2012--Highlights and Lowlights

Highlights
• Sunny days and vigorous walks during our month in Egypt between Kuwait and Sri Lanka
• Yoder Family time in July, my niece Kimberly’s wedding, my great niece Caitlin Mae’s birth
• Gravelin Family time in July, Bob's brother Todd’s 25th anniversary, Bob's great nephew Levi’s birth
• Bob walking the Camino de Santiago in the Spring
• Bob learning to walk again after our accident and his broken leg
• My brother-in-law Mike Leininger coming to help us out after our accident
• The support of our parents, siblings, and friends back home during our days of recuperation
• The amazing animal kingdom we have experienced—snorkeling with sharks, hearing elephants in our backyard at night, seeing unusually large bats, watching a snake eat several frogs trapped in the electric meter box, observing monkeys and peacocks on a daily basis, bird watching
• The sounds of the jungle outside our windows
• Eating the largest and most delicious fresh water prawns ever
• Our trip to the Maldives for work—coral beaches, fish BBQs, motorcycle rides on the islands
• Meeting wonderful people wherever we go, and sometimes meeting kindred spirits
• Reading Charles Frazier, Ann Patchett, Robert Knox, Stephen King, and Bessie King Yoder, to name a few
• Watching “The Way,” “War Horse,” “One Day,” and, to name a few

Lowlights
• Bob breaking his leg, being laid up for three months, and all that a broken leg means in a person's life
• Broken ribs—I couldn’t breathe, cough, sneeze, bend, lift, sleep on my side, or help Bob
• The most amazing hospital experience we’ve ever had
• Three months with no breeze, six months with no rain
• Long evenings and sleepless nights (due to the above)
• Mold growing everywhere once the rainy season hit, with even higher humidity than before
• Power outages again and again and again and again
• Hauling our stuff all over the world again and again and again
• The unfathomable eco system inside our house—ants, beetles, centipedes, cockroaches, fleas, flies, flying termites, frogs, geckos, mosquitoes, moths, rats, scorpions, silverfish, spiders, ticks, tree frogs, wasps, and voluminous nameless bugs
• Understanding the expression “ants in my pants” in an all-too-real way
• The snake in the yard that slithered through Bob’s legs at what he says felt like 100 miles per hour
• Construction following us wherever we go
• Roads in disrepair and the difficulty of travel in Sri Lanka
• Missing my flight from Egypt to the States because I had Bob’s passport instead of my own

A Few Random Statistics on Sri Lanka

Here are a few statistics, mostly from Sri Lanka’s Central Bank, Economic and Social Statistics, 2012, a few from conversations with friends.

• Sri Lanka’s population is 20 million.

• 76% are Buddhists, 9% are Muslims, 8% are Hindus, and 7% are Christians.

• The average household has four people.

• The average life expectancy is 75 years.

• Unemployment was three-and-a-half percent in 2010.

• The median monthly income is $200.

• 33% of the work force is in agriculture, 17% in manufacturing, and 15% in trade and hotels.

• ¼ of a million Sri Lankans migrated for employment in 2011, mostly to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and the U.A.E. 52% of those who migrated were male, while 48% were female.

• Sri Lanka’s biggest exports are textiles, garments, tea, rubber, and coconut products.

• Anuradhapura, the city near our home, has no rain for six months.

• Humidity during the six-month dry season is 60% during the day and 90% at night.

• Humidity during the rainy season (Nov and Dec) is 80% in the day and 95% at night.

• 80% of household cooking is done with wood, 16% with gas, and 4% with kerosene.

• 55% of household garbage is burned or buried, 22% is dumped outside, 15% is hauled away, and 6% is processed for fertilizer.

• There are 32 institutions of higher education in Sri Lanka, 15 of which are government-funded universities, where tuition is free for students.

• Rice is the staple food in Sri Lankan, eaten three times a day by many Sri Lankans.

• The average adult consumes 20 to 25 pounds of rice a month, costing 10 to 15 cents a pound.

• Rice accounts for 17% of the average household monthly expenditures.

