The Martin's Blog

Helen – We have heard about the snow in Ohio!  We, meanwhile, have been walking the beach and feeding the critters in our pond.  As you know, we have a big green frog and lots of gold fish (they are multiplying and growing bigger) but now we also have two crabs and a black turtle…the water has been down so they are easier to see.  Tom has also included pictures from our breakfast spot.  You can see the Sri Lankan breakfast that Sarath’s wife prepared for us a few days ago as well as the fish and frog. 

 Looking to the Indian Ocean from our patio, you can see a large ship passing from the East toward the Middle East/West.  In all the time we have been here we have only seen one ship going in the opposite direction!  We figure their shipping lane is further out to sea.  These large ships pass this point around the clock.

I can’t believe we leave paradise in two days…we are really sad.  I began packing yesterday and it makes me feel worse.  I forgot to mention that there was an open house down the beach from us and we were able to go there for a few minutes before our dinner.  They just finished the first phase of their home (he is Sri Lankan and she Scottish but they live in Norway),  Right now the house consists of a kitchen, living area, bedroom with A/C and bathroom, and a covered deck overlooking the beach.  They have a lovely view because they are about 20 feet above the beach.  I was asked to bring chocolate zucchini cake which everyone loved.  We are definitely going to miss our beach adventures and home!!!  I hope that you are keeping warm!

Tom – After spending the morning in my office in the Physics building and Helen in the computer lab, we drove to the PE building so Helen could pass out the recipe for a “no animal products” cake that she had prepared and that everyone raved about!  Many Buddhists are vegetarian, so this cake has been a big hit!  I also signed the participation certificates for the 12 students who had completed the attendance requirements (16 hours of practical sessions) to receive the award.

In the afternoon we drove downtown to give the cake recipe to Sunny’s sister-in-law at the sewing store, try to exchange the Firbretec picture (could not as it was special ordered), look for a shop so Helen could buy curtain material (could not find it due to lousy directions), buy a fish Batik that Helen has been eyeing for a couple of weeks, buy 10 brass pulls that Helen has wanted, go to Cargills Food City and to the bank ATM.  On the way back Helen bought a couple of the spicy/hot fish buns that she has grown to like.  As you can tell, we are “rushing” to complete tasks before we leave. 

Tom – Today was a day to tighten up loose ends at the office and at home.  I had lots of email business related to my next assignment at Peradeniya University, my presentation in India, my presentation in Colombo after Easter, etc.  I also signed certificates of participation for the PE instructors who completed 32 hours of theory and 6 hours of practical sessions.  These certificates will be presented at a “going away” dinner this evening.

Helen – They had a farewell dinner for us at the university this evening.  The Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellor (President and Provost) attended along with the PE faculty.  It was very nice and they cooked the food less spicy especially for us.  It was kind of a strange arrangement…we went to the guest house dining room which is a separate building across the street from the university.  This is also where they hold conferences and workshops.  The room was arranged with two long tables set; one with glasses and the other for dinner with plates etc.  So first we sat at the table set with glasses and were served lime juice drinks as we sat and talked and waited for the Vice Chancellor to arrive.  When he came, they brought out the beer and hard coconut liquor along with spicy noodle snacks.  We sat there for another hour before moving to the other table for dinner. 

Dinner was excellent with a variety of foods, curries and fruit for dessert.  When dinner was finished, they had gift presentations and speeches for us.  Tom received a Fibretec picture specially designed with an ocean sunset and the silhouettes of stick fishermen.  Superimposed on the picture were palm trees and grasses that were covered in fiberglass.  All the elements were enclosed in a 3-D frame.  Not exactly our style but the sentiment was much appreciated.  Pali also presented us with a Perahera wood carving picture, a brass dish the shape of Sri Lanka and a little leather case for me.  Both Tom and I received beautiful cards with heart felt thanks written by members of the faculty.  We have really enjoyed the friendships we have made with the faculty here and will miss them.

