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.