Posted in Sri Lanka on March 19, 2025
Prelude (11 Mar 2025)
It’s the night before our departure and our bags are packed, checklists complete, and I THINK we’re ready to go. Our flight plan has us leaving Colorado Springs early tomorrow afternoon, stopping in Denver for about 90 minutes, and then taking a United Airlines flight to Frankfurt, Germany overnight. We have a 3.5 hour layover in Frankfurt before boarding a Lufthansa flight for Dubai, arriving at about 10pm on Thursday evening. We will stay one night in Dubai and then leave the next afternoon on Emirates for Colombo, Sri Lanka.
This trip has been in the planning stages for a year and is the third Developing World Connections (DWC) trip in which I’ve led Salesforce employees on a corporate volunteer trip. The first two (both in March) were to Costa Rica and then Cambodia. I’ve enjoyed the youth, energy, and diversity of the Salesforce employees, coming from several countries around the globe. The ten Saleforcers joining us this time come from the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, and India. The only volunteer on this trip that I’ve met is Carolyn Tweedy, who traveled with us to Cambodia and is my assistant trip leader. Carolyn lives about a 90 minute drive from our home in Colorado Springs–to the north in Evergreen, Colorado.
After one night in the capital of Colombo, we will leave on Saturday morning for the central city of Kegalle. Several members of the team will be meeting us there, having arrived early and done some independent touring.
Our project will focus on a school in Kegalle District in the Sabaragamuwa province, working with the Sri Lanka Centre for Development Facilitation (SLCDF). This remote area of the nation has little, if any, support to address its unique and specific education challenges. We will be helping build a school addition and refurbishing another in a remote school area. I’m looking forward to seeing the project and doing as much as possible to help complete the work.
Wednesday, 12 March
Neither of us slept well and we got up early, anxious about the trip and doing all we could to make sure we had everything set and packed.
I put in a 50 minute final workout downstairs before breakfast and Becky did hers later in the morning. We did all of the dirty laundry we could find and cleaned the house thoroughly, including collecting all garbage.
Our city council election day is 1 April and we’d already received our ballots, so we marked our ballots, signed them, and I drove to the nearest drop box or vote before we left.
Convinced that everything was done that we could do at home, we relaxed a little and corresponded with team members who still had questions about their trip, transportation and lodging. All of those conversations took place over WhatsApp.
I arranged financial aspects of the trip like installing my virtual DWC Visa card into my phone for tap-to-pay.
Our Lyft driver arrived early and we matched our bags up the driveway to meet Hector. We said goodbye to Sean and passed along final instructions for house sitting.
The weather was good and the traffic light, so Hector had us to the airport in plenty of time. We checked three bags, carried one plus my camera backpack, and went to the gate.
Both of the flights were exactly on time, if not early. The Denver to Frankfurt flight on United was about 98% full.
Thursday 13 March
Neither of us got more than a few cat naps on the flight to Frankfurt, though it was smooth and generally quiet. We arrived about 20 minutes early and went to the Lufthansa Star Alliance lounge to relax and top off the small breakfast we got on board.
The Frankfurt airport was quite busy. We’d learned that the airports had been closed on Sunday and Monday due to a labor strike, so we presumed that we were seeing some “make up’ traffic from missed and canceled flights.
After about an hour, we shifted to a lounge closer to our departure terminal (B31).and settled in. Our flight to Dubai (DXB) would board at 12h45, depart at 13h30, and was scheduled to arrive at 22h55. We expected 6:05 of flight time and would lose three clock hours going east to the UAE time zones from Central European Time (CST).
The Lufthansa A340 was not very full, with some entire center rows of four empty. The seats, though, were quite tight. They served two meals during the six hours and both Becky and I declined the pre-landing second one which was just a sandwich.
After one holding pattern loop over the Persian Gulf, we landed about five minutes later than planned. Disembarking the plane went quickly as did the long transit to the terminal that include enough walking to trigger our fitness watches for a workout, a team ride, and several moving walkways.
Passport control was quick and fully automated with no stamp or human interaction. Our bags came out quickly and we were in the taxi queue by about 23h30.
The ride to the Hotel Le Meridien Dubai was only five minutes. We learned upon arrival that we’d been upgraded to the “Le Royal Club” rooms and were quite pleased with the service and the large room, even if it did mean more walking to a separate building and complex.
We settled into the room quickly and set up electronics for charging..I downed a 10mg Ambien to help me sleep–I was worried about that given the number of time zones we’d traversed and the hour or so nap I had on the Dubai flight. We were both in bed by about 00h20.
Friday 14 Mar 2025
My Ambien worked well as the next thing I remembered was Becky in the shower at 07h00. Our upgrade included a free breakfast, so we didn’t want to miss that.
We checked email from friends and family while each of us was prepping for the day, repacking a few things, etc, and then went to breakfast.
Breakfast was excellent with the typical wide choice of options one finds in Asia: English breakfast standards like baked tomatoes and beans; some Chinese and Japanese options including rice, zatar croissants, dates, and lots of other fruits to accompany the obligatory omelet bar. I had yogurt and muesli a long with “veal bacon,” fava beans, and orange juice. For a second helping, I took the traditional croissants.
After breakfast, Becky did some exercises and stretching while I checked out the gym. A solid 30 minutes on the stationary bike and some light weights on machines felt good. After that, we relaxed outside by one of the several pools in the complex, enjoying the comfortable temps in the low 70s F.
