Look Mom I Blog

July 17, 2007
Ok so here is my attempt at writing more. So yesterday was picture day and I didn’t wear a saree…oh so sad. I just brought it with me to work and didn’t wear it. Woo hoo. Oh another thing. I had thought I lost a lot of money; I mean a lot! I took a FULL weekend and then a half-day off work to try and find it in my books and in my house. I also sent my accounts to Nigel to try and figure them out. It was terrible and ended in a complete mental collapse. Now most all is found!!! A small glitch in my excel sheet. Cool.
Shiloni and I went to the ocean today. We never get to do things anymore because she has classes on Sat and Sun. Now Chandran is away and she has a lot more responsibility. (Chandran is my boss and Shiloni is his secretary) So it was nice to get out even if it was only to the beach…ha ha ha. I laugh b/c it’s the beach. There aren’t a lot of people back home, if any, that could take a walk on the beach for a short time after work.
Oh on the way home, I hopped on the 100 bus. Now, I found that after I got on it was the bus going north and not south…poo. I wondered why the conductor was confused when I said Malagiriya. Oh well.
Ok that is all.
Peace and Love
Jodi

Ok ok ok I posted ok

July 7, 2007

Ok so its been quite a while. I am really trying to write more but have been quite busy. Life is going well, there are still moments of extreme frustration but I think you have that no matter where you are. In mid June I went to Bangladesh to visit some agriculture programs. It was good. Most of it was project related but I did get some time to visit some historical places and whatnot. I flew Qatar air. It was nice. Ajith Fernando was on my Colombo to Doha flight so that was cool. (Ajith is the head of YFC Sri Lanka and a big time speaker and Nilmili and Asiri’s dad) The plane got off late in Colombo and so I got to my Doha-Dhaka flight at last call. I got off the Colombo flight very worried that would happen and then there was a 20min bus ride from the arrival to the departure terminal so eventhough the plane had landed I had 20 min to worry if my flight was taking off while I sat there on the bus unable to do anything. I did make it, I was the last person on! However on my flight back we waited in Doha an hour for people to join our flight from another Qatar connecting flight, so I am sure they would have waited for me. In Bangladesh I was in Dhaka, Sarajganj, Dimla, Mohdupur, Meymhensing and some other places. I have pictures on snapfish and if you didn’t get the e-mail then send me one and I’ll add you to the snapfish emailing list. Overall it was a great trip. People in Bangladesh are a lot poorer than here. It kind of made me feel bad, like I was just making the rich richer. I guess its all relative. Nigel says he kind of felt that way too, but he thinks that if God had wanted him in Bangladesh that S/He would have sent him there and not to SL. I think that is a good idea. People are very curious about white people in BG. I guess in SL they are used to seeing them a bit more. In every village we visited there was always a huge crowd that would follow us everywhere. It was a bit crazy, but only fair. I took pictures of them, they stared at me. It works. Oh…one very annoying thing about BG was the orna (the scarf/shawl you wear). I could not for the life of me get mine to stay put. It was always falling off or getting caught on something. It was so annoying. The worst part was that when it would fall down I felt so exposed and indecent. It is the most indecent I have ever felt while wearing that much clothes. Oh well. It was a very busy week but a good one. (Other than when we went shopping one evening Reba- another MCCer- had the whole contents of her purse stolen.)
After Bangladesh was my birthday. That was good. I spent the day in the village then came into Colombo for the evening. We went out to the Siam House, a Thai restaurant. It was good fun. Then I got presents and a motorbike ride. Then my ride turned into a lesson, I can now mildly drive a motorcycle. Ok so I never got out of first gear, but that’s unfair b/c the peddles were set big and I couldn’t get it right. Hmm… I think that is all for now. I will try and write more frequently and less length.
Peace, Jodi
Oh yea. Next week we are taking an office picture and I have to wear a saree. Today I am practicing dressing myself. However it will most likely end up that the girls at the office will dress me.