May 28th was our only real day in Colombo. A shopping frenzy occured, as we all drew breath and started to recover from the weeks of emotional turmoil caused by such a devastated environment. Oh - and another thing. Thanks to a tip-off by Ambassador Lunstead, we were able to meet former president Bill Clinton, in the country as part of the UN relief effort. He was kind enough to praise us for our work and spend several minutes with us in the early morning. On the other side of the world, at home.

Entries: Keith, Faatima

So here is the summary of the last 2 days. Yesterday we first went to Sanjeeth’s house (he’s the son of the former president who was assassinated by the Tamil Tigers). He talked about his ideas for rebuilding Sri Lanka, which is basically to rebuild the communities. He wants to do projects such as giving boats and building houses and preschools to do so. We then went to the opening ceremony of an addition to the preschool we previously went to. The kids were ecstatic and loved seeing us. After the ceremony, it was back to Colombo. We saw President Clinton while we were having dinner and then went out as a group. In Colombo, there are so many poor people, and I feel horrible about not giving money to them. But if I give money to one person, i have no reason not to give money to the next person. We got in late, but woke up early the next morning to actually meet President Clinton, with a little help from Mr. Lunstead. We fell back asleep after breakfast then went shopping. I got some nice stuff and really enjoyed bargaining with the vendors. Tomorrow we go into the interior.

-Keith

Mid-morning
OMG, we just met Bill Clinton! Like, not just saw, but actually MET him!! He came up and shook each of our hands! It was crazy!! Life is all about connections, and this experience kind of proves it. Haha, oh yeah, so last night, Ish was text messaging the ambassador, right? It was so funny, because at one point, Ishreth’s dad apparently asked him what he was doing, and he said, “I’m text messaging the U.S. ambassador.” Haha, wow! His dad was like, uh, you’re joking. Haha, anyway, so yeah, last night I could’ve sworn Ish said that the ambassador told us to meet him in the lobby at 8, but this morning, Zohra was like, no, 8:30. We almost missed it! Anyway, apparently the ambassador met everyone and kind of talked with them a bit, but he didn’t really mention us getting to meet Clinton. Wow, I just met Clinton.

Ok, anyway, so Zohra and I reached the lobby at like 8:15, and we saw some people, Venus & Sweta, standing on the other side of the lobby, so we headed straight towards them. We passed the ambassador, who turned to us (I think it was because I was wearing my Penn shirt) and stuck out his hand to me and shook it. I was all confused because I had been pretty intent on reaching the other side of the lobby, not expecting to pass the ambassador and be greeted on the way! So I was totally not expecting him to speak to us, and he asked how our trip was and everything, and honestly, I was so flustered that I’m not really sure what I said. Anyway, then we proceeded along over to our group, where we sat around a bit, and I got my camera ready.

So we were all just waiting and looking around and all, just to see/photograph Clinton, when after a short while, Ambassador Lunstead comes over with Clinton’s Chief of Staff, Erskine Bowles. There were photographers taking our picture too as they came to talk to us. The second I heard Mr. Bowles speak, I knew he was from the South because I so caught the accent. Anyway, turns out he was from North Carolina. He said something like “It’s good to see you all,” and then something about how we must have gone to Penn because we didn’t get into UNC, haha. Then, in the politest way possible, he said, “If you don’t mind, we’d like you all to meet the President.”

If we don’t mind?! Awesome. It so AWESOME!!! So yeah, we were all so giddy and the girls were all giggly and stuff, and Venus was trying to make sure we arranged ourselves in height order. Then Clinton finally came down, and I only took a couple of pictures, but I think Sweta took quite a few. I’m not really sure why I didn’t. Star struck, maybe? Anyway, so Clinton came out of the elevator with his entourage, in his khaki pants and red polo t-shirt, and aw, he looked so thin! But he was smiling, and as he walked towards us, people started telling the onlookers around us to clear the way! Then Ambassador Lunstead said to President Clinton, “This is my (key word = my!) Penn group.” So then Clinton was like, nice to meet you, and he shook hands with each of us and told us we were doing a great job in Sri Lanka. Someone asked him if he liked Sri Lanka, and he said, “I just got here last night, this is my 12th country in 14 days” – crazy! He was so so nice, but when he shook my hand, he just seemed so frail!

Then Keith gave someone his camera, and we all had a group shot taken with Clinton, wow, and afterwards, Jess was like, “He touched my shoulder!” Haha, I was just glad for the handshake! And as he walked away, Clinton said, “Maybe I’ll see you at Penn” – so cool! So that was it, I think Jason took a video of some of the handshaking. Afterwards, we ate breakfast, and that was it.

By the way, when we visited the ambassador’s house, he had told us that Clinton was going to visit a Muslim village that had been destroyed on the coast, and that he would then fly to the Maldives for a visit there – apparently the highest point on the islands of Maldives is three meters about sea level – the lowest highest point in the world – and when the tsunami hit, the country was completely washed over and flooded entirely. Maldives is a Muslim country, and one of the plans for it is to bring in sand and sediment from the sea bottom to build it up so that there are more high safety points. How do people live in such conditions?

-Faatima