I sent a WhatsApp message to our Colombo hotel contact to make sure that we were all set for the evening transfers and then tried to relax a little bit–pestered by too many houseflies buzzing around us in our shaded cabana.
At noon, we met our “third son,” Glamis Koh, for lunch at the hotel. We were Glamis ‘s sponsor parents at the US Air Force Academy when he was an international cadet, graduating in 2014. He’s now an Airbus 380 pilot for Emirates Airlines, based in Dubai.
We had a light lunch in the main hotel bar area and caught up on life. Glamis had just bought and moved into an apartment in the Dubai Creek Harbour area and was excited to be a home owner. He filled us in on all of his travels since joining Emirates and we made plans to spend more time together when we passed through Dubai for three days on our return from Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
At about 13h40, we said goodbye to Glamis and went back to our room, asking at the front desk for a porter. The porter arrived just a few minutes after we did and so checkout was very quick and easy.
It seemed that all of the porters and much of the staff at Le Meridien were from India. They were from Chennai, Kolkata, and mostly southern cities. As usual, they and the entire staff were very friendly–the service was wonderful overall, just as we’d experienced it in Abu Dhabi the previous summer.
We took the hotel shuttle bus to Terminal 3 of the Dubai airport and we’re amazed at how empty it seemed in the early afternoon. We wondered if Ramadan might’ve been an explanation for the light travel, or if it was just a typical low in the day for international routes.
We processed through check-in, baggage check, and passport control without issue. My hip hardware warranted the typical special inspection.
The route to gate C18 was quite the long walk. Our fitness watches would’ve been triggered for another workout if we hadn’t forgotten to put them on after the security check.
The plane loaded and departed on time and seemed to be only about half full. We had great seats just behind business class with a window and aisle and no one between us. The meal was excellent as was the service. We’d heard great things about Emirates for years and we’re glad that our first experience lives up to the billing.
Ona bit of a light note, our two flight attendants were from Ukraine and Russia. The Ukrainian chuckled when she informed me of that (after I’d asked her origins), saying, “Imagine that!”
We arrived at the airport on time and again cleared customs without incident. We weren’t even asked for our visas at immigration. They were evidently already linked to our passports.
After claiming our bags, we asked for directions to the post office outside of the terminal where we were supposed to meet the hotel manager, Terin, and his van.
Once we found the spot, we called him and he arrived about 10 minutes later. While loading our bags, he got another call from someone staying at the hotel and we waited 15 more minutes. The guy we picked up was a Spanish tourist not part of our group. We were a bit peeved that we had to wait. Terin didn’t help by being quite terse when Becky stepped out of the car to get some air–as opposed to the stuffy car. He said, “Ma’am, you are in Sri Lanka now!”
Once Juan José joined us it was only 10 minutes to the hotel. We checked in and I paid for all of the rooms. We had others coming in later and I began monitoring WhatsApp for their notes
The rooms were metal quonset huts. They were very clean but very small. We arranged our bags and then went to the open air tiny lobby area for a free beer from Terin–henwas warming to us, it seemed.
Michael and Michelle arrived about an hour behind us, Sun did, too, and Carolyn came in very late at about 03h00.
Back in the room, we cranked up the air conditioning, I took an Ambien, and we went to bed just after midnight.
Saturday 15 Mar 2025
In the morning we met for breakfast and prepped for our ride to Kegalle and the hotel. We had fruit, omelets, toast, and coffee. The bananas were excellent “apple type” and reminded us of other trips to the tropics.
Our ride arrived about 15 minutes late, but we loaded without issue and joined our driver, Prasad, in a large, comfortable van that had another local with us.
Prasad could read English but didn’t understand spoken English well. His native language was Sinhala, along with Tamil, one of the two national languages.
We used Google translate to make sure that he was going to pick up our other late arrivers to Colombo that evening: Luke and Suraj.
The ride to the hotel was on constantly curvy roads. We never seemed to leave civilization and it seemed like a long string of villages. We did see some rivers and a few rice fields along the road. The ride was very slow and took over two hours.
When we arrived near the hotel we learned that we couldn’t drive the van down the main “elephant path” road to check in to the hotel. Elephants from the local rescue/orphanage operation paraded up and down the road and only already registered guests and tourists groups could access the road.
We decided to stop for lunch and Prasad led us to a local place where the owner spoke excellent English. We each had a Lion beer and then ordered dishes like kotttu and their version of chop suey. The food was good, but the serving sizes were huge. I think only Michael finished his plate.
Shortly after 1pm, we were allowed to drive the van down a back alley to hotel. We were led to a nice glasses overlook room near the river where we could see the elephants relaxing in the water.
We checked into our rooms and then most of reunited near the lobby at 2pm for another elephant parade down the street. I brought out my good camera for some shots and enjoyed the tight pack of females, juveniles, and babies heading to the water.
Some of the elephants “wore” chains and, when they arrived at the river, they were attached to tether points on the rocks. The large bull was by himself in a pool, isolated from the others.
Some of what seemed like the more trusted elephants were allowed to roam freely across the river with their youngsters. They were throwing dirt onto their backs with their trunks and generally roaming along the far river bank, accompanied by several great white herons who fed on insects as the elephants plodded through the grass and reeds.
The rest of the afternoon was relaxing. Some went for a walk in town and did a little shopping or got cash at an ATM.
We met back at the hotel for dinner at 18h30 and found a table reserved for all of us in the bar area near the pool. The sunset across the river was colorful and the sound of water rushing over the rocks was tranquilizing.
