Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Alas - the end is near
We moved to a really nice ocean front hotel for our last day. We all relaxed and tried to regenerate a little in readiness for our long journey home (34 hours for me!) We were also lucky to see a wedding of a Tamal girl and an English boy. He actually fell off the elephant that was carrying him to his wedding. I do hope you have enjoyed reading the blog as much as I have writing it. I will look forward to reading it again to remember all of my memories from India and Sri Lanka.
This is me signing off for another experience - Colorado and Mesa Verde here we come.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Pinnawala Elephant Sanctuary
We are now on our way to Colombo for the last three days of our visit. This morning we dropped into this sanctuary to see how they care for these elephants. We had a blast. It was incredible to be surrounded by animals in their natural environment. We also saw some being bottle fed as they had refused to take milk from their surrogate mother. Next they walked the whole herd to the river for bathing and fun. Karen was invited to take of her shoes and get into the water to wash an elephant. What an experience!
As we entered Colombo I could not help but notice the high profile of security around the city. I would say their was a checkpoint or just an armed soldier about every few hundred yards. They had just had world leaders meeting here for 3 days but now it was over, I was surprised that this level of security was still evident.
The afternoon was free so Karen and I took a tri-wheeler and did some shopping. As you know I am not a shopper but this was fun as we went to a craft shop where everything was made by the villagers we had met earlier in the week.
I have to say that after that I just enjoyed the facilities of this wonderful hotel and then crashed. Tomorrow is a full day of studies so I need to get a clear head.
Signing off and saying goodnight.
Ella finds a new home
Ella finds a new home
Today was one of the best days of the whole educational experience. On the morning we visited home craft industries. We saw how people worked in their homes and produced the most exquisite crafts for sale in stores in Sri Lanka and beyond. One craftsman even produced work for Tiffany. We saw some age old craftsmanship and the prices were very nominal I comparison to how much time was spent on the design and manufacturing of these articles.
Next we traveled out in the rural areas and visited the 18th century murals of Medavela protected in a Maha Viharaya (temple) in the village of Medawala Raja. The temple was the size of a walk-in wardrobe in the USA but the murals had been maintained by the villagers with financial help from the government. It depicted one of the famous Jakata Tales which describes how a family deals with the death of their son as a celebration of life and not a sadness of death.
The villagers were incredibly friendly and welcomed us with open arms. They had prepared homemade tea and traditional cake for us to enjoy before they performed traditional dance and drumming in front of the whole village. We were surrounded by children and we were all in our elements of joy. The little girl you see in the photo was delightful and so enjoyed holding Ella. I am sorry to report that Ella loved her so much that she decided she wanted to spend the rest of her life in the country where she really belongs. It was hard to say goodbye to Ella but as we left the village and traveled in our bus along the lines of waving villagers, I knew she had found a fantastic new home.
This experience reminded me of my South African Fulbright and the final day we left Soweto and the villagers danced and sang to us as we boarded our bus to return to the USA. The warmth of these people is the most important memory for both experiences.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Now leaving the Heritage Hotel, Kandalama and off to Kandy
These are some views of this fantastic eco-friendly hotel. It is also a great supporter of the local school that we visited. Stay here if you come to Sri Lanka.
Palace in the sky
One of Asia’s major archaeological sites, this is truly an amazing experience. Built by Kasyapa (477-495AD) it could only have been built to satisfy the need of this king for power and attention. The story goes that he asked his father the king for his share of the kingdom and his father took him to a reservoir and gave him a handful of wter. He was not happy so he walled his father alive in his then palace. Now it is called the Lon's Staircase and I climbed right to the top!! It was surreal as I was the only one there. I could not imagine what it must have been like to live there or even how they managed to get up to the top.
Dambulla Caves
I have never seen as many Buddhas in one area as these caves. The climb up 400+ steps was worth it.
In the evening we had a presentation on the world heritage site, Sigiriya, which we will visit tomorrow. This was followed by a scrumptious dinner where we all shared our thoughts on our travels so far.
Visit to Anuradhapura
This is a huge temple which houses the collar bone of Buddha under an impressive stuppa. We saw many people dressed in white, the color of purity, parading around the stuppa carrying a huge colorful cloth and flowers. We sat and discussed our literature until sunset. When the lights came on it was even more impressive. One could not help to be moved to pray to which ever God was your choice.
Free morning so we visited a school. Yeah!!!
This village school was fun. They have installed solar heating in the field behind the school and they also grow their own vegetables. They compost too and use this to make the land more fertile. The school was Buddhist and had about 220 children ranging from year 1 to 12. We chatted a lot with the teachers and children and got to understand some of their problems and successes. One being that we took them CDs of USA songs and they had no player. Well guess what? Elizabeth, Jill and I went out and bought them one. It is a trade off - an elephant ride at the hotel or sharing with children. A no brainer.xox
Mihintale Monastery
A great visit to this 7th century Buddhist monastery was on todays agenda. We experienced meditation in our own cave. The wind was blowing gently, not a sound could be heard. Pure bliss. Later in the afternoon we visited the reservoir used by the monks and constructed to collect the natural rain water from the two surrounding hills. Several families were bathing or using the waters for beating their clothes clean against the rocks. We sat discussing literature about the formation while monkeys gathered and moved in closer, curious about us as we were about them.
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