The Martin's Blog

Tom – I’m at the police station at 9am with Sarath, Chair of the PE Department, as my interpreter.   The electrician does not show, so I start making my complaint.  At 9:30 he does show with a lawyer.  So, I continue to make my complaint.  Almost all the critical information is on my typed sheet, however, we have to follow police procedures and the officer writes everything down in long hand in his “official book.”  There was only one typewriter and no computers in the police station.  I worked in my office in the afternoon and when I returned home got a phone call from the officer.  He surprised me by stating that the electrician was in jail – To Be Continued.

Helen – This is a little hard to believe.  We were at the university trying to get this SL7 out, had a torrential thunder storm and the power kept shutting off and me with it.  I went back to Tom’s office and asked if we could go home.  As usual, I wasn’t patient enough to wait for the rain to let up (as it was quite a long time) and we got drenched getting to the car.  Our road to our house is pretty bad in good weather and we were expecting a rough ride after the asphalt ended and the rutty dirt road began; not to mention that the dirt road is also downhill to the beach.  We were fearing the worst, but were surprised that we were able to maneuver pretty well until we got to our driveway.  Seems the tubes under it were plugged and a lot of the water coming down the hill was going into our driveway.  The driveway has a valley at the base where the car is parked under the carport roof and it was flooded.  We had to take off our shoes and wade to the front steps.  The water was ankle high.  The man from the hotel was already there unplugging the tubes but the water at the base has no where to go…wonder how long it will take to evaporate??  It didn’t take long at all!! There is a sewer line at the lowest point of the driveway and after the rain stopped the water washed away, I guess down the road to the beach.  Now we have to deal with clean up because the area is covered with mud!

While the storm was still going on, the cow and calf were separated on two different sides of the yard and the baby didn’t look too happy.  As the rain let up some, I first took the washed clothes off the line (had to re-rinse and spin) then went to move the mama to the baby.  Tom said leave them alone…nothing doing!!  I wade through the valley in the back yard to get to mama and begin to untie her lead.  I am facing away from her and with no warning she jumps up onto my back with her front hoofs on my shoulders.  Talk about scared and surprised!!!  I jumped forward and she fell off of me.  Tom was an amused bystander and wished he had the camera!!  He said just leave her there…but I was not going to stop now.  Sometimes, I wish I weren’t so hard headed and would mind my own business!!

 Helen – This is their independence day, celebrating their split from England in 1948…funny that it should also fall on the 4^th only this time six months different from ours.  Tom had to go into the university to catch up on his classes and I stayed home to clean the grout from the bathroom tile and floor where the new water heater was installed.  It looks to be a new added on bathroom and the grout was left to dry on the tiles and globs of it everywhere including the floor.  While Tom was showering I got on the computer to finish up some on the diary so he could send it off and while I was doing this, the caretaker scared me again by coming into the house unannounced and standing over me as I typed.  He can be spooky at times.

Sri Lankans enjoying their 4th

This was also the day the carpenter was coming to put another lock on a set of doors, and the electrician was coming once again to try to fix the fan in the dining area, change a few light bulbs, and loosen a few sticky light switches.  I was watching them and running in and out of the bathroom trying to get both things done.  The electrician said that I needed another fuse for the fan and he had to go to get it…seems whenever he comes (this is the third time) he always has to leave to get more parts even though he is told ahead of time what he is going to work on.   He helped me hang the netting in the spare room (where we use the beds to lay out our loot) because I couldn’t reach the hooks without the ladder.  By noon they are done and gone and I am getting lunch ready for Tom.  He comes home and asks where my cell phone is.  I answer, wherever you left it after calling the girls last night.  He said, I left it on the table, did you move it??  Here we go again!!!  The cell phone is missing and so are two large plastic bags of candy which we brought here from the states for the children.  Reanalyzing the situation again, we see that Tom’s phone went missing when the electrician and ground keeper were in the house last week.  It seems to us that one of them took it.  Lots of phone calls back and forth with the owner of the house (they hired the electrician and carpenter) and it was decided that his worker from the dairy who speaks English would go to the police department the next morning to file a complaint and then bring them here (DOES THIS STORY SOUND FAMILIAR???).

