First visit to the disabled home

As I told you in my last blog I was going to the disabled home yesterday.  Amarasiri picked me up and we went there. It was nice to be back. I recognised most of the people there and I was very happy to see the girl that called me awa (auntie) when I was there 3 years ago. One of the beds that we made then was for her. She was a lot bigger now. The thing that breaks my heart the most is that there is no knowledge about disabled people here and people don't  know how to help them mentally. I see how the children there are getting worse and worse. This girl was still able to speak last time I was there. Now she was just sitting on the bed not saying anything staring into nothingness. My heart broke when I saw her... I went into the room and she noticed me after a few minutes.  She started laughing and reaching for my hand. I took her hand and she looked me in the eyes and kept saying the same noise. Not even a word, just a sound. Amarasiri said she was trying to say something  but she couldn't.  I stood like that for maybe 5 minutes, crying but also smiling to her. She was smiling and holding my hand and kept trying to speak. Amarasiri filmed this moment and he said he also had to cry... it was so touching but so sad. When we left I really felt like sitting in a corner and crying my eyes out. One worker came to the disabled home to look at a chair they needed for another young boy who is not able to sit upright. He needs a special chair to hold him up. The worker that was supposed to do the floor in the disabled home suddenly didn't answer his phone anymore and we found out that he is drunk everyday  (this is actually not uncommon here). But the guy that is doing the chair said he has a friend who can do the floor also and he will finish another job in 2 days so we will probably ask him to do it.

After this we went into kegalle and had a cup of tea somewhere before we went to pick up his daughter at school. They are supposed to have holiday but somehow every day one of his kids has some kind of class somewhere, I still don't understand. After this we went to look for a place where they sell mattresses because I want to buy a new one for the mahouts. Three years a go I bought one for in there mahout Hut at the safari. They sometimes sleep there and they first slept on just a wooden bed but I bought a mattress for them but now it is dirty and not good anymore because of a flood a few months ago. After this we went to amarasiri s house and had lunch. His wife makes seriously the best sri Lankan food I have ever had! After this we went to look at some hotels near amarasiri s house for my mother who is coming to sri Lanka in 18 days :). After this I went to the safari again. I was walking and on the way I saw Kalui  (one of my good friends) and I got on the back of his motorcycle for the last bit. I saw Sanjeeva, and upali (the owner of the safari). At 5 o'clock I went to Disa's house. His wife was pregnant when I was here last time. His son is now 3 years and what a cute kid! I showed Disa's family (3 daughters, 2 sons, his brother and wife) snapchat and they loved it haha. They took such good care of me.

This morning I had a nice talk with the daughter of the people I was staying with. We talked about the customs in sri lanka and in Netherlands. Amarasiri came to pick me up and told me I could try one night at his neighbours house this night. We went to the his house and I thought his children a little bit English. (PS. if my English is getting worse in the blogs, I am sorry for that haha but after already a few days I talk like the people do here and that is broken English xD) Before lunch we tried to track down this guy that was supposed to do the floor in the disabled home but his mother told us he was drunk last night and they don't know where he went. We had lunch at amarasiri s house and after lunch I went with amarasiri and his son to English class (see, again class in the holiday). The teacher told me to talk some English with the kids but it is very hard to improvise like that because the kids are shy and I just ended up talking to myself mostly. The teacher asked me to come back next week and I will try to figure out some kind of game of some sorts to play with them.

After this I went to the safari again. I bought a pack of sigarettes for the mahouts and they were very happy with that. Sunil, the head mahout, told me 'when you come I very happy, but when you leave I am very sad'. I told him I am also very sad when I have to leave...

 I went back to amarasiri s house and on the way I met kalu again and he dropped me at the house. I went to the neighbours to see the room and it looked really good. The problem was the shower apparently because it only had a little wall on the side (it is outside shower) so amarasiri and 2 guys hung up some kind of curtain so that I could shower privately.  I felt a little bit guilty that they had to do that but amarasiri said it was no problem  (like he always says). The toilet is just a hole in the ground but I actually like it. It is a new experience.
We had a really nice dinner and I played with amarasiri s children a little bit.

It was a good day. I had a few good conversations with amarasiri. He is such a good man and he just wants to help the elephants and provide a nice experience for volunteers. I am trying to help him with his project and I hope I can somehow help him