Kandy

We took a trip to Kandy a few weekends ago to visit our three fellow Fulbrighter's. Kandy is truly a beautiful place, both culturally and visually. It was such a treat to get out of Colombo's smoggy bubble and breathe in the fresh air. We arrived just in time for Halloween and managed to pull together a successful Halloween bash. The following day, we explored the outskirts of Kandy in search of two ancient temples, Embekka and Gadaladeniya. During our walk, we saw wild monkeys for the first time! Packs of them running across beautiful green fields and swinging from the trees. We made sure to keep our distance though, because the monkeys here are known to come up and try and steal your belongings. Gadaladeniya Temple was situated on top of a giant rock face, giving us a beautiful view of Kandy while feeling the cool rock beneath our feet. It was built in the 14th century by a great Raja (King). My favorite thing about many of the Buddhist temples here is that they also have Hindu God's inside, making them a place for both Buddhist and Hindu worship. It is fascinating that two religions that are so different are able to exist in the same structure. I think this is representative of Sri Lankan life in so many ways. So many different religions, cultures, heritages, and languages are existing in one small country. Even the trees reflect this concept of co-existing; it seems like there are hundreds of different kinds of trees, all sharing the same soil.

The following day was one of my favorite days so far in Sri Lanka. My first Poya Day. Every month on the full moon there is a buddhist celebration called Poya. We started the day with a trip to the Kandy Botanical Gardens, alongside the Mahaweli River. 150 acres of beautiful trees and flowers. It was amazing how well the land was kept up, every tree was trimmed perfectly and all of the flowers were gorgeous. During our long walk inside the grounds, we came across a group of monkeys as well as a scorpion and two water buffalo. After taking too many pictures of the water buffalo, I made it angry and in result, Utsha and I had to walk the long way back to the path in order to avoid it.

After the gardens and a delicious Indian lunch, we went to see the Temple of the Tooth, beautifully situated next to the lake in Kandy City. Even though it was pouring rain, thousands of people flocked to the temple for Poya. Buddhist monks come from all over Sri Lanka to pray at this temple because it is a sacred site and known to bring those who pray there closer to enlightenment. The Temple of the Tooth is perhaps the most popular temple in all of Sri Lanka. It is believed that one of Buddha's teeth is inside the temple, however it is kept inside of a sacred dagoba, so no one can actually see it. The tooth has been seen throughout history as a symbol of great power, and thus it is a very big deal that the Singhalese have ownership of it. Some believe that the Portuguese stole the tooth during their rule in Sri Lanka, but the Singhalese say that the tooth they stole was a replica and the real tooth was actually hidden in the hair of a princess during that time. Some believe that the tooth is still hidden, some believe it is indeed in the temple, as for me... it seems like an awful lot of hype about a tooth :) Relics are a strange thing.

The temple was beautiful and I feel very lucky to have visited on Poya day. After exploring the grounds, we marched back out into the rain to find our shoes and saw that there was a parade beginning for Poya day. What a special event to have stumbled upon. There were 5 elephants (one baby that was so cute) all dressed up for the celebration and many groups of Kanyan dancers. It was such a beautiful parade and so fun to watch the dancers.
The train ride home from Kandy was like the cherry on top of a beautiful weekend. I love riding the train through Sri Lanka. Each ride, we whiz past all of the villages and homes that line the track and I get tiny glimpses into the lives of the people who live there. Sometimes the smell of curry and coriander leaves quickly seep into my nose, as I catch a glimpse of women cooking dinner in their kitchen. I see kids playing cricket and volleyball and men working the paddy fields. So much life can be witnessed from my train window. We pass temples, churches, and shrines. People walk only 5 feet away from the track, following the same path we do. My favorite glimpses are of the people sitting outside their homes, waving and watching as the train passes. It's like they are waiting there just for us, welcoming.

