Holiday...Celebrate

The Lis have celebrated a new holiday here in Sri Lanka....well, new to us anyway!  It is the Buddhist holiday/festival called Vesak.  Jerry Lee keeps calling the Lantern Festival because it is kind of similar to the Chinese Lantern Festival.  It is also a bit like a Buddhist version of Christmas/Easter.

So what exactly is Vesak?

It is a holy day to commemorate the birth, enlightenment, and death of Buddha.  Apparently, all three of these events occurred on the same day throughout his life.  The date changes each year because it follows a lunar calendar.  This year, in Sri Lanka, the holiday was May 24 - on the full moon "Poya day".  Poya day is a monthly Buddhist holiday that mostly falls on the full moon of each month where people go to the temple to pray, give offerings, and do not eat/sell meat (because killing a living creature is considered a sin in Buddhism).  The festival usually lasts for 2 days, but this year it was celebrated an additional day because it fell on a Friday/Saturday, so Sunday was thrown in for free.

How is Vesak celebrated?

I had to do a little research on Wikipedia for this one...
On Vesak, Buddhists are supposed to assemble at their temples before dawn to raise the Buddhist flag and sing hymns of praise of the holy triple gem - Buddha, Dharma (Buddhist teaching), and Sangha (disciples of Buddhism).  Additionally, Buddhists are encouraged to make a renewed vow to following the principles of Buddhism - the five/eight Precepts - offer simple gifts at the temple, and refrain from killing of any kind - most notably by eating vegetarian for the day.

NOTE: Most Buddhists here in Sri Lanka are not vegetarian, but many will make an effort to eat vegetarian on Poya days and other Buddhist holidays.  Although, in my experience, McDonald's get a HUGE boost in sales on Poya day - I think it's because you can't buy meat at the supermarkets on Poya days.

Essentially, Vesak is a time for Buddhists to renew their commitment to following the teachings of Buddha, practice loving-kindness, and bring peace and harmony to humanity.

Vesak in Sri Lanka

Here in Sri Lanka, the celebration of Vesak (including the time of preparation for Vesak day) is about a week.  The government closes slaughter houses, no fresh meat is sold, and liquor stores are closed.  Lanterns are hung EVERYWHERE.  People hang lanterns outside their homes, the cities string lanterns up along the streets, shops hang lanterns in the windows, there are even lantern displays in Colombo that tons of people come to see.  Its like Christmas lights, but lanterns.  Also, there are HUGE displays showing scenes from the life of Buddha, called toranas.  Furthermore, food stalls, called dhansals, are set up mostly by temples or other organizations and sponsor free meals for people - vegetarian, of course.  The lines for the dhansals are crazy long!

Another thing I noticed while we were out looking at the lantern displays here in Colombo was that people were wearing Halloween masks.  It seemed a little weird to me, so I did some investigating on the internet.  What I learned was that it has just recently come about and many people have come out condemning the sale and wearing of Halloween masks for Vesak because it does not fit with the celebration of the holiday.  Additionally, the sale of the "scary" masks has been banned in Sri Lanka by the government, though clearly not enforced.

A first for Sri Lanka this year was the self-immolation (setting yourself on fire) of a Buddhist monk on May 24.  He is the first monk to do this in Sri Lanka, though it is not an uncommon practice in Tibet.  This happened in the city of Kandy (pronounced "candy") near to the Temple of the Tooth that holds the sacred relic of one of Buddha's teeth.  It is a popular tourist site here, both for Buddhist and non-Buddhists.  According to the news reports, he was protest the slaughter of animals (specifically cows) in Sri Lanka and also the spread of Christianity.  People rushed to pour buckets of water on the man to put out the flames.  While he did not die on the spot, he died the next day at the hospital after being burned on over 95% of his body.

We took lots of pictures at the lantern show and I'll put them up on Facebook for you to see.

Happy Shiny People

It has been a while since my last post…much longer than I had anticipated.  So, in an effort to do a better job, I have decided to make a schedule for myself to post once a week on Monday.  That’s right, I’m going to be writing each week with a new post on Monday, so if I don’t post…someone come and kick me in the butt!