• There are fewer than one million internet subscribers in Sri Lanka.

• There are 18 million cell phones in use.

• The preferred mode of suicide (though uncommon) is drinking insecticides and pesticides.

Our house is a very very very fine house

I’ve always liked that song by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young.  One of the joys and challenges of moving a lot and living in different countries is setting up house, and trying to make it a fine house, again and again.  Bob is kind of tired of that, but I still love it!  Bob says that one of my talents is making a home cozy.  This time around, that process has been particularly challenging.

With only four more weeks left in our home here in Sri Lanka, we’re starting to think about packing up once again.  We’re thinking back to the things that we’ve gotten used to in this home, some of which we will miss and some of which we will not.  Here are a few of them.  (Our internet service, unfortunately, does not allow me to upload photos at this time.)

• The kitchen, dining room, and bedroom floors are cement, painted red. 
• We defrost the freezer every few days because ice builds up quickly with this humidity. 
• Our kitchen cupboards were not custom-made by my brother-in-law, but they do the job.
• We don’t have drawers in the kitchen, but silverware standing up in a plastic container works.
• There is no hot water in the kitchen, so we boil water for washing up greasy dishes.
• We bought a semi-automatic washing machine.  I feel like we’ve gone back in time, but it’s kind of fun to manage the spinning cycle and it’s easier than washing clothes by hand, which I did when I lived in a convent in Egypt.
• The mattresses are all made of coconut fiber, so we bought a foam mattress for our bed.
• We use cardboard boxes for night stands beside our bed, just like in college.
• The windows are opaque, so to get a view (and to keep bugs out), we put screens on some of the windows.
• Half of our outlets are plugged and unusable because of the dirt the ants bring in.
• When we first moved in, there was an entire eco system living inside WITH us.  After months of effort, we still have bugs, but nothing like we had early on.
• When we first moved in, we burned our garbage, since that’s what our landlords do.  Now our landlords take care of that for us.
• Our landlords are constantly burning something, sending black smoke inside our house.
• With the rainy season and extreme humidity, MOLD is now growing everywhere—on our sandals, our clothing, our sofa, kitchen towels, wooden spoons, coasters, used tea bags, refrigerator, in the cupboards.  I’m still working on that one!

We vacationed in Sri Lanka two years ago.  That’s when we grew to love the country.  But we’ve been reminded that traveling in a place and living in a place are two different things.  In any case, it’s still amazing to have lived in this house in the jungle.  We will not forget it.

Ode to Mike: "Please Don't Go!"

Brother-in-law Mike—he is grand!

After our accident, he came to Sri Lanka land.

He did the cleaning, the laundry, the shopping too,

Without him around, we would have been blue.

He battled ants in the kitchen, wasp nests on the walls,

Saw a snake in the yard, but that’s not all.

Replaced mesh with aluminum screens so rats can’t chew through,

Put door sweeps on the doors to keep scorpions out too.

Mike's suitcase was filled with not only aluminum but also TREATS!

Favorite cereals, hearty bread, and A CASE OF BEEF.

Pretzels, licorice, and chocolates too,

We can hole up here for a month or so!

We ate awesome meals that we’ll never forget,

Quesadillas, fajitas, and chicken cheddar red.

Grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup,

And best of all, Mike’s yummy beef stew.

He was able to sleep in harsh conditions,

Never complaining…a man on a mission.

He made friends with our neighbors, and drivers all,

He heeded our every beck and call.

Laughter and chatting and Mike’s therapy.

Helped us pass the time a bit more happily.

At night Mike’s special Lorazapam pills were given,

For some hours each night, we were in heaven.

He arranged our pillows and washed Bob’s hair.

Everything he did, he did with utmost care.

Hospital psychosis was temporarily on hold,

The help Mike gave is worth more than gold.

Not everything here has rhyme or rhythm.

Please keep in mind that I had a concussion! 

Mike’s coming was a gift so dear.

Even after he left, FAMILY felt near.

THANK YOU, MIKE!  THE END