cutlet

Hi everyone! We are currently sitting in Cathy’s hotel room. It is paradise. Well, it’s your average hotel room. But compared to the broken door and dirty everything at our hotel, it’s like heaven! We are all alive and well, but covered in bug bites. We each have from 5-20. Good times!

Yesterday we split up and spent the night in host family’s homes and hung out with them for the day. Melissa and Tali went together, as did Emily and I. Michelle went by herself, bless her heart. It was a really interesting experience for all of us!

Melissa and Tali: What an adventure we had! The family we stayed with was compiled of a Father, Mother, Grandmother, and 6 beautiful daughters. The eldest daughter, Natasha, first took us shopping at a local department store she and her friends enjoy shopping at. Then we went out to eat delicious ice cream and enjoy the company of some of her friends. We then were picked up by her family’s personal driver who drove us to a nearby fruit stand to try some foreign fruit. It was red and prickly, but tasted exquisite!

From there, onward we went to settle in at their humongous house. This was seriously the most beautiful house we have ever seen! It had windows EVERYWHERE, and they all looked out into lush gardens.  Needless to say, we were in awe when we showed up because we thought we would be sleeping in huts in the jungle or something of the sort.  We put all of our stuff down and as we went to the dining area to eat and meet the rest of the family, we noticed an interesting sight out of one of the windows.  A large gathering of Muslim men in long, white robes appeared to be playing cricket. Apparently, these men can be seen all throughout the day enjoying this national sport.  We found these conservative Muslim men breaking a sweat to be quite comical.

Upon arriving downstairs, we were shocked when the Mother and Grandmother brought out pancake tacos for us to eat. Seriously! They use pancakes as the shell, then put on the chicken, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and ketchup. It started pouring torrential rain, so we ran outside and did what the girls call, “taking a rain bath.” We got soaking wet, but it was so worth it! Once we got our “wash,” the girls decided to have us try on their clothes, and do our hair and makeup for their school’s fair that night. The fair, although a bit boring at first, ended up being very enjoyable! It was a good taste of what some of the fun activities Sri Lankan students partake in.

After we maxed out on the evening festivities, all 8 of us piled into the family van and were toted back to the house. When we thought the evening was about to come to a close, little did we know a new adventure awaited us! The water went out in the house, so in order to bathe we all put on these traditional Sri Lankan tribal garments that women out in remote villages wear to wash, and we headed out into the backyard and got hosed down. It was freezing! At least it was refreshing in the warm Sri Lankan night air. Then all 8 of us piled into a bedroom (5 of us slept on one bed!) watched some TV, then drifted off into a deep sleep. Overall, the experience was eye-opening and absolutely magical.

 

Heather and Emily: We went to the home of Ashane! She is this really sweet girl who goes to Mattakkuliya with us and serves as our translator. She had THE coolest house, ever. It was small compared to the house Melissa and Tali stayed in, but it was what was in it that made it cool. She had a garden in her living room. As in, this quaint little corner with an open ceiling and greenroom feel where they keep plants. No big deal. They also had one in the dad’s room and in Ashane’s room and upstairs in this cool open-air loft thing. Half of the house is still being built, so there is a lot of brick wall everywhere. We love it.

She has four brothers, but Sharon (sha-RON) was our favorite. He is 8 and likes dinosaurs and this Sri Lankan cartoon called Ben 10. He also likes eating prawn shells (“extra calcium!”). He is the cutest little thing! Oh, but he doesn’t like Harry Potter. Dumb.

Ashane’s mother is really cute. We told her that most of the food that we have eaten since we have been in Sri Lanka has been way too spicy for our taste, so she made us the BEST Sri Lankan meal we have ever eaten. She made delicious prawns, hoppers (a yummy thin fried bread kind of thing), rice, lady’s fingers, and curried carrots and potatoes. Goodness gracious. It was heaven.

We took a walk around Ashane’s neighborhood and Sharon told us that there is this lake he likes to fish at with his brothers. So we told him to lead the way…and we were walking down the dirt road, when all of a sudden we turn the corner and there is this huge, stunningly gorgeous lake surrounded by tons of lush plants and trees right in front of us! It was so breathtaking. We explored around it for a little and then Ashane’s boyfriend magically appeared on a motorcycle. We met him and talked to him for a little. His name is David and he sings in a metallica band…he was super nice. Except he also hates Harry Potter. What is it with Sri Lankans and not liking quality literature?!

The rest of our time was great. We watched Gossip Girl with her older brother and were generously fed a ton of food by his mother. We also filmed Sharon being hilarious- if we can get it on YouTube we certainly will. We are both glad we got to be thrust into Sri Lankan culture and experience what home and social life are like!

 

Michelle: I stayed with a girl named Deena and her folks. After taking me to the hip shopping spots we went back to her home (with her personal driver – how cool!) where her mother cooked us a delicious Sri Lankan meal. The father was absolutely adorable and was quite the talker and her mother was so sweet. She kindly catered to my non-meat preferences, which meant tons of vegetable curries – yum! We then went with her brother and sister-in-law back to their apartment and on the way they bought me local fruit that I’d never seen before from the vendors on the side of the street. One fruit was red and spiky and the other was a plum-color; once peeled, they were SO good! (Heather: Ashane’s mom gave me those too- I fell in love.) They then took me to the beach but the ocean came right up to the edge of the walk so we couldn’t walk along the sand. There was a grassy area and people were flying kites. T’was quite nice. Ab kay nam kayah hay!

 

We all met up at this school fair that the youth were all at. There were little stands such as a “Dunkin Booth,” a Horror House, a photo booth, etc. It was really quaint and cute. And later in the evening they had a dance floor and we busted a move with Sri Lankan teens. Emily got this kid who was sitting alone to come in and dance, it was so cute! His excuse was that he was a bad dancer but there was this one moment where he was totally into it and everyone was watching him and he loved it! It was precious. It was really interesting and fun to experience what Sri Lankan teenagers do for fun. They are all just like us! They’re into the same music and movies, which I personally was not expecting. It has been a really fun past few days, and this week we will be back at Mattakkuliya and we’ll also be going to an orphanage to help out there and hang with the kids. Fun times ahead! Sorry this took so long, like we said, the internet is not our friend in Sri Lanka. Hopefully we’ll get the hang of it soon. Goodbye for now!