Dinner was fun. Neta and her partner joined you as did Avshin and Luke–the last freshly arrived from Colombo with Prasad.
Avshin is from Iran via his current home in Montreal. Luke is from the Denver area, Neta from the UK. All of the others in the group at that point are from the US.
The dinner portions were again big. Despite that, Luke (who’s 25) had two entrees. Becky and I shared a plate. We all ordered a big enough variety of food to get a good idea of the menu for the coming days.
We were entertained by a two,-man band who playyed a guitar and some local bongo-type drums. They covered local music all of the way through classic rock like Hotel California.
We were told the hotel was full, but there only a few parties in the restaurant – it was less than half full. The food was good, though, and we were content with the thought of dining there the rest of the week.
The highlight and finale for the evening was Neta bringing out a nice bottle of Japanese whisky (Chita) and most of us shared a wee nip before departing.
We all agreed to meet up in the morning – those going on the tour – for breakfast at 06h30 and then depart with our guide, Andrew, as close to 07h00 as possible for the two hour drive to Sigiriya and an afternoon safari.
The rest of our evening was more luggage and room arranging. I tried upload photos with no real success, but I did get them processed, so I felt ahead of the curve. Becky and I were asleep shortly after 9.
Sunday 16 March 2025
Neither of us slept well and we were awake before 05h00. We read and prepped for the day before meeting everyone for breakfast at 06h30.
The breakfast choices were enormous and included many local specialties like “hoppers.” The hoppers were thin, bowl-shaped crepes that were very eggy and made with coconut flour.
The buffet also had a variety of beans (black-eyed, chickpeas, etc), chutneys, curries, and other stews in addition to an omelet bar, fresh fruit, curds, and some cakes and breads. The coffee and tea were excellent, as expected. Breakfast would not be a disappointment during this trip.
We met at 07h00 and left at about 07h15, just the eight of us (Becky, Michael, Carolyn, Avshin, Luke, Sun, Michelle, and me). The other four decided to relax at the hotel after late arrivals of other reasons.
The drive to Sigiriya took a couple of hours a long the same type of roads and terrain we saw the day before. There are no straight roads in Sri Lanka. The countryside has sharp karst-like hills and the bottom land was planted in rice where possible.
Andre was a good driver–safe and smooth–handling the typical developing world traffic well. He provide info along the way. We passed coconut plantations, a huge Buddha statue on a hill and countless villages.
Monday 17 March 2025
The team was ready to go for breakfast on time. Becky and I passed out T-shirts and buffs from DWC and, near the end of breakfast, we covered DWC policies, work site safety, and other issues. We passed our emergency contact cards and had some general discussion of past issues we have seen on trips.
At 8:30am, we met our SLCDF representative and translator, Dilrukshi, in the lobby and then went to the hotel’s conference center for a very informative and professional briefing he and another SLCDF employee. They gave us background on the organization and history of past projects, including those with DWC. They seemed to be very well-organized and impressed as another excellent partner–something that I think DWC does a great job in identifying across so many countries and cultures.
We loaded onto the bus shortly before 9am for the 20 minutes ride to the school along a route that became more rural with every kilometer. What we saw when we arrived, though, shocked and amazed us.
Dilrukshi had informed us that the children were on break– a bit of a break during which exams were being given. But at the entrance to the school, they had an entire parade waiting for us. A marching band of what looked like middle-school aged kids led the parade and we were greeted by dozens of parents, teachers, and administrators.
An arch leading into the school said “Welcome Canada” and as we walked through it we were presented with bouquets of flowers.
We went into a large classroom with a stage that was filled with students, parents, and staff–probably 300 people at least. Another “Welcome Canada” banner greeted us on the stage. There were a series of welcome speeches and a ceremony in which each of the team members and the senior school staff lit small oil candles/maps under a floral arrangement. There was a prayer that all of the kids participated in, too. Next, they played the Sri Lankan national anthem–probably the longest national anthem I’ve ever heard unless it was like playing all of the verses of the Star Spangled banner. Then, we heard “Oh, Canada,” with our three Canadians singing along. The Americans joined in for the first and last parts that most of us know from attending hockey games.
I was invited to the stage unexpectedly to speak to the group and simply thanked them for the warm welcome and the opportunity to work alongside them. I encouraged the students to study diligently and said that we all hoped to come back some day to see them doing well. I said a few more nice things about our first visit to Sri Lanka and then quickly concluded my remarks.
This was followed by a set of photo opportunities on the steps outside of the auditorium, staring into the bright sunlight. We could see Michael’s skin burning darker red every minute.
Following photos, we went into what seemed to be the principal’s office for tea and snacks before we would start work. There were more intimate introductions there and each of the team members introduced themselves to the school’s senior staff.
Finally, at about 10:15, we went to our work area and met our only local worker of the day, Anura. He was a very dark complexioned and small man, probably in his forties–not much more than five feet two inches tall and 100 pounds soaking wet.
We learned that we would be sifting sand to be used for stucco on the walls and that, once we had used the stucco to fill and smooth the walls we would be mixing white plaster to put over the stucco.
Sifting sand was our biggest task of the day and everyone on the team participated in some way. Sun Park really took to sifting and was a total beast. We couldn’t keep her from the work and had to order a few breaks. The local girls also spent most of their time at the sand pit and they taught Sun many words in Sinhalese for their tasks. The girls ranged from about nine to 14 and did an amazing amount of work–all without breaking a sweat, it seemed.
