December 16, 2012

Sitting here in the rain sipping my bed tea. Seems like a good time to blog.

Yesterday was a full day. I think I may have found my house at last. It is located on an old tea estate in the hills above Kandy called Hantana. In typical Sri Lankan style, we go up there only to find that no one has a key to get in the house. It looks good from the outside. The owner is coming up from Colombo today with they key and I should be able to get into it early this afternoon. It would be nice to get settled.

Then it was off to the Kawasaki's for lunch. They are friends of Amal's who have lived here for years. They are both from the States and have lived all over the world. They teach ESL to Burmese refugees primarily and are very involved with the Burmese opposition movement. Interesting people. I think they will become good friends.

Next came an experience I could have done without. Kumara, the butler at Gunfire has contracted dengue fever and is in Kandy General Hospital. Amal wanted to visit him and give him some healing so I went with him. OMG!! The good news is that the ward was relatively clean and did not stink. The bad news is that there are at least 50 beds on the ward and every peson has his whole village visiting at any given time. Heaven only knows how the staff do their work. Kumara alone had me, Amal, Mahendra (Amal's driver), Kumara's wife, some other friend and then 2 Buddhist monks with him.TTYe beds are cramped together so that half of the visitors are on the bed with the patient. Of course, the hospital has not food so that has to be brought in by relatives. Two beds down, some poor guy had tried to commit suicide by drinking pesticide but had survived. Altogether not a pretty scene.

Thankfully, we actually spoke with a doctor. That is something that would never happen in Canada. He is present on the ward at all times. He was pleasant and competent. Kumara seems to be receiving good care and the doctor says he is getting clinically better. His lab tests seem to be improving as well. Today is the last critical day, so hopefully he will be out of the woods within a day or two and will be able to come back to Gunfire to be cared for here.

Then it was off to Arpico to do some shopping. After the hospital, that was surreal. For one thing the place if fully decorated for Christmas and there are Christmas carols blaring over the loudspeakers. Anyway, we got that done. I had a chance to check out the furniture and the linens, both of which are crap. I will be getting my furniture made. Amal said he would take me down to Colombo with the SUV to do my basic supply shopping. I can just get what I want and fill up the truck.

After that it was getting Kumara's lab work done. There are no lab facilities in the hospital. Hospital care is free, but nothing else is. You have to take the sample to the lab yourself and then pick up the results and take them to the doctor. I won't even go into the hygienic state of the labs. I am amazed that every sample does not come back with some sort of pathogen in it.

By the time we got back home it was 1930 and I had been on the go since 1000. We had dinner and then watched Sherlock Holmes. Got to sleep around 0100. Never a dull moment. Thank god Kandy's climate is so mild. You could never do this in Colombo.

The rain has stopped and the sun is starting to come out. Time for a workout. I have been managing to work out almost every day and have lost about 10 pounds. Still have ways to go, but it feels good. Only thing is I need my kurtas taken in already.