We often get asked whether it is boring to spend all our holidays in Sri Lanka. The answer to this question is a clear NO.

Sadly, we were not able to stay with Carima and Ronnie this time. Like all people who were living at the lagoon, they were awaiting their eviction date which could be at any time.  All have started to remove the reusable parts of their houses to be prepared.

 When we arrived at the Kindergarten, the children were seated and being tutored in the garden under a solar panel.

After our last visit and the shutdown of our payments, we did not expect to hear from Resla again.

At our family’s annual party to celebrate either a birthday (… or not!) of one of the siblings, this time we celebrated the 60^th birthday of our sister.

The main issue was once again the girls, Nasreen and Nasmeela. Sifaya was very upset about the fact that whenever they were short of money, that the tuition classes for the girls had to be cancelled. Most probably this happens quite often.

 Remembering the hours of shopping with Ruhi in the spring, we handed an envelope with money discreetly to the girl and wished her a lot of fun shopping on her own.

Even after our blunt words with Maduka in the spring, we hardly heard from him.  The bad news that his Aunt had passed away August 1^st, and therefore, he did not even attend the A Level tests on August 5^th had been forwarded to us by Roy.

Sakeer’s bicycle was there and the boy was beaming with pride about it. He carefully locked the bike all the time.

It is always great to meet people we know on the streets of Hambantota. This time I did not even have both legs out of the car yet, when Rasmiya came running across the street. She was on her way to work and grabbed both of my hands to greet me.  After a short moment of hesitation, she fell around my neck. Michel had to do with a shy smile.

Being that we came from the east coast, we visited Kirinda first. The school Principal was informed about our visit and the bookkeeping was exemplary. This work is done by his secretary.