 Helen – Today I am trying to get some of my cake recipes ready for the wives.  They do not have our measuring cups so I will have to weigh the ingredients on the metric scale.  I also have not seen a mixer here, but have used the blender to cream the butter and sugar (which somehow never seems to lose the granular state).  When Tom came home from school we went to pick up the dress I had shortened (it was Sunny’s sister-in-law) and she wouldn’t take any money for it. They usually charge about $1 to do it and she said it was nothing.  Then once again to Food City, we go about 3 times a week because our refrigerator is small and things don’t last too long in it.  We had taco night and pretended we were at El Toro’s (our favorite Mexican restaurant back home) and even had limes in our beer!!!  To bed early, since Tom planned a SCUBA dive tomorrow for me and he is going to snorkel.

Tom – New beach sights today included a small shark caught by a local net fisherman and little shrimp that the children collect to be used for bate by their fathers/older brothers. 

This was followed, as usual, by our favorite time of day – eating breakfast on our patio by the pond while watching the waves roll in.

I had my last class with the instructors today.  They requested a lecture on nutrition which went well.  I spent an extra hour with them – giving and describing my gifts.  The first was a CD that included my two PowerPoint presentations, class syllabus, class reading, Exercise Chart designed for their weight room, the full copy of my book “Your Body: Your Health and Fitness” (11 chapters) which I never completed, and a number of physical activity survey articles for HR’s research.  I also gave the department two Physical Fitness and Wellness books, the brochure I wrote on the need for Quality Daily Physical Education and several small individual gifts (e.g. small stress basketball from Springfield College – the birthplace of basketball, small pocket knives, lanyards, Starburst candy, small double head screwdrivers, mini carabineers, OAHPERD pin, Jump Rope for Heart water bottle, AAHPERD name tag wallet, and their pick of one of my class T-shirts.

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.

Tom – On our beach walk this morning it looked like someone was praying on a rock outcrop jutting out into the ocean.  However when we got closer we discovered it was a piece of drift wood decorated with plastic bags and nets.  It was a cloudy morning with a comfortable temperature for a change but the sand flies were merciless!

This is a view of our beach from the headland looking east

Lots of office work today getting ready to wrap up my teaching and preparing for my India presentation.  In the afternoon, went downtown for a haircut (first one in 2 months!).  I went to the expensive “Super Salon” by the bus station.  It cost me 100 rupees ($0.93) for the haircut + tip!  Early evening we walked out our front door and into the ocean – we had fun jumping the waves, we’ll miss our beach when we leave next week!

Helen – Tom was at the office all morning and then came home to work in the afternoon.  We were having dinner with Nicole and Luke from the hotel; she was preparing a German dish with chorabi and dumplings and I was bringing the chocolate zucchini cake.

About 4:30 we decided that Tom needed a haircut and I wanted to drop off some things to be hemmed at the tailors.  I bought four batik bathing wraps which needed the sides hemmed and Tom’s galabia (dress/robe from Egypt) needed the sleeves and hem to be shortened and the seams finished.  Can you believe that he is going to do all this for $4.50; $2 for the batiks, and $2.50 for the robe!  I think that I am going to give him some more business when I pick these things up tomorrow.

 Tom’s hair cut was another story.  The girls at the hotel said to go to Super Salon – that is where their friends go and we should expect to pay a little more there.  The shop was really little and a little dingy.  One man was cutting hair and another was shaving people with a straight razor!!  When Tom walked in they all snickered and looked at the barber, a young man attending another customer.  They were snickering because people here do not have fine hair cut in Tom’s style.  Their hair is coarser and thicker so this was going to be interesting.  Also, they don’t wash it first or even wet it for that matter.  He picked up his scissors and motioned to Tom if this was the instrument he wanted used; I guess compared to the clippers!!  They wrapped a cloth around his neck but did not use clean combs or utensils…what would Tom’s stylist say to this???  It is a bit shorter than usual but it looks good, kind of reminds me of his younger days with shorter hair.  At least he won’t need another haircut until we come home!!

It was after 6 when we got home so we ran into the ocean for a quick swim before showering and dressing for dinner.  It was a beautiful evening with lots of waves.  We were hoping to see a sunset as well but there were too many clouds.

