Snorkeling inside and out!

     To get to Trincomalee took 2 buses, first, 4 hours to Kandy and then 5 hours to Trinco. That cost a total of $3.50 which is why there is no money to fix or buy new buses but also allows SLs to travel a lot. In many families, even among the doctors, the home base is one town but work is another.  It can take 7 to 9 hours to get home periodically and this is the usual way people live.   Nilaveli Beach was my first destination and was lovely. It is supposed to be the nicest beach in Sri Lanka and has been unreachable for years both because of the Tsunami but more so because of the 30 year war between the Singhala people and the Tamils who mostly live in the north and east of the country.  It is a wide beach but not georgeous like the Carribean or Hawaii. The place I stayed was so friendly, really expensive for here $67.50 a night with hot water, AC (both an unexpected plus ), breakfast and dinner.  The boat to get to Pigeon island to snorkel, $13.50.
     I snorkeled for hours (my painful, peeling back can testify). Great coral considering the Tsunami that wiped out so much of this beach not long ago and day trippers who walk all over it.  Not that many fish but good variety.  Always when I snorkel, I feel like I am floating and thin and non existent to the fish.  I am an unseen visitor.  That's how I felt being there and at the resort, non existent.  There was a point where it started to feel dangerous and difficult to go further while I was snorkeling so I turned back. I realized no one would know for hours if something happened to me.  The boat man would eventually come looking and that got me started  thinking about my life, how frequently I feel invisible.  I am not saying this with judgement or poor me, I think I'm stating a fact.  People don't notice people in general, especially if you are sort of ordinary, not flashy, quiet.  For years in NYC I'd see the same people daily and they never noticed me.  As a person alone here or NYC, no one knows where I am most of the time, either place it would be days before it was noticed.  People marvel at what I do by myself and feel I am brave.  Maybe I am but I think what are my options, do nothing because I am alone?  No one to come snorkeling with so don't do it; this activity I have loved since I first did it in 1967 with my friend Dorothy in St. John, Virgin Islands?    That doesn't make sense or feel good.  Some people always find and have mates, friends, lovers; some don't. Life is about living it, as it is, as it unfolds and with as much courage as one can muster. I have learned though, that I don't want to be totally invisible.  I want to live somewhere were people notice if I am home or not, where I am not invisible to the community.  I want a partner, lover, a mate. I can't manufacture one but I can decide where I want to live... SO I had all these thoughts while snorkeling and of course then realized I was missing what I  loved by not being present in the moment! 
      When I came out of the water, a bunch of muslim people had arrived on the little beach of Pigeon Island where the snorkeling was.  3 women where totally in black, standing in the water a little.  2 had their faces covered except for their eyes (in Badulla there is one woman who wears a black veil over her face, black gloves and black shoes and socks).  Anyway, by the time I left, the 3 women were up to their necks in the water but veils stayed in place!  Love and respect for G-d is what I've been told.  BTW, if I haven't said before, the muslims here generally are more educated, speak beautiful english and are very sweet and gracious to me.  Part of the joy I get daily is walking on this little side lane on which mostly muslims live.  Everyone greets me and the children, speaking in english love to chat.  You can't judge a book by it's cover! Anyway, I keep digressing.  The rest of my stay in Trinco was such a treat, there is another volunteer here named Asela, she is Philippina and we had a couple of terrific days seeing the sites of this lovely town.  We even got all wet at the hot springs visited by the locals who see the springs as a holy site. (pictures on facebook).
     On a totally separate note, I have lost one of each of my favorite earings.  I have owned these earings for 25 to 35years and never lost one.  What is that about?