Doug in Sri Lanka: Blogging from Serendib

Back to California

2008-08-10T01:41:00.002+05:30

Hi all,

Well this post is long over due. I finished my time in Sri Lanka as of April 2007 and have returned to California via Europe, North Africa, and of course, NYC. I really enjoyed my experience in Sri Lanka and I feel like I learned a lot about the people, the culture, and humanity in general and I hope to bring what I have learned back home with me. I also learned a lot about myself, my ablities and my limitions.

I believe the project was a sucess; we constructed 100 homes for 100 familes, installed numerous drinking and agicultural wells, and developed livelihood programs for the people in these viliages.

I have the greatest hopes for the people of Sri Lanka and sincerly wish peace on this beautiful island.

Please feel free to coninue to comment, but ou may have to forgive me if I don't respond in a timely manner as I will not be maintaining this blog regularly in the future.

Thanks goes to the people of Sri Lanka, to Sewa Lanka Foundation, Cesvi - World Aid Italy, and to all my family and friends that supported me during me time overseas.

Peace

Props, Kudos, and Honorable Mentions...

2007-04-22T14:38:00.000+05:30

I was recently made aware that the work that I have been doing and more specifically, this blog was mentioned on Joshua Berman's website: The Tranquilo Traveler . Josh is the brother of my friend Todd and he was here in Sri Lanka doing work with Tea Plantation workers in the central highlands. Unfortunately, I was never able to meet up with him during his stay here. If you are interested checkout the post and enjoy the rest of his site, which is quiet interesting and beautifully laid out. Thanks for the mention Josh! Hope we can meet in Boulder or SF when I return. (Permalink to the article)

And while I thinking of it, the Berman clan seems to be quite talented. Todd is a very talented artist and I was lucky enough to check out some of his work when I was back in SF in January. You can see some of his art on his site TheArtDontStop.org Todd was in our Burningman camp in 2005 and did some fun collective art projects. On the day our camp had a party, Todd encouraged everyone to draw a small self portrait of themselves. He then cut out each of the figures and added them into a scene that he painted. It was wonderful and brought a lot of smiles to the folks that visited our camp and participated in the project.

Here is one of my favorites...

The Mission Apartments

Ok, they are not quite family yet, but my friend, and Todd's partner (soon to be legal mate by some obscurely named ceremony) Laurin Giradin has a fun culture blog called Eat Drink Protest Its a fun site with lots of good food ideas. Kathryn, I think you'd appreciate this site.

Enjoy...

Kinniya School Opening - Continued

2007-04-06T10:34:00.000+05:30

Ok, ok I know. So many pictures for a 40 min ceremony. But come on it was pretty interesting for me rather than always working with contractors and problems, staffing issues, spreadsheets, budgets. It was a pleasant change and felt like a good bonding/team building event.

All Cesvi photo: Suranjee (Admin assistant), Pietro (Administrator), Gannon (Field Officer), Vimira (Housekeeper and maker of all yummy lunches), Nicola (Country Representative - outgoing), Me (Engineer), Giacomo (Country Representative - incoming) Kumar (Driver/Logistician), Silva (Admin Asst), Franklin (Technical Officer), Rajan (Field Officer), Swaminathan (Engineer), Temporary Driver, and Shakeel (Driver/Logistician). Absent is Marco (Project Assistant).

A few of the dancing girls - happy to have their photo taken.

Some of the fishing boats in China Bay on the way back from Kinniya (note the prestine beaches).

Kinniya School Opening

2007-04-06T09:49:00.000+05:30

In addition to our housing project, Cesvi completed the rehabilitation of a school in a village called Kinniya, located about 30 mins southeast of Trinco town. The actual project has been completed for some time but they just now had the opening ceremony to coincide with several openings of other projects funded by the Italian government. Although I didnt provided any significant assistance to this project, it was fun to attend and it gave me some hope that one day, our housing project will be finished as well.

Ten of us piled into our van for the trip down there. It felt like the Cesvi Family road trip!

Only the youngest get to dress up like this, the older girls all wear the white shall as this is a Muslim girls school.

Some local big-wigs and the Italian Ambassador. The played the Sri Lankan national anthem as well as the Italian anthem.

The cer(E)mony consisted of a series of speeches and musical performances by the children and was only 40 mins or so, which is short for project openings. They often last about 4 hours. So I felt quite lucky.

