House with a View III

We completed all the brick and concrete work of the house after seven long months. Roof is the next big item.

On March 25^th , our foreman Karune and carpenter Deepal set the top ridge beam for the roof at the auspicious time given by the Buddhist priest in the village temple. It was preceded by the rituals of lighting lamps, burning incense, etc., and followed by a feast of traditional Sri Lankan delights to all the crew and some neighbors!

Treat for Elders

We sponsored a lunch for residents at an elders home in Kandy. This home operated by a Buddhist organization houses about hundred males and females. They are supplied with everything by the organization and well wishers. They help with household chores.

We were quite impressed by the service provided by this organization, we decided to donate new clothes to all the residents to celebrate the New Year in April.

Caucasian Chalk Circle

When the Drama Festival at open air theatre (Wale Sellam) commenced for the second time we realized that an year has passed since we came to Sri Lanka. We saw four plays including my favorite ‘Caucasian Chalk Circle’. This is an adaptation of a play written by

German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht.

The final act of Azdak's judgment is the theme of Buddhist Jathaka Story and also a story in Old Testament.

Visitor from UC Davis

We planned for many years to conduct a course for students from UC Davis on tropical agriculture at University of Peradeniya, but were unable to launch it due to war situation in Sri Lanka. War having ended we are finally conducting the course in July 2010.

Paul Marcotte, Associate Director of International Programs at UC Davis visited Sri Lanka in January to finalize arrangements. We visited University Dry Zone Farm Campus with Paul.

I am happy about the success of this program which I helped initiate while at UC Davis. We all hope it becomes an annual event!

Presidential Elections

On January 26^th Sri Lanka conducted the 6^th presidential election. Incumbent Mahinda Rajapakse won the election by a wide margin. About 72% of the eligible voters cast their vote. The election was clean and peaceful even though the campaign was not.

Mr. Rajapakse was the strong favorite in rural Sinhalese areas while opposition was favored in big cities and Tamil areas. This result is a tremendous vote of gratitude by the Sinhalese villagers for ending the 27 year old civil war. The villages sacrificed and suffered disproportionately during the war. I visited dry zone villages three days after the elections and they were still celebrating!

Reports in international media seem to accentuate the negatives, continuing the habits developed during the civil war while the country is enjoying the stability and peace.

House with a View II

We are making steady progress in building the house. We hope to complete most of the structural work before the current dry season end in May. The picture shows the site in early January.

New Year

We welcomed the year 2010 by visiting a nearby Buddhist temple. Renuka took care of the rituals while I took some photographs.