Our overall task for this project would be to help the locals finish the second floor classroom that had been constructed during a previous DWC trip in 2024. The walls were bare brick and the windows or sides of the room were completely open to the environment. We would be stuccoing the wallsform of the job. We had a pile on the second floor–the roughed in classroom that we were finishing–and more outside on the ground floor. We had two sifters that were not the same grating. One was about twice as fine as the other and was a problem with the more wet outdoor sand.
We focused on the top floor dry sand first and soon had a pile big enough to start our first round of stucco on the floor. We only had two small rectangular towels to apply the stucco and the walls were exceedingly rough with large holes and pockets around the bricks that needed filling.
Outside some of the school girls were helping with the sifting and, and as we’d seen in Nepal, we’re able to work in white school dresses without (apparently) sweating or getting dirty. We, on the other hand, we’re drenched and dripping, and getting dirtier by the second.
The team worked together well and throughout the day everyone swapped jobs frequently without friction. All made sure that breaks were frequent and water bottles filled and used.
Our SLCDF rep, Dil, made sure we had large 20 litter bottles of water with hand pumps attached. She did a great job moving around and acting as our translator. Meanwhile, the kids were teaching us some local language (Sinhalese).
I surprised to see Anura begin applying white plaster directly to the still damp stucco applied an hour earlier. He worked behind us before that using a meter-long aluminum straight bar (rectangular cross section) to even the walls before plastering.
At about 12h30, we finished most of the freshest pile of stucco and went to lunch. The meal was similar to what we’d seen at others meals with chicken curry, lentils, eggplant, rice, fruit, and roti.
After lunch, we relaxed until 13h30 and went back to work. All of the second floor sand had been sifted, so now the sifting work focused on the outdoor pile. The sand had to the be passed up to the second floor, so we set up a 30-persom bucket brigade to pass buckets, bags, and trays of sand up as fast as it could be sifted.
The others continued stuccoing upstairs while Aruna plastered.
At about 14h30, dark clouds formed to our south and were moving our way. We heard thunder and the kids remarked about “delaga,” (rain in Sinhalese). When the delaga arrived, it was torrential, along with the wind. Severe gust tire a sheet metal panel from the roof and shifted the panels on our building (somehow) to expose a long straight gap running along the apex of the roof.
We scrambled down from the second floor and took refuge in the ground floor classrooms while the rain fell harder than any rain I’ve ever seen. It continued for almost a half-hour and filled the deep drainage gutter around the school buildings. It was easily an inch or more in a very short amount of time–maybe two inches.
During the rain, Luke led some of the kids in activities in a classroom including hop-scotch. Michelle and others had arm wrestling contests with other kids and some did pull-ups and other exercises.
When the rain finally stopped, we went back to work and finished what we could prior to our 4pm departure.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a hardware store to buy more trowels for stucco and plaster work. Some took the opportunity to hit a liquor store, too, to buy some whisky, arak, rum, and Lion beer.
We returned to the hotel and set a dinner time of about 6pm to meet in the hotel restaurant. Back in the room, Becky and I showered and cleaned what we could. We joined the group shortly after 6pm and everyone tried the different local spirits while ordering a variety of dishes. The open air restaurant area was quite pleasant and the view over the river was wonderful.
Tuesday 18 March 2025
The day broke without a cloud in the sky and it seemed warm from the beginning. Most of us met for breakfast at one time or another starting at 7am and we only had to wait a few minutes for Mike and Yasmin before departing at 8:05am. When they boarded the bus, we all did the rhythmic clap that the kids at the school did and had a good laugh about it.
When we arrived at the school we weren’t expecting to see kids, but they were there in force to help with the work even though they were on vacation. We continued with sand sifting, concrete mixing, stuccoing, and plastering. There were more local workers assisting us today and the work moved very quickly. We were mixing about half-ton batches of concrete consisting of 60 full shovels of sand and a single 50 kg bag of cement. In the morning, we did five batches this size.
Everyone on the team was involved in the work and many shifted from job to job The heat was intense and we were all sweating profusely–unlike our local counterpart who seemed to be dealing with it all quite easily. Some locals were stuccoing the outside wall and we filled buckets with concrete to assist them while others, like Becky, focused on the stuccoing. We were impressed with how hard-working and patient our local partners were throughout the process.
By late morning, we were running out of sand to use in the stucco mix. Some were plastering the walls, but it became clear that we would need more sand to continue the work.
We had a tea break at around 10am and then lunch at 12:30. We were working fast and everyone was involved, including the same set of local girls. The breaks were well-appreciated as the heat was getting to all of the volunteers. We were sweating just standing still in the shade.
Lunch included more lentils, some chicken curry, a jack fruit curry, Sri Lankan olives, rice, mixed vegetables and rice. All of the food had been wonderful and very tasty. We rested for a little while and several played volleyball with the local kids in the school field. I conducted my first set of volunteer interviews and posted them on Facebook and within our WhatsApp group for DWC’s use.
Just after lunch, more sand arrived and work began on sifting it and moving it upstairs. We plastered the pillars in the room while this was going on. The plaster was mixed in two ways. First, a large blue plastic barrel was used to mix the large quantity plaster that was applied to the wet stucco. As it was mixed, steam was emitted from the barrel–a function of the exothermic chemical hydration reaction with the lime and plaster mixture. I was shocked at how hot the plaster became.
Anura set up scaffolding to help plaster the upper parts of the pillars while locals and volunteers used the plaster from the barrel to do more on the interior wall. A separate thinner type of plaster was mixed in small buckets by hand and then used on the pillars in the room. We had several people working on the plaster because Carolyn and Afshin had earlier gone to by three more trowels at the hardware store.
