Friday, February 28th - Back from Sri Lanka

Our Sri Lanka trip was wonderful. We didn't seem to do much but still saw a lot of things. The country is pretty poor, people don't have a very high income. A lot of people walk around bare feet, which makes it kind of weird when you have someone without shoes serving you in a store. The weather is beautiful, even though it can sometimes feel "too much hot" like they would say. The food was very good and the juices served at breakfast were very different then what we are used to - carrot juice, pineapple juice, papaya, watermelon, mixed fruit. Their local beer, the Lion Lager was very nice and Jacqui liked their local drink, the Arack. Straight up, it tasted like scotch, so she'd have it in a cocktail. We went to look at Gem stones; a lot of them are mined in Sri Lanka. The mines are basically a square hole in the ground, and workers go down and fill buckets with rocks. The buckets are lifted to the surface and the rocks are cut and treated to extract the gems. Obviously, everything is done by hand. Practically all the wood used in buildings is Teak, which is beautiful. It was really a great trip. But now, we're back in Kuwait, and will start teaching on Sunday for three weeks and then it's off to Abu Dhabi for a weekend. Temperatures have warmed up since we left last week; I was wearing shorts and T-shirt today.

Jacqueline cooking a skewer of shrimps on a hot plate - and yes, both glasses on the table are hers!

The biggest of the three pools at the resort, with the Indian Ocean in the background.

One of a few gazebos used for lunch or dinner - also to relax in the afternoon

Having a Lion Beer - a local brew

Jacqui having an Arack sour - Arack is a local drink made from the sap of the coconut tree

Sitting in a tuk-tuk - cheaper and more fun than a taxi

Inside the grocery store in Beruwala - sugar, salt, grains sold in bulk

The main street in Beruwala

Traffic in town!

Sunset on the Indian Ocean

Gems stones in their brut stage - mined in Sri Lanka

Finished products - sapphires (blue) and topaz (white)