Day 2/3

Day 2/3

I guess its actually day 3 because Day 2 was just part of the whole trip over experience. The flight from Bangkok to Colombo was a little fuller, more locals, than the previous flights so far. It took about 3 hours for the flight, most of which I slept. We went straight thru customs….they didn’t even ask us any questions, our baggage was on the conveyor when we got there and we headed to the door, and then stopped. The Hilton, where we’re staying was supposed to have sent a van to pick us up and after a couple calls we figured that they hadn’t arranged anything. So we got a guy at the airport to arrange a van to take us downtown. It was around 1:30am local time.

We arrived to a National holiday called, Vesak Full Moon Poya Day, a 4 day long weekend so everyone was out and about. Our taxi driver took us on quite the detoured drive because certain streets were shut down because of the celebrations. Some interesting sites…cattle walking down the side of the main road, lots of people everywhere and it was 2am. We arrived at the Hilton and checked in and finally got to sleep about 3 am local time. That completes “Day 2”.

Got some got a good sleep and feel a lot better. Had breakfast in the hotel and then at 11am we headed off to church. I just got to say something about driving here. Firstly they drive on the left side here….actually they all mostly drive down the center of the 4 lane road, it doesn’t seem to matter which direction you’re going. It’s pretty much everyone for themselves. From my observations to drive here you need to master the following techniques..1. you must learn how to use your high beams to flash at everyone 2. You need a working horn, this is essential, and you need to randomly honk it at people and at motorcycles, motorized rick shaws known as tuk tuks, other cars and you can even attempt to honk at a bus or truck but the rules of the road are, the biggest vehicle wins. 3. You also need to know how to use you signal lights for no apparent reasons. 4. you need nerves of steel.

We arrived at the church which was hosting a Youth camp. About 50 youth with leaders gathered from several congregations for a 3 day camp. We met all the youth and leaders and a small group of played some contemporary versions of several church songs. Instruments included a bongo drum ( not sure if is called a bongo here) 2 guitars (both slightly out of tune) and a little shaker thing. They love playing music and were involved with it as often as possible. After lunch we launched right in to our first seminar. The seminars went a little longer than expected because I was talking in English, which then needed to be translated into Tamil and Singalese. There were several of the youth and leaders than could understand English and when there was some confusion about what was being said then there was a conference of several people to make sure that A: they understood what we were saying and B: they had the right translation. When the youth were finished then the bishop had a little seminar for just the leaders. So instead of making it a short day we were there until 7pm.

Did I mention that its Hot. I know Ontario is experiencing some good temps, but this is hot, and humid, especially in a building that doesn’t have AC. I’d guess it was mid 30’s. Anyway we had a nice meal at the hotel, they have 6 or more restaurants, and then did some pre-work for the seminars on Saturday.