The hills are misterious!

Friday afternoon, we all went to the children's home for their Christmas program. See the pics to the right of the kids. I could not believe how amazing the home is! It is on this hillside with the most amazing view of the hills and it is so lush and green. They have a pet peacock and a huge gate at the entrance of the compound with a security guard. This place is not just an orphanage but a safe gorgeous haven. It is the work of God, for the founder Swedish Anna Greta to begin taking 12 children into her home in 1972, and then have it grow into this lovely place. It now has 76 children and they look so happy. When I started to learn about individual (horrible) stories, I was so moved, and then to see them growing up here and to see the older ones who have been married and are now working for Fridsro as loving smart hard-working adults. The Fridsro compound is many large buildings that are gorgeous... the old English colonial architecture. The kids live in dorms with a maitron for each dorm. The kids are so small. Julie has had their food approved by a nutritionalist and doctor, but these kids are still so small in stature. Jade, Julie's 7 year old is way bigger than the 12 year olds.

Their Christmas program was very cute and very long. It had a little bit of a Justin Timberlake influence which cracked me up. Oh, and they did a play about the Christmas story and this one young girl named Harshani who has down-syndrome played a sheep. She was in a full body sheep outfit and the shepherds could not get her to do anything. She just sat in the middle of the stage playing with things and it was so cute!!!

That night I worked on the Fridsro Children's Homes Times which I'll try to attach to the blog.

Saturday, I volunteered with these Swedish and Nigerian girls at a kids' Christmas party. We played all these different silly games, the best of which was wrapping the kids like mummies in toilet paper. That afternoon, Julie and I went to get pedicures at "Adam & Eve's Hair Salon". :) This salon is ran all by woman who grew up at Fridsro and then started the salon for their own business. It was very cute and in a gorgeous location.

The weather has barely been hot so far. Every now and then, a blast of sun will break through the clouds, but for the most part, it has been cloudy, breezy, humid and lovely. The Sri Lankans always refer to it as being misty. One time, I heard it accidentally being called 'misterious'. :)

Kandy is this very hilly, green town with a central city center which really isn't too big, and then houses and streets spread throughout the hills with lovely views. There is Kandy Lake which the Temple of the Tooth is next to. I visited the Temple on Tuesday right before a huge amount of rain dumped! It is supposed to be the dry season now according to the Lonely Planet, but it has rained almost every day, sometimes for the entire day. People have also mentioned that the season are all messed up since the tsunami hit. Or... it could be global warming.

The temple was really beautiful, but much more modest than the temples I am used to seeing in Thailand. It also had a lot of a protection around it since it is in threat of the Tamil Tigers, because it is important to the Sinhala who are Buddhist. I've been learning a lot about the conflict over here and it is definitely not as black and white as I once thought. The Tigers definitely use tactics like terrorists, but the government here and other groups are not all good either. It's a bad situation and very sad, because if the conflict had not started in the 70's, some say Sri Lanka could have been like Singapore.

Last Monday, I went to Colombo for the day with Jake, Jake's father and Rajiv. It was a long trip because of the twists and turns and traffic. Jake and his dad had a meeting, so Rajiv showed me around town and we shopped. There were lots of military out holding rifles. The weather is supposed to be hot but it was actually not too bad out. Colombo is totally different from Kandy, much more Western and modern and multicultural. I saw lots of foreigners. We also went out for a piece of Lemon Meringue Pie and a glass of chardonnay at this lovely cafe ran by a German woman and her Sri Lankan husband. It was also an art gallery and so beautiful... coy ponds, cool decor and an atmosphere right out of The English Patient or something.

Yesterday, I went to get my visa for India. I'm going to visit Priscilla and her husband from January 11 through January 13. The High Commission of India in Kandy is where you get visas and the place was ridiculously disorganized. It takes a few days to get the visa so I'm hoping it is ready before I leave. It took all of yesterday morning just organizing it!!! I was so frustrated but a part of like in Asia.

Last night, I made lots of progress on the work Jake has given me so that was good. It's super cute! But it feels to be wierd on a computer while in Sri Lanka!

Tonight we are having a Xmas party and white elephant exchange with all the missionaries and it should be lots of fun! Supposedly, there is an infamous Kama Sutra book that gets passed around each year. We have lots of Swedish sweets made by Anna Greta (she looks just like Mimi and I got misty-eyed when I gave her a hug). Right now, Jade and I are at this hotel's top floor bar doing some work... me typing and she doing school books while eating fries and drinking coffee milkshakes!!!!

More later... love you all, G
Kisses!!!