Welcome to Sri Lanka

It’s been a long day of travel. I left Minneapolis just after mid-day on Thursday, and arrived at my destination on the west coast of Sri Lanka at the equivalent of 2am on Saturday in Minneapolis (11am here in Sri Lanka). The boys in the photo above gave us a nice welcome during our 2-hour van ride, but that was merely the final leg of a long journey.

From MSP, I flew to JFK, where I met the other members of the World Vision Bloggers Tour. They are, as you might guess, a wonderful and diverse group of people. We’ve already had some great conversations, about which I will post in coming days. From there we flew for 12+ hours in an A380, the largest airplane currently flying. We arrived in Dubai in time to hear the call to evening prayers as we waited in the line in passport control.

We taxied into the “Old Town” district of Dubai, the name of which our cabbie mocked, for he said that just 5 years ago it was a military training field. Now it’s home to the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. Even at 10pm, the walkways around the building and accompanying mall were jammed with thousands of people.

We ate dinner at a pizza place — all of Dubai is covered with Western chains of food and clothing. But what was impressive was the Dubai Fountain, which has a choreographed show every 30 minutes in the evenings.

Back at the Dubai Airport, we boarded a plane to Columbo, Sri Lanka, where we were greeted by World Vision staff, whisked to a van, and taken to our hotel on the coast, about 60 miles north of Columbo.

As I write this, I am both trying to stay awake until evening, so that I can sleep through the night, and enjoying the scene that’s taking place on the porch of my room, where the beautiful couple below is having their wedding photos taken.

As I’ve talked to my fellow bloggers on this trip, we do have one fear: that during this week of writing about what ails Sri Lanka and what World Vision is doing to counteract that, our traffic will slide. Without posts about John Piper or Chik-fil-A, readers might become uninterested.

I hope that won’t be the case here. You have my commitment that, in addition to a travelogue, I will post substantive and theological reflections, in keeping with my usual themes. I hope I can have a commitment from you that you’ll keep reading.

I’d love for you to follow us on the trip and consider sponsoring a child as well.