Hot Flower Mama, Gym Teacher, Rizzo, Gangsta, Aladdin, and a School Girl

Cute girls walking home from school

Prayer Flags at Gadaladeniya Temple

Kandy Botanical Gardens

Couple Kanoodling

Holding on

Guarding the path

Oil lamps at Temple of the Tooth

Dressed for Poya

Train home

Welcome Midnight Rain

Ayubowan! Over the past two weeks I have done a myriad of wonderful things here in Colombo. I have spent a lot of time exploring the city via its many delicious restaurants featuring South Asian cuisine. Our favorite spot, Amaravathi, is a South Indian restaurant with delicious dosai's, thali, and more masala than your belly can handle. Green Cabin and Cafe On The 5th are also great spots to eat delicious Sri Lankan food at a cheap price. Egg hoppers, pol sambol, and paratha roti are changing my appetite and life for the better. 

We have been taking Singhala classes twice a week from our amazing teacher Michael. We are having such a good time learning the language, what a difference a great teacher can make! We also get a mini lesson from our apartment's door man every time we come and go. This is quite a hilarious event to witness because his patience lasts about one minute and then he is done and motions for us to move along up to our apartment. Always ending with a friendly "go and come back" accompanied by some head waggling.

Last weekend we took a trip down to the small beach town of Weligama and enjoyed the quiet beach for a few days. We also have taken two trips to Mt. Lavinia, a beach spot only twenty minutes away from home on the train. What a life. I still can't believe I am here. I am so happy to have time to read some truly incredible books as well. I just finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns and highly recommend it. It is officially my favorite book, Khaled Hosseini is such a beautiful writer and storyteller. 

After our meeting with Prasanna, the head of Saaraketha (the organization we will be working with for our teaching), it turns out that we will actually be living in Colombo until December. Although this means that we won't start teaching until later :(, we will get to enjoy another full month of a great variety of food as well as easy access to traveling. I'm excited to go visit our fellow fulbrighters in Kandy this weekend for Halloween!

Perhaps my favorite day since my arrival in Sri Lanka was mine and Utsha's trip to a small village 3 and a half hours outside of Colombo (I'm blanking on the name). After we expressed our desire to volunteer, Ramya put us in contact with her friend Avanti who is just beginning a program called Learning Spaces where she donates books and aids a small local library. On Thursday last week, Avanti drove us out to the village to visit the library, brainstorm with the librarian about ways to make the library more exciting for local youth, and read a story with a group of kids. We only expected to have about 15 kids in attendance, but 40 showed up! It was so exciting to be in a room full of kids who are truly excited about reading and learning English. We read Dr. Seuss' One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and then taught the kids some vocab words from the book using flash cards, actions, and some games. The librarian and Avanti were so excited to see the kids actively participating and having a good time practicing English because kids in Sri Lanka are not taught to actively participate in their classrooms and are generally more reserved. It was so much fun and I am so excited to continue working with Learning Spaces, helping the librarian generate excitement about reading and English, and setting up a volunteer program between Learning Spaces and Peradeniya University.

Also, we took a few yoga classes from a true goddess, Mrs. Kenamen. She is an 81 year old beautiful and incredibly flexible woman with so much life. She totally did the splits all three ways, Utsha and I were in total shock and could not stop smiling the whole class. She ends the class with "the three stages of laughter" which is my fav part. 

#1: A contained laugh which is silent and private, 

#2: when you are visibly laughing but no sound is coming out, 

#3: when you cannot hold it in any longer and are laughing for all to see and hear. 

It is so much fun and leaves the whole class cracking up. Her face is priceless. 

Lastly, today we discovered this great cafe/store/gallery called Barefoot where I am certain I will be spending much of my time in the future. Yayy for peanut butter smoothies!

Love,

Jess

~Please enjoy the following photos which reflect my experiences in Sri Lanka. I want to express that the photos I share with you do not represent all of Sri Lanka's cultures, religions, policies, beliefs, people, or languages. I could not possibly express Sri Lanka's diversity through the limited photos and commentary that I include. These are simply an expression of what I have seen. I hope you like them!~