Since it has been a while, I’m going to make this post an update on what we’ve been doing here in Sri Lanka.  I have mostly good news to share, but some bad news too.  Let’s start with the good news!

Perhaps some of the best news that I have is that I have been offered a job!  Yay!  It is with a local organization and I will be working in the office and also going out to preschools affiliated with the organization to help teach the children English, initially on a part-time basis.  My official start date is June 1.  I am feeling a little ambivalent about it for a couple of reasons: (1) it means that playtime for Erin is O.V.E.R. (sort of) and (2) there are still many details to work out.  Some of those issues are rather important ones, like transportation, pay, and my visa.  The office is in another town about 30 minutes from Colombo, which means I’m going to have to take the bus.  “But Erin,” you say, “You lived in CHINA and took the bus everywhere…this should be no problem for you!”  Au contraire!  To say that the transportation system here is not as efficient or pervasive as in China would probably be an understatement.  The buses here are old…like Rosa Parks would have ridden on a bus like this…Old!  They mostly have no doors, and pretty much just slow down to let people on and off, but never really stop.  It will be an experience and adventure as always!  (Speaking of adventures, someone remind me to write a blog post about (1) driving in China and (2) taking the train in Sri Lanka!)  The organization is an NGO and gets the majority of its funding from overseas partners, so adding a new staff member is not as easy as simply saying, “You’re hired.”  It involves writing to overseas partners and asking for additional funding – while I’m not expecting to be making tons of money, or even a little money, it would be nice to have some daily expenses covered.  We are very fortunate that JL’s company pays him well and that we are able to save a HUGE portion of his salary because they cover our housing, food, and other items.  I am still here on a tourist visa, but that is going to need to be changed.  We have to decide how we want to proceed from here.  We are looking at the possibility of applying for a dependent visa through JL’s company or seeing if the organization can help us to get a visa.  Please be praying for all of these things to work out.

Overall though, I do think that this will be a GREAT opportunity for me to make new friends, get out and explore more of this amazing country that I’m living in, and to continue my passions of helping others and educating people.

In other good news, Jerry Lee is working hard to get a new project set up for his company.  He has been traveling around looking at rocks that would be suitable for establishing a quarry.  After being gone for about a week, he found a few that would be suitable, but one in particular that would be perfect for the company’s plans.  Last week, we went with some friends of ours who are well-connected to get some more information about how to proceed with the licensing and whatnot.  JL’s friends said that they would speak to some friends of theirs about the matter.  Long story short, JL’s friend came back with some good news, and the plans are moving forward…I think.  JL’s boss is out of the country right now but will be back in about a week.  Probably should clear things with the big guns first…

I am so proud of how JL has worked tirelessly to find an adequate/suitable resource and shown initiative in going after the procurement of the rock and basically just rocking it out!  Way to go babe!

The bad news is mixed with good news.  I have recently come into some health problems.  We went to the hospital here to have it checked out and have determined that it will require surgery.  The good news is that it is not cancer!  I am also thankful (strange enough as it may be) that I went through this in America a few months ago, because now I have an idea of what to expect and also I can compare that experience with this one.  One major difference so far has been no anesthesia for the biopsy.  Ouch!  We will be meeting with a surgeon here – she was recommended to us because (1) she is a lady and (2) she has “a special interest” in the type of surgery that I need to have.  There are, of course, MANY questions and factors to consider before we make our final decision.  We’ve also sent the reports back home to America to get a second opinion.  It will be an important several days coming up.  Please be in prayer that we would have wisdom in our decision making and that the appointment with the surgeon will go well.

I am overwhelmed by the support of family and friends from the States, and blessed and thankful to have JL here by my side for this every step of the way.

Finally, neither good nor bad news, I've decided to start working out using the Turbo Fire system.  It is probably similar in some ways to P90X and Insanity, but I would say it caters more to girls...in my humble opinion.  Anyway, today was day 1 and I can already feel it in my arms and back.  I just keep telling myself that DOMS is weakness leaving the body.  Be sure to check in with my progress and encourage me to keep going.

That’s all for now.  Zai jian!