About religion, demolition and reconstruction, ...

15-7-2010 and 16-07-2010
About religion, demolition and reconstruction, wifi and a beach party….
One of the most wonderful things of Sri Lanka (and as I experienced in Nepal as well) is the ability of the people to live so peacefully amongst each other when having different religions. We enjoy so much the beautiful Buddhas sitting in their glass displays by the side of the road. One bigger than the next. At night time tacky light halos surround their enlightened heads and oil lamps give them that extra mystique. But then the next street corner hosts a giant Mary holding a baby Jesus. Also lit up at night. And when dusk falls, the minarets of the Muslim mosques are announcing evening prayer. We see churches, mosques and stupas in all their glory.
We have dinner on Tuesday night and an English man sits at the table next to us. Turns out, Allister, runs a super posh hotel down the road. He tells us about life in Sri Lanka, what it’s like to live here and deal with the local customs of things not being done on time, promises not kept, the manana-manana attitude about things. But he also tells us about the educational system here. The aim is to have one teacher per 12 children in this country. And it works! Sri Lanka is one of the only developing countries with lowest illiteracy rate and the educational system is supposedly to be one of the best in the world. Our jaws drop when we hear about the 12-to-1 bit….Western world: LEARN FROM THIS!!
The whole taking my picture for administration purposes was a lie of the Mobitel shop owner to be able to show off his white girl friend to his friends (flattering but annoying, sweet but silly). And after having received several calls from him, we ask Sudu to call him, tell him he’s my boyfriend and to leave me alone. It’s been quiet since!
And since we have no internet, Allister invites us to his hotel tomorrow (Wednesday) where there’s wifi all around.
Wednesday (today) we wake up super early to make it to the temple by 8am. Since it’s off season everybody is still asleep but we do get breakfast and make it up there on time. It’s raining big drops of warm water and we’re both grumpy. We didn’t sleep well. The thing is, we are very confused by what we saw when we visited the temple and what the pictures showed us before we came here. The school building was finished, there was a huge ceremony but we saw a demolished building, no walls and a complete building site. We toss and turn and around 2 am we give up, turn on the light and talk about it. We decide we’d go back in the morning, make pictures of the blue prints and ask Rebecca about it. So we did. We skyped her, but no answer, so we have to wait until tomorrow to find out what’s going on. We both didn’t get much sleep, maybe 2 hours tops. Jet-lag, confusion and a mozzy kept us up.
BUT, the welcome at the temple is a warm one. First we sit with Thero and the English teacher, Dharma. We discuss the blue prints and what their idea of the knowledge room/library is. We go up the first floor, measure everything and discuss how the rooms should be used. After this we are blessed in the small temple, receive a white arm bracelet of white cotton thread to wish us a happy and prosperous life and the monks chant to us. Again I go all emo over this, this whole spirituality-thing keeps doing something to me. Sara is just in ‘owe’ and ‘awe ‘ since she’s never experienced anything remotely close to this. Thero shows us pre-school which starts at 8.30am. There are only 15 kids in because of the rain. 15 kids and 3 teachers! The pre-schoolers are too adorable for words. In their little uniforms, short cropped hair and little bare feet, you cannot not love them. They sing “Twinkle twinkle little star” to us, they stand up and in chime in chorus “Goodmorning madam…”. And they’re only 3-5 yrs old! Miss Mala, their teacher shows us their exercise books and it’s amazing how disciplined and neat their homework (at age 4?!) is done. I guess, with 2 teachers and one teacher assistant you can give all the attention they need. Even though it’s called Montessori here, they sit in benches and do the ‘reproducing what the teacher says’-thing. Tomorrow after school, we will take Miss Mala into Galle so she can buy whatever she needs. I have a generous donation of 75 Euros for this and we’ll buy crayons, colored paper, kids scissors etc. When they have lunch at 10.30am we leave and go back to Wijaya for a snack. We leave again to visit Allister at his multi-star acco and use his internet to call Rebecca on Skype. Unfortunately we don’t get in touch with her, hopefully tomorrow. Sara calls mom though and I finally get to speak to Leeson, whom I miss so much already. ;-)
We walk back to Wijaya to be welcomed by a beautifully decorated bar area. Sudu and his mates really worked hard and the place looks amazing. Flowers everywhere, candles, table cloth and “Happy Birthday” signs in every color of the rainbow. These boys know interior design! We take a dip in the ocean, do some laundry, shower, paint toe nails and nap. It’s 6pm now, the dj seems to be testing the sound system as super loud (rather cool) music is blasting through the speakers and we’re getting ready to groove.

16 July 2010
WOW! What a party it was. The way beach parties should be. Super nice people, Henry is star of the evening and we have delicious Thai curry and cake, Moet&Chandon, Jacob’s Creek and Pimms. And the 1.30 am swim topped it all off (and sobered up)!!
We meet the nicest people and a British couple offers us to house sit one of their luxurious villas, Lime Villa, free of charge. It’s a multi star holiday home with swimming pool etc. Their regular guest is away for a month and they need someone to house sit, it’s safer. We’ll move our things out of the hostel this afternoon and will move in. We are so excited!
Everybody who hears this is super excited for us and tells us how lucky we are. We cannot wait.
Today we take Miss Mala into town to buy school supplies. I have 50 left of what was donated by Engelien and we buy a whole bunch of supplies such as pens, paper, glue, clay, crayons and so on. We are amazed by how much 50 bucks buys here! Mala is in heaven, so much money to spend on her kids. She loves the 2 picture dictionaries and sticker books we give her from Amsterdam.
Now we’re in Frank’s office (Dutch expat here) inside Galle Fort (big fort built by the Dutch some centuries ago) to use the internet. He’s happily chewing on the dropjes we took him and nursing his hang-over from last night. Danielle will call soon about the villa, tomorrow is Saturday and we’re planning a day on the beach at Unawatuna.

Love,
Maartje & Sara