A new and fresh year ready to be written!

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Life in Sri Lanka

I prefer dusk and dawn, just like most animals. December and january are cool months, everyone says, and many people around me have gotten a cold. That said, April is gonna feel like the sun has dropped on my head!
No, off course it is not that bad - but I certainly think it is good that I have come in this season, so I have plenty of time to adjust to the hotter months.
When I arrived, appetite was a problem, rice and curry every meal, and hot like it's the fuel for dragon fire. With a bit of missunderstandings and a bit of time, when I told them I wanted some porridge they bought some pasta. Things have now turned to the better, maybe too good - beacuse now I am really enjoying the food! The first two weeks I was sure that I would drop a kilo or two, now I think I may have the opposite effect. There are so many great meals, how can one say no to the pleasure of a great meal?! (You can already sense my insanity and understand that I am indeed telling you the truth about the sri lankan cuisine - and that an increase is rather likely!) For breakfast I am now getting porridge, eggs or bread. Very good!
Parallel with not having any appetite in the beginning, people refused to dine with me. I saw it as very unpolite and was sad always to eat alone, people around me watching. After two weeks however, i was told that it is the way they always do it. Guests should eat first, then husband and children, and then the women. Sri Lankan's will not sit down at a table and eat, they will take their food, when they are hungry, and sit where they like, with their plate in the lap, eating with the hands. The food may be eaten warm or cold, and will remain in the kitchen until there is new, warm being cooked.

Huuuh?!

Communication is still something that can improve. Seems like I am the last to know most things. Instead of being pissed at it, I try to be flexible, with the addition of always carrying water and biscuits, in case we're heading off somewhere and nobody told me!
At one point this would have been an especially good thing. I attended an armsgiving. All I understood from a previous conversation from some of the guys I live with, was that there were gonna be monks in town that day, and I thought, 'Goodie, I can get some pictures of monks!' They also asked me if I should not throw away my pants 'cause there was a (small) hole in the ass. Little did I know, that was going to matter later. I thought Daisy dressed up awfully nice for an ordinary day in town, but off we went to Tangalle town. I did some internet in my own pace, while she was at the market. Daisy has limited english knowledge, but she let me know that we were going somewhere, and that my shopping at 'food city' had to wait, and here I thought we'd be back in Rekawa for lunch. We took a tuck tuck to a garden party. A big tent was put up in front of the entrance to the house, and there were at least fifty people, all in beautiful saree's or costumes or small princess dresses. Inside were about 15 monks, dining. We sat outside, curious eyes on me from all over. Daisy explained that this was a relative of her brother, and that we would soon eat. I was starving, so that was good news! With the sound of drums, out came the monks, followed by a guy with a flower pyramid hat, shielded from the sun by a sheet, held up by one man in each corner. They all dissaperared out on the street. Then we were let in to eat. The food was so hot, fisrt my nose ran, then I started sweating, then my eyes watered. It was hot! And at that point they taught me that coconut mildens the hotness. God bless the coconut! This also made me realise that Daisy's food, whish I thought was hot, is totally adjusted to suit also my own flavour of not so hot. Thank you Daisy.
Later I was told that this ceremony was called an armsgiving, and it is done to bless a new built house. The owners go to the temple and ask Buddah to bless their house, if he accepts, the monks will be invited for a two day ceremony, of which I witnessed the last day. The person with the flower hat symboled Buddah himself.
Another incident, nowadays ranked a s a classic in my opinion, was when they told me ten to eight, that I needed to be at the opening of the new environmental centre with people from the villages and the sponsors USAID at 8.30. I didn't even know there was such a centre in Rekawa!

Buddah, belief, and superstitions

People always sleep with their head toward the east, becasue that is where the sun rises. Dead people are burried with their head towards the west, because that is where the sun sets.

Upon starting a car, they pray to Buddah, and make small hand gestures "wiping" the steering weel.

Upon passing a buddah statue next to the road, a good deal of people in a bus lift their buttocks from the chair, honoring Buddah. Fells abit like doing the "wave" in the audience of a hockey or football game...

When a child is nine month they celebrate the 'first day of eating rice".
Need I say that rice really is part of every meal?? After nine months, that is.

Also, sibbling cannot marry before the older siblings have married, or if they give their concent. I met one lady who had to wait eight years to marry her guy, because the fiance'es sisters did not find any guy. Imagine how many blind dates she must have set up for her future sister in law, to speed things up!!!

* If you are about to leave the house and you hear the flame/backed
woodpecker, you need to wait to leave, as it is a sign of bad luck,
however if you give your cow some water, you can leave after ten
minutes or so...

* If a person is talking, and the gecko makes a clicking noise, be sure
that the person is telling the truth.

* If you see a pied kingfisher it is a sign of good luck.

Have I acctually seen any turtles yet??

Yes, I have seen two species nesting, and I WILL tell you about it, but not now. This will have to be the cliff hanger of this episode...

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