The last 4 days...

From Galle, we went to Dinesh's village Ambalangoda which is near Elpitiya. Dinesh teaches English on Saturday mornings free of charge to poor children in his village. He has built a fairly impressive school, equipped with tables and chairs that Dinesh built himself, attached to his family home. We were welcomed at the school by about 15 children and two of Dinesh's former teachers who now assist him with his school. Normally there are a few more students but they were writing government exams on this particular day and were therefore absent. The school was only opened in January so the children, aged between 5-13, have only had 7.5 months of instruction and were a little shy, at first.

Alice and I spent the morning drawing pictures, writing out songs, and going through basic "I spy style" vocabulary. By the end the children didn't want to leave, and kissed our feet in appreciation. Dinesh's teachers, two old little frail men with supreme manners, could hardly contain their appreciation - with one of them saying that he hadn't had a happier day in his life other than his wedding.

On a funnier note, they said that the name Alice is very popular in Sri Lanka, but "only for fat, old women".

We all had lunch in Dinesh's house where he lives with his mother, older brother Manoj, sister and her two sons (11 and 2.5). We dropped our stuff off at one of Dinesh's "Sirs" houses (former teachers), where we stayed for two nights. Dinesh and Manoj then took us by tuktuk to see some of the economic cornerstones of Sri Lanka, plantations. We first went to a tea plantation. The tea fields are full of women with giant bags of tea on their backs, the weight of which is supported by a single strap across their foreheads. The women are mostly, if not all, Tamil as the British tried to get Sinhalese people to work their plantations, but the Sinhalese (lions) told them to take off, eh.



There is no hiding the fact that Sri Lanka is a country rich in tea. Over the weekend with Dinesh and his family we were served tea approximately every 2.5 hours. Alice is lactose intolerant - generally intolerant, really. Each and every time we were offered tea, in a mousy voice Alice will exclaim, "no milk please". All but her last two cups over the weekend were served the traditional Sinhalese way: 1/3 heavy cream, 1/3 sugar, 1/3 hot water splashed with tea flavours.

After the tea plantation we saw a cinnamon plantation, as well as a rubber plantation. We were aiming to see a palm oil plantation in the same day, but Dinesh had a date with his girlfriend so we had to defer it until the next day. After the round of plantations we had a nice dinner with Dinesh, his Sirs, and his Sir's neighbour Sameera. We were sent to bed early as Dinesh said a phrase which Alice and I will forever associate with him: "I think it is best that..." you go to bed. Dinesh often thought it best that we do certain things, but he would never actually say "do this", it was always just "best if" we did so and so. Sometimes we thought it not best to do whatever Dinesh thought best, but there was never any persuading him otherwise.



The second day in the village we took in a lot. Manoj drove us to a nearby temple (Sailatarama Vihara), home to the largest sleeping Buddha statue in Asia. We also rented a river boat and went up river to a temple on a small island. We got some great photos of the mangrove vines along the river and also of a small fish farm we visited. The fish farm was basically a floating raft made from boards and floating plastic barrels. The whole thing nearly sank thanks to a large Russian/Ukranian family of tourists who yelled at each other the whole time, and turned out to be drunk. As they got back into their boat, the dad - a massive man - lifted up his huge arm to reveal a half finished bottle of booze. I, fit and nimble, had a hard time balancing on the narrow boards of floating farm. This man had very little grace and it is amazing he didn't end up in the crocodile pit.




On our way home we stopped at a house along the road where a family processes cinnamon. It was a really interesting thing to see as all I had ever seen was the end product. Muirhead has photos that we will post later, but the process involves a bunch of people sitting on the floor with knives.



We made plans to play cricket with Dinesh and his friends, but the game was rained out so we went and got our filthy clothes and did laundry at Dinesh's house. They had a washing machine, but no running water, so the process involved rewiring the light circuitry from the bulb to the machine and fetching pales of water from the well and pouring them into the machine at appropriate times. We spent the whole afternoon, hiding from the rain, sitting drinking tea and playing with Dinesh's nephew Supun (2.5) who is possibly the cutest kid in the history of human reproduction (photo to come later). He is either going to be a cricketer or a drag queen as he was running around with a ball and bat that was bigger than he was, while wearing about a dozen necklaces and bracelets that he made Alice put on him.



