“My Polish friend Marcin joined me for 10 days. I showed him around the coastal parts of southern Sri Lanka, including Tangalle, Galle, Hummanaya (one of the very few blowholes in the world), a turtle hatchery and a boat safari on the Madu Ganga river (where we held a baby crocodile!). Then me, Marcin and Kasun all jetted off on a car trip around the island. We visited many famous landmarks such as the cave temples of Dambulla, the scared Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, the Pinnawala Elephant Orphange and Sigiriya Rock Fortress. Seeing the elephants roam around in the wild was amazing. Sigiriya was mind-blowing – it’s a massive rock standing alone in the vast forest with a cliff face all around it. The summit of the rock is a fortress, where yonks ago was home to the king. There were palaces and pools on the top – how the construction materials got to the summit plateau, I do not know!
After we dropped Marcin off at the airport, we and Kasun went straight to Matara to get the film festival all set up. The festival took place on Sunday 25th May 2014. There has never been a deaf film festival before in Sri Lanka, so was very proud to give the deaf community this opportunity. You can see more information on the film festival here.
It’s now the final week, where has the time gone?! I’m saying farewell to all of my friends. “Sri Lanka good?” they all ask me. “Sri Lanka beautiful” I reply and their faces are smiling. “Come back?” they ask me. “One day” I reply. The Sumaga Ruhunu Circle of the Deaf held a little leaving party for me, what a terrific time. On my final night, I stayed with my good friends Rajitha and Chan in Colombo before getting up at 5am to get a Tuk Tuk to the airport to catch my flight home.
Goodbye Sri Lanka. Until next time.”
