Thanksgiving in Sri Lanka

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

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...

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

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).