May update

Well, since the last time I wrote things have been going well...New things have popped up for us to do and get involved in.

To start with, since getting back we spent a day hunting around Colombo to figure out the Birth Certificate things...That day was quite successful and we didn't have any problems and we didn't even have to queue up lots either in the 3 different places that we visited. So now just waiting for the adoption certificate to come through the post...though it has actually been ages longer than they said, of course!! It should have got here about two or three weeks ago already. In the meantime we have made some new friends, the brother-in-law of one of our good friends works in the parliament as a worker of some sort but has been there for years and so knows useful people...and so he is seeing what is going on with all that and then when I have the Adoption Certificate we will go to Galle to get the Birth Certificate.

We headed off to Negombo - an hour away - to visit a boy's home that Zoe's friend knows. We spent a short afternoon with them. It was so fun! There are about 30 of them from 7 to 18 and they were so nice and friendly and they played cricket with us and talked...such a shocking contrast with the boy's home in Trincomalee where we usually go!!

We have started to go to a little village just near where I live. We knew nothing about it until our friend took us there the other day to show us the place and see if we can do anything there...It's a village with about 1000 people which has wooden houses built on old paddy fields near a river...The houses are all sinking, some more dramatically than others...One house we went in was like climbing a hill inside as it's sinking on one side so much quicker...They have been there for 18 or more years...We are planning a fun day in the area on the 11th of June and expecting a lot of kids!!

I also had the opportunity to give cooking classes to a group of ladies. The lady where I used to live told her sister in law that instead of getting cooking classes from another lady they should just ask me, so that was great fun!! It's the richer side of my friends - it was just so fun and relaxed and they all speak English and are so nice...We would make the food and chat and then eat it together and chat...Lovely evenings. And then on the Friday we were invited to a barbecue that they do quite often with their families together and it was amazing! We went to one of the house of the son of one of the ladies and it was an incredible house. We went in and there was a huge courtyard with a swimming pool, huge walls with paintings on, it was so funny to think that we pass there all the time and didn't even know that it existed!! There was even a limo, gym, bar...everything!! But we enjoyed the time with the people and they made us feel so welcome!! It was just so relaxing and restful compared to my usual working conditions in the village, etc!!

Tomorrow we are headed out to Nuwara Eliya, on the way to Batticaloa and Trincomalee for a couple of days to see where my sister was adopted from...That should be nice. I haven't been to that central area yet...and it's supposedly like London...cold and grey!! So that will be nice! And then we will visit the village in Batticaloa and then the boy's home in Trincomalee for a last time before we leave Sri Lanka.

I am going to the Big Year near London in September, to spend a year learning more about God, and how to be more effective on the mission-field etc...so I'm looking forward to that though i have to pack up all my stuff here and start again in England for the year!! Should be fun though!!
So a lot going on!!!

April

Well, this month hasn't quite been what I had expected or planned for...but then again...is it ever...! Everything has been on a stand still...everything that I was doing was stopped in some way...
I had the visit of a friend from America for 3 weeks and managed to take her to the boys home and the village...but it was an extra super effort as during the time she was here it was the New Year, and all stops for a week, and transportation is awful...so we ended up going to Trincolmalee...a 8-9 hour ride, in a three wheeler, unheard of and oh..it was awful...and then to the village by train and motor bike...! The encouragement in these two trips was that the boys finally were being natural and laughing and actually talking to me...we took them to the beach again...and played football and cricket, it was great fun! I look forward to the next time I go there, and it was great to see everyone in the village again and they seemed happy to see us, and it was good as I had been told I can't go there anymore...but...maybe I can...as I wrote in the previous post, the new pastors there don't want me, but seeming as the villagers really like me and we get on and have a good relationship, maybe there is a way for me to be able to stay on and not be exiled from there!!
Zoe also has arrived again so that is great. We all went to Galle for a week for a little break, to explore a little more sri lanka and to play with babies in the Children's Home where I was when I was a baby.
Whilst we were there the second time I thought that I would go and talk to the matron about me getting a birth certificate and if she had any thoughts...little did I know that she was going to show my name in the book like the last matron did 3 years ago...and also look for my file amongst loads of torn and mouldy files destined for the fire...and she found it! A file that no one even knew existed! we managed over 2 days to get most of the papers, but it was quite a fight and a stressful time. the first time we saw her she seemed nice, but when we got the file home we noticed that she'd taken some of the papers out before handing it over. when we went the next day to ask for the rest of the papers out..well...she was not so happy!! she was trying to hide papers, make us out as liars and said that we were cunning, and even thought that Zoe was actually my lawyer!! but then we believe that God sent a girl who spoke a little English to help us, as the matron was trying to say that my name wasn't on the papers when it was and the girl was always saying that it was and she was telling us what really was on the papers whilst the matron was making it out that it belonged to someone else...after what seemed like a long time of waiting and being talked about and laughed at, we managed to overcome!!! and there was another lady who also came towards the end and she helped calm the matron and help us know what to do next in order to get the birth certificate and even gave an address for where to go... my friend in Colombo said she had never heard of anyone being able to take a file like we did with the papers that we managed to get hold of...and she said it was amazing and a miracle! so this will help me even more to get a birth certificate...so she is helping a little with all the stuff to get ready for it.
We also went for a day out at the Elephant Orphanage which was quite amazing...
So, even though it was a very difficult month there were some good times in it too!!! phew!!