May 27th saw us leave Hambantota, attending the opening of AFLAC's preschool on the way back to Colombo. Once there we started to unwind, now on a bit of a vacation - but something caught our attention: Bill Clinton was staying at our hotel!

Entries: Zohra, Faatima

 

Today was really fun. We came back to Colombo from Trissimarama. This morning we first went to Hambantota for the opening of a pre-school set up through Sajith Premadasa (the son of an ex-Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa who was assassinated). The opening was nice. The children opened up lots of new school supplies, puzzles and toys. I played on the abacus with a few of them. Then they all sang and danced to songs that they had learnt. It was so entertaining to hear them singing “Head Shoulders Knees and Toes” and “Row Row Row Your Boat” in English and then in Sinhalese. Their two teachers were extremely enthusiastic and energetic young women. There was a little ceremony where Mr. Premadasa made a speech followed by speeches from those involved in setting up the pre-school. The site was in the compound of a Buddhist temple.

When we were getting on the bus to depart to Colombo, Mr. Rajitha (AFLAC) brought us sandwiched that he had made for us at 5am before heading out that morning. I will never forget the enthusiasm with which he made us sandwiches several times on the trip, just when we all were craving a bite to eat. We checked into Trans Asia Hotel and had an elaborate, fancy dinner before heading out to check out the Colombo night life.

-Zohra

Noontime
We’re about to leave our 3rd hotel for Colombo – I can’t believe the trip is so close to being over. I mean, it didn’t fly by really, but it just seems so weird to know I’ll be heading home in like 4 days. Wow. & another weird thing is that it’s only the beginning of the summer. We’ve all become closer than we were before, that’s for sure, but I won’t see any of these people, most probably, until like September or later – that’s like 3 whole months! Yeah, it’s all weird, but it’ll be ok. I’ve gained so much from this trip.

Nighttime
Our hotel in Colombo – the TransAsia – is the most luxurious we’ve stayed in by far. Anyway, shortly after we arrived in the afternoon, after the longest bus ride ever, I was in my room when I heard a lot of urgent knocking on our room door. It was Zohra & the girls, minus Jess and Sweta, & apparently, they had just found out that Bill Clinton was staying at our hotel! We already knew he’d be in Sri Lanka at this time, because the ambassador had told us he was coming to visit, but under a United Nations hat, not U.S., so that his schedule is tight and out of the ambassador’s control, and we wouldn’t be able to meet him. Well, anyway, all the girls went rushing to get Zohra b/c they wanted to use her cell phone to call Ishreth so that he could call the ambassador & maybe ask if we’d be able to meet Clinton. However, we didn’t hear back from Ishreth until we had gone down to dinner – which was amazing by the way – I think it helped that we had skipped lunch. Anyway, so Ishreth called us & said he’d be at the hotel in about 3 minutes & so he’d tell us what the ambassador said then. So he finally shows up and tells us his story – he text messaged the ambassador, apparently, since the ambassador had done so back when we were trying to arrange our initial meeting with him. So Ish texted him saying that we’ve made it back to Colombo, & we’re staying at the TRANSASIA hotel [in capital letters!], and if possible, that it would be great if we could meet him again. The ambassador, Jeffrey Lunstead, replied to him saying that Clinton was staying at the TransAsia too, so Ish replies with an “Oh, really?” and that it would be great if we could meet him – and the ambassador replied with “Meet me in the lobby at 8.” So, yeah, we’ll see, keeping all of our fingers crossed here! Ok, so then, as we were all finishing dessert, someone came in & said Clinton was coming, so we all went to the lobby. When Clinton walked in, Keith yelled, “President Clinton!” & our group got a wave from him – awesome. I got some glimpses of him, his white hair definitely stood out amongst his entourage. So yeah, that was mad cool.

Next day, looking back
This whole trip = one big exercise in going with the flow, seeing what happens. AFLAC has been amazing, and so have Sumit, Ishreth, Sejal, everyone. I’m amazed by every person in this group, and every person that we have met throughout this trip. Yesterday, before our crazy-long bus ride, we stopped by the AFLAC preschool we had visited briefly on our way to Tangalle, I believe. We went for their inaugural ceremony, but then we all piled back on the bus in order to go meet the former prime minister’s son. He was in his thirties, had studied at the London School of Economics, and he was very well-spoken. When he was ¾ of the way through his masters at a college in Maryland, his father was assassinated.

There was also a representative from Antwerp, who was with a group called Kohomoda, which is Sinhalese for “How are you,” I think. Their group was purely a volunteer group, without any payroll – I don’t even know how they manage! Anyway, so after we met them, we went back to the preschool for the ceremony, which we sat through even though it was mostly in Sinhala. I wrote in this journal, but then one AFLAC member spoke in English, for our sake I’m sure, as well as Kohomoda’s. Then, this little Sri Lankan boy stood up, and he gave a speech in English! It was soo cute! I honestly think that our presence, random and superfluous though it was, really really meant a lot to those kids and everyone there – when we had arrived, the children had presented us with leaves from the sacred tree, which you can apparently chew, though I did not want to risk it. Then, when we left, some ladies and the AFLAC member who had spoken in English brought trays of this really sweet pineapple juice to our bus! They were all so hospitable.

-Faatima