All the children were quiet and well behaved during the ceremony, on the other hand, every male in the room continuously talked amongst themselves no matter who was speaking at the podium - including the Italian Ambassador

Yet Even More Oddities

2007-03-24T18:39:00.000+05:30

Time for another installment of odd things that Ive come across during my time here in Sri Lanka. Enjoy!

Praying Mantis on the wall of my balcony. Almost human (alien?) head movements. Freaky...

Natrual Spring Water in a bottle? Why not? Figure this one out... Its actually kind of common here.

Danger - Our Highly Skilled Machine Operator Will Be Dropping Heavy Rocks On Your Vehicle.

If you want to see more oddities, just click on the "Oddities" Lable link on the right. Cheers!

Awe... They are so cute!

2007-03-24T16:43:00.000+05:30

On the way back from our relaxing beach weekend in Mirissa, we stopped at a sea turtle refuge near Bentota. We talked about visiting one of these facitlities when were were planning the trip because Christen is a fan of sea turtles. But as it turns out, I think everyone likes sea turtles! I was pleasantly surprised at how interesting the place was and how well informed the people that ran it were.

Upon entering the refuge (read: house near the beach with a large sandy garden and 6 concrete tanks) we were greated by a smily local guide who was the owners son. He told us about the 5 breeds of turtles found in Sri Lanka then took us to the garden where they grow sea turtles. Yep, thats right - Sea turtles can be grown in a garden. Basically, they buy sea turtle eggs from local fisherman and keep them from becomming omlets (hmmm, now I wonder why those omlets in Mirissa were so good...). They take the eggs and rebury them in their garden and after 30-60 days (depending on the breed) the little buggers hatch. After they have hatched, they get moved to the first tank that serves as a nursery.

Jana has here hands full... there were hundreds of these little guys swimming around in the nursery tank.

You could almost hear this one crying "Mama!"

I look so confortable holding this turtle - I think I will take one home with me.

Eric and his turtle. ok, you dont have to say it... yes, Eric has a bigger turtle...

So that was our trip to Mirissa with Eric and Christen. Thanks so much for coming to visit! It was great to see you and I look forward to seeing you on the playa this year!

Beach Holiday

2007-03-24T15:40:00.000+05:30

After 18 months on this island, I finally had my first visitors! This is not surprising given the distance from the states, the cost of the flights, and of course the wonderful state of affairs here during the past year. I was lucky though, my friend Eric was making his second trip to Chenni, India for business and had inivted his wife Christen to join him. We originally were hoping to meet in the Maldives for a long weekend, but in the end it was too expensive. So we decided to make a nice 4-day weekend in Sri Lanka instead.

Eric and Christen flew into Colombo on Friday night and Jana and I made the extraordinarily slow drive down to Colombo from Trinco. It took us the better part of 8 hours to make the 260km journey. We booked rooms at a small hotel near the beach in Colombo for the first night and had a nice seafood dinner on the beach. "Nice" being a relative term and even though the beachfront restuarant was better than most places in Trinco, Eric and Christen were quickly indoctrinated to the levels of service found in Sri Lankan resturants.

We rented a car from Colombo and the four of us drove south along the coast to a beach town called Mirissa about 3 hours away. We stopped in Galle along the way and had lunch in the old Fort and walked up on the fort walls that served as protection to the old town from potential sea invaders. We met a local man that claimed to be a dive instructor that lost his boat and all his equipment in the Tsunami. He was selling old coins that he scavanged from the shallow wrecks near the fort. I bought a few Dutch and British copper coins from the 1700's. I figure they will be unique keepsakes if nothing else.

A typical ox-drawn cart still in comon use here in Sri Lanka. Its a wonderful juxtaposition (thanks Eric!) seeing these animal-powered transports working against the sea of buses and Japanese lorries.

Jana and I a-top the Galle Fort walls. We were so lucky, the weather was like this the entire weekend.

Eric and Christen enjoying the views and relative reprieve from India's constant hussle and bussle.

After Galle, we moved on to our final destination, Mirissa. We stayed at the nicest place there, which doesnt mean all that much. But the place was really quiet nice. We each had private 2-story bungalows with ocean views and AC for about $40/night including dinner and breakfast for two.

Not much else to do but enjoy the beach with a few tropical drinks and good friends. Ok, truth be told, these cocktails tasted just a bit off... not quite right... But never fear, Eric and Christen stocked up at the duty free in Colombo airport. So we made our own drinks that were much, much better. Thanks guys!