We were to go to the physics professor’s (Kanthi) house for dinner that evening.  She called to confirm our plans when I told her what had happened.  She was quite upset, in fact, she called the lady (Kamala)who represents the owner and asks her to look in the ground keeper’s living quarters.  Kamala comes over by a tri-wheeler and goes into his sleeping quarters but cannot get into the kitchen area which is a separate room. We try calling my phone to see if it rings but the voice recording says that the party is unavailable now and to call back.  The phone must have been turned off and we never turn it off.  She leaves and when Tom returns he calls the owner again about having a report made and the police coming to the house the next morning…we think that it is settled.

That evening, Kanthi and her husband are really concerned about our location.  They said they had this concern as soon as they saw where we lived but rethought their objections when we told them we were supposed to have a security guard…which we don’t.  They call Kamala again that evening to confirm the plans for the morning. Things look even bleaker when we discover that there was a robbery in the little house across the road just last month when an Australian living there had the window broken and his camera and laptop taken.  Kanthi said that she would go to the police station with us the next morning and thank heavens she did.

 Helen – Another easy relaxing day.  We decided not to go to St Mary’s church since we didn’t understand anything last week.  We miss St.Theresa in Colombo.  We went northwest today to visit two beaches, the closest being Marissa which is said to have some of the loveliest beaches and Welligama which is also a fishing port.  It didn’t take long to reach Welligama.  Parking the car under some trees, Tom paid a man to watch the car.  This beach had lots of shells and we spent some time looking for the ones we have been collecting.  The beach also had lots of multicolored fishing boats with nets drying around them.  We stopped by one boat and the man gave me a lesson on how to fix the torn nets.  I remember my mother knowing how to make net bags for carrying things…but then she knew everything!!

There was a small island just off the shore and when the tide was low you could walk out to the small bridge to get on.  I don’t know what it is used for but there was a house up there.  The people swimming in the water always amaze me.  The women are dressed in their blouses and skirts while the men are in Bermuda shorts.  Even on our beach I will not walk in a bathing suit…shorts and tank top are about as daring as I get.  If I plan to swim, I wear my bathing suit but don’t lie on the beach in it.  It was pretty hot so we didn’t stay very long there and we decided not to swim there either.  We had a big breakfast of French toast, fruit, coffee, and juice so we weren’t too hungry for lunch.

Drove back toward Marissa and found another beach which was really the eastern end of Welligama.  There were lots more shells there and it looked like a sailing regatta was taking place out in the ocean.  While I sorted through shells, Tom walked toward the sailing area.  He can tell you more about that.

Tom – I walked to where a Laser sailboat had just left the beach to join the regatta and struck up a conversation with three Sri Lankans who were sitting in a jeep drinking.  It seems two of them Vish and Duhan had a business called Ceylon Sea Anglers and were supplying the safety boat for the regatta.  We chatted for awhile and I mentioned that I had recently written a book on learning to sail.  Vish convinced me that he really wanted my book.  I told him I would drive back (half hour one-way) to Matara to get one for him if he were serious.  He said yes; so I figured I could drive Helen back, shower and return with a book for Vish and another for someone who might be interested from the regatta.

When I returned the regatta was over and they were loading the safety boat onto the trailer.  Vish was acting a little strange, so I asked him if he really wanted the book, if he did it would cost 2400 rupees (standard price in the U.S.).  He said yes he collected books and wanted me to autograph it.  I wrote him a nice note and he proceeded to take lots of pictures of me plus him and friends.  He was again beating around the bush, so I asked him if he could pay me so I could go talk to the organizers of the regatta.  He said he would go to the hotel and get his money and meet me back there in five minutes.

