The meeting

It’s the aim of our journey: meet Sandeepa we’ve been sponsoring since the summer 2005. Sandeepa is 6½ years old and lives with her grandparents. She never knew her father and her mother left her in the summer 2006. I didn’t further information on her mother’s situation.

Hemali, Swarna and Kumara, members of the CCf in the district of Kirinda come and fetch us at the hotel. The village is about 15 kilometres far, the journey seems endless. A lot of questions come to my mind: how will Sandeepa react? How will we communicate with her and her family? None of them speaks English. Srath is with us, his knowledge in French will complete my notions of English. Arrived near the house I recognize the rebuilding in progress whose photos I had got thanks to the Internet. I recognize the grandfather, Munidasa, while the minibus is parking in front of the gate. I can see Sandeepa running towards the house and while getting of the bus I can’t help shouting “Sandeepa” when joining the reception committee. Lydie tries to calm down my enthusiasm: “Don’t shout, you’ll frighten her!” The introductions are very moving and a bit formal.

Following the tradition, Munidasa gives us a Koltamber leaf, as a welcome sign. Sandeepa puts a flower necklace around my neck and bows low before me. Embarrassed, I try to make her stand up but Srath whispers in my ear “it’s a sign of respect towards adults”. Malani, the grandmother, arrives.  She looks moved with almost tears in her eyes. She is the one who, with the help of a neighbour who can write, writes the letters I receive. There are at least twenty persons to welcome us. All the neighbours are here who have helped preparing the meal and will take it after us. The children are particularly curious in front of these two Europeans, maybe the first ones they see. We understand how bad are the poor conditions of living of this Sri-Lankan family. The house they live in is still made of red bricks but there is no comfort. I have a close look at the damages caused by the recent floods and which prompted me to help them build a new house. After the traditional royal coconut, we give our presents to the family. Sandeepa is particularly spoilt. We give her the clothes offered by Lydie’s sister and Gaëlle a friend whose daughter Tifène has made a bracelet with beards with the name Sandeepa written on it. We also give to the grandparents a little souvenir from Brittany (“trao mad” and pancakes aren’t forgotten). I also give to Sandeepa the school stationery provided by my mother. There was so much of it that I leave some to Hemali to give away in schools. We can feel the emotion in Malani’s eyes. Sandeepa seems a bit lost, she takes a little time to realize that we are really there. It’s true that initially the journey was planned in May 2007. We had postponed it to concentrate our help on the rebuilding of the house.

Munidasa takes me at the back of the house to show me the tree they have planted in my honour when the sponsorship started. It’s silly but I feel a little moved by this attention. We immortalize this moment by taking a photo with Sandeepa.

While the preparation of the meal comes to an end, Sandeepa takes me by the hand for an improvised walk towards the river nearby. When arriving on the bank I show her the water and say “rivière”(river). She answers me ... something I didn’t remember, but we understood each other. All of a sudden she lets my hand go of and stops. I go on staring at the ground to see where I put my feet. I stop face to face with a buffalo left there tied up. I understand by seeing Sandeepa’s face that she doesn’t like going too close to it. We go back, the others must be waiting for us.

The meal which is served to us is impressing by the diversity of the dishes proposed. I ask Srath about the quantity of spices put in the various dishes. He reassures me when telling me that, especially for our delicate stomachs, they have put less spices. The future will prove that all the cooks didn’t know about that. We appreciate the manioc cooked as a vegetable, the fried fish, the fish with a curry sauce, a kind of homemade crisps which are delicious and all sorts of fruit: papayas, pineapples, jekkis, small bananas... Sandeepa sits down next to me for a few minutes to share this meal. I can feel her looking at me and we exchange smiles while eating. I also taste a mix of seeds, fried vermicelli and some little crunchy things. The first mouthful hardly swallowed, I feel a big fire coming all over my mouth. Under our hosts’amused eyes I change colours. It had been warm so far, now I’m burning. Two or three spoonfuls of rice put an end to this unintentional fire. The pudding is the occasion to taste the local speciality: the Curd. It’s a cottage cheese made with she-buffalo milk topped with palm syrup, it’s really delicious! I can’t resist and help myself a big second portion.

We finish our meal to give place to the numerous neighbours who came to take part to the celebration. I’m not in a hurry to continue the programme for it has been decided to leave Sandeepa and her family after the meal at 1.30 pm. We’ll have a good surprise soon after.