It was so nice to have friends come to visit me and to see the country that I have been living in for the past year and a half, even if the south is much different then our life in Trinco. The weekend was really relaxing; we started each day with a swim in the sea, followed by a breakfast of fresh fruit, omlets and juice, then back to the beach to chill in the sun, read, swim or what ever met our fancy.

On the way back we stopped at a Sea Turtle refuge. I will write about this in another post.

Nuwara Elliya - Central Highlands

2007-03-24T13:11:00.000+05:30

So its been a while since my last post. As you can Imagine, I have been pretty busy trying to finish up my work here so I can move on to greener pastures. Ok, maybe its difficult to get greener than Sri Lanka, but you get my drift. I felt pretty good coming back from my holidays in the states and was motivated to work hard and to enjoy the rest of my time here in Sri Lanka.

Not too long after my return, a few of us planned a trip to the cooler central highlands. Six of us took advantage of a long weekend, and climbed into a van for the 7 hour trip to Nuwara Elliya situated in the lush hills at about 6,000 ft above sea level. I had been here last year with my friend Tom, but it is a really nice place and I was happy to return. Nuwara Elliya is known for its lavish tea plantations and shockingly cool weather. It gets down-right cold in the evenings - about 45 deg (8 deg C).

The view from a mountian top behind our guest house. We hiked through the tea fields to this visita and were pleasantly surprised by the views.

Ivo, Matej, Jana, and me standing in the tea fields above Nuwara Elliya Town.

Mmmmm freash strawberry juice. Verka enjoying her strawberry milkshake. This is almost unheard of in Sri Lanka and was a welcome treat. I think we stopped at the Strawberry Inn each day we were there!

The fierce and much feared wild Sri Lankan Elk. Ok, he was not so tough in the end. i think he even came to me and licked my hand.

San Francisco - The First Few Hours

2007-01-30T09:26:00.000+05:30

Ok, I just received a couple more pics from my time in San Francisco. These are from my first day back in SF. I landed in at SFO around 1030 AM and was greeted by Jesse and Hetal's smiling faces. We left the airport and headed for Jesse's house in Noe Valley where I changed out of the clothes that I had been in for some 48 hrs, washed up, and we walked down to a corner cafe on Dolores for my first big cup of dark roast coffee. Mmmmm! After we were sufficently caffinated (note to self: Jesse has enough energy without caffine), we went down to El Farrilito's in the Mission District for a proper mission burrito. Man, I had been looking forward to this for 15 months and when I walked in and smelled the burritos and saw the grill, it was all I could do to stand patiently in line to place my order (additional note to self: large amounts of caffine dont help any of us wait patiently in line). It was nice to see the familiar face taking my order. El Farrilito's is a Mission institution, and a late night standard. There is something about having a well seasoned grill to make a proper burrito.

Finally! After 15 months - burrito magic. Less then 2 hours in SF and I accomplished my first goal. Yum!

After finishing our burrito's (yes I finished that whole thing), we bummed around the city and I somehow managed to stay awake all day. A considerable feat seeing as there is a 12.5 hour time difference from Sri Lanka. We went to the climbing gym in the evening followed by beers. After a few stops, when met some guy that decided to join us to the next venue. Lucky for me he had a skateboard and was happy to lend it to me while he was trying to flirt with Hetal.

California Dreaming: A late-night ride down mission street. I swear the light was green when I passed!

It was a great first day back in SF. Thanks to all my friends for hanging out with me and making my time there so much bloody fun! I look forward to seeing you all again soon!

Family Time

2007-01-29T09:14:00.000+05:30

After my time in San Francisco I went to Delafield, WI to visit my family. It was so nice to see my Mom and to have time to catch up with her. She retired on the 2nd of January so we had lots of time together! She had the clever idea to invite a bunch of my family that is scattered across the midwest to come visit. So we had a mini-family reunion. It was great to see everyone and helped minimize the traveling I had to do during my short stay there. The party was a lot of fun, we had good food, nice drinks and the conversations were flowing. I also gave a slide presentation of some photos from my last 15 months in Sri Lanka. Thanks to mom for organizing the party!

The Bablitch family representatives: Uncle John, Uncle Steve, Dad,Michelle, my cousin Ameen, my beautiful nieces Katie and Erin, my cousin Jacob, and me.

