Lots of errands to run today. We got back from Galle at about 6pm last evening. It's about a 3 hour drive to Galle, though you can't really say with traffic here. There are all kinds of "vehicles" on the road that travel at different speeds from bicycles and tuk-tuks (trishaws or three wheeled motorcycle/cab things) to big lorries and buses and some kind of cart/lawnmower hybrid. Then there's all the people and dogs and cows you have to avoid. If you're driving when school gets out, forget about it.
Our journey yesterday took about 7 hours, but we made several stops. First stop - Galle Fort, a world heritage site. Built in 1755 by the Dutch, it's one of the oldest living forts. There's a really nice Aman hotel inside the fort. Next time I visit, I'd like to check out their spa.
Next stop, tent village near our hotel. 150 people have been living in 16 or 18 tents since the tsunami wiped out their homes. Lots of children and women. Not too many men, though they may have been working, and only a few older folks. They swarmed us when Sanji started handing out money. They showed us around and we asked them some questions. The tents flood when it rains, and it rains a lot. So what little possessions they do have, have to be water resistant. The tents aren't that big and are hardly furnished. It was pretty depressing, but the people seemed to be in fairly good spirits.
We wanted to visit an orphanage, but our coach wasn't going to be able to make it down the road to the orphanage. We stopped at a day care center instead. Since the tsunami created a lot of single parent families, there is now a need for day care after school. The day care center was sponsored by UNICEF and consisted of a tiny shack on an empty lot on the beach. They have soccer and cricket equipment and the kids play games on the lot. They don't have a washroom/toilet, so they use the ocean. We're going to try to arrange for them to get a multimedia projector.
Next we stopped at a turtle hatchery. A tiny place on the beach. This woman took it upon herself to save the turtles. People know that she will pay for turtle eggs, so instead of eating them they sell them to her. She hatches them and makes sure they get into the ocean. She keeps enough (like 10 out of 100) hatchlings for a week or so for the tourists to see and charges 100 rupees (~$1) admission. Just outside the hatchery (which was on the beach) some kids were playing.
They saw Ben and wanted to talk to him. (Practice their english, perhaps?) We took pictures of them and showed them on our digital cameras. (A huge crowd pleaser.)
Tara took the opportunity to practice her Sinhalese.
Turns out they are kids that were orphaned or affected by the tsunami and a few teachers get them together to play and lift their spirits. They seemed like a pretty happy bunch. We're going to send them prints of the pictures we took. Next time I travel to the third world, I'm bringing a portable photo printer. Most of the people we took pics of loved seeing themselves and would have been ecstatic to get a print.
My last night at the Lighthouse, I was up 'til about 4am talking to this 30 year old German businessman. He has a factory in the upcountry and was willing to answer my questions about doing business in Sri Lanka. He's probably getting out this year -- too much corruption and theft. Plus he lives alone in the middle of nowhere. Very interesting guy with lots of stories to tell. Anyway, I crashed early last night, but not before having an amazing meal at the seafood restaurant in our hotel. I took lots of pics of the seafood bar for you, Bob! They had lagoon crab and some crazy looking lobster.
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