Day 4 – Wednesday 10th February

During the cricket match we were introduced to a young boy of 11 and pupil of the Village School who had recently undergone surgery to his abdomen area. Following the surgery, his doctor from the free medical centre insisted that he underwent a scan as the boy was still complaining of pains. As he would have had to have waited for more than a year – there are only 6 machines in Sri Lanka – Della and Steve agreed to meet the family at a private clinic in Colombo where he could be scanned. We will find out what the outcome of the scan is next week.



Next was an extremely useful return visit to the School where we met the new English teacher. She is only 25 and originally hailed from Ratmalana. She was full of enthusiasm and almost tearful when speaking of her hope that should one child graduate through university it would fill her with pride and satisfaction.


Then to the plaque maker, who has been charged with making Declan’s memorial for the music room in the school. Unfortunately, the sign-maker had taken it upon himself to change the words that he thought more appropriate, change the colour and font and insert random spaces where he thought they might look aesthetically pleasing. We put him right and were assured the corrections would be made.


Finally, by the end of the day, the first casualties of this trip had been reported. Don didn’t make it to dinner because of sunstroke and Steve was complaining of aches and pains apparently as a result of a “spectacular diving catch” during yesterday’s cricket match.