Still showing photos... Uncle Steve, Jacob, and me.

My mom and Erin.

Thanks again to my Mom and her husband Jim for organizing the party. And thanks to everyone who came to visit, including those not pictured here: Uncle Donnie and Aunt Carol, Aunt JoAnn, and my friend Paul from Minneapolis. Thank you for coming and traveling so far through the snowy weather! It was great to see you all. I look forward to seeing you all again soon! Much luv.

San Francisco Continued

2007-01-26T10:36:00.000+05:30

Like I said, not too many pics from my time in San Francisco, but here are a few more fun ones. Enjoy!

Dusk on Jesse’s balcony. Thanks for letting me crash at your place Jesse. You da best!
Me and Regina. Its amazing what 6-inch platforms will do for you. I was contemplating wearing these out for New Years Eve, but decided against it in the end. How can anyone dance in these things?
Good Friends. Jesse and Hetal on the balcony. The weather was so nice near the end and it was really hard to leave. I think this was taken on my last day in SF. You see the excitement in their giddy smiles that I am leaving and they will actually be able to get some sleep and be able to get to work on time in the morning!

If you are going to San Francisco

2007-01-26T10:10:00.000+05:30

Its been a while since my last post, but I am finally getting around to putting up some pics from my trip back to the states. I went back to San Francisco after being gone for 15 months and it was great to see everyone and spend time in my favorite city! Luckily my flights went smoothly, albeit insanely long, and I didn’t seem to suffer to badly from jetlag. I think I was so excited to be back that I was able to power through the drowsiness that comes with a 12.5 hr time difference.

I somehow managed not to take many photos during my stay there. I think I was too happy just to be with my friends and bumming around the city. But I did get a few pics and got some others from friends. Below are some pics from one of my favorite days. It was my first Saturday in SF and I had plans to meet my friend Hetal for brunch, which turned into a brunch for six at the Beach Chalet on Ocean Beach. There was good food, great conversation and yummy mimosas. It a beautiful sunny December day so we decided to walk along Ocean Beach for a while after. I can tell you how nice it was to be back with my friends and to have such a nice day on the beach.
The gang: Jesse, me, Hetal, Sean, and Regina (Claudia taking the photo). Is my zipper open???

Showing my excitement to be back! Um… yep, my zipper is definitely open. I wonder how long that lasted.

“Have a Wonderful Day” – Ok, we are definitely in San Francisco. We stumbled upon this sand-script that someone had made. Jesse, Regina, me, Sean, and Claudia.

Thanks to all my friends that took time to hang out with me! I had such a great trip. I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to see more of you but I definitely look forward to catching up when I am back this summer! Much luv!

So Many Goodbyes

2006-12-23T15:01:00.000+05:30

Well, I figured I can make one last post before I head back to the States for my 3 week holidays. life here has been pretty good in general. Work has been extremely busy and our Country Representative (my boss) has left the country for his holidays. That of course means that I am now responsible to make sure everything is moving forward. This makes busy even busier! Ugh! But, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. On sunday I start making my way down to Colombo and will spend xmas with some friends at a swanky resort. Then Tuesday I travel to Colombo where I will frantically try to finish my work AND do some xmas shopping. Finally, my flight leaves for SF on Wednesday night. Phew! I can't wait. I am really looking forward to seeing my friends in SF and visiting my family in Wisconsin. My Dad sounds like he is doing great and recovering well from his surgery this fall, and my mom is retiring on January 2nd! Wow, what a milestone. I am so proud and happy for her. Congratulations Mom!

I apologize, but I have no photos to share with some holiday sentiment. There doesnt seem to be too much holiday spirit here in Trinco. You can hear the occasional xmas song being played at the two hotels here (interesting note: for some reason, ABBA qualifies as christmas music here. hmmm, figure that one out). In colombo, there are xmas lights everywhere and people are shopping like mad. Seems they have embraced the commercial aspect of xmas as much as anywhere. Anyway, back to the photos. People have been leaving Trinco by the dozens for some time now and it is really pronounced these days because many peoples missions are finishing up. It will be 2 years this 26th that the Tsunami hit the shores of Sri Lanka so many organizations are wrapping up their projects and sending the staff home. This is making Trinco a much lonelier and quiet place. Just the other day, our good friend Florian left for Germany after nearly 2 years here. He was one of the first people I met in Trinco and he kind of took me under his wing during my first few months here, introducing me to everyone, telling me how the projects worked, and making sure I knew where the next party was! So on Tuesday, we invited Florian over for a last Italian coffee at our office. :( Good Luck Florian! We miss you already!
"The last coffee" Same like the last supper, but different.

