Sri Lanka!

Not just Sri Lanka, but Columbo, which is the largest city (though not the capital)
in this beautiful friendly country.  The people are as friendly as in Vietnam, and
the traffic is about as crazy, but with more trucks and 3-wheelers (little three
wheel trucks they use as taxis).

The homes here are often covered in corrugated sheet metal, with patchwork quilt
appearance from above.  We got a tour through a university (possibly named Kabilla)
and it started raining (we're in monsoon season now) so little red muddy rivers
formed between the trees.  We got to do some drumming with cool drumsticks with
rings for the mallet part that give a good springy feel and a nice clear drum
cadence.

==========--------.=.
                 /   \
                |     |   <--- hollow ring
                 \___/

The next 'workshop' type thing was dancing, and we learned dance moves with really
long names like "tagatondata" and "wakaranakatta" which we had seen before in a
cool performance that I got on video (though from an oblique angle), with awesome
dance moves involving legs and arms, and quite stable torso.  I really got into the
dancing and got all sweaty as had the dancers.  I'm really glad to have several new
types of moves to add to my Rob's Crazy Dance.  Looking forward to throwing down
some new moves at the next party!

We loaded into busses and rolled to a nice hotel with all male waitstaff in the
dining area.  I actually only saw one female working there; she was working at the
entrance like behind the reception counter.  Talking to some of the students who
joined us from the university, I learned that parents are pretty strict with when
their kids can go out.  There's no 'dating' as we have in the US.  Arranged
marriages are on the decline, but still common enough that they have a name for the
others: "love marriages."  All the women at our table were proponents of love
marriage.

I sat next to Kapila, a professor of Russian on campus, who is the leader of the
dance troup called NATANDA.  His muscle tone is fabulous; I was ready to play ball
for the other team after seeing his arms!  Oh my gosh.  He knows at least three
languages: Russian, English and Singalese.  Eranjala, who sat on my left knows
Japanese, German, English and Sinhalese.  Wow wow wow.  I'm wondering if I can
catch up and become fluent in a few languages.  I'll have to work harder than I
have been.

The dinner was lovely; various types of curry and two types of rice.  Then a cool
bowl of rice, and by that I mean a bowl made out of rice-flour batter cooked in a
bowl shape.  So much potential for cereal, hats, pitas, and even curry.  Dessert
included a fruit salad and some kind of yummy mushy brownies and some sweet yummy
custardy tapioca, plus treacle ("tree-kul") a white blubbery yummy delight made
with honey from a tree.

- - - -

The GET students did presentations on yukatas and tea ceremony and bon odori (a
traditional Japanese dance).  I particularly enjoyed the tea ceremony one because I
helped Suzuko write her speech before she presented the ceremony.  Most interesting
is that it took three minutes for her to prepare a bowl of tea. A real tea ceremony
takes two or three *hours*, and includes preparing the meal before the tea.

- - - -

Recently on the boat, things have settled from a hectic busy chaotic state to a
busy state.  We've come into a stabilized schedule and actually have a day off
tomorrow.  (We have days off from teaching while in ports and the days after most
ports.)

Last night was the last night we got to see Kamau, a hip hop artist from San
Francisco who now lives in Bali. He has been presenting a workshop on poetry for
the few weeks he's been onboard.  The passengers had an open mic night last night,
and some of them wrote poems honoring his work.  Pretty fun.  He performed a
rap-poem called Lone Gunman, which is raw and wild, describing the days he broke
away from his crew to do his own thing: they were still into the drug scene and he
was working hard to produce some records.  I recorded it; I didn't get his
permission to transcribe it though.

- - - -

My underwater camera case has been a good investment.  We've not gone diving, but
even just in the pool we've had lots of fun taking silly pictures and video of our
antics.  When taking video, the sounds are quite clear. fun stuff!

- - - -

My GET classes (each GET teacher has two classes) are bonding nicely.  At 9:30am I
meet with Cheerful Dancing Fellows, and we went up for drinks a couple nights ago
in Hemmingway Bar.  Last night I met with my 12:30pm class, Happy Wonderful Girls,
and I was happy to play a wonderful game of Silent Football with them!  I am
honestly surprised with how quickly they picked up the game, and am really looking
forward to getting some more games going with more people and more errors upon
which to tattle.

- - -

I've recorded 4.25 cassette tapes worth of stuff; I think each tape is 120 minutes
long.  One is nearly filled with conversations, including one with LeLy Hayslip,
author of Heaven and Earth, which was made into a movie by Oliver Stone.  After
getting herself started with the book and movie, she has started a foundation and
opened orphanages and hospitals..  and all this in only 20 years.  I feel inspired
that I can do great things, though I still don't know what I want to do yet.

- - - -

There is so much more I'm sure, though time is short.

Love and Light
   - Rob!