Today started off as any normal day in Gandarawatte with the usual upbeat welcome from the resident monk. It soon became apparent however, that we were to have no ordinary day. We entered the monk’s house and were faced with a potato curry breakfast. Believe me, although this sounds pleasant, it’s hard to stomach at 8:30am! Soon after we made our way across to the school to spend an hour with the children. Here we entertained them with a vast array of arts and crafts culminating in a song and dance session.Soon after we were again summoned by the monk and were served morning tea. The monk then proposed an importune trip to the local town ‘Dondra’- famous for its impressive colonial lighthouse. We spent about 2hours running around in the monks private tuk tuk, performing a variety of his errands. However, towards the end of the trip, the monk took us to the Dondra market and treated us to an abundance of gifts; sweets, peanut brittle, crips and bracelets to name but a few.

We then returned satisfactorily stuffed full of treats just in time for so called ‘small lunch’! If we remember the monk for one things it will be his hilarious antics around the table;
‘monk presents student with a serving bowl of food accompanied by the statement, “some?”.
Student responds – “no thank you, I’m full”. Monk then replies with “why?”, whilst piling a further portion of food onto the plate.’

Safe to say the man is a legend.