Me, Florian, and Pietro. Some of the last original Trinco Gang.

A blast from the past. Me, Shophie, and Florian at last year's holiday party. -looking pretty fresh considering the photo was taken at 5:36 AM.

When Snakes Attack (more oddities)

2006-12-11T11:04:00.000+05:30

Here is my latest installment of Oddities in Sri Lanka. I’ve been wanting to post this pic for months but have been waiting to get the image from my friend Petra (thanks Petra!). When the rainy season starts here in the Northeast of Sri Lanka, a few things happen: of course everything gets more green, the frog population seems to quintuple, and accordingly, the number of snakes increases dramatically. Moreover, they become very active! Within a few week period, the number of snake stories going around Trinco went from almost none to everyone having one better story.

Sri Lanka has one of the largest numbers of poisonous snakes and has the highest snakebite mortality rate in the world. Of course for me this is an opportunity to scare the wits out of our new intern, Marco. It started with Pietro and I making up a story that we had a big snake in our office. Well, at the time it wasn’t true, or at least as far as we knew it. But then when we traveled back to Trinco with Marco for his first visit, we found a 5ft long snakeskin right in my office. It wasn’t there when we left a few days before! And keep in mind that this was where we were sleeping at the time. Needless to say, Marco was terrified and our story could not have been more effective.

So later that week, we ran into some friends at dinner and were discussing our story when they told us about their experience the previous week. Get this: they walked into their bathroom to find a big black snake swimming around in their toilet bowl. I know this sounds like something straight out of a horror film, but it is 100% the real deal. And here is the pic to prove it.

You better check the bowl before you sit down the next time!

If you'd like to see more freaky things from SL, you can find previous oddity posts here, here, here, here and here.

I'm Comming Home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-12-08T15:10:00.000+05:30

Well, at least for a few weeks… I cant wait, it will have been 1 months since Ive been back in San Francisco. I can’t wait to see all my friends and family, eat burritos and sushi, and enjoy beautiful California (I know, it’s the rainy season). I also get to see the winter wonderland that is Wisconsin in January, but this too will be a welcome change from Sri Lanka. I will return to Sri Lanka in Mid January and then will finish up my contract here at the end of March 2007. After that, who knows! I may travel around for a while or maybe come back to the states and get reacquainted with my homeland.

So my itinerary is pretty heinous. I will be in almost every major airport between here and Milwaukee at one point or another. Ive included a summary of my travels here for your amusement. Remember, there is about a 12hr time difference between Sri Lanka and the US.

Departure: December 27^th, 2006 – 9pm India Standard Time
Colombo – Male (Maldives) 1hr 30mins, 484 miles
Male – Tokyo 9hrs 0 mins, 4,740 miles
Tokyo – San Francisco 8hrs 53 mins, 5,131 miles
Arrive SFO 9:18 AM PST December 28^th, 2006
Total Duration: 25hrs 48mins, 10,335 miles

Departure: January 8^th, 2007 – 12:48pm PST
San Francisco – Denver 2 hrs 21mins, 954 miles
Denver – Milwaukee 2hrs 17mins, 907 miles
Arrive MKE 10:07pm CST
Total Duration: 7hrs 19mins, 1,861 miles

Departure: January 16^th, 2007 – 9:15 am CST
Milwaukee – Chicago 45mins, 75 miles
Chicago – Tokyo 13hrs 15mins, 6,286 miles
Tokyo – Singapore 7 hrs 29 mins, 3,311 miles
Singapore – Kuala Lumpur 1 hr 0 mins, 197 miles
Kuala Lumpur – Colombo 3 hrs 30mins, 1,524 miles
Arrives Colombo 10:25 AM January 18^th 2007.
Total Duration: 37hrs 40mins, 11,393 miles

Total Round Trip Duration 70 hrs 47mins, 23,589 miles
10 Take offs and landings
9 different airports
6 countries.

Wish me luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look forward to seeing you all soon.

Lunch in the Village

2006-12-08T14:04:00.000+05:30

I thought I would share these pics from one of my last site visits where Sewa Lanka prepared lunch. Its pretty interesting to see how the kitchen works in the village.
This is a pretty standard kitchen setup in the village. It is usually outside and often has its own separate shelter. Here they are preparing chicken curry and rice.

