DeWHAT!?

July 4th, Demanhandiya.
What happened to me this morning sucked. I couldn’t sleep yesterday and tried to fall asleep watching golf, reading, listening to music but nothing worked. I saw the whole football match, ¡¡viva España!! But I really couldn’t fell asleep. The guys from reception saw I had bought Sri Lankan cigarettes and asked me two at 1.3o o’clock or something like that. I gave them the two they asked, but It would have been better to not have given anything. Now they thought I was the free cigarette giver or something, and at 2.00 I got a call from Reception (and I’m sure it was to ask more cigarettes), then they came to my room and knocked on the door and then they phoned again. Obviously I didn’t answer the phone nor did I open the door. They are mad!!! I think fell asleep around 4.40, I think that time because I last looked at the watch and it was 4.30. great, finally asleep, now the problem was waking up.
I got a call from Gishan at 7 o`clock. SHIT SHIT SHIT. I had to be ready (shower, breakfast…) at 6.45 this morning. I jumped out of bed like the girl from the exorcist and just put something on and close the last bags. I heard Gishan waiting outside so I opened the door for him. “Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry” that was the onl thing I could say this morning, I felt so ashamed! We got everything down and in his car and went on the road to Negombo. It took us about 40 minutes and then another two from Negombo to my placement, about 20km inland from Negombo. I didn’t have a well fixed first impression, but when Gishan explained some thins to me and we finally arrived I loved it. It are three houses next to each other on a piece of land. I live in the first house with Malik, who is the head mistress of the orphanage. She’s lovely, and her family too (the problem is that no one of her family speeks English… so to communicate with them is a bit hard). I got a big room with views to the orphanage and the garden. I’ll share it with a Canadian girl who will arrive next Tuesday. I just met the French guy, Christian, but he’s really French. Malike explained to me that he really wanted someone who spoke French to come because he doesn’t like to speak English… well, get use to it because you’re in far away Sri Lanka! When I arrived I hadn’t had breakfast yet and Malike prepared some toast and yoghurt for me. After that I gave her the dutch presents and I stayed with her in the kitchen. She and her family are all Buddhist. She was preparing Dhal (a kind of cereal you cook) for the Buddhist temple here in Demanhadiya. I asked why and she told me it was because every 4th of the month her family was supposed to make food for them. I can imagine that if you believe so much in your religion it isn’t a problem for you to cook for them. I’ve got mixed up feeling about this though… I asked her to explain everything to me, even the most stupid things. I think I’m going to help her make dinner now. Well well, the French guy turned out to be my very opposite! He almost can’t speak English, but we try to communicate and it’s going ok. Malike explained to me that the monks of the Buddhist temple only eat breakfast and lunch. For supper they drink a special tea to clean their inner self. I almost kill Cristian when he said his favorite music are the Beatles and that he didn’t like the Kooks nor Arctic Monkeys. We’re total opposites, but we’ll manage. Now there’s a birthday party at one of Malike’s son’s house, her cousin turned 14. Cristian presented me to them and they have invited us to the party… let’s see how that will go!
The party was awesome! Totally different from European parties… why? Here some facts: first I would like to say tha the girl who celebrated her b’day turned 14 and as present she got teddy bears, a doll and more small girly stuff. Then, we sang “happy d’day to you”, but what they do is after singing the one who’s b’day it is has to cut a big piece of pie and go around the whole room to let everyone get a bite of cake. First goes the father, then the mother, then the sisters/brothers and then the rest of the invited people. The French guy (whose name is Tristan, not Christian! Hahaha) and I also had to bite the cake and they all made funny comments in Singhalees that we didn’t understand. I would like to know what they were saying. French guy doesn’t talk a lot, but because I DO, there’s always something to talk about. Tomorrow will be at 8 o’clock in the orphanage to see both morning ceremonies, the Christian and the Buddhist one. Then we’ll be with Malike and the kids till about 14.00. We’ll have lunch and then I don’t know what we’ll do. I think I’l go back to the orphanage and stay till 17.00 and after that I’ll go with Tristan to Negombo’s beach, we really want to go swimming! He’s brought lots of TV series like The Mentalis, Dexter and House (all in French, though) so I guess we’ll see them this night; I don’t know why but for both of us it’s really difficult to sleep here in Sri Lanka. They started to play an instrument and they al sang. I got downstairs to go to the other house and I watched them sing and dance. That was really like a movie, al clapping, laughing and having a good time with the basics of basics. The smile I had on my face was even bigger than all theirs together. The 14 year old girls invited me to dance with them. They were very shy, but eventually I managed to grab to of them and dance al together. All the family started yelling “Duuutch, duuutch!” and I just couldn’t stop laughing. Then a little boy came to me and said “Tifol, Tifol” I just stared at him thinking what the hell that could mean. After that he said “Tifo, Tifo, you?” Ahhhh, that’s what it was! Hahahaha. I learned him to use my camera and he made some pictures at the party. When I say a little boy, I really mean LITTLE boy, like about 5 years old or something like that. He learned how to use the camera in seconds, and we’ve got some great pictures together and some of other kids with me. I know these pictures will be hanging in my room when I come back! What a good evening!! =)
Now I had a shower and I’m going to try to get into the web. It’s really old fashion here (1001 wires, connection to the telephone, slooooooooow browser blablabla…) but at least we have something!

PS: for the lovely girls who let me the note in my rucksack (Fark Burbu and Espe) this is my answer: YES YES YES, I SMELL LIKE SHIT, BUT I DON’T MIND!!!!!!!

PS 2: LOVE YOU ALL, and even though I’m enjoying this 101%, I miss you lots.