(Alice and Supun)
Dinesh's mother made us one of our best meals so far and we were completely stuffed as Dinesh kept piling food on our plates. On our way to Dinesh's Sir's house we stopped because Dinesh thought, "It is best if we get some hoppers and curry for you to eat later, yes? You will be hungry sometime in the night, yes?" We said no "We don't think it is best. We won't be hungry later. We are too full." Despite our protests, we pulled over and he went and stood in the rain to get us some curry and egg hoppers to be consumed at some point in the night (?). We of course didn't eat them because we were too full from the meal we had only hours before. In the morning Dinesh asked "Did you eat the hoppers?" And we said, "NO DINESH! WE WERE TOO FULL. DID YOU EAT?" To which he laughed and replied, "no, I was full from dinner." Alice ended up eating the left over meal on the steps of a technical college near the bus station in Colombo (while I ate crackers and ginger ale because I am still a little sick - btw the ginger ale in this country is the bomb and I think I am going to bring a can home for Robyn, the greatest lover of the ginger ale) - so it came in handy after all, but if Dinesh had it his way we would have woken up at 3am to sit down to a delicious meal of daal and hoppers.



(Dinesh and his family)

We hung our laundry to dry at Dinesh's Sir's house, but as it was raining all throughout the night the clothes did not dry, and two days later are still in fact quite wet- but clean. Dinesh's Sir has a daughter who is about 11 and a nephew who is 12. These kids were very shy and spoke almost no English. When we met they were playing cards and we joined their game, not knowing the rules, and having no ability to communicate. The human mind prevailed and Alice and I quickly caught on. It turned out they were playing a local version of Ontario's national sport, Euker - a game that Robyn had spent numerous hours trying to teach both Alice and I. I won three games in a row. Thanks Bobby (xoxoxox). Now I have played Euker in two continents.

That night we were sitting around at Dinesh's Sir's house, drinking tea. Dinesh looked at Alice and said "I think it is best if you sleep now. I think you are tired, yes?" Alice and I looked at each other and laughed as we had discussed the unique way that Dinesh makes suggestions. I asked if I was going to be sent to bed as well, and he said "No, but I think it is best if she goes to bed. She looks sleepy, yes." Alice obeyed, and I was pleased that I didn't have to go to bed yet.

In the morning we folded up our wet clothes, packed our bags, and Dinesh and Manoj drove us to the bus station. Dinesh walked us on board, sat us down, paid for our tickets and then stood outside our bus window looking anxiously at us as if he didn't trust us to survive away from his dotting attention. Just to be safe, he disappeared, only to return a minute later, sticking his arm through the window to give us a box of crackers saying something like, "I think it is best if you have some biscuits."

Dinesh was a glorious host and we now belong to his family as brothers and sisters. We will meet again in a few weeks in Colombo where we will be staying at one of his Sirs' homes there.

We are now in NuwaraEliya in the Kandy region, in the central part of the country. It is very cool here, humid, and misty due to the high elevation. Alice and I have put on our warmest clothes but still have a chill. The whole scene reminds me a lot of Prince Rupert, less the ocean. We slept in late, as we spent 12 hours in transit yesterday on one of Sri Lanka's finest public buses - complete with diesel exhaust that funneled directly into our window from an exhaust system that was literally deafening. Alice and I shared the headphones to her ipod, and we had it cranked just to over take the noise from the exhaust. Once we arrived our ears were ringing, and we may have done permanent damage.

Today we climbed "single tree hill" which gives a beautiful view of the local landscape which offers a lake, misty hill tops, and vast tea plantations. Everywhere along the road up the hill there were Tamil women picking tea - each saying "Hello. Photo?" We had a mango mid way up the hill, our first in weeks. We will now be returning to the relative warmth of our blankets, ready to have new adventures now that we have blogged ourselves out.



(Mango on Single Tree Hill)