Entries this day: Dream GET_Challege_Sri_Lanka Kisen_limit Sri_Lanka! after_Sri_Lanka bye-bye hitomi_letter the_departure_party zzzz_Sri_Lanka

Dream

7:00am LKT Monday 06 June 2005

I was in a large hallway, and giving a piggyback ride to a girl to climb down a thing next to my room. I was outside my room, facing my room and using it as leverage to lower myself down with her on my back. The first time she had tried to get on my back at the wrong location; the first time I told her to get on, she was like, "no" and then then she tried to get on in an all fucked up way and I was like, "no get on like this" and I was lowering her down and bracing myself and going down a little hill with little steps like d d d d d d d and we were going down a long hallway and I had a blue laser light pointer and I was shining it on the ground and tried to shine down the hallway but I couldn't see that far away. There were some science experiments and some audio science experiments so I was shining the light on a rotating record inside this enclosed thing and the guy who was monitoring it was like, "oh, please don't do that," and I was like, "ah shit; I'm sorry; I thought it was just audio and wouldn't be affected," but I didn't get a response from him, but oh well. I walked back down the thing and Josh from PB arrived, and his beard was really long and I ran up to him and was like, "Josh! Josh! Guess what? I can tell you and Joel apart!" but he didn't respond to me, and I was like, "oh (sigh) oh well" and I went back to the main food area to get food, but he had just taken it away, although to be clear, he had asked me first; he was like, "hey Rob; do you want anything else? I'm about to take it away," and I was like, "naw; I'm okay" because I was busy at that moment and I didn't want to make him wait. So I went in there and there was no food, but I knew Coral, who I had helped; she was like, "ooo ooo you're so strong blah blah blah" and I put her hand on my calf and I flexed it for her and she was like, "wow" and then my alarm went off.

GET Challege Sri Lanka

7:30am LKT Monday 06 June 2005

I'm copying images and video to CD for Lely Heyslip. I'm glad people added stuff to the pile.

8:00am LKT Monday 06 June 2005

We are in Sri Lanka, another 4th floor exit, meaning they don't have the facilities for us to exit into an air conditioned building. They gotta bunch of cranes and shit, corrugated roof warehouses, and looks like four story apartments over there. It's raining like crazy.

9:05am LKT Monday 06 June 2005

On the GET Challenge Tour bus and the guy is telling us the history; he's telling it in such a complicated way that I can't keep track and Josh, doing the translation is having to simplify and water down the history into abridged footnotes of what he is saying. I don't even know wtf he is saying.

10:03am

We are on campus now, and Udare is giving us a campus tour. It's raining pretty effectively .. Well, no that's not true; it's sprinkling, but the rooves are collecting rain and dumping it down in concentrated areas. I don't know the name of the campus yet, but we just met a professor who is teaching MS word today. I think he said this entire set of buildings is dedicated to the MS Office package and I'm thinking, man; do something *real*, like some more peaceful operating system like Macintosh or something. but they have *classes* on MS Word and Excel and the whole bit. He said they are teaching VB and Java and C++ depending on which department they are in. Same as any university in the United States.

The walls feel like concrete and are all painted a flat yellow, like light beige. There's a Sri Lankan flag that's all faded. My rabbit (from Colleen) thinks he should be on it instead of the lion.

"Magenama Rob" (Spanish pronunciation) in Sri Lankan = my name is Rob.

10:27am

We are supposed to be back in 3 minutes. Ha.

We've been doing an abbreviated campus tour due to the rain, although a lot of the time it was just sprinkling, but that kept many of this group from venturing outside.

Some magnolia trees here by the library are beautiful and lush, though for some reason the ground below them has very little grass. Do they block that much light? The ground has turned into little muddy rivulets carving paths through the red clay soil. I'm basically soaked, but still in good spirits, though a bit worried about my voice recorder. I trust it will continue to be all good. I've kinda got it protected with my hat. Which means my head is not protected. Some passengers tried to give me an umbrella, but I have no way to carry it and my tape recorder and my hat, plus this little bit of rice something something (roti) I got for lunch.

10:42am

We are standing underneath this roof, and it is *definitely* raining now. I am impressed with the intensity. It's pretty windy, too. The rain is coming down at about a 35 degree angle.

- - - -

We are sitting in the stands of a stadium that I think is a cricket pitch (if pitch is the right name for cricket games).

