The Martin's Blog

Maha Sivrrathri Day (Hindu holiday honoring the god Shiva)  Tom – We did walk the beach this morning and, as usual, found some new opportunities for pictures (e.g. locals catching fish and lobsters). 

Earlier in the week Helen had offered to teach a two hour theory class explaining how she teaches her Fitness Walking class.  Even though it was a holiday, HR and Pali said they wanted to participate.  So Helen did her thing from 9-11am.  Even Sunny came and attended for the last hour.  HR brought her/us a beautiful bouquet of flowers, a small brass oil lantern, a small painted elephant and a Sri Lankan key chain – all from Laksala a government handicrafts emporium.

Helen- We tried the beach again this morning with bug spray and it seemed to work a little better.  After breakfast we went to school, Tom to work on his presentations and I to do a two hour lecture on the walking class to Pali and HR, two of the male students who could not attend the class because they were with Tom in the weight training class.  As Tom wrote, it went well and I was truly surprised with HR’s gifts.  He is a very talented person and does flower arrangements for weddings and proms as a side job.  I don’t know how he does everything he does, he is very energetic for this island.

In the evening we went to Sarath’s home for dinner.  His wife and daughter (just finished medical school and is awaiting her intern assignment) prepared a lovely dinner for us. However, once again we ate alone with everyone watching us to see if we liked the food and kept encouraging us to eat more!!  This time we had rice, a chicken curry, white tuna curry, calamari curry, a wonderful vegetable assortment, hoppers (sort of a cup shaped bread, thin on the side and thicker on the bottom), and a potato curry.  It really was very good and we had several helpings of everything.  Dessert again was curd with honey (quite tasty), custard pudding with caramel sauce, jello, and fresh fruit. Stuffed again, we waddled home with tummy aches.  They gave us a lovely herbal soap assortment made here in Sri Lanka.