everyday lanka

It really feels as though my time in the Maldives with Steve was all a dream. A really happy dream but a dream nonetheless. Either way I had the chance to spend some quality time with my "oldest" friend and see one of the worlds most amazing tropical paradises. Despite a bit of rain, we did some of the most incredible snorkeling and even got a chance to get up close and personal with a mantaray. .as per the picture. So despite the briefness of the adventure, it was a lasting one.

Since my return back to the reality of Sri Lanka and life on the coast, things have been good but busy. Tom and I hosted our first awareness workshop for teachers from the Ministry of Education. This was a huge feat as we had been struggling with obtaining approval from the government since our arrival here. We were expecting 90 or so primary school teachers to attend, but much to our surprise almost 200 showed up. I guess this is a good sign but just made for a very chaotic last few hours. We also had some visitors from one of our project's main funders, a bank from Switzerland and so had to be on our top form. So the workside of life has been busy and finally quite rewarding. We have just two or three workshops left and the majority of our time will be spent monitoring the activities of the training participants. So basically, going to child care centers and playing with the kids. . the fun part of the job.

Other than work, the personal side of things has also been better. I suppose I have had several months of feeling up and down, working through bouts of lonliness, boredom and frustration. But the past couple of months have brought me more happiness than I had expected. I am still struggling at times, homesick and anxious to be back amoung family and friends, but for the most part I am happy. My good friend Wes arrived a couple of weeks ago and so it has been amazing having him here. We headed off to Arugam Bay last weekend for an awesome surf weeknd and tomorrow we'll head up to Colombo via the train. We fly out to Bangkok and then Beijing for the week and so I am pretty excited to get away from the Island for awhile at least. I have just under 4 months left which in part seems like a long time, and on the other hand seems like nothing at all.

The monsoon season should be trailing off giving me the chance to get back out on the surf board and will hopefully mean more to do on the weekends. The rainy season makes the ocean an ugly grey and results in loads of debris on the beaches and in the water. So we haven't been swimming much at all. I'm anxious to get back at it.
Wel, my stomach problems are still plaguing me, despite my 30 day herbal cleanse and so I suppose I will just have to wait until I get home to sort things out. It's pretty disconcerting, but I am not too sure what else to do. Hopefully, it's nothing serious.

Well, life continues to pass us by. I suppose it is the small everyday things that generally make up thr story of our life. For this reason, I hope you are finding laughter and joy in each day.

I'll write again soon. Until then, Be well!
Amelia