We didn’t get any rain Tuesday, though some clouds threatened. At 2pm we had a short tea break and then went back to finish the work that now included another pile of sand to sift. It had been delivered in the early after–several tons of it.
Local workers were doing the outside walls while we continued to sift and work on the interior walls. Anura was measuring the wall on the interior in what looked like preparation for assembling scaffolding so that we could continue up the walls the next day.
Shortly after 4pm we stopped work, though it seemed like the locals would continue for at least a while. We again stopped on our return at the hardware store and bought an assembled sand sifter (manual, of course) for Rs1800 – less than $6 US. Some ran to the liquor store for some drinks, and I made a run to the pharmacy. We returned to the hotel exactly at 5pm.
We gathered our laundry at the front desk and then made plans for dinner. Becky and I did a large amount of “shower laundry,” cleaning things in the sink and shower in addition to shaking out our shoes, socks, and packs, relieving them of the worst of the dust, dirt, concrete, and plaster that were staining them.
By 6pm, most of the team was in the dining room already drinking their Lion beer and other libations. Carolyn and I each tried a “Strong” Lion beer a 8.8% ABV. It hit us both pretty strong, so we didn’t order another.
For dinner, I had the egg kottu–a very traditional Sri Lanka dish that is a bit like a stir fry with an egg on top. Becky just ordered French Fries. The conversation was lively, as usual, covering myriad topics from one end of the table to the other,
During the day, we arranged (or rearranged) our end-of-week transportation plans thanks to Dil. She would be taking three volunteers (Suraj, Jasmin, and Mike) back to Colombo leaving at 7pm directly from our goodbye dinner. We had transportation then at 10pm for Luke and Neta. The rest would be leaving on Saturday at noon. Because of the extra time on Saturday, we also spoke with Andrew about setting up a final tea plantation tour before we departed.
For Friday, we also discussed a going-away and thank you event at the school. Dil would work that with the administration, but we wanted to have it over lunch or just after so that we could be back to the hotel no later than about 3pm to do some shopping at the local souvenir shops around the hotel. We talked about stopping to buy candy for our child volunteers on Thursday evening as well, presenting the treats to them on Friday.
By about 8pm, everyone was exhausted and ready to go to bed. We reiterated the morning schedule and said “good night.”
Wednesday 19 March 2025
We slept relatively well and got up just before 6am. I worked on the blog while we straightened the room and prepped for the day.
Luke preceded me into the dining area for breakfast and the others followed shortly thereafter. I finished my beans, juice, and “egg hopper” fairly quickly along with my two cups of coffee. The favorite breakfast food here seems to be a hopper which is a shallow, bowl-shaped crepe made in a sautee pan from a batter of coconut flour. They are crisp at the edges and very much like a crepe at the bottom. An egg can be cracked into the center of the hopper while it is cooking to make the egg hopper. The hopper itself is lightly sweet, similar to a dessert or breakfast style crepe. It is only about 8 to 10 inches in diameter and is not flipped in the pan.
Breakfast discussion consisted of the usual, “what will be be doing today,” and “why are we doing it this way,” sort of thing. The group has been very patient in learning how the locals want the project to be done, but hasn’t stopped several from doing some YouTube research on different components and styles of our work. I explained that in past projects where we have stuccoed over brick work, the masonry was done in a much finer, more finished style.
That allowed us to use a much thinner stucco that could be applied like the plaster coating we were putting over the concrete stucco as we were doing here.
I think because of the rough nature of the brick work, we really had no other choice. Another explanation is that, given the extreme levels of moisture seen in Sri Lanka, having the extra layer of concrete to protect the bricks and structure, then covering it with a sealing plaster and then some final priming and painting provides for a much more durable overall structure. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
The team was getting into the groove. The bus was loaded and ready at 08h01. Fog at breakfast gave way to nearly full sun by the time we arrived at the school.
We arrived to more of the same. The team naturally split into the sifting, mixing, and stuccoing tasks and we worked very hard in the sunny heat all morning. We had even more local workers/volunteers and they were concentrating on stuccoing and plastering the very difficult areas in the stairway that required scaffolding.
Sand continued to be brought from the sifting area and now the movers had to dodge and duck around scaffolding poles. The local girls were helping with the sand sifting again and our new sifter was a huge lift to get that work done.
Neta. Jasmin, and Michael worked on outside stucco, Becky was touching up and working on some of the remaining inside and also help the others mixing large piles of concrete. In the simplest sense, our team was a glorified, human-powered cement mixer system with a few exceptions.
By the time that lunch arrived, we had mixed four of our standard sized concrete loads. It was our most productive overall morning, but it still seemed unlikely that we would finish the project this week.
Lunch was good, as usual, and included a tofu curry and some very good papaya. As the team rested, a storm moved in and the rain started shortly after 1pm. Most of us moved into the large auditorium room where our day one ceremony had been held. The kids were there, too, singing songs and playing games. Afshin took up the hand drum and kept the rhythm as the locals sang along and we clapped and tried to follow.
They stopped at about 1:30 and we went back to work with our normal tasks. Suraj had an opportunity to plaster some of the high beams. The locals were touching up plaster and preparing to move scaffolding into unfinished areas as well as completely the upper parts of the stairway.
We finished early at about 3:30pm and cleaned up while some played volleyball with the kids. Luke, Michael, Sun, and Michelle were also working in the school’s computer lab to help fix some rather archaic computers that weren’t functioning. They made a list of parts they would look for that evening after a taxi ride into Kegalle and a visit to a computer store.