The woman addressing us has a lilting accent that slurps up to a high pitch at the end of some sentences. She's telling us about stuff, including that educatiion through university level is free. Yuuka is translating her lecture into Japanese.

- - - -

We are standing in the middle of the cricket field, and we are definitely in the path of any raindrops that happen to come down this direction. There is a small covered area to which everyone will flock if it starts to rain. Like, "shoooop"

We are learning some traditional dance thing.

12:36pm

We just did Joy To The World, which everyone seemed to enjoy, and I was reallly glad that the practice session went so well when we practiced it the other day (was that just yesterday?) I want to trade contact information with the dance instructor. He is awesome.

They taught us drumming with cool drum mallets shaped like Os and then a cool dance which I continued to do during the part where they showed girls how to put on the skirt things. I put one on anyway; they said it was okay even though I was soaked in sweat.

12:58pm

We are on the bus now and Josh had to walk with a different group to a bus that had to park on the street.

The tour leader guy is saying the water pulled back about 1/2 kilometer on Tsunami Day. Yikes. I wonder what it would be doing normal waves at that juncture. Seems like it should. Hmmmmm.

For dinner we had four types of curry and edible bowls made of some baked tortilla type things.

Architecture in Colombo reminds me of Mexico. I don't have any basis for saying that since I have only been to one border town. There are no really tall buildings - maybe four stories.. Lots of old buildings with brick base and facing coming off the front. Lots of variety - tile, digital printers, salons, hinges, beauty suppy, lumber, grass, 1 story hotels, banks, houses with trees, .. I can't really distinguish this from Vietnam, but there are more cars here and fewer motorcycles. And the written language is different. Stuff is nicer here; I can say that. There is a parking lot full of backhoes I just saw, but we wouldn't see that in Vietnam; at least not in Da Nang. There's just not enough money to have that. Lots of trucks and busses.

- - - -

We just said bye to a bunch of students who joined us from the campus for dinner.

- - - -

We went to a temple in the middle (?) of the city. I had been pretty interested in seeing it; Buddhism sounded like a pretty fly religion to me. something I could get into, for people aren't worried about nothin' and just live their lives and allow what comes to come.

Or so I thought. I was surprised by the number of abject people begging quietly for money. I am sure I'd be begging for money slash food if I suddenly gave up all my stuff, but.. I dunno; I was just surprised.

The temple was quite beautiful, to be sure. I was impressed with the big tree, representing the one under which Buddha sat when he was enlightened.

- - - -

I just saw a railroad track as we crossed it, and it was being used as a sidewalk by people, though it looked like trains could still use it. No trees or big plants growing through the ties between the rails, and no rust on the rails. How often do trains pass here?

- - - -

I've seen very few people smoking, it seems. Bamboo scaffolding. Dogs in the streets with extra long teets.

Kisen limit

9:16pm LKT Monday 06 June 2005

Petra and I are zooming back to the boat; we have 14 minutes. Super high spirits; we are toooootally genkied up. We are running to the boat now. It is critical that we be on the boat before 9:30.

Sri Lanka!

Sri Lanka!

Not just Sri Lanka, but Columbo, which is the largest city (though not the capital)
in this beautiful friendly country.  The people are as friendly as in Vietnam, and
the traffic is about as crazy, but with more trucks and 3-wheelers (little three
wheel trucks they use as taxis).

The homes here are often covered in corrugated sheet metal, with patchwork quilt
appearance from above.  We got a tour through a university (possibly named Kabilla)
and it started raining (we're in monsoon season now) so little red muddy rivers
formed between the trees.  We got to do some drumming with cool drumsticks with
rings for the mallet part that give a good springy feel and a nice clear drum
cadence.

==========--------.=.
                 /   \
                |     |   <--- hollow ring
                 \___/

The next 'workshop' type thing was dancing, and we learned dance moves with really
long names like "tagatondata" and "wakaranakatta" which we had seen before in a
cool performance that I got on video (though from an oblique angle), with awesome
dance moves involving legs and arms, and quite stable torso.  I really got into the
dancing and got all sweaty as had the dancers.  I'm really glad to have several new
types of moves to add to my Rob's Crazy Dance.  Looking forward to throwing down
some new moves at the next party!

We loaded into busses and rolled to a nice hotel with all male waitstaff in the
dining area.  I actually only saw one female working there; she was working at the
entrance like behind the reception counter.  Talking to some of the students who
joined us from the university, I learned that parents are pretty strict with when
their kids can go out.  There's no 'dating' as we have in the US.  Arranged
marriages are on the decline, but still common enough that they have a name for the
others: "love marriages."  All the women at our table were proponents of love
marriage.

