Cheery Yellow

While Maggie heads home, the boys and I have been painting her attic bedroom. She chose her second favorite after Barbie Pink: Cheery Yellow. So we have been layering that on. Plus she said she'd like the old brown rug out of there. So Rob and James rolled it up and carted it down to the garage. Then Rob puttied the cracks in the plywood while James and Peter slopped sealer onto the baseboard. I hope we get the floor painted before she gets here. It has been a hot job, but I am proud of the boys. I know she will be too.

Most importantly we shall have her bed set up and ready for her to flop. Losing hours from that far away has to mean some kind of jetlag!

Here is her letter from yesterday:

Hey guys,
This is probably going to be my last letter from Sri Lanka since I head
out to Colombo to catch a plane tomorrow..... :( :( very sad. but not too
sad because I'm going to come back some day. seriously, I love this place.
Actually there really isn't anything extrordinary about the country itself -
its the people. I've built some great relationships with some sri lankans
and its going to be hard to leave after just a week.

these emails have been sort of difficult becuase I can't really express
exactly what i'm feeling about things. I could tell you what sri lanka
is really like but you would have to see it for yourself. if i tried to
decribe the land you would probably get a really bad impression. maybe i'm
just weird but the only culture shock that I have had is that everything is
a quarter to half the price of stuff in the USA (they gave us 13 bucks a
week for transportation and food.....and i still had some left over to use
for souviners, i have my own money too so i am laden down with gifts...yeah)

anyays, the sri lanka that I love is not the palm trees and the ocean
breezes or the rainforests. It's the little kids who run behind us as we walk
down the railroad tracks yelling "hello-ello-ello-ello-ello...". It's the
little old man named Nasely who literally force fed us rice and curry (then
gave us more tea....aaaah). Its stuff like that that is great. everything
else is wonderful too. there are trash piles on the side of the road
everywhere, but hey cute kittens and puppies live in them!

so anyways tommorrow this time i will be on my way far away from the little
old lady with no teeth that is always on bus 654, farhaan, the little boy
who successfully steals all our fruit at the work site, the party bus ( a
bus addorned with flowers that plays this singhala polka music ...its
hilarious) and all the men i could have married...lol...oh i didn't tell you
about the proposals and professions of undying love i get daily...mom you're
lucky i'm coming home at all...yeeees....."hey! tsunami aid! you want to
marry me! no?" lol.

ok almost out of time. i will tell much much more in person when i get
back and actually have time. take care God bless.
Maggie