On the ride back, we bought two new shovels at the hardware store for just about $6.50 US and made personal stops again at the pharmacy and the liquor store. Luke also bought two cricket bats and balls that we intended to donate to the school via their principal.
Michelle, Sun, and Luke took a taxi into Kegalle to shop and we’re back in two waves by about 7pm. Luke bought a “net ball,” a VGA cable, and a computer mouse. He couldn’t find some of the other components that he needed to fix the school’s computers. Michelle and Sun just did some general shopping–,Michelle bought a pair of pants.
The rest of us did the usual clean-up and met for dinner, though those that went to Kegalle were a little late in arriving. I’d done a run to the local ATM to get more cash, too. Dilrukshi confirmed that we would have a going-away ceremony and thank-you from the kids and staff on Friday to start the day and then would complete our work by 2:30 pm to return to the hotel for some local shopping prior to when the shops began to close at about 4:30pm. Once again, we also confirmed everyone’s transport back to Colombo Friday evening, night, and Saturday at noon.
Our dinner conversation was as lively as usual and included a rather in-depth discussion of DWC, it’s operations, future trips, vetting of in-country partners and our experiences with them over several trips. We were also asked about the type of people that travel with DWC and I told them that were almost uniformly good, friendly people that “self-selected” for this type of work.
Most everyone went to their rooms by about 8:30 and we all prepped for the next day.
Thursday 20 March 2025
Our first note was from Michael “Patient Zero” Dudrey telling us that he was feeling a little sick and may not join us. Most of them had some sniffles or a cough by now, but nothing serious. We passed some Imodium to one and Yasmin picked up some antibiotics for a cough at the pharmacy on Wednesday.
It was our next to last day, though, and all showed up for the bus on time and with a good attitude. Becky and I assured them that with the dust at the workplace, coupled with the different pollens and smoke in the air, it wasn’t uncommon for many or most to develop some cold-like symptoms–but that any sense of a fever should be taken much more seriously.
We departed on time. It was another sunny day and the forecast did not include any cooling rain (or much of a chance of any). We did have a breeze from time to time during the day and it seemed to be to be not quite a shot. We concentrated on more sand sifting and cement mixing in addition to taking the temporary floor that had been poured over the reinforced, full concrete (with aggregate) flooring that would be permanent. The locals worked on the far on scaffolding to finish the inside gable while we mixed and mixed. We also moved whatever sand was in the main classroom to the landing of the stairway, pretty to take out the floor and re-pour it.
Sun, Michell, Michael, and Avshin seemed to be doing most of the sand sifting. Luke tried to do more with the computers with limited success, Avshn was moving from task to task, and all of the group would occasionally take a break to play volleyball with the kids.
The floor pounding, breaking, and scraping was going slowly, but once you got the hang of it we made progress.
Around lunch time the top of the gables were done and we began to move the scaffolding lower to finish the filling and plastering. They left a large rectangle in the center of the wall unplastered and later used chalkboard paint on it for a nearly full-wall chalkboard. Meanwhile, we chipped and cleaned the floor, moved concrete to those still working on the outside walls and sifted and lifted sand from a brand new pile in the afternoon.
Lunch was good as usual, with fresh jackfruit, lentils (as usual), chicken, rice, and lots of fresh papaya and watermelon.
More volleyball was played over lunch.
In the afternoon, we finished the floor in a flurry and worked hard to clean it up. Once done, Anura and the others brought us all fresh coconuts to refresh us with the water. One of the locals had scrambled up a tree and was tossing the coconuts down to Michael. Anura cut them with a small machete. The water was delicious–sweet with just the tiniest hint of salt. Almost all of us had or shared one during the break.
At the end of the day, the room was close to complete except for the floor. Anura said that the floor would be the big item for our final day and that we would be working on that immediately after the thank you and going-away party that the school had planned for us at 08h30 the next morning.
On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a Food City to buy snacks for the kids, booze and other snacks. We were back to the hotel right at 5pm and began our normal clean-up. I spoke to Andrew about our departing flights the next night and our farewell special party at the hotel. We all decided (with the help of the manager) that we would meet at 5;30pm and that dinner would start at 7pm for those that had to leave early at 7pm
The dinner would again be charged to the hotel–or really DWC’s balance with the hotel and I would get a receipt showing the balance of what the hotel still owed DWC when we departed on Saturday.
Before going down to dinner, we did our sink and shower laundry and shook out our shoes and boots. My boots were falling apart and were destined for the trash bin after the next day, making my luggage even lighter. We were also planning to give away a few more shirts and to just throw away some socks.,
Dinner was loud and raucous, fueled by the booze and the realization that we only had one more day of work. We talked through some of the trip issues including some high and low points and I reminded everyone that we would do the same the next evening.
Becky and I went to bed shortly after 8pm. We couldn’t sleep because some very loud party was going on in the meeting/venue area of the hotel with music thumping until well-past 11pm. Becky had her noise-cancelling headphones on and I had earplugs, but they didn’t help much at all.
Friday 21 March 2025
The team was ready for the last day and excited to see how far we could get in our progress given the remaining hours. We departed on time and arrived at the school at 08h30 to find the marching band waiting for us in the road and the same sort of greeting that we received on Day One.
We went into the school yard and then gathered around the flag pole. They asked for one of us to help raise the Canadian flag and I nominated Mike. He stepped forward and we heard the Sri Lankan and Canadian anthem played over the loudspeaker.