I sat next to Kapila, a professor of Russian on campus, who is the leader of the
dance troup called NATANDA.  His muscle tone is fabulous; I was ready to play ball
for the other team after seeing his arms!  Oh my gosh.  He knows at least three
languages: Russian, English and Singalese.  Eranjala, who sat on my left knows
Japanese, German, English and Sinhalese.  Wow wow wow.  I'm wondering if I can
catch up and become fluent in a few languages.  I'll have to work harder than I
have been.

The dinner was lovely; various types of curry and two types of rice.  Then a cool
bowl of rice, and by that I mean a bowl made out of rice-flour batter cooked in a
bowl shape.  So much potential for cereal, hats, pitas, and even curry.  Dessert
included a fruit salad and some kind of yummy mushy brownies and some sweet yummy
custardy tapioca, plus treacle ("tree-kul") a white blubbery yummy delight made
with honey from a tree.

- - - -

The GET students did presentations on yukatas and tea ceremony and bon odori (a
traditional Japanese dance).  I particularly enjoyed the tea ceremony one because I
helped Suzuko write her speech before she presented the ceremony.  Most interesting
is that it took three minutes for her to prepare a bowl of tea. A real tea ceremony
takes two or three *hours*, and includes preparing the meal before the tea.

- - - -

Recently on the boat, things have settled from a hectic busy chaotic state to a
busy state.  We've come into a stabilized schedule and actually have a day off
tomorrow.  (We have days off from teaching while in ports and the days after most
ports.)

Last night was the last night we got to see Kamau, a hip hop artist from San
Francisco who now lives in Bali. He has been presenting a workshop on poetry for
the few weeks he's been onboard.  The passengers had an open mic night last night,
and some of them wrote poems honoring his work.  Pretty fun.  He performed a
rap-poem called Lone Gunman, which is raw and wild, describing the days he broke
away from his crew to do his own thing: they were still into the drug scene and he
was working hard to produce some records.  I recorded it; I didn't get his
permission to transcribe it though.

- - - -

My underwater camera case has been a good investment.  We've not gone diving, but
even just in the pool we've had lots of fun taking silly pictures and video of our
antics.  When taking video, the sounds are quite clear. fun stuff!

- - - -

My GET classes (each GET teacher has two classes) are bonding nicely.  At 9:30am I
meet with Cheerful Dancing Fellows, and we went up for drinks a couple nights ago
in Hemmingway Bar.  Last night I met with my 12:30pm class, Happy Wonderful Girls,
and I was happy to play a wonderful game of Silent Football with them!  I am
honestly surprised with how quickly they picked up the game, and am really looking
forward to getting some more games going with more people and more errors upon
which to tattle.

- - -

I've recorded 4.25 cassette tapes worth of stuff; I think each tape is 120 minutes
long.  One is nearly filled with conversations, including one with LeLy Hayslip,
author of Heaven and Earth, which was made into a movie by Oliver Stone.  After
getting herself started with the book and movie, she has started a foundation and
opened orphanages and hospitals..  and all this in only 20 years.  I feel inspired
that I can do great things, though I still don't know what I want to do yet.

- - - -

There is so much more I'm sure, though time is short.

Love and Light
   - Rob! 

after Sri Lanka

10:20pm LKT Monday 06 June 2005

Sri Lanka was fun.

After writing my mass email update, Dave and I took a 3-wheeler to the Galle Face Hotel (or something like that) where we took some pics and chilled on a checkerboard tile patio out in the lovely breeze with a view of the setting sun.

Others joined the group and we migrated over to the sea wall where we could order some foodage. Big chowtime and super duper incredible funtime with Josh, , Katt, Kris, Carissa, Brandt, Audrey, Dave, Yuuka, Kim, and a Sri Lankan woman whose name I didn't hear. Most of them got happily drunk. We sang variants of Joy to the World, gave cheers to ourselves for another successful day around the world, a blessing to Dave's newborn niece Chantelle (sp), and generally partied it up.

During the meal I got to sit next to Josh, who seemed to just bask in relief and good vibes of the complete success of the day; we GET teachers who were there saw it as flawless and can easily argue that all the participants did as well. Everyone smiled and beamed during the day despite the rain; big fun was had by all.

