Home Again...

My Godson Dan, looking less than pleased with having his picture taken.

Have I mentioned lately how cold it is here? Well, it is. You can tell when you are in Rochester in the winter, because every bit of moisture in your skin is sucked out upon arrival. I made it home late Friday night when amazingly enough, all six flights went completely without incident. My nephew Jonathan made a gorgeous sign welcoming me home. He’s da bomb! It’s really great to be home. I went to see my friend Jennifer to pick up my pups. Harvey is down to his fighting weight after his extended stay at the Brighton fat camp. Next time, I’m sending them to Sri Lanka and asking Jen to look after me.
Sue and Dave Mayne had a lovely party on Saturday. I think the best part was the fact that Erik, Dan and Bridget didn’t know I was home yet when they walked in the door and saw me. Boy, were they surprised! I’m adjusting…it was a little spooky riding in the car on the right side of the road again. I also made my mom have lunch at the Greek restaurant and Zwiegles hot dogs for dinner. All my nieces and nephews were very concerned as to whether or not I would have time to make some Christmas cookies. I’ve got that covered! The gang came over today to help decorate and we had a blast.
I need to connect with the gang in Sri Lanka regarding some of the unfinished projects, but I know they are all wrapped up right now in throwing a generic holiday party at the Wellawatte orphanage. I wish I could be there with them, but I kicked in a few bucks so they could have a really fun time with the boys. Kenney called me on Sunday night at 4:00 in the morning. I’m not exactly sure what we talked about after I clarified the time difference. He rationalized that this is the time of day he always calls Simone…but she’s in Australia…not the U.S. I think it was something about his Australian spousal visa to join Simone, but I’m not sure. I hope he emails or calls back again soon to talk to me when I’m awake. Happy Holidays to everyone and please be thankful for all the wonderful things in your life, I know I am.

Signing off from Sri Lanka

My last day in country was great. I went to the pump place to torture them one last time, we finally have a working pump down in Tissa. Just think, it only took THE WHOLE TIME I WAS HERE! Picked up the last of my stuff at the fluff and fold; spread-sheeted some receipts for the greeting card project; consoled Roy because I was leaving (I gave him a really cool Swiss Army knife so he could fix his own trishaw instead of relying on me) I taught some of the new guys the fine art of balloon sculpture; had a lampraise for lunch, visited my friends at the orphanage one last time and just when you think it couldn’t get any better, the landlord finally replaced the porch light…after six months of it being burned out. I got some very nice cards from all my friends and I can tell you for sure, I’m really going to miss them all.

A Few of My Favorite Things...Part Deux

Just a few more fav things...

Our van driver sporting one of the balloon halos from our early days here in Colombo. Once I taught the volunteers to make animals and such from the long balloons, we participated in an aggressive campaign of “Drive-by Ballooning” We would stop next to small children, drivers and people crammed on buses; hand them a balloon sculpture and speed away. Thus making the world a better place one balloon at a time…

This was an offering left at the temple in Wellawatta. I thought it was pretty cool to see where coconut trees come from…

Atop every unfinished building, there is a scarecrow type of dummy strung up. Apparently, this keeps the evil spirits away from the structure while it is being built.

Alex very patiently waited and waited, but got a terrific shot of this lizard… it’s so amazing it looks surreal.

Alex also took this one…Got Crabs?
Hanging with the elephants.

A Few of My Favorite Things...

So I only have a few days left here and then it’s back to single digit wind chills…maybe now is the time to learn Celsius and it won’t seem so cold. Even though I promised myself I wouldn’t, a great deal of my souvenir shopping has waited until the last moment.
I have a number of topics, places and items that I’m going to add to the blog under the heading: A Few Of My Favorite Things… I can’t really get into an entire blog entry about each, but they deserve a mention at the very least.

Here is the Hoy-Hoy Trap A Roach. It’s sort of like a roach mansion instead of a roach motel. It has to be big, since these aren’t your garden variety roaches. The size of a silver dollar, they are (fortunately) completely pedestrian and not airborne.

Using paper products here always reminded me of my delightful and lovely former mother-in-law, everyone calls her Sue, but her real name is Flora. She’s a absolute sweetie and her namesake company has the entire market of napkins, paper towels, kleenex,cotton swabs and toilet paper here in Sri Lanka.