From there, we went to the same auditorium where we had our opening ceremonies. The beginning was again nearly identical to five days before, starting with a prayer and then the oil lamp lighting ceremony.
Next, we had series of speeches and then some wonderful performances by the kids. First, we saw a traditional dance that featured three girls. The next act was what seemed like 40 kids involved in dancing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” performance. Some kids were dressed as flowers, there was the old farmer, and then two or three of every barn yard animal: cows, horses, goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, rabbits, and probably a few others.
The final performance had two girls and a boy dressed in modern black pants and white shirts doing a hip-hop number. All the performances were outstanding, very well-rehearsed, and drew wild applause.
Next, we all received a booklet of signed thank you messages from the kids. Then they asked me to speak. I came forward and said a few basic words of thanks before introducing Carolyn and asking her to say a few words.
Carolyn did a great job of thanking the community for their warm welcome and help–especially the kids–in helping us get so much done.
We then took many photos on the stage with different groups of students and staff before adjourning to our main meeting room for tea and snacks.
Just before 9h30, I walked up to our classroom and saw that the locals had finished more than half of the new floor–and it looked great. I asked what we could do and was told that we just had more sand sifting and needed to complete the pile that was outside.
In the classroom, I was intrigued by the concrete floor and how it was installed. First, they dusted floor with dry cement. Next, they “painted” the floor with a very thin mixture of water and cement using broad paintbrushes. Next, they added about two inches of mortar that was quite dry. They did the work atop long wooden boards to distribute their weight. First, they compacted the concrete by stepping on it and then compressing it with the trowels. Then, they leveled the mortar with their long straight edges in the same way they had smoothed the walls. They finished the leveling with wooden “floats” as one my do when tiling a floor, roughly buffing the top of the mortar to make it very uniform. The final two steps involved a capping layer of cement mixed only with water. They poured this mixture (a little thicker than wall paint) onto the mortar and then used trowels to finish the surface in two steps. The second step was done about 15 to 20 minutes after the first to ensure a very smooth and hard surface that would stand up to a classroom of kids.
I helped mix and distribute concrete at the top of the stairway landing while the others sifted sand. We had so much help and so many people working that we didn’t have enough work for everyone on the team. Some went to play volleyball with the kids.
The local workers also began setting up scaffolding in the stairway to finish the walls there. We no longer had a convenient place to mix concrete, so we started a new pile near where the sand was being sifted and then used another bucket brigade to transfer the concrete to the stairway.
Despite the late start, we still had a morning tea break. The Second n was particularly hot on this last day and we all appreciated that and other breaks. It helped to have the kids there and today we even had some more local boys helping.
Lunch came quickly and was as good as usual. For our final lunch the special treat was pineapple curry. We also had some green that were quite fibrous, but well-seasoned and tasted good. Others like the chicken–the primary meat at every meal.
Before lunch, the floor was completed in the classroom and it looked great. Team members cycled up and down the stairs to admire the work. We finished sifting the sand early in the afternoon and mixed another small batch of concrete for the stairway workers to use.
At this point, Anura departed for a meeting somewhere in town. He had changed out of his work clothes for the first time all week. With his departure and the completion of the sand pile sifting, work ground to a halt. We had nothing left to do. There was some mention of resifting the rubble piles from the original sift, in order to recover more usable sand, but given the heat and obvious lack of activity at this point, we did not volunteer to do that.
The goodbyes spread over the rest of our time there. Luke and Suraj had presented the school principal with two cricket bats and two balls that he bought the day before and a pickup cricket game replace volleyball on the field. Suraj was teaching everyone the game–or trying–while.one of the older boys pitched (or bowled?). The pit her followed instructions from Suraj on when to throw slowly and when to challenge the batters. I took one turn at batting and managed to get a fair hit. I then retired for life from cricket.
Back at the work site, we began cleaning up. Dil helped us donate the shovels to the school and the trowels and other equipment to Anura and his team. We left gloves, masks, and eye protection, too.
One of the guys I was working with, who was also one of the few to wear more than flip flops had only shoes that were falling off his feet. I checked the size (European 42) asked if he wanted my boots. He was quite happy to have them and immediately put them on his bare feet.
Several other volunteers followed suit, either giving equipment to individuals or piling up donations outside of the workers’ room.
I also brought several extra DWC shirts–some new and some worn–and we gave shirts to Dil, our other SLCDF helper, and several of the workers. Anura had not returned, so I asked one of the workers to save a specific shirt for him.
The cleanup continued and we took many more photos of the kids, workers, and the site. Sun, in particular, was a favorite of the kids. Several were in tears saying goodbye to her and the rest of the team. The goodbyes went on for some time, but we finally were on the road back at 14h30.
We arrived to the hotel and elephant are just as the troupe was marching up the street. We parked the van outside of the tourist area and walked to the hotel.
Everyone wanted to have some time to shop for souvenirs and this was our chance. Most of the shops closed at some time between 4pm and 5pm, so we hadn’t had much of an opportunity to buy things.
Becky and I went across the street to the nearest shop and bought T-shirts and a map puzzle for the kids. Becky also has her eye on a sapphire ring at the jewelry shop next door, so we bought that, too after a little haggling.
Back to our room, we, like many of the others, started to organize and pack for our departure that evening or the next day. Having distributed shirts and other DWC items to the team as well as donating my boots and Becky leaving her shoes behind, too, we were able to move from four bags down to three, as we had hoped.
