Today we had a day off. Some of the students went to the botanic garden, some went on a spa and others just relaxed. It was a nice and relaxed day.

We started our day at 6.30. Most of the students went to climb the lion rock. Later after lunch we drove to Kandy. It was a lot of traffic on the road, and I think many of us were relived when we arived the hotel.

We hit the road again. This time it was a long drive. From Jaffna to Sigirya. It was nice seing the different vegetation changes on the way. From the dry areas to the more wett once.

When we arrived Sigirya we went straigt on a little hike up to a mountain called Pidurangala rock. This rock is next to the rock we are going to climb tomorrow.

We had two programs today. First we visited the woman development center in Jaffna.

Had lunch outside. We had pizza, but the service was slower than expected and we had limited time. Everything was a rush.

UNDP we visited in the afternoon. UNDP is the United Nations development programme. Their main focus is helping eradicate poverty and reducing inequalities and exclusion. With operations in about 170 countries and territories, the UNDP, “help countries develop policies, leadership skills, partnering abilities, institutional capabilities and build resilience in order to sustain development results.” They also want to promote local economic development trough market-based livelihood opportunities to vulnerable communities. Most Sri Lankan people work in agriculture with livestock, fisheries, Communities based organisations strengthening (UNDP. 2019, 18^th January. From http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/about-us.html).

We went to the University of Jaffna during our stay in the city of Jaffna, we went to the University to learn more about the local community. Jaffna is located in the northernmost region in Sri Lanka. University of Sri Lanka was established in 1974 The majority of the population in this area are Tamil people, which means that Hinduism plays a big role in the way of life. The university has two different campuses and 10 faculties. In total around 8000 students are studying there. Most of the students are singalies. It is just at the art faculties that there are more tamil students. At this university you get into the study from your marks. There is no corruption here. We had two presentations about how the situation was in the region after the war.

The universitys vision is to be a leading centre of excellence in teaching, learning, research and scholarship. And the mission is to be a leading centre of academic excellence in producing intellectual, professionally competent and capable graduates by providing quality teaching, learning, and carrying out research to meet the emerging needs of the national and international community with special emphasis on the social, economical and cultural needs of Northern Sri Lanka.

Later in the day did go to the northern point of sri lanka called Sakkotei Cape.

Today we were so lucky to be invited to the great Thai Pongal festival in Jaffna. It is the most important festival celebrated by Tamil people in India, the whole of Sri Lanka and the Tamil diasporas in the rest of the world. It is a Harvest festival, including sacrificing, sharing and thanking their Sun God for agricultural profit. It is supposed to last for four days and each day has a different theme.

The day started early as we were going to be dressed up in the traditional Saree. Tree local dressers were supposed to help all the 13 girls at 7 o’clock, unfortunately only one came, and that resulted to a bit delay for us. But we were all nice and shiny when the one helper (poor here) was finishing dressing us all up.

We watched a ceremony in front of the Hotel.  Were vegetables were sacrificed and people and food were blessed. Then we were given the traditional Pongal dish, which consisted of sweet rice and as a cording to the Tamils, Pongal means “a dish of rice” or boiling over.

After a really short breakfast we took the bus to over first visit for the day The Nallur Kandaswamy Tempel,

Here we witnessed a ceremony inside the temple. A bunch of men carried a God statue and lot of hindus and other people were following behind.  As we had walked in a circle in the tempel. We then went out of the tempel and glanced the beautiful architecture.

Our next stop was at the Maruthanamadam Anjaneyar Temple. Outside there is a huge statue of the 72 feet tall monumental statue of Lord Hanuman. It is said that this God is a incarntation of Shiva and is huge statue of  72 feet tall monumental statue of Lord Hanuman. It is said that this God  is the holder strength, devotion, and perseverance.

On our way back to the hotel we saw a parade filled with people in cool customs. They celebrating the day.

When we finally got to our Hotel, It was a really good feeling to get out of the Saree, because it made you very warm.

Now we are rapping up  the celebration with a nice barbeque at the beach.

We are now settled down in Jaffna. The hotel is quite good, and has a variety of food. Today we don’t have any program.

The whole group went to a store to buy some saries. That’s a dress.

We left Anuradapura after breakfast. The bus ride took about 4 hours. On the way we saw many interesting historical things.

One of them was «The elephant Pass». In the picrure below you can see one of the many war monuments they have around the northern part of Sri Lanka.

We left the hotel at 5 am and went for an early morning climb up to the Mihintale Rock Temple, to see the sunrise. After climbing many sets of stairs, we had to take off our shoes, to show respect for the monks and the holy ground. The legend says that one has to feel the holy ground with our feet. Then we reached the rock of the temple. Here we literally had to climb, and when we reached the top, the view was amazing. After the sunrise we went to explore the place. One of the buildings was a big white globe, which was a “graveyard” for monks, where their ashes lay. This place was 3000 years old, just as old as the pyramids in Egypt, and there were engravings that were just as old. Monks are not allowed to work or make money, so they are dependent on donations, in order to eat and live. Earlier, kings made irrigation systems in the area in order to grow rice, so they could feed the monks. 

Side note: there are a lot of monkeys who are willing to pose for your photos.

We left Colombo this morning and traveled all the way to Anuradhapura. It was 210km and took about 6 hours. We had no program today, just travling and settling down in the new hotel.