I discovered that the Ruhuna Sailing Club had organized the regatta.  The club has about 8 Optimist and 5 Laser sailboats to teach children to sail.  The club is financed by a Belgian who owns a very large factory nearby.  I briefly talked to a British woman named Sue Evans who was in charge; however she was intently working on the sailing awards for the regatta, so I returned to meet Vish.

Well, he never showed!  I asked a number of people where he might be and got the run around.  I was getting angrier by the minute and finally decided to leave a message for Vish with his friends.  Basically I reamed him out in abstentia!  My last comment was something like this – here it is the celebration of the Sri Lankan Independence Day weekend, a time of national pride, and Vish is walking off with a book and not paying for it!  His friends immediately took up a collection and paid me for the book.    

Helen – On the way home we stopped to buy some shrimp and get a few supplies.  Once again the tiger shrimp were totally intact including the gross heads.  It is not easy making dinner here at times!!!  It was still hot so I made a cold potato salad with the shrimp (similar to the crab salad I make at home).

After dinner, Tom tried to call the girls but only got to leave messages on their phones.  Since his was stolen we only have mine to work with.

Looking East just before Sunrise

Villager ready to search the reef

Helen – Where did January go???  This weekend is another holiday (imagine that) so we don’t have school on Monday.  This is a cleaning day again…I am trying to do a little several times a week.  Today I took down the mosquito net from above our bed to wash it…the top was really gross so I guess I will gradually wash the ones from the other bedrooms as well.  The tops of the cabinets and cupboards also needed some washing. I need to spread this out because otherwise I won’t have anything to do!!

Tom – Big problem today is that my cell phone and charger are missing.  I believe they were taken from our house when I was charging the phone in the front unused bedroom over night but nothing else seems to be missing – BIG mystery!  One of the windows in that room was open.

I spent an extra hour this afternoon in the weight room with workers directing them on the relocation of equipment for my student/athlete class.  I changed the order, distribution and location of the various stations trying to come up with the most efficient use pattern for a large number of participants – attendance has varied from 25-30 including two faculty and an MD from town.  I am really enjoying my three hour class, three days per week with the five to six PE Faculty.  Two of them have trouble with English but the other four are extremely attentive and ask excellent questions.  What a change from my classes at Wittenberg!  In fact it is going so well, today I committed to spending an additional three weeks here before going back to Colombo.  When I announced this to my classes, everyone clapped and cheered!

Helen – Tom searched for his cell phone everywhere and then we finally decided that it must have been stolen…there are lots of people using our road (which runs along our concrete fence) to get to the beach from the nearby hotels and smaller renting establishments plus all the people who live in the area.  Did one of them come into our home while we were walking or on the beach…we had been very good about locking windows and doors when we were gone from the house, but a little lax while on the premises?

Tom went into town to cancel his phone and did a little shopping.  I asked him to buy some calamari from the fish store…he did…totally intact!!  I had a lot of cleaning to do, pulling off the heads and washing out the black ink, then getting the spinney thing out from the inside, and finally peeling off the outer skin…I was doing this in the outside kitchen sink and in a few minutes I was surrounded by tons of flies…I was trying to swat them and my hands were full of squid!!  Tom heard me complaining and came to my rescue.  He swatted the flies with a hand towel while I finished cleaning them.  I breaded and fried them and they were delicious…a potato salad and green salad on the side was great.

Tom –  First, consider that we are living on a tropical island near the equator.  Matara is at the southern tip of Sri Lanka.  We are on the beach but also on the edge of the jungle.  Both temperature and humidity are very high.  For example, today we will have a high of about 34^o C (93 F) and a low of 27^o C (80) with humidity ranging from 80-100% – and it is winter!  Can you imagine when the SW monsoon begins in April?!