In this country, the swastika is merely a religious symbol. The first few times you see it, it’s a bit jarring. You quickly get used to seeing it all over the place.

This is the fish market in Pettah. Also known as “heaven” to the local cat population. If only this computer could do smell-o-blog… Can you spot the kitty?

This is the Buddha statue at the Molpe temple. When I first went there, I asked why the Buddha was being held hostage since its face was all covered up with a huge fabric hood. Apparently, mortals are not allowed to look upon the Buddha while repairs are being made to the statue….

This is one of my favorite pictures. Kyle and I were visiting a Hindu temple in Fort when I spotted this guy tanning a hide. No, I don’t know what it was in a previous life, but having its hide staked out on the grounds of a Hindu temple can’t be all bad for the karma thing.

Maxine took this picture of me and Roy parked near Galle Face Green. (It’s really a misnomer, it should be Galle Face Brown since it’s so well trafficked) Since I was absent the day they taught mime in theatre school, I’m on the phone with Lino to get her to tell Roy where we want to go next…

You don’t really want to get too close to the snake charmers in Sigirya.

Another favorite, Lisa took this picture of Dani and I at the mondo temple in Kandy. We were trying to think of ways to represent the scale of this huge statue in our photographs. When taking one looking up Buddha’s nose didn’t work, we decided we needed humans in the picture.

While we were in Kandy for the Perahera, we were all amused by these signs. I’m sure Chris and Dani aren’t the first tourists to pose with one of them.

Stay tuned for son of favorite things...

Thank God It's Pieday...

I promised Dani I’d make her a pumpkin pie…and I finally did it. I spent Thursday in Auntie Sunethras’ kitchen making pies under the watchful eyes of the maid/cook, Chandra. I had a ball with her, she kept sneaking up on me to see what the hell I was doing in HER kitchen. She probably weighs 75 pounds dripping wet and is the least threatening person you could ever meet. She insisted on washing up the bowls and dishes I was using. I just stood in front of the sink doing dishes and smiled at her and said things like, “Sure…wanna arm wrestle for it?” Then I taught her the ever popular “Rock, Paper, Scissors, Thermonuclear Device.” I may have neglected to fully explain how the Thermonuclear Device always wins…and she never figured it out so I kicked her butt.
The pies came out great and I brought them in to work on Friday…TGIP! Part of the fun was trying to figure out why all the Sinhalese speakers would giggle every single time “Pie” or “Pieday” was mentioned. Turns out “pie” is a slang term in Sinhalese which refers to a part of the male anatomy. Of course at this point, we pulled out all the stops and made every joke and pun we could think of. “Shut your pie hole…” “Pie envy…” “Pie in the sky..” just to name a few. Now just imagine all the adjectives you can use to describe pie and…well, you get the idea. It got especially funny later that night after several beers and a few pitchers of sangria. The pecan pie I made became “The pie with nuts…”

Auntie Sunethra enjoyed the mincemeat pie the most of the three...

Intern Alex Try, thinking about pie...

Lino and Maria

Lisa and Dani

(Dani is going to seriously kick my butt when she sees this pic)

Just Who Are You People Anyway?

Once again, as the hit counter edges toward 3,000; I have to ask…who are you people? Okay, I don’t ask for much but I really need your input. As I mentioned earlier in the blog, we are making cards to support our work in the Wellawatte Orphanage and the tsunami camps. As part of our art therapy program, we have the kids draw pictures and color in stars and trees that we then use on cards. Each card has original art work, not reproduced, and most are made of Elephant Dung paper. Some of the drawings are placed on heavy quality, glossy white board. There are accompanying envelopes and each has a sticker on the back to the effect that 100% of the profits will go to benefit the kids in the orphanage or camp. Each card will be in its own heat sealed glassine slip case sort of thing to keep them nice looking. They are blank inside and the colored ones have an insert for writing your own sentiment.
Here are some samples:

Here, the lovely Kiwi, Caroline, shows off two of the star cards colored by the kids at the boys home. The star is glued onto colored recycled paper, then adhered to a glossy white side fold card 13cm x 17cm. Metallic pen embellishments are done by us to dress them up a bit. Picture it with an accompanying envelope in a clear plastic heat sealed cover.

