Heading to Sri Lanka...

Well, I depart for Sri Lanka later today and won't arrive until Saturday...well, technically it will still be Friday here in Richmond, but Saturday in Sri Lanka.
This trip is a lot different than my past travels with the job. This time around I'll be traveling with our president and the Asia Regional VP. I'll be there to check out some of our programs, etc. and also to gather communications for the president and our needs.
The weather is going to be HOT -- probably around 90 for the highs and 78 for lows! Not bad considering it is 24 here right now! I welcome some warm temps. Of course, I have my sunblock packed as this skin will burn quickly!
I believe the food is a lot of Indian influence, which will be interesting since I am not the biggest Indian food fan! But I will try it (and Gage has made me promise to do so). And you can imagine, he is already jealous of some of the foods I will eat.
Of course, Ema's clothes are laid out already. I bought some food for them too. But this trip is actually a few days shorter than my trip to Vietnam last spring, so they should be fine! Ema is a mama's girl, so I am sure she will ask for me at times. When I ask her about it, she says that Mommy is going on a big trip and will see elephants. I hope that's true....Iwould love to see some elephants and there are many in Sri Lanka.
I arrive into Colombo at 4:45 a.m. Saturday....whew. But at least that will give me a chance to rest, take a nap and still try to get on Sri Lanka time. My colleague in Sri Lanka will meet me for lunch -- and we're going to an Indian restaurant. It's a laid back day before really hitting it the next day. We're staying at the Galle Face Hotel in Colombo.
On Sunday we head South to Galle, which was affected by the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami. We'll see a cricket match between kids enrolled in our programs. Cricket is by far the most popular sport in Sri Lanka. We'll aslo have a big event in Galle that will be attended by different government repesentatives. In Galle we are also expected to visit a preschool. The plan is to stay at Coral Gardens Hotel.
We then travel to Matara on Tuesday to visit a health center. We also travel to Hambantota that same day. Both were heavily affected tsunami areas. In Hambantota on Wednesday we'll visit a school and a new library that just opened in December that we helped fund. The original was destroyed by the tsunami. On Thursday we traval back to Colombo and meet with our national staff there.
Friday is my final day in Sri Lanka and I will be finishing up work and also hopefully a little shopping! I depart Sri Lanka around 3 a.m. March 1 and arrive home around 9 p.m. Saturday night.
Not sure what my Internet availability will be, but Gage will blog whenever he hears from me!