Bachelor Party – Sri Lanka Style

Yesterday I received a gem of an invitation, I was asked to go to a Bachelor Party. I happily accepted, as I thought this would be a great opportunity to get better acquainted with a colleague of mine at Sarvodaya. Also, I hope to attend a Sri Lankan wedding –...

Funny Boy

For the past week the international community has been trying to grapple with a number of questions revolving Sri Lanka’s civil war. Namely, how were they so unaware of the scale of civilian casualties in the final months of the war? It is estimated that 40,000...

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has come and gone in Sri Lanka, largely it was unnoticed. In an attempt to share some American culture with my students, I decided that the entirety of my classes today would be based on the American festival of Thanksgiving. I began class by writing the...

Isolation

Trinco is quite unlike Sri Lanka’s Southern cities. For most of the past thirty some odd decades it was cut off from the rest of the country, isolated due to the Civil war. There aren’t many restaurants in town, and stepping foot in the heart of the city...

Plain Tea

Tea is life in Sri Lanka. It’s always tea time. When you wake up tea is served, when you meet someone tea is served. Sri Lanka grows some amazing teas, mostly of the black variety. Green tea is grown here, but mostly for export. If you want to buy green tea...

Trinco Town

Last Monday I arrived at Sarvodaya’s headquarters in Moratuwa. I had been staying with a few other Fulbrighters who rented a house in Colombo, and I had enjoyed a great weekend strolling about town. I was all packed, and my car arrived at eight in the morning. When I...