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Have finally had time to settle down in the Queens hotel to provide a hopefully some what comprehensive update! Lots has happened since Fri and my arrival in Kandy - all good which is lucky.
On Saturday we woke up at 5.45 to meet Reverend Saman (a local scots kirk reverend) who helps run the city mission farm up in the mountains. The drive was about 2 1/2 hours and we drove up through mountains and through many tea plantaitons which were really amazing to see. I felt a bit car sick on the way up but recovered once we arrived. While we were there we were shown the pigs and hten how they make cheese in this small hut. Later we got to taste the cheese and it was really really good! Kerianne and I sat for a good hour going through guide books on where we wanted to visit on sunday listening and smelling the lunch cooking. Finally it was ready adn we saw down to a traditional lunch of rice and curry. Included was a potato dish, some dried (crunchy) mini fish, and some beef, however of course like usual the rice was the main feature. We thought we were going to have to use our hands however luckily they produced some spoons and forks for us! When we arrived back in Kandy after a 3 hour drive we went to the local market where i bought a coconut, mangoes, and bananas. We were also coeheresed into buying tea from another vendor who claimed it was the best deal. Kerianne had been brought to him after inquiring about where to get a dress made and he proceeded to hound her about the dress which she tried to explain she wasn't sure about. He then led us around the market doing our barginning for us saying we were volunteers who worked for street children. This was lucky as it meant we didn't get too ripped off. The bananas were really amazing once again.
Before the market we had gone to the Queens hotel to inquire about a car for taking us on a tirp next weekend (the public transport isn't always reliable to all locations) and had bought tickets for the Kandian dancers performance. It started to down pour as we bought some cookies on the way there so we ducked back into the Queens hotel to wait. Finally it let up a bit and we staggered there. The performane was held in a rather adhoc theatre which had rows of chairs. The dancing was quite interesting and was done to drums and a squeeky recorder type thing. There was a lot of arm waving and mask hair twirling. The high light was the end though when these two men were doing all tehse extreme things with fire. They somehow managed to take a stick with fire on teh end and rub it all over them. They then proceeded to walk multiple times each over burning coals which were most definitely hot as we felt the heat radiating from them. After this we headed home.
On sunday we got up early again and got a bus to Polonnuwara where there are lots of ancient buddha ruins. It was me, Kerianne and our friend Sophie who we met on Friday. The bus trip took 4 hours. On the way sophie had to pee and so we asked if the bus would stop and they randomly did as this spice house adn the whole bus watched and waited for her to finish! At another larger bus station we took a five min break and men came on with lots of differnet foods. We bought corn on teh cob which was extrmeely different from western corn - much more solid and dense. We finally arrived and were accosted by tuktuk drivers offering tours which Kerianne and Sophie discussed with them. We decided to get one as it was extremely hot as Polonnrwa is in teh dry area. After the first drivers tuktuk broke down we got into another and was taken to teh first two sights. We then stopped at a hotel teh queen had stayed at and wehre a wedding was taking place. For lunch we were taken to some over the top tourist hotel where K and S got fish and chips - granted the fish was fished locally and def didn't look normal. I got fruit and ice cream as that was all i could manage in teh heat! After a couple more sights the guide took us to a wood carving factory where there were tons and tons of carved animals. K and S both bought some elephants but i felt they were really expensive!!! The trip back was another 4 hours and rather tiresome as teh bus was extremely busy! After dinner at Kusumas we were extremely tired and went right to bed at 10!
On monday we woke up early and went to the city mission to explain we were going to the street children's centre to inquire about working there. From there I went to give in my phone to have it unlocked and then we headed off to meet Sophie at Devon Rest for breakfast. I got anotehr milk tea and officially fell in love - to try - brew regular tea with powered milk and sugar all together! It is absolutely delicious and thick and tasty. The centre was hectic when we arrived and we helped to bring the children to a local church area to play in. While we were there the woman who runs the program arrived adn we discussed us working there and everything was set up! In teh afternoon (after eating lunch with my fingers which was great!) Sophie and I went to work with the older children - drawing leaves for a rainforest project that Sophie is planning. After another cup of tea and a chatter i headed home to read and relax!
Today the centre was as hectic as ever - there were only 15 children there but it was still really crazy. The centre is designed to keep the street children off the street with activities to do, and they feed them two meals adn clean them too. There's a german girl who has been here since sept who is really nice and three sri lankan women who work there too. It looks like our days will be pretty tiring as the children are rowdy and we spend more time saying no than anything else! Despite that each is really sweet and lovely when they want to be - like all children everywhere. After the children have left S K and I got some cookies and a cup of tea and then were going to book trian tickets for our trip to Colombo this weekend. Instead we ran into anotehr girl who works in a different part of the centre and she said we should take the express bus instead! So now i'm sitting in the queens hotel again typing away. Our trip this weekend will surely be filled with lots of shopping and sight seeing - a nice break from screaming children!
Weather update - although unbearably hot further north it has cooled down in kandy and has been raining quite a bit too! I now understand the concept of monsoon season.
animal update - monkeys are the resident pests here and the other day i couldn't get into the flat b/c they were sitting on the gate! other friendly creatures seem to be cockroachs by the sink and lizards on teh walls and in the lake. Each evening hoards of bats fly over the lake which creates an amazing sight and racket.
Funny fact - sri lankans dont' like to get wet. When it rains they quickly pull out umbrellas and huddle under awnings. One woman was brushing off wet speckles on her husbands shirt after they'd be drizzled on! of course we just walk and run right through it and hence are pitied by all the locals!
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jane nissen
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fascinating!!
so glad you are having a chance to travel and see things- and how great that you have fixed up to work with the street children. this seems to be turning into a really memorable experience.