In the end, we cut it realllly close gettting back to the boat, including some bit of a financial fiasco getting US dollars and Sri Lankan rupees combined to make 19,000 rupees for the meal (about US$150). We had to show a passport in order to pay for the food, which I think is pretty damn ridiculous; none of us had one save Josh, who has been in Sri Lanka for a week setting up this single day event. Fortunately, he didn't have to be back at the ship at a certain time, so when we accidentally left his passport behind, he had very little stress going back to pick it up.

- - - -

Just three minutes before leaving time, I realized I could benefit by letting Josh know I had been unable to find my camel pack and gilligan hat that I had left on the bus (with the blessing of those in charge). I ran downstairs and wrote a note in a frantic rush and then ran back upstairs to throw it to him. I realize now I could have included a blessing to him for a successful day and a thanks and 100 rupees to help pay for his three-wheeler back to the hotel to get his passport. It hadn't been given to me, but I was there at the time we left it.

Lesson learned: bless those around me, especially when I'm asking for help.

bye bye

pm LKT Monday 06 June 2005

Big fun fun fun waving and cheering and yelling from the top deck of the ship as we left. Kamau did a call and response "Say HO!" "HO!" "Say HO HO!!" "HO HO!" I really enjoyed watching him work and play while he was onboard (and onport).

Shawn recorded some video of GET teachers and their views of different ports. He goes, "so how did you like Sri Lanka?" and I go "Vietnam was totally awesome," knowing it might be a good ??? to say Vietnam when he had asked about Sri Lanka. "And Sri Lanka was also totally awesome. BUT! We were in Sri Lanka for only one day, while we were in Vietnam for two days!" Kim chimed in, "are you doing the math here?" "Now I'm not saying that Sri Lanka was better than Vietnam; I need to spend more time in both before I can choose a favorite."

Vietnam and Sri Lanka are the tops of the list for this cruise so far.

- - - -

We bought bracelets from microseed.org

Funny Kris was like, "It's like I haven't washed my hair in two days!" but I think really it was just that we had been out by the sea for some hours.

hitomi letter

pm LKT Monday 06 June 2005

I got two pieces of mail, baby!! One from Kellie, and one from... Hong Kong??? How did I get mail from Hong Kong? What??

Oh my gosh it is from Hitomi.

Dear Rob

How about life of a ship?

Probably you are working busy and having enjoyable time.  I'm sorry
that you upset for I get on PB, but please don't misunderstand
that I got on PB for I'll chase you.  I want to learn something 
on PB.  I want to look a star filled night sky on the sea.  I
want to look the sunrises and the sunsets from the horizon on the sea.

I hope that this voyage is good experience for you.  Let's enjoy 49th
voyage by PB!

I hope you can understand my strange English.

ps: to tell the truth, sometimes I want to spend with you.

Hitomi 

Oh Hitomi. Just give me space.

the departure party

10:35pm LKT Monday 06 June 2005

Tired as fuck. People are upstairs about to party it up, plus tomorrow is a holiday, so I'm going to go play with them instead of write on my computer now. And become more tired. Cause that's what PB is all about. Fuckin' havin' fun. It's money. Tons of fun. You should come.

- - - -

I'd rather be with people I can talk to instead of drunk people, but, it turns out that a drunk Yuuka is a cuddly Yuuka, so it's funny to see her in that state. Nothing happened, but for Japanese, even just a hug is a lot.

11:45pm

We left late, I think. We're having an "I'm sorry party" for some reason. Shawn is recording people on video to see how we liked the ports. I told him Sri Lanka and Vietnam were both super money. As of now, I won't make a decision between which one I liked best; they were both over-the-top super cool.

zzzz Sri Lanka

12:47am

I'm really tired. I was falling asleep standing up in the shower. I got out and sat on Shawn's bed naked wondering how to resolve the issue that I am clean, but all of my underwear is dirty. I suddenly woke up all, "ah shit; it would not look good if Shawn walked in here while I was sitting naked on his bed." Good thing he is still partying.

After that, I decided to put on swim trunks cause they are kinda clean and kinda underwear. Over those I put on my jammie jams.

Tonight I flirted with Kim pretty much a lot and felt myself thinking, "hmmmmmm." ........

Oh man I am falling asleep. Jeramaiah was a bullfrog; he was a good friend of mine. He had a dada da da da.....

Oh man I am tired, thinking about a hose being unrolled like the streamers, but manually, unlike the streamers. I am really really really really glad we went to Sri Lanka.