Sri Lanka could possibly be one of my favourite countries in
the world and somewhere that I feel most content and at my happiest!! I
couldn’t wipe the huge smile off my face when we arrived. Our first day was
spent with the human dynamite, aka Aunty Olly, who we accompanied on several
errands around Colombo. Particularly memorable was a visit to the hospital
where we found ourselves in the mental ward, being eerily watched and feeling
totally out of place. With no windows, locked prison doors and some freaky
people, it was almost like a scene out of Shutter Island. Welcome to Sri Lanka
Matt!!
After travelling through India, Sri Lanka looks and feels to
me like paradise. I’ve been wondering where all the people are hiding, enjoying
the clean streets, wide open spaces and feasting my eyes on all the stunning
scenery. I love being surrounded by palm trees, rice paddies, tea plantations,
mountain ranges and some beautiful beaches. Despite how awesome I think the
country is, the best thing by far about coming here again is visiting the kids
at the orphanage. They are the best kids and its going to be hard to leave them
again. Matt and I have spent some quality time mucking around, playing cricket
and board games, watching movies and helping them with their English. We’ve
also had a couple of fun day trips to an elephant orphanage and to Kandy.
Around Christmas time a lot of the kids go back to their local villages so
we’ve been left with only 8 over the holiday period which has made it that bit
easier for us. I don’t know how Aunty Olly copes with 25 kids running around. I
hope she knows how much I admire her and hope I can do something as amazing as
what she is doing in my life.
Christmas with the kids was so much fun, despite the fact
that we were both really homesick and missing all our Aussie traditions. We
went to midnight mass which was all in Singhalese. Matt especially loved all
the standing up and kneeling down on a hard wooden plank!! After church we gave
the kids some pressies from A Olly that they continued to play with all night until
we had to confiscate them because we were trying to sleep up in the dormitory
with them. Matt was the best Santa in the world!! He stayed up until about 3am
just to make sure the kids were all sound asleep before using his ninja like
stealth to sneak around and fill up their stockings. It paid off in the morning
when they ripped open all their presents and choruses of ‘batteries aunty,
batteries’ ran throughout to get their motorised toys working. We spent the
rest of Christmas day doing some craft activities with them, having lunch,
playing outside and then going out to Rambukkanna for hoppers.
Seeing the kids again was so amazing, I can’t explain how
happy it made me to see their smiling faces and be called aunty again. They are
all doing really well, looking healthy and their English is getting better as
well. Little Tharaka is still tiny and struggling a bit with a constant ear
infection but his huge smile and beautiful spirit are as bright as ever. Sri
Lanka was fantastic and I loved every minute we spent there with the kids and
exploring the country. Our experience with the turtle hatchery in Bentota was
absolutely surreal and like something out of National Geographic. Our time in
Nurawa Eliya and Ella was spent going for long hikes, enjoying the stunning
scenery and tea plantations and stumbling across the random cobras in the bush.
Our one horrible experience in Sri Lanka was the train ride home from Ella. An
overcrowded, rickety, stench filled 10
hour train resulted in two very grumpy Australian passengers, especially when
it broke down for an hour and a half. Despite that one train ride though, I
fall more in love with the country every time I go there and I can’t wait to go
back again.
