Cooking class and buddist lesson

Today I took part in orientation because the 2 main things I wanted to do on orientation was today. In the morning we were split into two groups and we took a bus out to a ladies house where we did a cooking class. Her house was your basic small shed house with tiny stone kitchen and a big table outside that we all sat down at. She brought out all the ingredients we were going to be using which was a huge range of vegetables and spices (coconut husk, onion, jack fruit, banana plant, tomatoes, cinnomen etc. we were all given a job to cut different things up. We had these stone bowls and big pounders that we used to grind up different spices and ingredients. The process was long and look around 45 to an hour to prepare. We then all squished into her tiny kitchen where we watched her cook the popodoms and cook up the banana leaf curry with the jack fruit salad. Once all was cooked we all sat down at the table and dished up. Because Sri Lankans eat with here fingers we were taught the best way to do it avoiding getting food all over our faces. I found eating with hands yuck so I used my pompo domes as a spoon. The food was amazing and spicy but not two spicy that we couldn't taste the rest of the meal. The whole group got along so well it was fun! We had a good 3 hours before your next thing they had planned for orientation so we all decided to catch the bus into Kandy city and go to markets. We all went all the girls brought elephant pants and some other stuff. I tried to get everyone to come with me to where you buy the fruit and spices but everyone was just tired and stressed out that me and Eric just left and went to the place I usually buy. Y fruit. I went to the tea store first and brought a big bag of spice tea as well as a bag of vanilla tea. I also got a bag of tried cinnamon sticks and the chucked a free one in for me. All up cost me 1000 rupees which is 10$. Eric hadn't taken a tuk tuk yet so we decided to tuk tuk home. We asked a driver if he knew green house and he said yes so we got in. About 20 minutes later after driving round Kandy lake twice he dropped us off at random place which wasn't the green house. Erick had one of the co ordinators numbers so we called them and our driver spoke to Steven and he took us back to the house safely. We got back late so we were just in time to catch another tuk tuk along with tr rrst of the group to our Buddhist lesson. We got to the temple and was introduced by a German buddist lady who took us into the temple where we all sat spread out on small pillows. She talked to us about budisim and her life for around an hour. She told us all about the rules that come with being a buda such as they must not touch or own money, they can have no relations with anyone, they cannot sleep comfortably on a bed and they must not eat after 12. In Sri Lanka the Buddhists walks around in the morning early with a bowls and Sri Lankans out food in there bowls. She told us about her past and how she was married and had children and worked in a hospital and then suddenly moved to Sri Lanka to study buddism and since then has become a buddist. At the end we were taught a 45 minute meditation session which was impossible. She tried to explain to us how to meditate where you are in a space where you are not thinking about anything but it was. Impossible. We finished around 5 and them all of us walked home. It was such a pretty walk through the forest with a Dam on our right side. At home everyone started organizing there weekends this weekend so we Sussed with dammike our trip to sigirya to climb lions rock. The girls leave go the beach on Sunday so we are only doing a day trip so they can leave Sunday morning early. I also finalized tonight that I am going to do the tribal programe for my last week which means next Sunday me and Fay have to leave at 4:00am in the morning with one of the co ordinators.