Happy Sinhala / Tamil New Year!

Having a great time back in Sri Lanka. Have been chilling out in the village catching up with all my friends and holding chaotic daily English lessons with the kids. It's great living in the village as there's never a dull moment, although trying to get any work done is a problem with constant interruptions! The village has changed quite a bit in 4 months with new buildings and houses. On Monday we opened a new housing complex 'KPMG village' with 50 houses all beautifully done.


In the centre of this mini village is a community centre and garden. Monday was a day of long Sri Lankan speeches, a huge lunch and afternoon games for the kids (and adults!) - a granny won the laughing competition after cackling down the mic like a witch! Other games: running, lime and spoon races, tug of war, hit the hanging pot blind fold, balloon blowing graces, sack races, and the like. Great to see them enjoy themselves though there's always the sad reminder of why we are all there. One of the boys who received a house that day had lost both his parents in the tsnumai and made an emotional speech which brought us all to tears. There are also a lot of people not celebrating new year tomorrow because they lost so many of their family to the waves.

New Year is a big family and community celebration here so I'll be spending most of tomorrow going to different houses and trying not to eat too much cake! Followed by a beach party in the local town on Friday night and a footy competition on the beach on Saturday - fingers crossed I won't have to play. Being English tends to mean I know the rules - yikes!

Also it's bloody hot here, we are all melting and night time isn't much better. Though I'm getting used to it again. ...and if isn't the heat the night time noises take a while to live with - trains going past from 4.30 am onwards, puppies barking in the night, cows mooing outside the window. Never a predictable moment, and never a full nights sleep!

Back off to the heat, out of the rare and wonderful a/c internet cafe. Hope you all have a fab Easter, and New Year's wishes to you all from me here.