During that time we traveled all over the country. From Galle, an old Portuguese colony in the south, to Anuradapura, the ancient capital of Lanka. During our first ten days we were rushed from Colombo to Moratuwa to Anuradapura and finally into villages where we spent six days immersed in a culture that is radically different from our own. Everything from eating lunch , to bathing , to going to the toilet became a challenge. The lives of the people in the village I stayed in were centered around the planting and harveting of rice.
Rice is the main staple of their diet and a rich man is a man who owns many rice paddies.
After our stay in the village we did a Shramadana work project with the Sarvodayans We spent a day at Sigiria , the lion rock, where the King of Lanka used to spend his summers hiding from his brother. We climbed Adam's Peak where, if you're lucky, you can see the Buddha's foot print impressed in the stone at the top. We spent a morning touring a tea factory where we saw the tea making process from picking to packaging. In the tea country we had our first exposure to the Tamils , who are the minority ethnic group. These are just a few of the things we saw, here is a sampler of other places we visited in Sri Lanka.