This card is made of elephant dung paper and measures 11cm x 16cm. It has an insert to write on; is stamped on the back "elephant dung paper" (I wanted to include, "when you care enough to send the very best..." but I got vetoed). Some have a gold star offset like this one and some have the metallic pen embellishments like the card above. Again, envision it with envelope and clear plastic covering.

This is my personal favorite, so you can't have it. These non-Christmas cards vary in size but almost all are going to be on 13cm X 17cm glossy white card stock as we move forward.

Some of these kids are really terrific artists...some aren't. Some are obsessed (there's one little guy with a flag fetish) many of them draw things they don't have like houses or family members. The real point is, good or bad; poignant or funny; these are all original works of art, not reproductions. Which brings me to the question... What would you pay for a card like this? We are planning to send some to relatives all over the world and I want ALL of you to chime in with what you think would be an appropriate price point given that it's for charity and all that. We're pretty sure we know what we have to charge in some countries to make a profit for the kids, but I'm really looking for input here. Please leave me a message in the comments section. I'm not trying to sell these to you, rather I would appreciate your insight. I'm also thinking of putting the fishies on a coffe cup at the Cafe Press site...any takers? http://www.cafepress.com/helpingvi Which brings me back to the original question...who are you people? And a secondary question, are you really done with your christmas shopping already? Go to the link above and help us out!

My New Prescription

Lino spotted me rubbing my head at the office a couple of weeks ago, followed by swallowing several Advil tablets. She immediately got on the phone and made an appointment for me with the eye doctor. Since that Tuesday was Poya, I was scheduled for Wednesday. Lino said, “You go to this hospital at noon and tell them you are number ten…bring a book or yo-yo or something.” Well, heck, I know that from my own health care system. I really thought I could just hold out until I got home, but the eyestrain headaches are miserable. My passport, which is looking decidedly worse for the wear, also contains my ratty and tattered World Health Organization form. This details all the vaccinations; pre-existing conditions; meds I’m taking; blood type; drug allergies and next of kin. There is also a space for optical information. I didn’t remember doing this, but apparently I had the prescription from my last exam entered on the form. At least they have a place to start when they call on number ten.
Travel Tip: Do write down your prescription for glasses. It would be bad to go on the trip of a lifetime and not be able to see any of it.
The appointment got cancelled. The doctor had to attend a funeral. They rescheduled for that Friday at 9:30 where I got kicked up the list to number eight. I got a call on Thursday, just as I was returning from the polls, canceling my Friday appointment because it was the day after the election…and as a rule, no one goes out. I’m confused now because Friday, November 18th has been the “day after the election” pretty much all year. I wish they had said something like, “Barring bloodshed and mayhem in the streets, your appointment is on Friday at 9:30.” There was no bloodshed but we did cock our heads a few times to try to discern whether we were hearing firecrackers or gunshots. The casual attitude of the locals is usually a good indicator that there’s nothing to worry about. The guy canceling the second appointment with me had only fledgling English skills, so I decided I’d see if Lino could reschedule me…in Sinhalese. The headaches lessened in their severity and it didn’t seem so urgent…until recently.
The eyestrain headaches came back with a vengeance and Lino made another appointment for me. Miraculously, this one actually happened. The meeting with the doctor was rather like stepping back several years. There is this huge case with lenses and you put on the ugly pair of frames while they drop different strengths in and make you read from the phone book. Once we worked out “better” “worse” and “no difference” to our mutual satisfaction, I had my new prescription. At the opticians, they presented me with every frou-frou pair of frames in the store. I finally had to show them all my current, plain Jane glasses so they would stop with the jewel encrusted tortoise shell stuff. My friend Sue and her daughters always help me pick out my frames. They reason that I only have to look through them and couldn’t normally care less what they look like but they have to look at them. It was my first solo expedition into frame buying.
It took four days to make the glasses…they called me to tell me my “spectacles” were ready and Roy and I went to pick them up. It’s always the same when I get new glasses, “Wow, look at that…What does that sign say...Did you see that?” You can’t sight-see while you’re driving a tuk-tuk so I just kept getting quizzical glances in the rear view mirror and an occasional head bobble. It really annoyed the hell out of Roy, so I bought him a Happy Meal before he took me back to the office.