On May 24th we visited Tangalle, a town chosen by AFLAC to be a partner for its fisherman's aid program. Many fishermen lost their boats and thus their livelihood in the Tsunami, and AFLAC had decided to hold the giving away ceremony in conjunction with our visit.

Entries: Jenny, Jason

Ok so after the drama camp- ½ day at work. I was feeling a little roughness in my throat. We chilled in/by the pool until we left for mevan’s bday thing. We met his dad, Elmo, this enlightened-type character, his mom, and other heads of Aflac. They were so hospitable, friendly, and smiling. Tried lots of good wine too. So I was smiling too. More nonflushing problems.

I woke up yesterday morning sick, so stayed in bed for sweaty napping. The others weren’t doing so hot either. Morg (threw up) and Nelly both had stomach and bowel problems. We all slept. Morg was really weak and feverish and I wasn’t feeling dandy either so stayed in with her instead of accompanying the others to see the lights at the temple. Nothing makes me miss my mom as much as being sick. I guess I’m spoiled about that. Jason Keith and Fabian came in later that night though and gave us a goodnight song dance and story. Muy dulce. I tend to start speaking Spanish when my extremely limited Singhala gives out. You just end up throwing whatever you got out there. Ya never know…

Despite these health issues.. right now I feel like I’m living life to the fullest. Better, I’m realizing this while it is still happening. As I sit here on the balcony writing with Morg the leafer. And that is very satisfying, wonderful, and rare for me. I always feel like there’s something more to be done, something missing, something left behind. But now I am fully in the present, alert and fully appreciative. There is the argument that we aren’t doing all we could… but I still cant help this feeling. There is some value to everything we’ve been doing—it might not be the tangible physical results people appreciate more, but it is something.

Today we got up at 5 to go on a 3 hr trip to Tangalle. I was congested the whole way. Even watching mulan didn’t help. We saw the fisherman boat giving ceremony, and went on the maiden voyage of the boats. In bw the fishermen prepared sri lankan sweets for us. After, we went to a fisherman’s home and had a full on FEAST. It was so generous! No matter how bad they’ve had it…

Hand tired. We went back to the hotel, which has an amazing view of rocks, ocean, and beach. Climbed the rocks and sang the little mermaid tune. Beach rugby.

I am really dark now. Deeeelicious. Mmm boy will my momma jump for joy. Oy, accidental rhyme… doing that makes me feel like tweedledee or dum.

-Jenny

Today began sooo early, at 5 AM as we awoke to the thunderous sound of a vociferous monsoon. We ate a small breakfast, packed up, and left to go to Southern Sri Lanka for today's excursion. I thought I was tired enough to sleep on the bus, but somehow I only fell asleep for 20 minutes towards the end of the ride.

The whole way there, pretty much, Tom and I listened to a bunch of music on my iPod and sporadically I attempted unsuccessfully to read my book, Siddahartha. Three hours later, we first stopped at a hotel in Galle called the Lighthouse. Its view was quite spectacular, to the south of Sri Lanka. There were rocks that constantly were pounded by waves and it was almost poetic and soothing. Off we went again until we got to our hotel called Tangella Bay which was set up like a hotel ship. However, it was designed in the 70's and probably never fixed up since. Needless to say it was an interesting experience. We were in cabin 4. But, before we could move in we went to a presentation at the College of Fishing and Nautical Engineering. WE were greeted by a group of little kids bearing flowers for the girls. We were then led into classroom 1 which had a throng of people and a sign welcoming UPenn to the ceremony. The delegate of honor was the Deputy Minister of the Fisheries, from the JVP, and he barely spoke a word of English.

In Sri Lanka, it is traditional for the 7 honored persons to light a candle on a certain special, ornamental, oil lamp. Elmo, the Deputy Minister, Crazy Uncle, Ish, Summit, Myself and another guy lit the candles and then there were a bunch of speeches given, all in Singalese.

After leaving the college, we drove into the more rural residential areas and attended a Fisherman's personal home for lunch. His family was incredibly hospitable and actually prepared a feast for us. We left some money behind for the meal, said thank-you, and departed to go back to the Hotel.

We hung out for a few hours, had dinner, and shortly thereafter, I got really tired and passed out at about 10:30-11PM

-Jason