Nothing or nobody could have prepared us for what was our most cherished moment, the amazing experience we had in Sri Lanka… The day we will remember with love for the rest of our lives.
On driving from the airport on our arrival in Sri Lanka we were full of excitement. We told Suminda our guide, driver and travel companion, how excited we were to be going to what had been described as a family run guest house. It had been recommended to us on another blog which stated that we would be made to feel like one of the family. We explained to Suminda that we thought it would be a great way to start to understand the cultural way Sri Lankans live and we couldn’t wait to meet the family who owned and run this guest house. Suminda did say that although he didn’t know the guest house he had spoken to the owner, in preparation for our arrival, and she hadn’t sounded very Sri Lankan. But nothing really prepared us for being greeted by Brenda and Ron from Kent in the UK who owned the guest house…… they were a lovely couple and the Guest house was equally nice but they certainly weren’t Sri Lankan neither were we about to be submerged into a Sri Lankan family home with all its traditions.
Sensing our disappointment Suminda suggested he took us out, the next day, on a canal and lagoon boat trip, instead of us just staying at the guest house as we had planned. We readily agreed.
Two days later we were going on a guided tour of the sights of Colombo with Suminda. The day before he had casually asked if we would like to have lunch at his home. We had thought, what a lovely offer and gratefully accepted.
His home was just 20 km south of Colombo in a village called Kesbewa within the local government area of Piliyandala. We stopped on the way for Suminda to pick up a cake, it transpired that it was his eldest son, Methika’s 19th birthday. I asked him to also stop at a florist where I got a small bunch of flowers for Disna his wife.
On arriving at his home we were greeted by Disna, Methika – the birthday boy, Minuka – the 16 year old second son and Senithi -the youngest 10 year old daughter. We were also introduced to Disna’s parents, Grace and Stanley and Suminda’s mother. We were gifted a superb sculpture of an Asian elephant and a little note book which came in very useful for jotting names of birds down in. We exchanged these gifts with the flowers and a small compact with a magnifying and ordinary mirror- I had bought in England thinking we would gift the guest house owners.
We were sat down and given welcome drinks. Then ushered to the table which had a most magnificent spread of curries on it… wow. There were only two place settings at the table but I said we couldn’t possibly eat on our own so Suminda came to join us. We tried all the curries which Disna and Grace had prepared. They were unbelievable… not too spicy hot but tasty spicy… perfect for our taste buds… The two jackfruit curries, one with the sweet flesh and the other with the dry nutty tasting seeds were my favourite along with the dhal, potato curry, chicken curry, bean curry, boiled and fried rice … wow we really didn’t do it justice but it was certainly by far the best curry we had all holiday.
We were absolutely full to over flowing, when Disna brought out the desserts. A huge array of different fruits… the pomegranate seeds were really lovely and we also tried some Buffalo curd.. which I loved and ate several more times during our holiday.
After lunch we all took photos of the family and us with the family.
Then it was time to sing the ‘Birthday Boy’, Methika , Happy Birthday… we all sang it in English. Methika cut a piece of cake and he took it to his Mother and Father and then to John and the rest of the family to take a bite from the same piece. Disna got him to then cut another piece for John and me to take a bite from. I declined, I now wish I hadn’t as it probably seemed disrespectful, but I did it automatically as I very rarely eat cake as I am diabetic and never have cake after a meal when my blood sugar would already be high…, but afterwards I thought I should have had a mouthful and I hoped I hadn’t caused offence because my refusal certainly wasn’t meant to.
We felt totally and utterly privileged to be part of Methika’s birthday celebration. We said goodbye to a wonderful loving family. I thanked Disna profusely for the wonderful meal and the massive effort they had all gone to In providing it and welcoming us into their home. We felt really honoured. On the way back to the guest house Suminda told us it was the first time his children had ever met any foreigners and the first time foreigners had ever been to his home. We not only felt honoured but also humbled.
This day will live with us forever. The kindness, warmth, effort, love which was bestowed upon us is something we will never forget… THANK YOU SUMINDA.
2 J's World of Adventure 