The last couple of weeks before our departure passed very fast. Our heads were full of plans and we had an appointment with Roy Marso right after our arrival. He had kept us up to date by e-mail about the developments in Hambantota.
There was also not much visible change in Hambantota town besides the fact that most debris had been cleared.
Roy kept us informed about Sifaya and her girls while we were gone. We were quite shocked to hear in June that she had moved from that little hut (we also learned that she had to pay rent for it!) into a refugee camp.
On the first visit during this stay in Hambantota, the kindergarten was closed because of school vacation, so we only brought two lockable metal closets. They had asked us for one, but as we could not decide between the two available models, we bought both.
We only had meager information about Riyas: the A-Test results would not be known till August; he was doing fine. That was all we had heard by e-mail. At the time we had met Roy in Colombo, he told us that Riyas had not passed the exam, and that he did not have any information about the three girls.
We met Mrs. Naseer Modenona only because we arrived at Sifaya’s hut in the refugee camp to discover no one home, and the doors closed. She told us that they had gone to their new house, as it was supposed to get connected to the electricity that day. Needless to say, their trip was to no avail.
Bank Cial donated the necessary money to start the micro credit program and we would like to express our gratitude once again.
Roy met our request and introduced us to five children. Three of them lost both parents; two siblings, their father; and because of Riyas’ experience of getting photographed from all sides without hearing anything further from the photographer, we did keep the number small.
To send an SMS (text message) with a prepaid sim card from Sri Lanka to Switzerland costs about Rs. 2, an amount too small to be converted into Swiss francs. Banuka had sent us an SMS every four to five weeks: no water – little water – more water and finally, MOMMY VERY HAPPY!