It is a little hard to see but this guy is holding the knife between his toes and using it to cut up the brinjal (eggplant). Ive seen them do this several times even with chciken.

Yum Yum Yum! This lunch was particularly spicey!

Thanksgiving in Sri Lanka

2006-11-25T13:32:00.000+05:30

So this is my second Thanksgiving in Sri Lanka and I decided that I would host a nice dinner for my good friends here. Many of you know that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday (next to Halloween of course, but that is a different matter), and you know how I like to make a big dinner for my family or friends. We had a great evening with good food, considering what I had to work with, and fun conversation. So I though I would share some of my evening with you here since I wasn’t able to be there with you all.

The Menu:
Appetizer
Roasted Garlic Heads
Cashew Nuts

Main Course
Citrus Roasted Goose with Cranberry Sauce
Bread Stuffing with New Zealand Apple
Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Steamed Green Beans tossed with Garlic and Roasted Cashews
Sweet Pumpkin Squash Curry
Slivered Carrots in Butter Sauce

Dessert
Chocolate Ripple Ice Cream
Italian Coffee

This is Gary the Goose. I found him at one of the small seaside beach resorts that we often visit. I could not find a turkey for the life of me and was pretty disappointed. But it turns out that Gary was pretty tasty! My friend Petr pointed out that this was like a real Thanksgiving, as we received our bounty from the natives and not the grocery store.

We forgot to say grace but I did get to share a little bit of the Thanksgiving traditions with my non-American friends. For most of them, this was there first American Thanksgiving. Clockwise from left: Marco and Nicola (Italy), Florian (Germany), and Petr and Jana (Czech Rep.). We were later joined by Petra and Ivo, two more of my Czech friends.

Jana had the nicest looking plate. I think we were laughing about Gary Goose…

In the end, everyone really enjoyed the food, which was a big relief. I was afraid that everything was going to turn out strange.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I look forward to seeing you all soon!

Happy Thanksgiving!

School Rehabilitation Project

2006-11-13T16:27:00.000+05:30

I visited one of our other projects today where we are rehabilitating a girls school in Kinniya, Trincomalee District. Kinniya is about 45 mins southeast of Trinco town and has an overwhelming majority of muslim inhabitants. I have had almost no input on this project as it was started and substantially completed by CESVI before I was working with them. This school will be state-of-the-art, especially by Sri Lanka standards. Even more so by the standards in the north and east of Sri Lanka.

This is the new building. It is strange to see a school that is a color other than tan, and with glass windows.

Two girls playing hop-scotch on the newly block-paved walkways. This older, existing building in the background. Note the color scheme, and grill work on the windows. This is typical construction for schools here.

Marco, our intern and resident chef-extraorinaire, brought a bag of italian sweets and was quickly the most popular man on the site. Also note the grass. This is absolutely unheard of here, especially for a school. I actually cant think of many other places that have grass, except for the lavish military bases maybe...

We were definetly the main attraction (or distraction???) today. And yes, the schools here do tend to look like prisons. However, you wouldn't think so if you looked around town in the early afternoon. School seems to let out at 1:30 most days and doesn't really start until 830 or 9am. After 2pm, traffic, even in modestly sized Trinco, can be a nightmare while trying to navigate the sea of uniformed school children.

More Oddities...

2006-11-10T15:43:00.000+05:30

Time for another installment of oddities from my life here in Sri Lanka.

So, I've shown you photos of the ubiquitous beach dogs and beach cows, but here is a shot of the ever elusive beach reindeer. This pics was taken at the commemoration event for the 17 slain humanitarian aid workers from ACF in August.

Each house that I have lived in has always had one iguana living in the garden. This one was from my last house.

I watched this guy climb up this pole in about 6 seconds, barefoot, with no safety device or pull straps. Obviously, the power lines are not yet energized.

If you'd like to see more freaky things from SL, you can find previous oddity posts here, here, here and here.

Ok, thats it for now. Hope you all are happy and well.
Ciao!

New Digs

2006-11-06T08:19:00.000+05:30

Hey y'all,
I thought I would post a couple of pics from my new house located in Orr's Hill, Trincomalee. we have a nice view of Trinco Harbor and Trinco town from our 2nd Story balcony, where we spend most of our time when at home. I have two Italian roommates, Pietro and Marco, both are great guys and we get along well. Pietro is taller then me and used to play professional basketball in Italy. And Marco is a fantastic cook, something that we take much advantage of (thanks Marco!)