We planned to have a team meeting at 5:30pm and then a special buffet dinner, organized by Andrew, for our last night. The rest of the team was meeting in the hotel atrium when I found them just prior to meeting start time. It was obvious that they were trying to secretively sign cards to Dil, Becky, and me, so I let them be.
We started the meeting a few minutes late, but moved through it quickly I mentioned the volunteer feedback form and made a couple of openings comments before asking each team member to briefly tell the team about their favorite parts of the trip, least favorite, and their biggest surprise of the trip.
Most of the comments centered on working with the kids and volunteers, how welcome we were made to feel, and how much they appreciated and were surprised by the personal satisfaction they got from the experience.
Negative comments (or, really more critical) were mainly about hotel laundry, being restricted somewhat to where we could eat every night, and some questions about the project, equipment and how money was spent on raw materials and equipment. I agreed to take their issues to DWC and encouraged them to write about them in the volunteer satisfaction survey.
We talked about doing another trip next year and I told them that DWC had tentatively approved another Salesforce trip at the same time next year to Cebu in the Philippines. Carolyn agreed to again be the Salesforce team lead, backed up by Sun.
We finished just after 6pm and almost immediately the show began. The first two performers were drummers who carried long, two-sided, cylindrical, or barrel-shaped bongos on a strap over their neck. They were dressed in traditional costumes, and had some serious talent. Their pace and energy were matched by the number of unique sounds they could generate from their instruments.
The first performance lasted about 10 minutes and then we had a break for the buffet dinner. Dil was dining with us and there were about 20 other customers enjoying the dinner and the show. We let Yasmin, Mike, and Suraj get food first as they needed to leave with Dil for Colombo shortly after 7pm–Suraj to get his flight and the other two because they wanted to stay the night Colombo before their flight the next evening. They were fortunate that Dil had room in her car for all three and was willing and able to accommodate the trip.
Back at dinner, the highlight of the meal itself was the chef cooking the egg kottu at a gas-heated hot grill. It turns out that the chef was Andrew’s, our guide’s, son. It was a show worthy of a Japanese grill and the result was delicious.
We said goodbye to Yasmin, Mike, and Dil and they were off to the airport on time. There was a tiny bit of drama as Yasmin insisted to the front desk that she had paid her RS 8100 laundry bill. The young lady at the front desk insisted that they had not paid. I told Yasmin to just walk to the van and ignore the bill, which she did. Nothing was done by the front desk
I ordered beer for most of the day table and some of the liquor came out later to be added to the juices served at the table. The first drum show was followed by three additional sessions that included an acrobat, a small Sri Lankan horn, and a performance with a fire twirler. All were excellent and well-appreciated by the audience.
The team stayed after the show and our favorite solo guitarist came out to serenade us again. Andrew apologized again for the guitarist. He’d become a running joke.
Just before 8:30pm, the group broke up. Neta and Luke went to their rooms to pack or rest and the others went to look for a bar that was indoors–not open air and infested with bugs like the dining area of our hotel. In the end, they settled for a liquor store and then came back to the hotel to share drinks and play cards first in the atrium area and then in Michelle’s room.
Becky and I went to our room and I tried to stay awake until the 10pm departure of Neta and Luke. Right at their departure time, we received a note from Mike that he thought he had left his pink carry-on suitcase in the hotel lobby. He was already in Colombo with Dil and Yasmin. Luckily, we found his bag and we’re able to send it with Neta and Luke. Then, Dil arranged for the driver to drop the bag at Yasmin and Mike’s hotel we’ll after midnight.
Saturday 22 March 2025
Again, I didn’t sleep well, but felt reasonably well when we got up shortly after 6am. We finished packing and went to breakfast just after 7am. It was another beautiful morning and the bird life along the river was wonderful. We could see peacocks and peahens on the far side, great white herons fishing in the river, ducks, and various other waterfowl. A fish eagle circled, too.
I had my last egg hopper at breakfast. The remaining five joined Becky and me shortly after we arrived. We were all happy to hear that Neta’s flight back to London was not canceled and that both Suraj and Luke had made it to their flights and departed.
We met Andrew at 8:30am for our short morning tour. We decided that we didn’t want to visit the elephant’s orphanage and that we’d seen enough elephants for one trip. Instead, we started by visiting a local tea plantation instead.
The xxx plantation dates back to the 19th Century with tea coming to Ceylon from India in 1867. Our guide showed us through the process starting with a large conveyor belt on grates that had huge fans blowing air up through the grates and the leaves to do an initial drying. Having not seen tea as fresh green leaves, I was surprised how big the leaves were and the amount of green stems. We were in the “withering house” that took the green leaves through all of the steps prior to fermentation.
Most of the equipment looked quite old, but well-maintained. It consisted of multiple levels of drying and sorting apparatuses that ended in large bags withered tea, about 40kg each.
I asked our guide how much the workers in the factory are paid and she said Rs 1400 per day (about $4.75 USD).
From there, we went to their sales area and tasted some excellent BOP (Broken Orange Pekoe). We bought two pouches and others bought some as well.
Next, we went to a spice garden where our guide was a young man training to be an Ayurvedic doctor, or an herbalist. He led us through a very interesting garden area that includes many types of trees and plants, including ginger, turmeric, allspice, nutmeg, vanilla, cinnamon, and curry.
Their specialty seemed to be oils and lotions derived from the many plants and, we were assured, capable of curing, or at least treating, almost everything.
Posted in Sri Lanka on March 19, 2025