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Busy Colombo

Viharamahadevi Park

The Pettah Fish Market

A side street of Pettah

Weligama Beach

Beautiful  Alliyah, my train buddy

on the ride to Weligama

Moo Cow

Mt. Lavinia

At the temple in Weligama

Gorgeous huge Buddha

The women of  the Lekha Batik Factory

Kids at the library

Beautiful ride home from the village 

Preparing for a ceremony at the

Buddhist temple near our house

The Stupa decorated for the ceremony

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Beginnings

Ayubowan! Hi everyone! This begins my Sri Lankan blog, hopefully recording much of my memories and experiences here in Sri Lanka and sharing them all with you, my beautiful friends and family! My time here thus far has been truly amazing. This country is so beautiful, with such interesting cultures, religions, politics, and people. I am living in an amazing apartment and feel so lucky to be surrounded by great people. Utsha, Dave, and I will be living in this apartment in Chelsea Gardens, Colombo (kind of like the Beverly Hills of Sri Lanka, seriously, it’s so gorgeous) for a month before we move on to Wilgamuwl, the small village where we will be teaching English for 8 months. I am so excited to be here in Colombo first where there is so much to do and experience. On our first night we (Utsha, Tom(another Fulbrighter who will be living in Colombo doing research), and I) took a tuk tuk (the small vehicles which whiz around the streets of Sri Lanka and make you feel like you are on a Disneyland ride on steroids) to the Galle Face Hotel, a beautiful place to relax, get drinks, and enjoy the ocean and sunset.  Sorry for all the parentheses. They end now. Anyways, we had a great time enjoying the view; I can’t believe I am living in such a beautiful place! Afterwards we took a walk along Galle Face Green, a large grass area where you will find families having picnics and kids flying kites by the ocean every evening. It’s pretty much the only park I’ve ever seen that isn’t filled with creepers at night and is so full of life on a daily basis.

This week, we also took a trip to Pettah, the huge market where each street is filled with something different; clothes, electronics, restaurants, jewelry, fish, spices, fruits, vegetables, the list is endless. It was so fun just getting lost in the chaos and experiencing life here. Pettah is very different than the rest of Colombo, it is very busy, a bit dirty, noisy, excited, crowded, and bursting with flavor. The dominant language spoke in Pettah is Tamil, whereas in the rest of Colombo people most commonly speak Singhala. After enjoying a delicious Sri Lankan meal, we wandered right into a puja, which is a Hindu ceremony. One of the older women, kind of the Grandmother figure in the group, invited us to come and join the ceremony. I felt pretty strange and uncomfortable the whole time, like I was intruding on a sacred event, but everyone was very nice and welcoming.  However, the older members of the group could recognize our hesitant nature and continued to pull us closer and closer to the ceremony.  They were bringing an Idol back into the temple. Regardless of the fact that I felt awkward, I am so glad that I experienced it. It was a really beautiful ceremony and there was a man there who spoke English and explained to us what was going on. All of the little girls and boys were giggling at Tom, Utsha, and I because we all look so American, different, and because Tom and I were the only white people in sight. They brought us into the temple as their guests and explained to us what each of the Gods represent. It was a beautiful, small temple. Lastly, they gave us food which they blessed and which was a delicious mixture of sweet rice and fried dough, yum J. This experience was so amazing and I can’t believe we stumbled upon it, especially because it seemed so personal since the temple was very tiny and kind of secluded down this dirt road, and because there were only about 30 people in attendance.  To say the least, I feel very lucky to have been included. Our first trip to Pettah was quite amazing.

This week we also have eaten tons of great Sri Lankan, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese food. There is such a diverse selection and everything is so cheap!

Lastly, we just completed our two-day Fulbright orientation. I have learned a lot about Sri Lankan cultures, religions, politics, art, customs, language, and people. I am excited to apply what I have learned so far and continue to gain understanding. Our Singhalese language training began today and I am so excited to continue so I can create an even stronger bond with the people here and with everyone I will meet in Wilgamuwl. Everything is so new and beautiful here, I am having a great time and it’s so exciting to wake up every day knowing that a new adventure is in store!

I hope everyone is doing well! I miss you all so much and please, keep me updated on the happenings in all of your lives!

AND…. How awesome is our President?! Go Obama! Winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize! WOOT WOOT.

Love You ALL,

Jess

p.s. Giddy, I'm lovin the head bobble... everyone does it here :)