Sri Lanka 2

A lot has happened since I last wrote. I've had two trips to other parts of Sri Lanka, both were hot and long (4 and 10 hrs), but rewarding. In Kandy, I got a chance to stay two nights on a campus in a tropical setting, where they have students from both Tamil and Sinhalise langauges, so their chapel services are a series of prayers alternating languages and then singing in English, with a sermon traslated into one or the other. I also got to eat Sri Lankan style, scooping rice mixed with curry in your hands after you've mashed it up a bit... One of the most interesting dishes was a stack of crepe like things that were formed into a bread bowl with an egg fried in the base. Then curry and fish soup is poured in and the whole thing is eaten. They also have noodle patties that go well with the different types of curry dishes (pretty spicey).

Also in Kandy, I went to the Temple of the Tooth, where the Buddha's left tooth relic is kept. It was interesting, but was under heavy security as the country has a lot of ethnic tensions these days...

Next I took an overnight train to Trincomalee on the East coast of the island. There I saw some of the devestating effects of the Tsunami and civil strife. Things are more safe in this area now, but there is a lot of work to be done still. There are many Tsunami vicitim village developments around, but some are left empty because they never got power and water, and are too far from the coast. The seminary that I visited was quite passionate and committed to training pastors to serve this needy part of the country and I was welcomed very warmly and given lots of useful insight into contextualization of theological education. A big theme from this seminary was to send the pastors out to their villages with sound theological training, but also other skills to be a multi-resource for the community.

The overnight train ride back to Colombo turned out to be all the adventure I could hope for. There was a problem with the tracks because of heavy rain, so I had to get off the train in the middle of the night, get on a packed train with standing room only for several hours, get back off the train and take a 3 hour ride in a covered mo-ped cab in the pouring rain, but I got back to a Colombo after 12 hours of travel... Things that suprised me on the trip were so many monkeys, rice fields, and some peacocks...

Sri Lanka 1

Well, here in Sri Lanka things are all warm and sunny. I've been staying at a seminary in the capital of Colombo. The people have been very nice and welcoming. The campus is fairly new and well kept, but they only have commuter students, so there haven't been a lot of people around to talk to. I have seen monkeys jumping through the trees though and am getting used to cars coming at me on the left side of the road.

On Sunday I met a guy who is working with immigrants from Maldives, another nation of small islands to the West of the Indian subcontinent. Unfortunately, the country is in self-denial about a huge heroine problem the young people are having. It's estimated that 80% of the young adult males are heroine addicts. So this guy is working with young men in a rehab program for Maldivian immigrants. But he is discouraged right now as there aren't many making progress.

Yesterday I had lunch with a lecturer who was quite interested in my project, and he introduced me to another US student who is doing a similar project about seeing how the traditional Sri Lankan drum can be re-integrated into worship services. It is played quite lively, but is associated with budhist rituals and so hasn't been embraced by the church previously. Very interesting...

This is a picture of a man named Dyonis, who is the care taker of the school and basically looks after me. He is quite sweet although only speaks in single word sentences in English. We've had some fun though still.

This afternoon (tuesday) I leave the heat of the coast and go up to the higher inland section of Sri Lanka, to Kandy. There are some famous temples up there and a Bible School I will stay at over night.