The day of the epic drive. So you know when you look at a map and something is only 186 miles away and mostly on the highway, you figure 3 hours+. I didn’t count on these highways. It took us 8 hours to get to Bentota. But the location is worth it.
Along the drive I got to see a rubber plantation. It is amazing how rubber used to (and still does) come from trees. A section of bark is peeled away from the tree. The tree coats itself with rubber until the new bark grows. So the harvesters wait until that coating is complete and then peel it off the tree. That is a sheet of rubber that can be cut into the needed shape – it can’t be molded. How hard would it be to create a tire from THAT? Can you imagine pre-synthesized rubber tires and the number of sheets needed to make just one tire? Wow!
The other big aha on the trip was the number of Buddhist temples that we passed. They were everywhere. It was a little surprising to see these ascetic monks carrying briefcases on cell phones, etc. That isn’t the what Professor Mahoney taught us.
As you can imagine, we had a lot of time to talk. And although Ruwan speaks English, it isn’t enough to fill the entire time. We did have good dialogue around the Sri Lanka school system, family life, civics, and history. He used to work on the naval base is Bharain so there were some good stories there as well.
The Sri Lankan schools are free and Sri Lanka boasts a 99% literacy rate. Grades through 13 are compulsory, but after 7 you start to specialize. To continue past 13 you must pass a test and then graduate school is another test. Education is free, however, at all levels if you pass. You do have to pay for workbooks, food, housing, etc. though at higher levels there are scholarships.
In family life, it was traditional that men to marry in their mid 2’s and women in their late teens. The education system is causing women to marry later as many look to complete college, if eligible. Sri Lanka is also a mix of religions and cultures that seem well blended. We passed through a village that hosts a Christian festival at their church – the only one for KMs around. The local Buddhist and Muslim families were supporting the festival by housing and feeding Christians from other cities. Not sure that you would see that everywhere. Ruwan even spoke of the fact that he has been in religious parades where out of deference, the parade will go silent as it passes the temple of another religion.
The Sri Lanka government is working hard to provide for its people. He talked of houses built to reduce homelessness (tens of thousands), there are robust highway projects, and the government has a fullcourt press on against litter. They seem to have balanced their budget after the aid dried up from the Tsunami relief funds. So for a socialist country (yes, including healthcare), there are many people that get to be entrepreneurs (the nature resort owner, the gem shop owner, and the wood carver were all examples) but with some balance for those that are farmers/laborers. Oh and cell phones have enabled a huge leap forward because of the ability to skip a lot of infrastructure needs around phones, And everyone – from the servers to the entrepreneurs asks that I invite you to come visit Sri Lanka. As my guide in Sigiriya said – He used to climb those 1200+ stairs 3 times a day pre-Tsunami and war, now he is lucky if it is three times a week. Tourism could be a bigger boon here and the island certainly is inexpensive (except for the shopping) and beautiful.
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