Ants, Ants, Ants

The Brown's Beach Hotel in Matara...our travel book said that this is the nicest place in Matara...I don't recommend Matara for a vacation.

We have come to learn there are ants everywhere. Even at our place in Colombo, you can't leave anything out for more than 5 minutes or there will be ants all over it. Even on the counter. Our room at Brown's Beach was covered in them. This picture is of our bathroom sink. Gross!

Jesse accidentaly left his pants on the floor that night. They had found where he had once kept a package of crackers.

Needless to say Matara wasn't the nicest place to stay, but we did get to meet with a local organization that works with women and their rights, especially concerning domestic abuse.

Our Weekend South

This past weekend we went down south. Jesse had some meetings and I went along for the beach. : ) We took a 5 hour bus down (only cost us $1.45), it was amazing to see the coast, especially since we could still see a lot of the damage that the tsunami caused. I divide our trip up a little and post pictures. But we had a great time, but it was nice to get back to Colombo where we knew a little more where everything is.

We Have Internet...for real this time!

YEA! Finally after being on the phone with tech guys & returning the modem & 7 days...we have internet at home! ~thanks for your prayers! I can't tell you how happy I am about this. I haven't tried our vonage phone yet, but will try to have it hooked up tonight, so you all should be able to call our virginia number (703-435-3297) to get a hold of us...hopefully.

We have internet....well almost

Okay, so we supposedly have internet. But we can't seem to get it to work. So we have been on the phone with the internet company all day, but nothing has been resolved. And just like in America you get the run around. We were first told that someone was going to come out and help set it up, but then tonight were told that they never send anyone out.... so I guess we will see.

We are heading south this weekend. This weekend is our 6th wedding anniversary, so we thought we would take a little trip. Jesse has some meetings to go to on Friday and Monday, but other then that he will be free. The beaches are supposed to be really nice down there, so I am excited about snorkeling, and just relaxing a little.

But all that to say that it looks like it will be at least 5 more days before anything else happens with the internet. Please pray that this can all be worked out on Tuesday when we get back, and that we also can figure out a way to make our vonage system work (our 703 number)...b/c right now with the modem they gave us we are not sure how it will work. We miss you all lots! & I can't wait till I can stay in better touch with everyone.

Mac & Cheese

Rachel eating mac & cheese after having to wait a long 12 days! Pure Joy!

Our Phone Number

Our home phone number is: 11-250-6517 (the country code is 94) Sorry I don't remember exactly what you have to dial to call international.

Jesse's cell phone is: 077-940-2592 (again country code is 94)

I know the amount of numbers are different, but they do it weird here, cell phones & land lines are different.

If you want our address just email us and let us know. *and if you call just remember we are 9 1/2 hours ahead (from the east coast)

Sorry, No New Pics of Rachel

So we still don't have internet, so I can't download any of our pics for you all to see...sorry. But as soon as we get it, you all will be inundated with lots of pictures. (and i've had overwhelming requests to put lots of Rachel up, so I will try to please the masses): )

Jesse has officially started work this week. He is usually off by 8am and gets home around 6pm. So Rachel and I have just been getting back into a routine. We have had to hang out at home most of the last 2 days though, b/c we didn't have any gas to our stove, so a guy was supossed to stop by on Monday to bring it. Well that didn't happen until today...but we finally have a stove! yea! We haven't really been able to cook anything yet, and we are getting tired of eating out all the time. (& praying that there is something that Rachel can eat) So tonight, I think we are making Mac & Cheese. Rachel is very excited!

Cyber Cafe

So the good news is that we have moved into our new place. The bad news is that we don't have an internet connection and am not sure when we will have it...hopefully soon. So for now we are visiting the local cyber cafe, to check emails, and give you all a little update.

We will put pictures of our place up as soon as we can. It is fairly nice, some old furniture, but there is a pool on the roof, so that kind of makes up for everything else. (although I'm not sure how often they actually treat the pool, but it did look pretty clean, so I guess we will hope that it's clean enough)

It's very nice to unpack, and get out of our suitcases. We went to a place called Arpico, kind of like Walmart, and picked up a bunch of stuff for our house; mop, soap, towels, sheets, etc.

Well I should go, b/c Rachel is getting bored. Thanks for your prayers! We miss you all!

we're moving

Wanted to write quick, b/c it looks as if we found a place, and will be leaving our hotel, hopefully by check out time in about 20 min. But we will probably be out of contact with everyone, b/c everything shuts down here this weekend, b/c of Buddah's birthday, so we wont be able to set internet up until after the weekend... but we will try to keep you posted as soon as we can.

Apartment Hunting

So the last two days have been filled with apartment hunting. We’ve been to about 14 places. The first day we looked all over Colombo & the outskirts to see where we might want to be. We decided to be in the city, although there was a house about 15 min. outside the city that had a pool…I was willing to make that sacrifice but I don’t think Jesse and John were.

