The Summer twinning association of sri lanka and Brittany

We arrived at Unawatoona, a tiny beach with a variety of romantic cabanas built nearly in the sea. We selected our romantic cabana and looked to the heavens to see masses of exciting black cloud boiling over the sea, which then released rain with tropical fierceness. This has been going on for about two days now and I am starting to get used to the pounding of water on the roof and the crash of waves a metre away from our window, nearly...
I am hoping to get some sleep tonight...
The manager of our cabana told us that it is officially the start of summer here, and the monsoons are over. Really?
As I looked out at the dark grey sky and murky sea, I was irresistably reminded of a Summer in Brittany.
We are here for another two nights before flying back. When I have built up my courage, I shall look at the weather forecast.

All human life is here

Today we went to the Rosie May foundation home, delivered our school books and Kool drum and heard many Tsunami tales of heroism and human greed. Where were you when the Tsunami hit seems to be something naturally enough deeply embedded in everyone's psyche.
Already we had heard tales from Edward at Tescos. Tescos roof ended up on the sand behind the buliding. It needed to be reconstructed. How the bodies kept on being washed up for weeks afterwards...two or three a day on his beach. He needed psychiatric help afterwards.

Tales of enormous generosity. Our Tuc Tuc driver had a new vehicle bought for him by some american visitors. The owners of a jewel store near Galle had their shop rebuilt and stocked by a generous gift, and then local jealous people broke in and stole the lot so they had to start again, again... Some people have worked the system exploited it and are now richer than they were before, others are completely destitute. Human nature is the same everywhere in all its rich diversity.
It was a great pleasure to hear 20 little boys and girls aged 6 and 7 say 'Good morning' to us in their classroom with bright pictures on the walls. And see the artwork done by a tall shy seventeen year old who hung back smiling shyly in the hallway.

Down South

After a 5.30 am start we very unwisely caught a packed commuter train to the city of Colombo with our luggage, and were lucky to emerge in one piece. Never again, shudder...
The train down South was very elderly but 2nd class was a bit more roomy. Mysweet found himself sitting next to a retired rail engineer who said that he remembered taking delivery of these trains thirty years ago from Romania, and they looked like it. The journey down South was long beautiful and thought provoking as we passed shanty town after shanty town with the tell tale official blue sign which saidTsunami damage zone. These areas are all the more startling since compared to India, for example, the streets and houses here are very well looked after and have an air, if not always exactly affluent, then at least comfortable.
We are staying in Beach View guesthouse, which is as far from the luxury hotel experience as I am prepared to go. It is in the centre of the old Dutch Fort in Galles, and is nice and clean and slightly reminiscent of Blackpool landladies and net curtains. We staggered out into the new town breathing in streets heavy with spices and the wave of sound broke over our heads. I think I am going to enjoy this....

out into the real world

We have just realised that we are leaving the nursing home tomorrow to travel south for a week... a day sooner than we thought. We have been preparing ourselves for independant life by visiting the big city of Colombo. This was such a sensory shock of sounds, smells and sights that we were forced to take refuge at regular intervals in places like the British Oriental hotel, where we had breakfast overlooking the harbour, and lunch at the Galle Face hotel, a veritable gem of old colonialism. It is pictured below... Mysweet is looking particularly pleased with himself and in his element dont you think?

By the way, the real photos, taken with his enormous camera, will be posted when I get home. The files are too large for these poor but honest computers to open, so you will have to make do with phone cam for now...

We were not permitted to take any photos of the harbour because it was full of military ships, and, in fact the whole fort area was sealed off with full body checkpoints rather reminiscent of airport security. I was groped by a succession of ladies in beautiful saris. I think it might be true to say that there is still a wee bit of political unrest here...

Security was particularly stressed next to two giant modern buildings which housed the gem exchange and a shopping mall. The complex was called Twin Towers, which I personally thought was rather an unfortunate choice of name...

We found the only way to progress without being attacked by people desperate to sell us something was to continue to walk even if completely lost. To stop or even worse, to consult a map, was asking for trouble.

Back home in the safety of our enclosure, we arranged a tour of the lagoon in a boat this morning to see the animals and birds at 7 in the morning, with Edward of Tesco fame. I was entertained by his devotion to detail with the Tesco experience...it is even on the ticket look 'every little helps'

Mysweet took lots of pictures and so did I, but you cant see anything on mine.

In the previous post, I showed you a photo of the chefs and the food inspector. Mysweet has discovered that the chef in black is in fact a super chef imported from Dubai to give our lot a training course, which of course, includes the carving of vegetable decorations. There are five kitchen staff whose time is devoted to doing just this...

The Paradise Nursing Home

We are staying at the Club Dolphin Hotel, where everything is included in the package...This includes drinks and food.
The first day or so resmbled a feeding frenzy, but self discipline is slowly kicking in.


Very slowly...


The staff here are very chatty and friendly. One of the cleaning men gave me this bouquet.


The buffet restaurant is a very dangerous place to be.
Just look at the patisserie.

These little chaps are lychee tarts. I cant remember the names of all the others but they were things like "eat me and get really fat with all the cream and sugar'

The standard of the food is mainly excellent, with authentic curries on offer along with Western food. Being a buffet, it means you can select a bit of everything...and oh dear, I do.

Just as well the standard is high. Today they had an inspection by the authorities (she is the lady in the hair net)

It is a good place to relax but , perhaps because everything is available on site, there is a kind of institutionalised feel to it. Like a posh Butlins...or nursing home...

I expect we will be ready to leave on Wednesday to go South to the tsunami zone.

Meanwhile, if we want anything, we can go to Tesco's for a bit of a change. It's next door...

Nothing to bitch about Sri Lanka

As the sun went down, I took this photo from our window with my telephone. We had not slept for 24 hours and did not last much beyond the onset of night.

In the morning I woke up relaxed and refreshed and better able to appreciate the breathtaking beauty of our surroundings.

During the night, we had acquired a friend...

Don't tell Porridge anyone, she might get jealous...

I will wait a little longer and then swim over to the bar perhaps...

Sri Lanka and the orphans

In my last post I mentioned that we are going to Sri Lanka for a little holiday.

We leave next Friday, and the house is filling up with long lists of things that the teenagers must and must not do in our absence. Things like switching off lights and central heating and not having 3 hour long showers. I don’t know how they are going to stop Porridge from eating all the Chinese lantern fruits and being sick everywhere…I haven’t managed it.

There are also lists of things to do, people to contact and where to find documents if we die, and I hope that Mysweet is being a trifle pessimistic here. Surely there won’t be another tsunami so soon.

We decided that we wouldn’t feel comfortable visiting a place that had suffered so much from the tsunami without seeing if there was anything that we could do in our own small way. Mysweet found the PIN FOUNDATION on Internet and made contact with the director. He has asked us to bring stationery supplies with us for his classrooms, and Mysweet is taking them a KOOLDRUM for the kids to play with.

I expect that what they mostly need is money like everyone else…

Have you got any other ideas?