So I am back…yea for all of you. I’m feeling good…listening to the Police greatest hits…its good times. I saw in the news that western NY got a bunch of snow…its sunny and 80s here…man that still gets me…its just so not normal to me. Also, I still have to stop every once in a while and smile at the palm trees on my way to the office or pinch myself to make sure that I am not in some very strange dream. Good times though. On Friday I sat in the office of the Department of Immigration and Emigration (all the workers wear lanyards that have DIE written down the edges) for 3 hours waiting for my visa to be signed. It was awesome! With that note…I am very pleased at the sarcastic nature of my co-workers. I was so nervous that sarcasm would be socially unacceptable. Its not so YEA!!!!! Mr. Walker can take his “A-“ and eat it. (Mr. Walker gave me an A- in gym class one quarter b/c I was too sarcastic. It doesn’t bother me anymore and I have no hard feelings, but it makes a great story so I tell it like I am annoyed)
Wow, I wrote the previous paragraph a while ago. I however never posted it…or finished it. Hmm what has happened since last I wrote? Things are getting busy and that is ok by me. Last week I went to Kuranagala which is about 2.5hrs northeast of Colombo. I went to meet with the director of the Department of Animal Production and Health for the Northwest Province, Dr. Chandrasoma. There was an animal “expo” at a school there that the “Department” put on. On the way there we stopped for breakfast. String hoppers…yummy. A nice change from rice and curry…string hoppers and curry. Also, Surish bought some sweets that were very good. Anyway at the expo the “important” people were ushered in by the school band (middle schoolish grades) and some traditional Kandian dancers. It was very cool. At the expo we talked with Dr. Chandrasoma about what the government was doing for the farmers and then I picked his brain for stats and other cow things. There was also a manager from one of the model farms there and I talked to him as well. He didn’t speak English so Chandran translated for me. It was excellent…the talking not the having to have a translator.
On the way home I drove the car for a while. It was terrible!!!! Not that I did a bad job, just I was not fun. The car is a manual transmission, I was driving on the left side of the road, and the traffic here is…unlike what I am used to…completely!!! I would really like to just learn to drive in the middle of nowhere first…it just seems like too much right now. I don’t mind the bus even when it is crowded…ok that part about not minding the crowding may be a bit of an exaggeration. I deal with it but sometimes I want to scream.
Wednesday was Nimali’s birthday…I wasn’t there (the office). The boys decorated her space in a way that only silly boys can. Thursday was Shiloni’s birthday once again the boys decorated. Everything in her office was out of place. After about 5min of Jaykumma trying to tell me that it was Shiloni’s birthday and I should look at her office I went to look at it (Jaykumma doesn’t speak a whole lot of English so it sounded like it was Shiloni’s Workday not birthday). That evening I went to Shiloni’s house for a get together. She is part of the YFC English mission so the group gets together for birthdays. It was good. We played uno and told jokes. Very good. (Minus the fact that I didn’t tell Francis- the maintenance/night guard/everything else- that I would be in late and he got worried and called Chandran who then had to call me to make sure I was OK. Ooops!) Friday night I went out for Chenoa’s birthday. We had dinner at her flat and then we went dancing. I like dancing…it was good. On the way home though we got stopped 3times at checkpoints. Kind of annoying but so it goes.
This week will be busy as I will be visiting Madampe for the first time on Wednesday. I will be meeting the people at the office there and seeing where I’ll live and shop and stuff and I will also be meeting with the District’s veterinary surgeon to pick his brain on common diseases. Then Thursday-Saturday Ed and Joe from MCC Asia will be visiting and we will be taking them to Madampe on Saturday. Good times.
Ok one more thing. I tried cooking curry with coconut milk (I am not that daring so I just got the powder and didn’t do the whole break, scrape and squeeze thing that most do. I just got the instant ) It was terrible but I will keep trying.
Prayer requests I have:
· Financial stability (some loans I thought were taken care of and consolidated are now apparently not and it is hard to work on that stuff since I am overseas and don’t have internet in my flat)
· Mental Stability (Things are getting a bit crazy now and I am having a lot of self-doubt)
· Sri Lanka (it is a lovely country with kind people and the conflict here makes me sad)