned, propane stove. 45 minutes later, rice was ready. Because it is a fine two-burner, the eggs were boiled on the other burner. Breakfast was papaya, muesli, yogurt, and cream-cracker-tomato-gouda cheese snack.
Strenuous morning activities required a morning nap.
Because we needed to go to the Laundromat to retrieve our laundry and deliver more of the same, we planned lunch at Shanti, the Indian Restaurant across from Laundromat. However, after the short tuk tuk ride to Laundromat we noted that our lunch was beginning at 2:15 PM and we planned to go to meditation with the Dutch monk out some distance away. So we bought “take away”, i.e., two samosas, two other baked goodies, two buns dipped in a curry, garbanzo bean curry, some of the dipping curry, and a few other little plastic bags of delicious liquids. Back into another tuk tuk and off to meditation. The map of two weeks ago got us to the desired place. We were a few minutes early and heard the end of a recorded talk which was part of the poya day observance and two day intensive. We meditated from 3 to 5 PM, had a pleasant conversation with Dutch monk, and came home for the gourmet dinner, which had been purchase as lunch.
I devoted the evening to completing my tax course which is my continuing education requirement. It was a touch with the world of California and our “normal” life. This activity also brought the feelings of lonely sadness at the prospect of leaving paradise. Yes, friends and faithful readers, we are coming to the end of our journey. Only (and that word is used loosely) two weeks of Sri Lanka, two weeks of India, a long flight to New York, and we’ll be back in our “normal” and “at home” world of US and California.
A&A
September 15, 2005
Colombo, Sri Lanka and the second half of the third to last week. So far this week has flown past. On Sunday, after Saturday’s Perahera in Alamangoda, we went to the Hikkaduwa Sunday Market to buy some goodies which are, of course, no where else available. We were really early, 7:30 AM. As it had rained into the early morning, the crowd was not yet formed, some vendors were still setting up, and everything was wonderful and awesome. The smells of the fresh spice and the veggies and fruits were great. Mixed in among the pots & pans, plastic household wares, knives of all shapes and uses, bananas off the back of trucks, piles of onions, fresh fish being chopped up, dried fish being sold in chunks, were cloth sales folks with two meter pieces for sarong.
We had bought two such pieces for the table clothes, earlier in our Colombo Apartment days. Now we were looking for specific patterns which would double as sarongs, once we were home again. We checked out a number of possible purchases, and settled on a papaya. After market, a quick breakfast at the hotel, and a brief trip to the burnt out Siyath collection center. The fire had destroyed 80% of an order of mats destined for Europe. The fire was caused by and electrical short. A brief nap back at the hotel after lunch at our favorite Hikkaduwa restaurant, Refresh. It was a roasted chicken and some veggies. Then back to the hotel to nap and check out. They tried to do us wrong, BUT we prevailed. And then the adventure of the day, the second class train ride to Colombo. It’s a three hour trip and Sunday afternoon at 3:05PM, the train from Matara, via Galle picks up more folk headed to Colombo in Hikkaduwa. It was standing room only. And after an hour of standing, and older woman graciously offered Ahouva the arm rest of her seat as sitting/leaning space for Ahouva. Though it rained toward the end of the trip, all windows stayed open until the rain started into the coach. The scenery can be awesome when the train goes along the ocean, the Indian Ocean, that is. It is green and wondrous when we go through the rural jungle. And often, like railroads almost anywhere, there are slums and shanty shacks along the railroad, as well.
We arrived in Colombo around six, tuk-tukked home, and began an early to bed routine, just a bit tired.
Monday started with our usual swim and picking up breakfast at our local “rice & curry place. We’ve gotten into a routine of swimming between 7 and 8AM in the 25 meter pool at Thursten College, the other excellent boys’ school on the block across the street from the office. After swim we either go to breakfast at the local workingman’s place for string hoppers & fish curry, egg rotis and fish curry, or paratas and fish curry. Wash it all down with a cup of milk tea and give two rupees to the gentleman standing with hand outstretched outside. When you remember our teacher and friend, Rabbi Schlomo Carlebach of bless memory, you hear Schlomo reminding that this gentleman is relying on us to feed him and his. Family. I gladly give him the 2 rupees change I have gotten from the restaurant cashier. Next door, we buy yogurt, papaya, mango, bananas and water almost everyday. Then back home and time to take the long commute to work (walk around to the front of the building in which our apartment is located and up the stairs into the office).
