3-11-07

We are in SL. The ICMA travel agent for some unknown reason had scheduled us on a flight out of Frankfurt to Dubai then to SL. That is sort of like going around your elbow to get to your hinny…so when we got to Frankfurt we managed to get it changed and get a direct flight to SL saving us about 10 hours on our weary bodies. The bad news is our luggage hasn’t shown up. We arrived at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday and it is now 4:30 p.m. on Sunday.

We fell into bed upon arrival at the Cinnamon Grand around 7:30 and woke up promptly at noon. Then we showered, grabbed a bite to eat and went shopping for SL clothes. Heavy jeans and turtleneck shirts don’t cut it in this climate. We had been given a $90 allowance. The deodorant at $4.00 cost more than the cotton shirt Ron bought. We got sandals, shirts, pants for me and shorts for Ron and spent a total of $75.

It is good to be back. The air smells of fragrant flowers, the tropical birds are singing, we see beautifully colored saris flowing as women walk down the street and of course the sun is out and not too hot. Lucky us. We had lunch with friends today and last night just the two of us went out for great Indian veggie food. Does life get any better? Of course if we had our luggage that would be better. There are some noticeable changes in Colombo. There seems to be less garbage strewed about. Maybe because of the Chikungunya fever epidemic they were forced to clean up their act. The other major noticeable change is many roads have been made one way as a security measure. Our friends told us today that sometimes they change the direction of the one-way streets and any time a diplomat or other VIP is on the road, they close the roads to all traffic and pedestrians, sometimes causing delays of 90 minutes. OY! One-way traffic makes it more difficult for suicide bombers on motorcycles or in trishaws to attack their target.

Monday
Ron’s luggage arrived at noon today but mine is still in some other place than SL. Bummer. I have worn the same blouse for three days now so this afternoon I bought another one. If the luggage doesn’t arrive tomorrow I will need to get another pair of pants. I only hope I get my luggage. I started a list of contents should I need to make a claim. Our landscape design for the Thai house is in my luggage and I will be so disappointed if it gets lost.

Ron started work today. The chief of party (program director) returned to Canada on a family emergency so our friend Don is filling in. I had my manicure/pedicure at the hotel then ran errands: getting a razor for Ron, snacks for the hotel room, another blouse for me and a little shopping for my sister. I had rice and vegetable curry for lunch and ran into two guys from the Asia Foundation at the restaurant that is near the office. I discovered that they eat there everyday. The price is right. My lunch was less than $1.20 and .40 was for bottled water.

Now I need to iron clothes since Ron’s luggage arrived. Tomorrow is a big day. You may remember from my previous SL blog, I volunteered at Shilpa, a home for 50 girls, ages 5-22. When I came home, I was telling my book club about Shilpa and how Ron and I had sponsored one of the girls. We made a financial contribution that pays for 80% of the girl’s educational, food and medical expenses for a year. One of the members of my book club said our club should sponsor a girl. Since all members weren’t present I decided to send out an email with information about Shilpa and sponsorship. Then I realized I should send it out to the women on my email list, seeing if I could get ten women to donate $25 each, giving me enough to sponsor a girl for a year. Well I was overwhelmed with the response. One of the first responses came from Bruce and Donna Cross, good friends who recently moved to Texas from Washington. They sent me $275, the $25 I had asked for plus a full sponsorship. I was sent $1280 in all and Ron and I will kick in another $220 to round it up to $1500, enough for six sponsorships. A great big thank you to those dear friends who were able to contribute. So tomorrow I am going to Shilpa and arriving shortly before the trustee meeting ends. I have asked if I could come to their meeting as I have a story to tell them. No one at Shilpa knows that I have this grand gift for them. I plan to tell them what happened then present them with the money. I am thrilled to be able to make this gift and could not have done it without the generous participation of many friends. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Yippee, I just got word that I will have my luggage tonight!! Life is good. That’s it from paradise five degrees above the equator. The men are still quite handsome here…