Good-bye Andy... have fun in Kandy!

Well, today was the day we took Andy to Kandy.

Her bf was here so we spent the day being tourists and went to Mt. Lavinia. We were given the advice from our Sri Lankan friends to enter through a hotel so that we would be safer in the company of other tourists. We didn't fully grasp the importance of this until we entered through the hotel & came out on the locals side. I can tell you the stares that you get while in a locked SUV with a Sri Lankan as your driver are not easy enough to ignore but being two white blonde girls (and Dave) on the beach with 20 SL teenagers who think that white= Baywatch is another story.
We scurried over the rocks to the other side. where we found security guards watching the beach so that we did not have to worry about theft/harassment when they went swimming and left me alone or when I get swimming (undercurrent). The beach was beautiful and got melooking forward to Matara.
Dropping off Andy today, I got to check out her center & accommodations which look really great. Her apartment is huge- 2 bedrooms, 2 toilets, and a huge open front room & deck with a gorgeous view of the surrounding mountains. This apartment costs about $150 (and that is after inflation!)... I am so retiring here! Anyway, I hope that I can, at some point, visit her. Kandy is much cooler, much greener then where I will be going and where she will be living and working seems very safe, being outside of Kandy-town.
On the way home Harshani asked me if I wanted to stay for a year because there is a position open at the INDECOS office. I told her that it is tempting at this point but I think that the honeymoon phase I'm in could come to an end any day now, although I shouldn't manifest that. It's just that right now I am loving everything about this place. And it feels like the culture shock is not going to be in SL but in Canada when I get home and I am reminded that men don't hold hands and wear skirts; two cars normally pass on a 2 lane road, not 3, or even 4; babies & children are not normally held on the front of fast ridden motorbikes; and shoulders, knees, and body parts in general, are not hidden under layers of protection.
But the biggest culture shock that I will probably experience in Canada is that in a country one of your best advantages is being able to eat nearly ANYTHING in the world and we have somehow managed to come up with the idea of eating plastic (mayonaise) laden burgers. EW!
And worse, we spread this idea into these other countries like a fast spreading disease. India is actually becoming one of the biggest diabetic nations and I don't think this is from curry!
I already want to retreat back to Chilaw village and choose the floor for sleep and the sun for light so that I can eat fish, coconut, tomatoes, pineapple and greens and dance/laugh/sing year round.
Oh ya! So, I was talking to Harsh and I decided I am going to buy a ton of cards to help this community fund so email me if you want to buy any cards- they are paper mache with nice paper designs on them & cost about 50 cents each. I don't know how many to get... 100?200? 400? so I can gage it a bit if anyone shows interest. Or I can just use them as my seasonal for the rest of my life. They're really pretty and the cause itself should really make the most loyal brand monger want to see ya to Halmark!!! I'll explain the details more when I get home.