Our Latest Trip

Della and Don arrived in Sri Lanka last Wednesday accompanied by Lucy, aged 16 on her first visit to the country.  As ever, the schedule is proving to be hectic and already they've visited the Village Nursery, Medical Clinic and Village School.


Lucy has kindly written an entry for the blog on her impressions to date:

"I am Lucy, aged 16 and currently travelling in Sri Lanka with Della and Don. We arrived last Wednesday, following an extremely turbulent flight, in Colombo and I was amazed at the traffic and the atmosphere. It was hot, muggy and there were people everywhere as we were driving through the city. I had no expectations before I came. I had some vague ideas but since I have never been to the third world before they were just from what I had seen and heard. 

As we were driving I saw many people walking around with no shoes on and on some evenings we have seen people sleeping wherever they can. I found this shocking as personally, unlike places such as India and Bangladesh, even since the tsunami, I do not associate Sri Lanka with extreme poverty. This was really brought to my attention when we passed over a bridge into Colombo, underneath which there were slums that overran to the edge of the railway line. The next day we went to the fishing village and I was amazed at the destruction that had been caused by the tsunami. People were living in shacks, literally, many without running water. 

This was also the case when we went to see some ladies that Della and Don had bought a sewing machine for. They had their homes rebuilt by a charity as they lived in a place that was heavily impacted by the tsunami; they were living without electricity and running water. We decided to buy another sewing machine as the machine was supporting 7 families; with another machine they will be able to support themselves even more and it will mean that they can make more items. Another aspect that has really intrigued me is the pure chaos that surrounds everything. As I said, I came with some loose ideas of what it would be like but I cannot put into words how crazy everything is; there are hundreds of tuktuks and the driving is extreme; for me  all the beeping is very strange, coming from a place where beeping is only used when really necessary and even then it is looked upon with shock! 

The highlights so far have been visiting the nursery and the clinic. The nursery children have one small and dangerous room with exposed wires and at the moment I would really like the money that I raised last term at school to help with building them another room to use. The clinic was very eye opening as I got to meet the mothers and some of the children that FODAD sponsors. Here, especially, I saw how much the families were benefitting from the use of the clinic. Without it they had to travel all the way into Colombo where they would have to pay for the drugs and medical treatment themselves.

We also visited the school where they were taking their midterm exams; it was great to see the children so focused and dedicated on their work. So, all in all it has been a very exciting and eye-opening trip and I will write some more soon!

Lucy  




More updates to come soon!