18th March 2008
After a chilled morning, I head off to the Sri Yasododara Balika Niwasaya. The cab company had sent me a young guy called Chamara, who had a small mini van. He explained that the cab drivers are responsible to bring their own vehicle for the taxi work, and that his mini van comes handy to transport his family around. We arrive to the home quite fast, the girls are all out at school, which I'm glad about as I won’t get distracted from the work that has to be done. Loku Maniyo is very happy to see me, but she also seems very busy so I try not to take up too much of her time. We spoke for a short while about the necessities of the girls and what the monthly expenses are.
For example,
- Each girl is given two pieces of soap per month, which they will use for bathing and other personal washing.
- One packet of milk powder is stretched over one meal for all 60 young girls plus extra for the few staff and monks.
- Average Electricity bills per month ranges between Rs.18,000 - 20,000 (£86-95).
- The water bill per month is Rs.25,000 (£119).
- Due to the very serious security threat involving public transport the girls have stopped using public buses to get to and from school, so money is now put aside for school vans etc.
I inform Loku Maniyo that I would like to go to the shops that very day to buy what I can with the money I have. She called for Wasanthi, one of their care takers, and asked if she would kindly escort me as I knew I would need help. So we grab Chamara and head first to Thusitha Bookshop down Galle Road
- 2 x A4 White photocopy paper packets.
- 2 x A4 Coloured paper packets.
- 24 x Drawing books. (Art Books)
- 12 x Single ruled CR books (200 Page).
- 12 x Squared books (400 Page).
- 12 x Single lined books (400 Page).
- 1 x Carbon paper packet (100 Sheets).
- 72 x Pens (Red, Blue & Black).
- 12 x Typex pots.
- 12 x Sellotape.
- 24 x Small erasers (15cm).
- 12 x Binding glue bottles.
- 2 x Big scissors.
- 2 x Small scissors.
One thing I hadn’t contemplated was how difficult it was to decide what to buy for 60 young people. Luckily Wasanthi knew each and every one of them as she knows her own daughters, so she helped me with the bulk of quantities. It took a while for everything to be collected and bagged so I got chatting to Wasanthi. She had been working at the Children’s Home for 25 years. She travels by two buses and a taxi ride to get to and from work, taking over two hours each way. She is a mother of two. I don’t need to ask if her salary is what keeps her working here.
We help the bookshop guy to load everything into the van. Next stop Lak Sathosa Food Store, a government subsidised shop. I remembered being at the local government school in Sri Lanka that I attended for a couple of years of my childhood. Every student would receive food vouchers of a certain value to exchange for quantities of food supplies from the school Lak Sathosa outlet. I remember this being what some of the pupils eagerly awaited for, as their own families depended on their kids to bring certain supplies to the family table. Being kids, merely 10 to 12 years old, all of us wanted to buy sweets and Milo malt drink powder that we would share out and ration small amounts in each of our palms, and lick the powder loving the sweet taste! Most of the time this is what me and a few friends used to spend our food vouchers on, and we would share our stuff out with everyone around us, as majority of our classmates were using their vouchers for rice, lentils, sugar, salt and various other staple foods. They would barely have the strength to carry the weight of their foods home in their school backpacks on top of the ton of books that were required for classes.
The Lak Sathosa Food Store that Wasanthi directed us to was quite large, located on the main road. Slight problem, because it is a government subsidised shop there are specific quotas that cannot be exceeded when buying various items. After explaining the situation to the shop keeper she agreed to fix us up with several bills so that we could overcome this problem as a one off. From there we purchased:
- 20 x Anchor milk powder packets.
- 20 x Cheese packets.
- 5 x Washing powder packets (1.5 Kg).
- 20 x Soap pieces.
- 10 x Baby lotion.
- 20 x Salmon tins.
- 10 x Eau de cologne bottles.
When we got back to the Sri Yasodara Balika Niwasaya to drop off all the supplies, the girls had not still returned from school which I was kind of relieved about as I didn’t want to be around for too long. I was finding it very hard to say good bye. The last thing to do was to organise the left over money from the fundraising budget, which I donated towards electricity and transportation expenses. Loku Maniyo had expressed that those were the hardest monthly payments to keep up with, so they were all very grateful for this donation. Between me, Loku Maniyo, and Wasanthi, we sorted out all the paper work and I got ready to leave. As I was saying my farewells to the other monks and the other staff, I slipped some money to Wasanthi to use towards her children. She was caught completely off guard and refused a few times before looking to Loku Maniyo’s approval, who expressed that she felt it was ok to accept this as a gift. I felt so close to them and felt so envious about what they were doing all together as a family. As Chamara pulled out of the gate, some of the girls pulled up in their school vans. I could see that they were excited to see me and reached out of the windows waving and saying goodbye. I am glad I didn’t stick around because I didn’t want to cause any disruption to their daily routine, and at that moment I realised that I would have been an emotional wreck in front of them. They had the biggest smiles on their faces which made me smile the whole way home.
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