Sri Lanka – we are on the way (again) !

One more week – that seems to be a long time. But there is a lot of preparation for this three weeks’ journey with regard to school visits, German lessons, scholarship children, checking building activities,….to pack, to consider, to note, and this week must be used efficiently. On Thursday, January 14th , our annual meeting of all Neuwied-Matara-friendship-Association-members will take place, and there might be discussions and decisions that could be important for the president, Mr. Bernd Mertgen, and the vice president, Mrs. Edeltrud Pinger, who both are going to travel to Sri Lanka on January 19th 2016. They certainly will be given some presents for scholarship students from their sponsors and will be handed over to the children later in Matara.
During the last weeks, we asked banks and companies for little gifts, and indeed, they donated pens, colour pencils, small note books, etc. Special thanks to LIQUI MOLY and two banks here in Neuwied that helped us in the past with those little things and were generous again. Thanks a lot; students in Matara will look forward to accepting these gifts with shining eyes and thankfulness. They will be pleased to use this material at school.
Weather and temperatures will be extremely different here in Germany and in Sri Lanka. Although we have not had a strong winter yet, the forecast announces low temperatures, or even frost and snow for the weeks to come. And in Sri Lanka: may be temperatures between 25 and 35 degrees, blue shining sky, beaches that invite you to walk and go swimming. There is the danger of getting sunburned and of a high humidity of the air, because of rain showers that may surprise you in the evenings.

But there won’t be much time for sunbathing and swimming. We will visit scholarship children’s families or meet these children at school and talk with them. There will be German lessons again, conversations with the school administration and with teachers; visits of our other project schools, particularly Rohana Special School (school for handicapped children). Perhaps, our latest project, Anura – break-hall – will probably be finished and opened.
Another item is to probably help more children individually, which is only possible when we find more individual sponsors in Germany who are willing to pay a monthly amount of money to economically needy families and, thus, support another young student. (If so, please contact us. Thanks a lot.)
It will be an exciting time, for sure, and time flies. To us, it makes sense and is undoubtedly important to stay in contact regularly with these schools, with school administration, students, scholarship families, teachers, etc. Only then, we can learn about each others’ culture and attitudes. There must be an open and honest exchange and mutual appreciation. Our donors expect that everything that could be built and given to the school communities willingly is being treated with care, because we all want these things to be useful and helpful for lots of students, the present and future ones. We will continue…..and constant dropping wears away a stone!