So yesterday we mainly looked in two parts of the city. We have about 4 places that are possibilities. Just like the states you usually like one thing about each of them, and then there is something that you just don’t know if it will work. One of the things that we have come to realize is that most of the places do not have bathtubs or ovens. They usually have convection ovens; which I have never used, but I guess I will learn how. Not having a bathtub might be trickier. Rachel loves her bath time, and hates taking showers. So we are trying to think of things we can do and trying to decide if she will be able to do without for 7 months.
A view from one of the places we looked at.

So anyway, this is obviously a prayer requests. Please be praying that we can find a place that best suits all our needs. We are going to call the real estate agent this morning and try one more day, and then we will need to make a decision.
Rachel at the end of the day... hot, sweaty, and tired

Out and About

Today we took a tuktuk to the beach and walked along what I guess you could call its boardwalk. It was nice to get out of the hotel for a while. It was very hot though, good thing we had our umbrella to shield the sun at least a little bit.



We then tried to go to the mall, but once we got there realized that all the shops are closed on Sunday. There was a grocery store open though so we went in there to look around. It was amazing to see what they did have and what they didn’t. For example, they had lots of cereals…all Kellogg’s brand, but no soups. I am sure I will realize a little more of what I really will miss once I have to start cooking again. Once we left there, we walked along one of the main roads, and Rachel spied McDonalds, so we decided to eat there for lunch. It was nice, and it was great to have ice cream on such a hot day. Rachel enjoyed playing with some kids on the playground they had.


We then headed back to the hotel for a quick nap. Then one of our contacts here, (a guy from our church’s dad) came to meet up with us. He took Jesse & John out for another tour, while I stayed in to let Rachel sleep. When went out again that evening for dinner. Went to a really nice hotel/apartment complex. Very expensive to live there, but really nice!

Tour of Colombo

This is a picture of a big display to celebrate Buddah's 2,550 Birthday which is this Friday. So we have been warned that everything will be closed from Thursday till about Tuesday.

Yesterday we rented a driver to take us around Colombo, so we could try to get an idea of where everything is. Well we drove around a lot, but didn’t get all that much information from our driver. But it was good to see the city. We still haven’t been able to look at any places, hopefully that will happen soon. We are anxious about getting settled and out of our suitcases.

Last night we ordered roomservice, and had our first Sri Lankan Hamburger...not very good : ) But the fries were pretty good.

Our Hotel

Our hotel is right on the harbor. It is an old colonial hotel. The lobby was very nice. We went to our room and found 2 twin beds put together. The hotel was full, so we were not able to upgrade to get the king bed. If we end up having to be here for a while we will try to get another room, but it will be fine for now.


After eating some breakfast, Rachel & I went up to our room, and went to take a nap. (which ended up turning into a 9 hour nap) While we did that John & Jesse, ran around getting lots of stuff done. They were able to get a great deal on cell phones, and also accomplished getting our visas switched over from a 1 month visa to a 12 month visa.

I haven’t really been out of the hotel yet, so I am looking forward today to get out and about. We are going to try to look for a place to live, and also just try to get our bearings on where everything is.


This is the view from our hotel room.

Our Flight

Our flight left at 6:40p.m. on Wednesday. Thanks to my sister and brother-in-law, and Ryan we got all 9 huge bags, and 6 carryon’s to the airport. All our bags are supposed to be 50lbs. We had weighed them at home, and knew they were all very close to that. The guy that checked us in, only weighed some of the bags, and he let it slide when they were only a couple of pounds over! Thank God! My parents have traveled a lot, and they sometimes run into check-in people who charge even if the bag is only 1 lb over.


Overall the flight went great. We all had our own t.v. screen, which helped a ton. The first flight was to London, and was about 7 hours long. Rachel slept for a little, but she did great. We had a 6 hour layover in London, which was long, b/c we were all very tired at that point, and just wanted to be on our next flight. Rachel fell asleep about an hour before our flight and slept for the next 4 hours.

Our next flight was a direct flight from London to Sri Lanka. It was a 10 ½ hour flight! : ( We had our own row on this flight, so Rachel was able to spread out while she slept. The food was interesting, but I guess it was jut getting us ready for what was to come.

Our flight arrived at about 5a.m. Immigration & customs was easy, very fast. All our bags made it, only one suitcase was torn. We then took a van to our hotel which is in Colombo, about an 1 hour away. (on the way Rachel began to ask for Mac & Cheese… well she made it 2 hours in Sri Lanka at least J.)

The sights and sounds are very similar to Kenya & India. It was kind of a relief to me that it didn’t feel too different. I am definitely glad that this isn’t our first time being in a different culture.