Being at the school last year because of Resla was not a waste of time. The chemistry teacher had told us about the lack of teaching material and provided us via Roy with a list of the needed things.

None of the contacted chemistry firms in Basle were able to help and finally we asked Humaid to get an estimate in Colombo. The estimated costs were a bit more than 2000 CHF and for that amount of money it would not have been possible to get a fraction of the things in Switzerland.

My tip box provided 1000 SFR and several of Michel’s colleagues contributed.  We stocked up in Colombo and went with a fully packed van to Hambantota.

A small hint: the amount of money in our donation account could use some company.

We told Roy to ask whether the school would be open. There were upcoming elections and schools are used as polling stations. We emphasized not to mention the extent of our donation and only let them know that we would bring some teaching material.

 We met the Principal at her office and after talking about Resla, we asked her to send a couple of students to the van to help unload. In the meantime we were joined by several teachers and the surprise and joy grew with each parcel. Especially the two science teachers had a hard time not to inspect the gifts. This is inappropriate in front of the donors in Sri Lanka, so I opened the boxes for them. All previously listed things were there.

The Principal pushed the Vice Principal and he was visibly feeling uneasy to have to make a speech without preparation.