Yes, ladies and gentlemen it is official. I only have about 40 days and 40 nights left here in Sri Lanka before I return home to NM. I am very excited about the whole thing especially since I will be home in time for the holidays. I will return on the 27th of December so I will be having a late Christmas and celebrating New Year’s with my family.

I am very happy that the workshops we have been delivering are 1 away from being complete. It is a very fulfilling and amazing feeling to be so close to completing our mandate. This means my focus will now shift to completing the final reports and packaging all of the materials we have produced over my stay here in Sri Lanka.

I am confident that time will pass rather quickly from now until my return date since there are lots of things scheduled from now until then. This weekend I attended a consular gathering which was not what I expected but rather nice nonetheless. It basically amounted to finger food and a long drawn out speech by different people. The sad thing is that I already know most of the material they were covering. The plus was that I was able to talk a bit to fellow Americans and find out about them. I met a girl my age working for an NGO, a 60 something massage therapist, and a 70 something nature video host. Very cool stuff and very interesting to get to know those folks.

As I mentioned, I have quite the schedule ahead. Next weekend I am going to spend 2 days at a local hotel to celebrate the completion of our workshops. That should be lots of fun and I am looking forward to the different types of people I will surely meet. The weekend after that, Gary and I have scheduled some time to go down South to Unawatuna again. That should be lots of fun and will give us the time we really need to explore things in the area. Then I have a weekend off. The following weekend I am more than likely going to be joining the staff of the NIE for an outing to the historical district of the country. I am amazed that I will be getting the opportunity to travel to the most precious part of the country in the company of locals. I am totally humbled and looking forward to the opportunity. Then I have an open weekend and the following week I will be celebrating Christmas/my BDay and getting ready to go home! Time is going to pass rather quickly and I am looking forward first and foremost to the times ahead and secondly to getting home and enjoying the holidays with my folks.

Well it is time for me to run everyone so for now I wish you all the best and look forward to seeing you sooner than later!