Sadly, today is my last day in Sri Lanka, and it is drawing to a close quickly. Fortunately though, it was a fantastic day. Possibly one of the best on record. But without futher ado, stories and pictures. (A LOT of pictures. I did say it was a grand finale…)
Today was the big day for putting the masts of the ship up and I was ready. After working like a dog yesterday, I was ready for some good news. So me and my trusty helper Samsinga got going at 7 am to finish the prep work and final touches, before the boom truck came at 9.
He may not know how to smile, but he does know how to work hard.. (Fine by me)
Our beautiful masts. They were my design and construction, so I may be a little biased, but I don’t care.
Notice it's still sitting on the poison barrel...
My personal favorite of the three..
Right on time the truck showed up to get started. Unfortunately it was a tall truck, and our entrance is not.
A truck shaped peg in a square hole doesn't work.
The truck was 11 feet tall, and the lowest point of the concrete entrance is 10’6″. (Ironic, right?) So the easiest answer was to dig the floor deeper. (And if you’re saying ‘Why didn’t you cut the corner where the smaller truck is?’ The answer is the boom truck was too long to make the corner. So no. You’re not smarter than we are.)
So my homeboy Anura got busy on the ‘bota and started rippin up the path.
As was translated to me after Anura shouted, "I don't have a license for this! Watch out!"
Thus a clear path of destruction was prepared for the truck.
We might break everything else, but we will have a ship by the end of the day..
We all held our breath and hoped for the best.
This begs the question of why the concrete entrance is there anyways..
Sure enough the truck got through, although not before getting high centered on a rock and having to get dug out.
So just short of an hour later, the truck finally got into the camp. This was not a good forcast to the day. Fortunately the next bit went quite a bit smoother and soon we were well on our way. Here we are lifting the rear mast, getting ready for placement.
Unfortunately the arm made this mast spin like a tire swing
I noticed as we were getting underway that we had collected quite the audience. What else are you going to do at tea time anyways?
A good show is always sure to draw a good crowd..
It was quickly realized that we needed more man power, so tea time was cut short and the boys were put into action. (Which they were more than happy to do) I realized I would be quite busy, so I gave the camera to one of the boys. He did an excellent job catching the happenings.
I wonder why I got the short rope..
After a bit of talking and translating it was decided that my end (I had the arm) needed to move towars the back first to get a good position in the hole of the foundation. Which meant I needed to move towards the back.. Which meant:
It was at this point that I realised why I got the short rope..
The water was disturbingly warm, and it was filled to the top with a thick mossy weed. I really could have done without this addition to the day, but after awhile they brought another piece of rope to lengthen it with.
It's nicer at this level.
We then tied off the ropes to extremely conveniently placed coconut trees, and proceeded to unhook the crane line. This job proved a bit more difficult as one of the kids had to scale the mast and pull it close enough to get the cable ends off the hook. In the end I had to lift it closer for him.
This stick came SO close to snapping and stabbing me in the face..
Teamwork payed off and the mast stood. With rocks shoved in the base until concrete was prepared, we were ready to move on.
The victory fist means one down, two to go..
Emerson seen on the right of this picture is the director of the boys camp, and speaks excellent english, so we had a meeting and discussed how the next mast drop could be improved. (Which mainly entailed longer ropes and less walks in the pond.)
I think I'm saying, 'Next time, you go in the pond.'
Regardless of the swimming experience, the mast was up, and the boys were bubbling with excitement, if you couldn’t tell from the photo..
These are our 'Job Well Done' faces.
In all the excitement we almost forgot, but at the last second before the lifting of the main mast, we quickly installed the crown jewel of it all. Our full size pirate flag.
This should get the nieghbors talking..
With our flag on we were ready to go, and lifted it to the hole.
Ever so slightly out of level. Not.
With the base in the hole we need to pull, and pull hard. So we did.
I think he was on the verge of pulling too hard..
Unfortunately this is where it all went wrong. Everyone was pulling so hard (from all sides) that we were fighting ourselves. I knew this but It didn’t help that the only person who could tell everyone else (Emerson) wasn’t listening. Thus chaos erupted and every adult began yelling and about 40 kids began yelling, which got me yelling “WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?!”. After about 5 minutes of this (30 seconds was plenty) Emerson finally came over, and we had a polite discussion about what was happening.
'Polite' is very relative when you're holding up at 1200 lb mast.
I told Emerson what needed to happen, and he got it all sorted out and the mast ended up level. Here’s Chanika taking off the crane line on the secured main mast.
He still wonders why I call him 'Tarzan' after he got up that in about 10 seconds..
After two practice sessions, the front mast was a non-event and went in and up like cake. Adam showed up about this time to check on our progress.
Notice how the crane arm is too short. That's what was making this so difficult.
With the final mast up the crane truck got out of there in a hurry. (Come on, we can’t afford to pay this guy $16 an hour all day! That’s right, $16 for two workers and the truck per hour. Can you say ‘deal’?) Finally the masts were up. And all of this by 1 PM.
A great centerpiece for a great place.
With all that hard work, we needed a break. So after lunch we hit the beach.
Just what the doctor ordered.
As usual, the boys had a blast and we stayed out extra long.
My boy Riyas, showing off as usual..
Dinner was coming and I needed to pack (Which I still need to do) so I knew what I had to do. The goodbye’s were plentiful but sad.
Veruna does so much work organizing and being father for the camps. Awesome guy.
I took a particular liking to a few of the smallest children, so I took the opportunity for last pictures.
I have yet to see this guy without a smile..
Ameesha is SO cute. I really want to take her with me.
And Anu did a great job helping me stay in shape while away from the gym.
Unfortunately I could only find about half of the boys, but I needed to get going, so this was our group.
You can't expect this many boys together to be serious!
All of the girls showed up for our final picture which turned out great.
They're also not dirty like the boys which is a plus when it comes to tight group photos..
This is Pawani, the girl who my parents are sponsering.
And I was really excited to find all three girls milling around the yard for this picture.
Identical triplets. Now thats a 3 in 1,000,000 kind of find.
And so the sun was setting on my day, and I the call to pack became more of a necessity, so I said my final goodbyes and gave my final hugs and retired to the apartment at the top of the building. I am quite sad to be leaving Sri Lanka, and for the first time of any vacation, I am in no way ready to go back. (Including being packed.) I’ve lacked nothing here, and I have 200 new friends, so what could be better. I really want to thank Adam for letting me come out and for the experience, and also thank all of the people who helped me with my plane ticket cost. It’s been a fantastic time, and something I’m sure to never forget.
I’ll be leaving out of Colombo at 7 AM, and then fly to Malaysia and then Singapore. Once in Singapore I’ll have an 18 hour layover, which will be a great chance to check out the city. I’m really excited for that. Then Monday at 6AM I’ll fly to Tokyo, and then I’ll be arriving at 8 am in Seattle. 12 hours worth of flights in 2 hours, isn’t too shabby.. Perhaps I’ll give a quick update when in Singapore.
But I’ve been too long writing my blog, so I’ll leave you all with a picture of my final sunset.
See you soon..
-Brad
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