I will try to post a few more pics from the house later this week.

Our balcony faces east and it is great to sit out here enjoying my morning coffee. My bedroom has the same view and I get the first morning light shining on my bed, pouring in my windows each morning. Its a great way to wake up, along with the sounds of dogs, raking of the garden, and all the noises that are Sri Lanka.

Our landlord lives next door and was harvesting the king coconuts from the palms in our front yard. This morning he rang our bell at 7am (this being mid-morning as everyone here gets up around 430 or 5 AM) to give us a couple of them. They are great if you but them in the freezer for a bit to chill the sweet juice inside. Most people love them here and they are quite refreshing, but I'm not really a huge fan. Marco and Pietro will enjoy for sure.

This pic is from our balcony, before it was ours. Our czech friends had us over for dinner one night. From left to right: Priya (CARE International); Marco (CESVI and current roommate); Veronica andPetr( People in Need- Czech Republic); Pietro (CESVI and current roommate); and Petra, Matej, and Ivo (People in Need- Czech Republic).

Healthy days are here again

2006-10-31T11:04:00.000+05:30

Great news! I spoke with my father this weekend and he is back home and is recovering well. Of course he is still is a bit sore, but I can tell by his voice that he is doing quite well. He has already been walking around a fair bit and it seems as though the circulation in his legs is noticeably improved. It was such a relief to hear him in such good spirits. Great job dad! Im so proud of you for going through with the operation. I know it was not an easy decision.

Also, it sounds like Hetal and Doug (my kidney swapping friends) are also quite peachy. I am so relieved!

Ok, now no one else is allowed to have any major medical issues until after I come back, got it?

All this news comes on the tail of a great weekend. I really needed a break and decided to go to Colombo for the weekend. Although this is a common occurrence as I go to Colombo every few weeks for one reason or another. This trip was purely for selfish and therapeutic reasons. The whole weekend was jam-packed with social engagements (read: dinner, party, dinner, party…and maybe a bit of sleep). On Friday we went out to a club and danced until the wee hours. Then on Saturday, there was a great Halloween party at one of the UN peoples house. It was really fun and everyone dressed up. I had a great idea for a Halloween costume but was not able to pull it together in time. It was Steve Irwin, the Croc Hunter. I know, it is in extremely bad taste, but I could not resist. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending how you look at it) I could not find the props needed to make it work. So instead, I was just the naughty/sleazy devil guy who is always whispering bad ideas in your ear. The party was a blast and the music was really quite good for a change. J

So now Im back in Trinco, hard at work and trying to keep this project going. As most of you know I am coming back to the states for the holidays and cant wait to see you all. I will post more details about my plans in a later post. Ms Kitty (faye), Ms Devil (Jo), Pothead, missing his pot (Tom), Fairy (Jodi), Giant Munchkin (some strange dude), Indian Princess? (Michelle), Sleezy Devil guy (me). and yes the pencil stashe is the real deal... There is a better pic coming from another friends camera that I will post later.

Happy Halloween!

The Hardest Thing...

2006-10-24T10:50:00.000+05:30

The hardest things about being away from home is not being able to be there for your family and friends when they need you. In so far as this point, this week has been a tough one. Last Thursday my friend Hetal in SF had kidney transplant surgery and received a healthy kidney from our friend Doug Held. And now, as I type this entry, my father is having surgery to install a bypass tube from an artery in his chest to his legs to supply blood as the main vessels are 100% blocked to his legs.

The good news is that both Hetal and Doug’s procedure went smoothly and they are making surprisingly seedy recovery. It’s truly amazing what medicine is capable of these days.

I’m hoping that my father’s procedure goes as smoothly. My sister and her beautiful girls are there in Milwaukee with his wife Polly. I’m stuck in Trinco in this pond called Sri Lanka and was unable to come there to be with my Dad. Even calling is not easy due to the 11 ½ hour time difference and the piss-poor reception I have at my house.

I know my father was not looking forward to this procedure, considering that 9 months ago he underwent open-heart surgery. But he was strong and made the decision to go ahead with the procedure so that he would be able to enjoy all the things he loves like working outdoors at ‘Hawk Ridge’, snowmobiling, and being able to stroll through the beautiful woods of northern Wisconsin in which he makes his home.

