Shopping, beautiful young women, adorable girls, and a fine meal with a friend


December 16

Deja vu…we walked back up to the Independence Memorial and took some photos then we found a track and did three loops but we started to get hot so walked back home, about a two-mile trek altogether. It felt good to exercise although we are way behind with our regime.  

After breakfast, we got ready to run errands. The first stop was Barefoot where we got some yardage for a tablecloth for an outdoor table and some napkins. We are hopeful that wherever we end up living we will have a place for al fresco dining.





Last night, Dhushy recommended we visit a shop called Kreation that carried SL clothing. Ron found five shirts and I got five blouses; all hand-loomed. They are colorful but the quality isn’t as nice as Barefoot but the price is half. We stopped by The Asia Foundation and we met with Anton, giving him some money for Tinesh’s education expenses. Anton will dispense the funds and notify me if they run low. Hopefully, we can help Tinesh finish his degree. 

We came home to drop off the purchases and stopped by Ajith’s to pick up the jewelry I had made. We went to an Indian Hindu restaurant where we eat each time we visit Colombo and had dosas and sweetened lime juice. It is hot today and the drink is refreshing. It was a productive morning but I feel totally shopped out.

We said goodbye to Mr. K. I told him we were friends for life and if he ever needed anything to contact me. He and I had tears in our eyes. We gave him an envelope addressed to him, his daughter, her husband, and their daughter. Inside was a card telling them how much we enjoyed our time together and a note about the tradition of a house warming gift which we enclosed in the card. I had a good cry when I got upstairs.





We rested after lunch and at 5:30 Chandini picked us up and we went to Shilpa Children’s Home where 30 girls, mostly street kids are cared for. Chandini had arranged for about 12 women to meet us. These were former Shilpa girls who had made a successful transition from the orphanage to a career. I think I mentioned in an earlier post I had taught career development classes at Shilpa when we lived here. As a result, many girls seek further education after high school to enhance their career choices. I asked about their current work and their living situation. Some live in hostels and some in boarding homes. Their work choices were as varied as the women:  preschool teacher, news support for a TV station, accountant for the Air Force, architect, dental assistant. They were shy to speak with us, probably due to the language but we all mustered through and it was fun to hear about their success. Many of the girls grew up at Shilpa. 

When I volunteered there the girls were orphans as a result of the civil war, from the tsunami, or had to be removed from their homes due to abuse. Now almost all of them are street kids. Yet at Shilpa, they thrive. The organization is so very special. We met Chandini who is a trustee at Shilpa when we took Sinhalese language classes from her.

After speaking with the women, the rest of the residents wanted to meet us. These are the girls who didn’t go home for the Christmas school break because they can’t go home, it isn’t safe. They were all dressed up and looked so charming.  I visited with them briefly while Ron snapped some photos.













Chandini took us out to dinner at a great Italian restaurant. We had a good long visit talking about Shilpa, construction, current changes in Colombo and movies.



We were able to see everyone we wanted to see this trip and it made us so happy. Sri Lanka will always be one of our favorite places in the world because of our experiences and because of the friends we have made here.

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