That’s right folks, this week I was so blessed to see both of these animals. I was very surprised to see both of them right in the city. Near where I work at the NIE there are quite a number of large trees with vines on them. Well on Wednesday I noticed some activity in the trees. It turns out there were two monkeys playing in the trees. I had heard previously that they play in the trees around work but I had never seen them before. I was so excited I got out my camera right away. However, the pictures did not come out that well so I am sorry to say that I will not be able to share my experience with you all. The monkeys were roughly the size of a 3 year-old child and were colored white and grey.
I also saw my very first Komodo Dragon last week. The international team leader and I were coming back from a trip to the city and we saw one crossing the road. It was quite a trip since it was right next to the parliament building. If you all do not remember, the parliament is about 5 minutes from where I live and there is a considerable lake surrounding the entire building. The Dragon was about 5 feet long and was colored grey and a burnt orange color. He was even flicking his fork tongue for us. Very interesting indeed.
Well it seems like I am going to be staying here an extra month. The head of international relations is here in town this week and he is currently brokering a deal between the MoE and Gary and I to extend our contracts. I was there when we talked with Nihal and it seems like all is a go. All that has to be done is the final approvals and the actual reconfiguration of the contracts. I am happy for this opportunity and I am really looking forward to the opportunity to keep on doing the great work we have started out here.
I will likely not be back in the states until mid March as I want to spend some time traveling in Europe and then go on vacation with my Mom and Dad right when I return at the beginning of March. I am very much looking forward to my travels and can’t wait to see all of the amazing things Europe has to offer. However, I am trying to live in the moment and enjoy my time here for all that it is worth. It is quite a trip to know that I am going to be celebrating all of the major holidays here in Sri Lanka. I have a feeling they will not be the same and I will be especially homesick for Thanksgiving and my B-day/Xmas. It will be all good though. New experiences are always a good thing by me. Every new experience has a new lesson to teach.
Well we finished our second round of provincial trainings. Things went well but I must say that I am constantly becoming more and more aware of the relative concept of time here in Sri Lanka. We only had half of our initial group on Friday because the people from the South had elections. So we went ahead with those who could come and things went well. However, it seems that people were very laid back and willing to take more time than necessary to do various tasks. It was rather interesting and also worked in our favor since it helped to smooth over some of the administrative difficulties that seem to be almost unavoidable here. I suppose the greatest thing was the people were willing to stay on their own to check out some of the things we had to offer instead of running off to lunch or tea. The third day is still going to require some tweaking but I think we have some good components in place to come up with a good schedule. My experience has taught me that no matter what the schedule you print may say it is most important to have the actual workshop respond to the needs and pace of the people in attendance. It is hard to predict exactly how the workshop will go but if you take the time to observe where people are in the learning process it will help you immensely in deciding how to move forward.
We just got done with two training sessions. It was very nice because the participants were more than likely some of the best that we have had thus far. What I am sure of is that we had the best group of support staff that we have had up to this point assisting us. They were so great and one of them even took the initiative to do some of the presenting and messing around with the computer to help explain some concepts in Sinhala. It was awesome. I am also very pleased because the contingency plan I came up with when people come without accounts worked like a charm. Roughly half of our participants did not have their logins from their provincial IT directors. The local instance of Moodle saved the day and it worked perfectly. No time was wasted on login hassles and people seemed to learn quite a bit. I continue to get positive comments on my presentation skills which is very pleasing.
On Thursday it is off to Kandy. The international team leader and I will be traveling to the old capital to visit some schools in the area and also to do some sightseeing. I am very excited for the trip. We are also going out to Newra Eliya on Monday and Tuesday of the upcoming week so that will also be excellent.
I also wanted to let all of you know that I have changed my Flickr address. You can now find my new pictures at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42955791@N07
The old address still works but I will be putting my latest adventures at the aforementioned address.
Time to get ready for dinner at the best seafood restaurant in Sri Lanka! Take care everyone!