Mosquitoes: The biggest problems are in the early morning and at dusk.  Though there are some around all day.  There are no screens in the windows or eaves between the walls and roof and we keep some doors open for ventilation when we are home, so they have free access to the house.  We have an electrical mosquito zapper and a coil you can light to produce some repellent smoke, but there is really no way to eliminate them.  We are actually very lucky because we are right on the beach and usually have an on-shore breeze, which blows them inland.  As you know, we sleep under mosquito netting – though it is important you keep-out a lot more than just the mosquitoes!

Ants: Big ones, medium size one, small ones, black ones, and red ones (those suckers sting!).  We spray regularly but they just keep coming back.

Spiders:  The biggest ones (3 inches across) we have ever seen outside a zoo!  I killed two in the bedroom a couple of days ago.

Cockroaches:  You have already read about some; we see big ones and little ones and are usually able to squash them before they get away.  We have sprayed the obvious entrance areas and that has helped.

Moths and “No See Ums:”  We have your standard moths going in and out all the time as well as little no see ums.  We’ve only seen a few butterflies.

Flies:  We can’t leave anything out anywhere or they will be all over the place.

Bites/Stings: We get them everyday, especially around the lower legs and ankles (most bites could be sand flies from walking on the beach in the morning).  Cortizone-10 is our constant companion.

Lizards:  We have at least one family of small lizards that share our house.  I believe they live in the eaves or somewhere on top of the walls.  Because we regularly see little piles of dirt in 2-3 spots even though we cleaned them the day before.  We see our friends regularly scurrying on the floor, up a wall or ceiling.  There are at least two adults and a child.  Helen – we have seen some giant lizards at an outdoor restaurant, by a temple, and going across our road…I mean Big!!  About 2-3 feet long and thank goodness they are not in the house, at least so far!!

Lightning Bugs:  They occasionally fly in and out our bedroom windows at night and really look “cool.”  They give off a bright white light unlike the yellow light we see from the ones in Ohio.

Dogs:  One walked in the front door last week, we chased it out.  We carry a stick when we walk on the beach to ward them off.  Most are small and scrawny and leave you alone but there is a pack of about five that sort of protect the one fishing boat from a small village that we have on our beach.  The alpha female will occasionally lead a side or rear assault.  We shake our stick at them and that stops them from getting too close.  Helen – they also seem to pick on the lame ones and go after them with a vengeance!!  At the hotel last night, there was a dog fight and the people there separated the dogs by hitting them with the plastic chairs!!

Bats:  We see them at dusk in our yard.  So far none has entered the house.

???:  Something that felt cold and wet jumped on my back when I was rounding our house this evening; we had walked on the beach until the sun was down.  I knocked it off with the slippers I was carrying but it was too dark to tell what it was.  I went out with a light but there was nothing there.  I am now writing this sentence two days latter and just saw a big tree frog in our pond – I bet that’s what jumped on my back in the dark!

Birds:  Lots of them.  I’m not very good at bird identification but we have seen birds that look like egrets, kiwis, kingfishers, herons, pigeons, sparrows, black birds, sea gulls, a beautiful blue and turquoise one, etc. etc.

Fish:  We have seen gold fish, minnows and frogs in our pond.  As mentioned earlier, we have seen the fisherman catch fish at our beach but I really don’t know how to identify them.  We’ve seen lots of different fish coming off the boats in the harbors – the biggest ones so far being tuna.  After breakfast we now throw bread crusts to the fish and frog, each day they get braver.

Snakes:  Have not seen any yet but we have found a big snake skin in our yard.

Cows:  Helen said she would write about the mother and baby cows we have in our front yard.

Helen – LAWN MOWERS OR IS IT MOOOERS???

This morning we woke, not to the rooster as is the case most mornings; but instead, to mooing.  When we opened the deck door there were two cows (a mother and calf) tied to two of the palm trees “mooing” our lawn.  As I mentioned before, they were in the yard next door (the smaller of the two rentals); I guess our lawn needed a trim so they moved them either last night or early this morning…that little one has a short lead and is always tying herself up around something.  I think that she is my new pet!!

