colombo arrest
i was going to say house arrest but i'm not limited to my house. under colombo arrest...because of the situation.
its ridiculous. another day, another suicide attack, except this one was down south on a navy base in Galle. the rebels attacked the navy base down south, which is largely a singhalese area, which set off a series of riots in the town. sinhalese were attacking tamils and targeting their shops. another depiction of how this problem never ends. there were also riots in habarana where yesterdays suicide bombing took place. it was here that groups of people, rumors have it that police and military were supporting them, attacked vehicles by throwing rocks and beating people up.
its sad because news like this steals the headlines and people dont realize that there have been killings nationwide daily. last night two more civilians were killed in trincomalee by the armed forces, some of these have explanations but many of them go without any investigations or answers. sad really when you are living in the midst of state & rebel sponsored terrorism where people are controlled by their hatred.
this whole situation has the potential of becoming really ugly and very quickly. i pray that this doesnt happen.
***pictures of the truck bomb***
truck bomb - whats left of it
investigation
aftermath...
***pictures thanks to bbc news***
two months till...
october already and i have to admit, i'm looking forward to december. christmas in the philippines! Lord willing sara and i will be there for christmas to celebrate with my parents, and paul & jen [caleb + 1]. its about time i get to see my nephew, he's going to think that i'm the estranged uncle. besides i miss the pi and i look being reunited to that lovely island. strange fact...actually the philippines has over 7000 islands...anyone want to go in on an investment with me?
but...back to the subject
until christmas time i've got my hands full with sri lanka. i'll be slowly bowing out of my responsibilities and hopefully in a semi-graceful fashion. simply put, i'll be handing over all responsibility and management to the local staff in all the projects. that will be a good evaluation of how well things went there and if i made a lasting sustainable difference. fingers crossed. haha
the thing that sucks is that i still have the physical project implementation/management to do in trincomalee but i also have to train a national water & sanitation coordinator in colombo plus get the children's program running [its a psycho-social program that was suppose to start in nov '05, things are sorta slow out here]. that means i'll be going up and down, up and down. again this was further complicated and delayed today when the rebels drove a suicide truck into a military convoy killing 90+ and wounding 130+ navy soldiers. this took place on the one road into trinco from colombo, the one that i've driven literally hundreds of times. for those of you that have visited me in sri lanka and have gone to trinco, it was after habarana but before kantale...close to the turn off for sigiriya. for more info check out
bbc's report. this just adds to the already fragile situation. last week over 120 soldiers were killed and 300 wounded in the fighting up in jaffna. and people complain and focus on iraq?!? we live in interesting times...
for now i'm on hold and restricted from traveling to trinco until things calm down or open up. not like you haven't heard that one before...seems like that has become a regular occurrence. rumor has it that the road to batticaloa and trinco will be shut down for certain parts of the day. anyway, besides driving, buses and road usage there is always the train which i think i will use. that is of course, until the rebels start to bomb the tracks or target the trains. this is funny because i did go to the train station to get a ticket to trinco today [i was scheduled to leave for trinco] but i was told that the trains werent running because there was an 'obstruction'. i found out later that it was actually a derailment which caused this 'obstruction'. i gotta admit, sri lanka is great because you never know what is going to happen tomorrow. literally, this country can be bi-polar at times...full support peace talks and working towards resolutions and then engaging in bitter fighting which is not defensive as both sides claim it to be.
thats about it...i'll be staying in colombo and will be working at the head office and from home. on the bright side of things it will allow me to pour into some relationships that i started with guys here at the methodist and four square churches. i'm praying that we can get a bible study/prayer meeting/accountability group going. so, your prayers would be greatly appreciate too! it also allows me to talk to sara joelle alot more now that we're hooked up with skype. seriously, thats the ice cream sundae of my day and for those of you that know me, i love ice cream! alright, i'm outta here.
more additions to the sri lanka saga...
tea country
tea...yipee! for all you english out there, what it means to be the real tea-totaler - the truth!
going native - dont worry i didnt sell them into slavery
check out that form - the natural tea picker
mother like daughter - the brawn of tea
the factory - the brains of tea
tea masher...i dared sara to stick her finger in there and now there is some special tea out there
refining my palate - master tea-totaler in-the-making? doubt it
what women do after tea? relax on the lawn and smile...gorgeous!
what men do after tea? run the rapids! ok, i was kidding
*special note*
tea is mentioned a total of sixteen times in this blog...thats almost enough to make me sick of tea
this was actually really cool. i didnt know so much stuff went into making tea, well i guess i always figured it would, but didnt get to see it until now. i sure have to say that tea-picker gets the short end of the stick. they work hard all day walking up hills picking tea and they live in shanty towns. it would sorta be like in the south and cotton picking cept it aint that hot up in the hills.
overall, an awesome trip to upcountry. we got some cool weather, new experiences, good company, and an education in tea. besides found a sweet river that is totally kayakable...anyone interested? dont worry the falls arent that big. gnar thats what sri lanka could use a little more of - good clean fun adventure, no more of this violent war adventure.
atmospheric phenomena
jelly fish cloud or atomic bomb cloud or atmospheric phenomena - God is really creative and cool
the adventures of polonnarava
welcome to polonnaruva
5th century ancient buhdda...i dont think there gods moved for the last 1400 years
hot very very hott
dust n' bones - what once was a very elaborate building
who cares about ancient ruins when you have someone like this to take pictures with
no the table is not an ancient ruin...sleeping buddhas - they get tired
kings hall - pretty rad...um, yea
elephants!
...the discovery...
elephants have lightening quick reflexes - actually they are pretty fast
raining elephants sweet!
the true zoolander came from lanka safaries
all smiles when the tourists are happy...hehe
our fearless jeep guide...he got soaked
next years hottest flick - 'when elephant safaris go terribly wrong...'
or - 'when they go terribly right' - try mounting that thropy in your livingroom
