Getting Started: Food, Friends and Family

After we spent almost a whole day on planes and in airports, we finally arrived in Colombo. To sum up our first impressions, it was hot, slightly chaotic, but crowded with incredibly friendly and helpful people. Being picked up by two members of Colombo´s Rotary Club Mid-City, we spent some time in a hostel before joining a club meeting to introduce ourselves.

The Rotary Club is Project Sri Lanka´s cooperation partner and is responsible for much work on the ground and for making all projects sustainable in the long term. About 30 members were present and took care of us so that eating hoppers with our fingers did not end in a cultural shock.

Our night at the hostel ended early, yet tea for breakfast and a slightly insane drive to Moraketiara made up for the lack of sleep. The village where we are going to spend the next six weeks is a very nice place to be. Slightly remote on the shores of the Indian Ocean, we will certainly not get bored here. In a span of only a few hours, we attended a meeting of a cooperative made up by wifes of fishermen as well as a tea serving in a Buddhist temple.