Vesak Poya and other things.

So we are still in Colombo, mostly. SP decided (through our Country Director, Regional Director and Safety and Security officer) that a full time move back to Batti would not be wise at this time. So we are taking on a few extra responsibilities to keep us busy in Colombo and traveling back and forth to spend as much time in Batti as we can. Right now it looks like it’ll be approximately 3-4 days every other week. So it’s a lot of traveling but we’re glad to get out there when we can. Plus Scott gets to catch up on lots of extra sleep as he exercises his most incredible gift…the ability to sleep anywhere.

Last week was vesak poya. Poya means full moon and Buddhist celebrate every one. I think this is a very cool tradition, I like the idea of celebrating the rhythms of nature…it also means we get a day off at least once a month. Except for when poya days fall on weekends, you don’t get an alternate day. And unfortunately for us, the next two months will see poya day fall on a Saturday or Sunday! oh well.

Vesak Poya marks the birth, attainment of enlightenment and the death of the Buddha so for Buddhist it’s like Christmas, Easter and I don’t know…the Ascension (?) all in one. It’s very important for them and the whole city shuts down to celebrate. (I’m sure most of the country does too but certainly Colombo does.) There are thousands upon thousands of Buddhist flags hung in the city and they build incredibly ornate, huge lanterns constructed and lit up. They also hang smaller ones everywhere, but the big ones are the most amazing. Some of them move and all of them take days to set up. We walked down one of the main lantern streets several days in a row. (We’ve just joined a gym and it’s on that street, as is the Canadian High Commission which we visited for the first time last week, and they told us that since living in Batti would be against their advice, if anything bad happened they wouldn’t rescue us…ahhh I feel so loved and cared for.)

Anyway…enough of the tangents…we got to see them constructing the lanterns for a few days in a row. Each lantern had a team of 5-6 guys working on it for at least 3 days. We walked the street again at night when everything was lit up.

Back to the gym for a minute, those of you who know me well will probably find this a surprise, but I love going to the gym!! I’m sure it’s because it’s air conditioned and also because sweating is not only permitted by expected. I just can’t get motivated to exercise outside in 40 degree whether when everyone else is walking around like they don’t know it’s bloody hot out and I’m the only one with little rivers of sweat dripping off my finger tips! I’ve never spent so much time inside in my life as this year. It’s starting to get to me a little, especially now that we are in Colombo, at least in Batti we can sit on our roof top and enjoy the evening breezes and the view of the lagoon. This gym is in an old mansion, so all the equipment is distributed among a bunch of different rooms but the thing I love the most about this gym is the lockers. Or more specifically, the numbering system. I have no idea why but the numbers on the lockers are completely random

and…

they are all in quotation marks. “001” “77” “546” “745”

Strange.