Our last few days in the village were incredibly busy and just seemed to fly by. Even though we had all been looking forward to being back in England, as the time approached for us to leave the village we all began to realise that, as much as we wanted to be home, we desperately did not want to leave the village and all the wonderful friends we had made.On Sunday we were invited for lunch by some of the relatives of Laura and Ros’ hosts. We spent a relaxing and enjoyable afternoon with these two Muslim families. Upon our return to the village a neighbour brought over a video of the tsunami sweeping through the nearby city of Galle. Seeing the footage of the destruction brought to streets that we had walked down a few weeks early, and seeing how people were washed away by the surging waters was quite horrifying, especially when we knew that Pelana had been at least as badly affected, and that some of our friends had lost their loved ones in the disaster.Monday morning was to be our final English lesson with both the mothers and the children. At the time we were too busy to reflect on how rewarding these experiences had been for both teachers and pupils. We had seen some of the students make real progress, to the point where they felt confident enough to read English poetry at the final cultural show that was being planned for Wednesday night. And, perhaps more importantly, we had built friendships and trust through these lessons; friendships that we hope will last a lifetime.Throughout the last few days ourselves and all the children were practising for the upcoming cultural show. On our final day in the village we all donned traditional outfits: myself in a white shirt and sarong (the national dress worn for formal occasions and often worn by the president) and Ros and Laura in beautiful sarees. The cultural show in the evening predictably started about three hours late, and continued late into the night. Our attempts at Kandyan dancing were well received, along with our speech in Sinhala. It was a really special moment when some of the children read the poem “Leisure” (W.H Davies) that they had learnt by heart, and equally special when some of the boys joined us in our performance of “Don’t look back in anger”. All the children -from the preschool children to the teenagers -had prepared dances, songs and dramas (and there was even an impromptu performance of Shaggy song by one of the young men) and it was a truly memorable occasion and a fitting end to our stay in the village. The final item on the evening’s programme was something for everyone to join in with: “Kavade” (crazy dancing with the waving of branches). We danced until we were quite exhausted and covered in mud, and then people began to leave. This was the most difficult part of our whole time in the village – saying goodbye to our friends. There was a lot of exchanging gifts and addresses, and a lot of tears. And we had to do it all again in the morning when people came to see us off. It came as a complete shock to the system to leave the village and to realise that we wouldn’t see those familiar faces the next day at English lessons, the preschool or the afterschool club.Looking back on our time in the village, it’s hard to say exactly what effect our stay will have in the long term. We hope that the afterschool club will go from strength to strength, and maintain or increase the numbers we saw in the later weeks of our stay. We hope that the young people will continue to reach out to the other members of the community, and that the community centre will become the centre of the village, where people can meet and events can be help. We hope that the mothers will carry on learning English together and meeting together. We hope that the small steps that were made towards unity in the village between the people of different faiths and ethnicities might be the start of a transformation in the way people think and behave. More than anything, we hope that the people in the village would all treat each other with the same amazing love and generosity which they always showed to us. Only time will tell how long it will take for these things to happen, and we hope to return soon to see for ourselves. But whether change in the village is slow or fast, our stay in the village would definitely have been worthwhile if only for the friendships we made. We have grown to care deeply about the people of Pelana West, and we know that some of the friendships we have made will last for years to come. This summer was an incredible experience and I, for one, cannot wait to go back.Duncan Proctor. September 2nd 2007