Yesterday after Tom finished teaching and I working on the diary, we rushed downtown to a sport store recommended by the PE staff.  It was located at the bus station on the second floor where half the shops were vacant.  The Sport Zone was a really small store, maybe 10’x8’.  They had a few swim caps, a couple of goggles, some balls, a few pairs of pants and shirts (we needed pants for teaching and there was not one in Tom’s size or the material he wanted, not to mention no woman’s clothing).  The men here are much smaller in frame structure and this is a problem for Tom.  I bought a swim cap because you have to wear one if you go into a pool.  We went to three other sport stores and still nothing for Tom but I found two pairs of Columbia 70-30% poly-cotton material ¾ length pants to wear in my walking class.  I had priced a similar pair (Columbia) in Dayton last year for $38 and now I paid $6, so I bought two pairs.

We went to ARPICO (a store similar to Kmart on a much, much, much, smaller scale) and bought a chef’s knife (not to worry about me slicing another thumb because it isn’t that sharp) for $2, a 9×13 pan (I think I am going to try to make brownies!!) for $7 (that was expensive), some much needed hangers, sponges (you wouldn’t believe the cheap quality of sponges, lucky if they last two days!) and  a comb and towel for the gym.  It was getting dark now and that makes us nervous because there aren’t street lights so driving is even more hazardous if that is possible.  We still had to go to Food City so I could cook something for dinner.  Stocked up on some vegetables, some chicken thighs, and as we were leaving, Tom noticed Kraft Mac & Cheese…it is awful stuff and I never make it at home but we needed something quick so bought it.  Tom was a happy camper with a not-spicy, slide down your throat food.  I also breaded and fried zucchini slices and made a salad.  After the dishes were done and the kitchen cleaned I was ready for bed before 9pm, Tom worked on lesson plans while I went to bed.  No matter how many times you swim throughout the day, or how many showers you take, you still need a cool shower before going to bed just to get the sweat off.  Then you get inside the net and under the fan and it makes you feel like you have air conditioning!!

 Today is going to be my first teaching day and I have spent the last couple of nights preparing handouts and lecture notes for the Fitness Walking Class, Tom will be on his second lecture for the instructors and his first for the weight training for students.  I don’t know if Tom mentioned the weight room but it doesn’t have any aerobic equipment, just a few strength machines and some free weights.  It makes our fitness center look fabulous!!   He asked each student to bring his own towel to wipe down the equipment and to use as a neck pad for the weights.  He had about 25 students attend; some even participated in street clothes and no shoes.  He made a general announcement about proper attire.

My class was held in the gymnasium for the first day; 17 students attended though several walked in between 15-30 minutes late.  All girls for my class including the physics professor, Kanthi, Vinni, the only full time PE woman staff person who was a national speed walking and 400m champion in her youth (now 49) and Gnana an assistant PE instructor, office administrator, and tea maker (51).  That made me the “over the hill grandmother” who out walked them all on the timed mile that day.  The outside of the gym floor measures 16.5 laps for a mile or 1625m.  I knew counting would be a problem so I gave them 16 tiny beans which they dropped into a dish at the end of each lap and then continued the final ½ lap to the finish.  There is always one in every crowd and she dropped her beans!!  The students will get a certificate of attendance if they make 80 % of the classes.  I guess that this is important for them but we don’t understand why.

Got home about 6:15 and went for a swim because both of our classes were god-awful hot.  We don’t usually go swimming at this time and it was lovely with the setting sun and being the only ones on the beach (which is often the case anyway).  Cooked chicken thighs (again!!) but this time had sautéed onions and potatoes with rosemary and the usual salad.  Dessert today was a treat, two Fig Newtons each!

I forgot to mention that this morning a man and his young daughter came to our driveway arch to pick the yellow flowers and the orange cluster flowers.  They take these as offerings to the Buddha at the temple.  I have seen them before and said hi but this morning I gave the little girl a couple of starburst candies…of course I had one myself!!

