May 16, Tuesday, Our Arrival in Moratuwa
After a very pleasant flight over and three choices of breakfast we landed in steamy Katanayaka Airport, Colombo, at 8:30 a.m. Our visas were stamped into our passports and we changed $100 apiece into Sri Lankan rupees (100 rupees to 1 dollar). We were met by Winsor, a sweet and friendly man, who will guide us for our short visit to Sri Lanka and whose village, Kahewa Kurala, we are helping to rebuild. We were driven in an airconditioned van throught the center of Colombo and when I realized we would drive right past the Barefoot Shop we asked to stop there. The shop was as beautiful as ever with shimmering textiles and a wild variety of stuffed toys and a great bookstore and a quiet garden cafe where we had sandwiches and fresh lime sodas.
Then we drove on to the Sarvodaya Headquarters at Moratuwa where we were given guest rooms in the International Hostel. And then, in the early afternoon we all hit a wall and were suddenly dead tired and unable to think clearly. We washed our clothes by hand and hung them on the balcony to dry and took cold showers and fell asleep. Dinner was seven different platters of Sri Lankan food, some of which we recognized (couldn’t tell if one was fish or pork) and all of which tasted marvelous. We ended the meal with sliced fresh mango and slices of sweet pineapple.
And now at 10 p.m., our bodies completely confused, we are going to try to sleep through the muggy Sri Lankan night (our bodies thinking it is American day) under whirling fans and enclosed in mosquito nets. Tomorrow we will explore and the next day the rest of our group will arrive.
DAY 3, ARRIVAL IN MORATUWA