So, all I can say or do is say ‘hang in there guys’! You are all in my thoughts and I really wish I could be there to give you my love and support. And thanks to my sister Michelle for picking up the slack for her baby brother while I am on the other side of the world trying to work this adventure out of my system.

I wish a speedy recovery to you all and am so sorry I can’t be there with you. I can’t wait to see you in December/January.

Much peace and love.

Back to the field....

2006-10-19T04:42:00.000+05:30

Things are progressing nicely on our housing construction project, at least for the time being. we will see what the rainy season has to say about that. Our proect is on track to be completed in March 2007, a date that I am looking forward to for sure! I have been making several trips up to the field and thought that I would share some recent pics.

One day I showed up at the site and the my field manager informed me that the local government agents would like me to attend a meeting they were having to organize the local Community based Organizations (CBOs). We will work with these CBOs for implementation of our livelihood project in the comming months. We will be providing trainings and livelihood inputs (read: seeds and cows) for the CBOs. Of course the meeting was conducted in Tamil and I didnt have a clue what they said...

We completed nearly all 100 foundations and are noew constructing the first few homes. Its great to see some above-ground progress!

Working out issues in the field... Note the OSHA approved footwear.

More Oddities

2006-10-17T09:24:00.000+05:30

Well its time for another installment of oddities that I have observed in Sri Lanka.

I found this stick bug while I was near trinco buying a bunch of fresh prawns and crabs (13 lbs for 13 USD!) Last night I saw a praying mantis while we where having dinner, but I didnt have my camera...

This spider was living outside my old house. If you look closely, this guy looks like he has Felix the cat jumping on his back.

This is one of my friends little kitty. She is pretty cute. Puppies and kittens are ubiquitous here as NO ONE gets their animals fixed and they all roam the streets.

One Year Later

2006-09-29T13:23:00.000+05:30

I have been here for just a few days more than one year now. This has really been one heck of an experience, and one that I will never forget! So, its time to give a long over due update on my situation here in Sri Lanka… Like I said in an earlier post below, I made it back from Bali well rested, refreshed, and recharged. Man it was so good to relax and be in a different environment all together. Sri Lanka is a beautiful place but it can really wear on you. Anyway, the trip was great and I hope you enjoyed some of the pics I posted below.

I am now back in Sri Lanka and many things have changed, most of them for the better. First of all, I have recently signed on with an Italian NGO called CESVI. They are the main donor and partner organization for Sewa Lanka and my housing project. So this means a couple things: I am still working on the same project and have similar responsibilities and work with the same people; I now my peers and superiors are expats, and Im getting paid! Yep, insurance and everything! I am really good friends with all my coworkers and we have a lot of fun working (and playing) together. This is really a great opportunity because it gives me a chance to stick it out and see this project through to completion. I think you can understand that it would be much more gratifying to see these houses build and the people move in rather than just saying “ok, my 1 year is up, good luck to you all!”. Truth is, the project would be in dire straights if I left right now. So I think this solution works well for every one. I am sad to leave Sewa Lanka but am looking forward to my new opportunity.

This enthusiasm for my new working situation should not be confused with my excitement for returning home. I miss all my family and friend soooo much. I miss San Francisco so much. I miss climbing and snowboarding every other weekend, and road trips on smooth roads. I miss good food on every corner. I miss high-speed internet connections, wifi cafes, and good coffee. My plan is to come back to San Francisco for New years for a week or two, then off to the Midwest to see the family and more friends. I will come back to Sri Lanka for a few months to close the project and leave at the end of March 2007.

I should also let you know that the security situation here has gotten better, at least in Trinco. The gov and the LTTE are still battling it out in various places in the North and east but Trinco has been really calm and quiet. Now that I am working for an international organization, the security protocol will be more strict than with the local org. I was well cared for with Sewa Lanka but CESVI will be even more conservative. So I am in good hands. :)

So, thank you again for all your support. I really appreciate all of you that have been staying in touch and especially all the nice care packages, even if they take 4 months to arrive sometimes! I miss you all. Stay in touch and I look forward to seeing you all at the end of the year! Ciao!

This is a pic of me with many of the Sewa Lanka-Trinco crew at the beach for the commemoration of the killing of 17 local humanitarian aid workers in August. Still suffering from Sri Lankan haircuts...