Tom – I went to the Matara branch of Hatton National Bank this morning to withdraw some money.  They could not print the transaction on my savings account book because the branches outside of Colombo still do not have that capacity – so, they wrote it on a piece of paper for me.  It was Monday and the bank was crowded.  Even though they moved me right to the front of the line, it still took a half hour to get the cash.

I took a lot of pictures of our house this morning. I have also been taking pictures of the activities on our beach every time I see something interesting.  When I get back to the U.S., I am going to put together a slide show titled “Our Beach.”

Sumathipala (caretaker/security) returned from his vacation today.  He stays in a tiny room attached to the back of our house.  He also cares for the house next door along with Leela.  That will make us feel a lot more comfortable leaving the house.

Helen – well, it’s Monday, Monday (mamas and the papas) and a new routine has begun.  First, our walk on the beach at sunrise.

After our walk, I threw in a load of wash…the machine is an LG brand: has four water levels; has four commands for progress, water fill, wash, spin, no spin; then four more choices for the type of wash, FUZZY (at the top), economy, something else, and wool.  What is FUZZY??? I asked the lady at the hotel and she didn’t know either…so I used economy, set out my drain pipe and let it go to work.  It didn’t wash for very long (economy!!) and some of the little stains didn’t come out but they smelled better.  I can’t find a spray and wash pretreatment (had one in Colombo) in our Food City, so maybe I will have to look somewhere else.  You have to hang the clothes inside out because the sun is so hot; it would cause fading.  While the clothes were washing I did the breakfast dishes, then began to sweep the few rooms that we have.  The floors are tile so it is pretty easy, except the broom is pretty nasty.  Thank goodness one of the Fulbrighters who just left gave me some clothes pins and an iron.  They call clothes pins “pegs” and I guess she had a hard time finding them.  There was an iron on the pantry shelf that had spray and steam as well as duct tape on spots on the wire…you guessed it; it started to work and stopped so thank goodness for the spare.  There is no ironing board so I folded a thin sheet on the table next to the washing machine and ironed there…had to devise a new method for shirts and dresses but I am wrinkle free for a change!!

Here is a picture of our outdoor kitchen

After all this work, I decided to go for a swim before taking a shower.  Is this the life, or what!!  Tom was inside working with the computer while I frolicked in the waves.  Still can’t believe there are no shells on the beach, though this morning I saw two hermit crabs walking on the beach carrying their houses with them.

Decided to try out the new hot shower… if you move the shower head just right, it doesn’t spray over the sink.  Trade off is that you have to smack yourself against the wall to get sprayed…but most of the water now tends to make the drain in the shower stall.  This water temp was heavenly for shaving legs!!

While I was showering, Tom drove to the bank, filled the car with gas ($30) and got four more phone cards for $40…these have been going fast!!!  I mentioned before that it is about $.15/min for the states and $.10/min here in the country.  We are trying to use the house phone for in country calls but people here keep calling us on our cells.

We went to the university dining facility for lunch today.  You have to call before 9:30 to make a reservation…main reason, we were the only ones eating today, so he cooked for just us, go figure!!!  It is a lovely facility at the conference center across the street from the university.  Tom forgot to mention about the spices and could only eat two of the five choices served with the rice.  Dessert was papaya, so ripe and delicious!

At the university, our office was ready for Tom with a computer hookup, but my computer was not there so I am back in the lab.  He is over at the computer center now trying to figure out what the problem is with Wittenberg and his email/files.  Thank heavens he prepared a PowerPoint presentation on his computer and will be able to go over it in the morning at the library to make sure everything is ready for 4:00.  He doesn’t have any idea how many are coming.

Tom – I met with the ITs again this afternoon at the University of Ruhuna.  It seems all my computer problems are related to their system (Surprise?).  I am still unable to tunnel into the Wittenberg server with VPN Client to get my files – they need approval from the Sri Lankan “Computer Learned Society” in order to do this!  The good news is that I can now access my Witt email after disabling the Ruhuna firewall.