The “Elated School” got revised from a concept paper into a newspaper article.
The strategic plan got another piece fleshed out, or begun to be fleshed out. Indika is sharing the outlet center, (the Store, office, and restaurant/coffee bar). I had gotten Indika alone in the car and started asking questions. Because of my learning challenge of not being able to read, I developed a great interviewing ability through which I am able to gather much of the information which I need. As we drive around Colombo or down to Galle, we talk about what interests him and I ask questions. The answers may be consistent or inconsistent, but they are the basis of a page or a paragraph which he reads later and marks up. It is a simple way to help him think through the projects and objectives of a strategic plan.
We discussed coco peat, the material which remains when the fiber has been removed from the coconut husk. This is a dust, or semi-granular material which has a number of characteristics which make it ideal from indoor plants, nurseries and large scale farming. When visiting a coconut fiber mills, I observed that the stack or pile or coco peat was very spongy to walk on and appeared to be moist, regardless of where in the area of spreading it was located. My personal interest in agriculture makes these conversations more interesting to me. I also get a cross reference between Wimal and Indika about the potential of agro-business of crops and soil materials.
The early morning calls are very distinct. The six tone calls of one bird, and the calls of the crows mixed with the chirping of the chipmunks gives Natures morning music a special quality which is now Colombo in my ears.
Have we discussed honkies, Sri Lanka style? The auto, bus, truck, motorcycle and tuk-tuk horn sounds are each a bit unique. All Sri Lanka drivers express themselves freely with their sounding device, i.e., vehicular horn. When passing, sound your horn to let the other fellow know you’re there. When he’s about to hit your vehicle, sound your horn. When a pedestrian, or a tuk-tuk or anything is in the way of your vehicular progress, sound your horn. Buses appear to exact the right-of-way from all other vehicles. They appear to be the kings of the road, and the constant sound of their unique pitch of horn makes them quite pronounced. The private automobile nudges in among the trucks and buses and tuk-tuks. The tuk-tuk’s horn sounds something like Road runner in the Wiley Coyote cartoons. The tuk-tuk driver is by far the bravest and most daring of the drivers. He creates a traffic lane where none existed a moment ago. He weaves in and out of traffic, even though his width is only human tusch width less than the standard automobile. The beep-beep of the motorcyclists has to be added to the symphony. These daring riders and drivers zip in and out of traffic. They appear to out number almost every other group of vehicles. And the combination of parents and children on a single motorcycle is amazing at the least. I have observes a gentleman driver with a child seated in front of him on the gasoline tank, a child behind him squeezed in between the driver’s back and his female rider. Such a motorcycle whipped past us while we were clipping along at 80 kilometers an hour. The motorcycles range from motor scooters to medium large motorcycles. No Harley Hogs to be seen. Imagine that occasional motorcyclist weaving in and out of Los Angeles rush hour crawling traffic, and multiply him by 100 and make his maneuvers a standard part of all speeds traffic, and you have a taste of Sri Lankan motorcycling. We forgot the farmers. They drive a half tractor or a regular tractor and pull a wagon at 5 to 8 kilometers per hour. Everyone tries to pass them. And all road, except maybe a few kilometers of street or road in the country, are two lanes. The shoulders are sand or clay. The pavement appears to be gravel, sand and a tar capping. Pot holes are common. And rough road causes all drivers to slow. However, one driver’s too rough road, is another driver’s challenge to destroy your back and kidneys. A three hour drive, anywhere, should be broken into 45 minute pieces, for the sake of your spine, your kidneys and your general well being. The honking and passing keep your nerves in a general condition of alert strain.
A sound of a siren is an ambulance. We have seen and heard no police or fire sirens in this land. However, the air pollution would be dreadful, were it not for the ocean breeze.
For the exotic hit today, think about our morning walk to the pool past a blooming gardenia, a pungent mock-orange or a cousin of the mock-orange, and planarian. Even my nose can smell these wonders of the tropics all mixed together and marvelous.
A&A
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