Dinner was delicious and we licked the pots clean…the cake was also a success and it was fun being with “the crowd”.

Tom – Started the day with our standard 2.5 mile beach walk, breakfast on the front patio watching the ocean and then went to the largest temple in Matara.  It is the Weherahena Temple with a six story Buddha built sometime after 1900.  In the 1960’s a six story building (really, decorated walkways) was built around the statue. 

There are also many decorated corridors (tunnels) cut through the rock underground – hiding places for the monks during the Portuguese occupation.  Our guide (paid by donation) stated that there were over 20,000 individual paintings decorating the various passageways, primarily scenes from the lives of the Buddha.  

Another interesting fact is that the original Bodhi Tree (tree under which Buddha achieved enlightenment) is on the border between India and Nepal.  A cutting from that tree was brought to Sri Lanka in the third century BC and planted in Anuradhapura when the Sri Lankan king was converted to Buddhism.  The tree in the Weherahena Temple yard is a cutting from this tree. Today it is very large and has a great branch system spread above ground yet the root system is very small and the tunnels are built around this root system.  They consider this to be a miracle.  Buddha was also known to have 32 body parts which were different from the normal person.  Several of these include the long looped earlobes, the circle of hair on his forehead between the eyebrows, lotus flower imprints on the palms and soles of his feet, and three folds in the neck.

Afterwards we went downtown to tour the Star Fort that was constructed by the Dutch in 1763 (before the U.S. revolution!).  It is quite small and in the process of being restored (tsunami hit here) but there is not much to see beyond the entrance, drawbridge, small courtyard and a few artifacts. 

The next stop was Jez Look Batiks run by a Muslim woman (also the artist).  We were shown the process of batik making and then her showroom.  She had many interesting pieces and we will likely go back before we leave Matara.

We bought some essentials from Cargills Food City, four fish from the fish store next to the river (he gutted them for us), three pottery pieces along the road, and then headed home for lunch. 

After lunch we tried snorkeling at a small local beach just west of Matara called Polhena.  We were the only whites there and Helen really stuck out because she was the only woman with a bathing suit.  The local women who do go in the water here go in fully clothed.  Do you remember the song “Teeny Weeny Yellow Pokka Dot Bikini?”  Well, that’s what it was like.

 A man named Nishantha from Blue Corals Dive, Eat, Sleep approached us and asked if we would like a guide for our snorkeling, he would provide the fins (we already had some cheap masks and snorkels) and guide service for 500 rupees (about $5).  We said sure!  The coral close to shore was all dead so we had to swim out to the breakers.  The light wasn’t good because it was cloudy but we did get to see some live coral as well as numerous fish, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, etc.  Helen didn’t like her mask/snorkel, being some distance from shore and touching the coral – so we headed back after half an hour. 

Our guide described how he was snorkeling with two German women when the tsunami hit.  All survived including his family but his house was destroyed, a common story here.  Everywhere we stop near shore people come out of the woodwork asking for money because they lost x, y and z to the tsunami.  It is depressing, especially when mothers tell their children to run and ask as soon as they see we are foreigners.

After returning home, Helen built a fire pit with bricks in our yard and lit some coconut shells she had gotten from a neighbor to grill our fish for dinner.  I must admit I was skeptical about the process and results but both turned out great.  We each ate a fish and the other two were de-boned and put away for a meal tomorrow.

Helen – Never say die!!!  I have wanted to grill fish since we arrived in Matara and there was always something in the way.  No charcoal, no grill; I had dreams of digging a hole on the beach and using whatever available wood was there to fill a fire pit…that really wasn’t practical!  Luke, the hotel owner, said use the bricks out in the road and make a pit.  Then use coconut shells, the inner hard shells, for the fuel.  It should take about 20 minutes to get the coals you will need.  Took lots longer because I couldn’t get the fire started…the shells are really hard.  So I reorganized the shells with paper, leaves, and fibers from palm leaves plus two pieces of charred wood from a past fire and presto I got it to catch and then it was just a matter of time.  Tom watched the fire and grilled the fish while I fried the potatoes and made a salad…mmmmm, it was really yummy!!!