So Many Goodbyes

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)

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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

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!