Week 4

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So Folks here we are again, another week over, where is the time going?

Today, 4th February is Independence Day here in Sri Lanka, so ‘Happy Independence Day Sri Lanka’, but more importantly it’s my nephew birthday no matter what country you are in, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY WARREN xxxx

Last weekend took me to Kandy, a lovely small city (or large town not sure which). It is famous and holds real esteem for Buddhists because of the ‘Temple of the Tooth’, this is to Buddhists what the Vatican is to Catholics and Mecca is to Muslims and I had a very special tour round the place.

The High Priest of the Temple is the very guy that founded Vagira (the Home I am placed at) and because we let him know we were there we were invited in to have tea with him (a real honour I can tell you) and then we were given a full guided tour, we were able to go where normal visitors can’t go including the Holy Shrine where the Tooth Relic is kept. We had to go inside this little square box like building and everyone was looking at us (probably asking why the westerners were getting special treatment, I did feel a bit bad) but anyway once inside we were taken to where the Tooth was. You can’t see it as it is in side a ‘stupa’ shaped casket which is inside 6 other ‘stupa’ like caskets, the largest must be about 4 foot in height and the best thing was we were allowed to take photos which is never allowed unless you’re really wealthy or taking them for publicity purposes, how lucky were we? But the funny thing was the High Priest wanted us to take his photo, you have to laugh really.

The Tooth Relic is thought to be the tooth of Buddha taken from his cremated remains and smuggled out of India and into Sri Lanka. Over the centuries it has moved from temple to temple depending on where the capital was, but finally came to rest in the last capital (before Colombo) Kandy. However it has been stolen and returned on numerous occasions and in the 90s Tamil Tiger suicide bombers drove a truck loaded with explosives up to the door. The damage was huge but the relic wasn’t touched. However not wanting to take any more risks there are now strategically placed lookout posts with numerous armed soldiers all around the site.

We also visited a tea factory which smelt lovely and was also very interesting, for example did you know that every type of tea starts off as the same leaves it’s just the process that is different and when it comes to flavoured tea and specialty tea flavourings etc are added during the process. Fascinating hahahahaha.

We also went bareback elephant riding which did wonders for the old cellulite around the derrière I can tell you, a bit hair raising with nothing to hold onto especially when the elephant, who was a big ol’bird decided to kick a dog and we rocked as she lifted her leg, but it was fun and then from there we went to an elephant orphanage and saw the babies being bottled feed and we even saw an elephant that was 3 days old, but the other elephants were so protective that it was impossible to get a photograph of it, they just kept crowding round it. But they are such lovely creatures.

And then all too soon it was Monday and it was back to work, isn’t that always the way?

Tina left for the coast on Monday and it was really strange being on my own, but after watch a few DVDs I was ok and settled down to work. At the moment I am in the process of re-writing some English text books that they have that are far too difficult for the children to understand. It’s a tedious job and not very easy but it is really important to the school so my aim is to get 3 out of the 5 completed and typed up before I leave in 3 weeks.

The cupa soups are amazing, thank you they really have been a godsend, but then saying that the diet appears to be going well and I don’t even have to starve myself hahahaha. But no seriously I eat out about twice a week and of course at the weekends so I am getting proper food as well. Nilmini (the head teacher) is concerned that I’m not eating and I just laugh and tell her I’m trying to loose weight and that seems to do the trick, I do go down for food but only eat a little bit, if only it was hot!!!! Tina came up with a good explanation last week about why the food is cold it’s because they eat with their right hand and if it was hot they would burn their fingers, obvious when you think about it hahahaha.

I’m glad the parcels all arrived I can send the next batch now, the Sri Lankan post office maybe very bureaucratic (and not my favorite place to go) but at least it’s fast.

Message to my nieces and nephews, if you don’t get a parcel it’s because I can’t find anything to buy you, it’s not because I’ve forgotten you, honest xxxxxx.

This will make you laugh, on Thursday I was invited to go to the local Temple with some of the teachers which I thought was nice so we sets off, it was really hot and then I realised that we weren’t going to the Temple (I guessed this when we walked past it hahahaha) we were infact going to a Sports Day for a local school, something really got lost in translation somewhere along the line still not sure where though, Temple – Sports Day, really don’t sound alike do they?

And then on Friday we had our own Sports Day, the children really enjoyed it as you can see from the photos. The buildings that you see made of cane were all designed and constructed by the children, they will last about 3 months (until the rains come). They were amazing the photos don’t do them justice. We got to meet the Minister for Education in Colombo, very nice man and then were invited into each of the houses and given fruit and cakes, how nice was that?

There was a sad incident though yesterday and it is something that I will never forget. As I’ve said before not all of the children are orphans and on a Friday some children go home for the weekend or their parent’s visit, but we haven’t been involved in this because we usually go away on a Friday. But this Friday I saw one of my little missiles leaving her mum, I have never seen anyone look so lost. She walked away with a little bag of goodies, there were no hugs, kisses or waves goodbye, they just parted and the little girl walked away. I had to remind myself that there is a very good reason why she is at the home and her mother obviously loves her very much otherwise she wouldn’t visit but the look of loss and confusion on the child’s face was so intense I feel as though it has embedded itself in my memory. It is moments like these that make you realize how lucky we all are.



Tina left for the UK yesterday and it was really sad, I will miss her and her earplugs, she’ll know what I mean, always ignoring me when I was trying to talk to her. No not really but by now she will be tucked up in bed having arrived in a freezing cold country while she left me soaking up the sun at a very plush hotel, I know who’s got the better deal!!!! So ‘Hello’ Tina, now you have to knuckle down to some hard work to get that degree finished.

So this weekend as most of you already know has been spent in a very plush hotel in Colombo, it doesn’t hurt to have a few creature comforts (like a bath) every now and again. Today the new volunteers arrive and 4 are coming to work at Vagira, 3 part time and 1 full time. The full time person will be staying at the Home so I will have someone to talk to which will be good, I hope!!!!!

Anyway here are some more photos for you to look at. Enjoy and don’t forget to carry on texting and emailing.

Lots of Love xxxxx

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