COMMOTION
I arrived at Bandaranaike National Airport in Colombo at 5 a.m. Sri Lankan time, 5:30 p.m. Swannanoa time. Where I wandered from counter to counter after discovering I needed to pay $60 for a tourist visa available on entry, a way for the cash strapped Sri Lankan government to extract a little money. Then I got an enormous wad of Sri Lankan currency for $50, a result of sky high inflation, money that seems like play money.
Winsor Kanakaratne was there with his wife, Talatha, have driven four hours from Anuradhapura to pick me up and drive me four hours back. Suddenly the temperature was 80 degrees and steamy. At first we talked and the jet lag caught up with me and I dozed off again and again. All I wanted to do was sleep. Winsor took me first to their beautiful cottage and then to my hotel. I had no idea where I would be staying but the guest house Winsor had arranged for me had a very nice upstairs room with a balcony and facing into palm trees, no airconditioning but a ceiling fan to cool me through the night.
I unpacked, attached my charger to all of my devices and fell asleep, trying to sleep only four hours so that I could sleep at night.
At 6:30 p.m. Winsor arrived to take me to an Indian dinner cooked by Talatha because he knew that I liked Indian food. We talked into the evening and at 9 Winsor drove me to my hotel. The manager gave me a towel and soap and offered morning tea.
I knew the first night after a 10 1/2 hour time shift, the day turned upside down, would be a problem. Since it was not the middle of the day back home and my body wouldn’t let me sleep.
I went to bed under the powerful fan without much on. I slept till 12 and then till 2 when I got a phone call from the Asheville Water Service with a long instruction on how to prepare my house for the deep freeze, down to zero, that was coming this weekend, and would freeze water pipes. I tried to go back to sleep but couldn’t stop worrying about my pipes. At 3 I got up and wrote and read for awhile. But at 5 I was lucky enough to get tired again and fell into a deep sleep only to awaken an hour later with a muffled banging somewhere and then I realized that some stranger was trying to get in my door, which paralyzed me. I was instantly wide awake, but hearing nothing more I again fell back asleep, but now was dressed in case I had to make a sudden exit. But 45 minutes later again came the muffled pounding. Now it was light outside and I was dressed and ready to face down whoever was trying to come in. It was the manager with my cup of tea.
So now I am up to see what else Sri Lanka brings me.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 