May 29th: Painting the Temple wall and Police Coordinated Sports Day

Painting day! Today, all fifteen of us went to the temple to paint the wall (white). Despite the heat, we managed to get a first coat on every part of the wall that has been completed and plastered. As we all expected, spending one last day at the temple as a group was good closure on that facet of our work here; the wall looks great too!

After we completed the painting, we all said a sad goodbye to the head monk at the temple and rushed back to Wavy Ocean to quickly get ready for our police-coordinated sports day starting at 2:30 pm. When we got to the venue- a very calm swimming area and surrounding beach with a volleyball court- we were surprised to find that the celebrations were much more formal than we had expected. In fact, I had to make a short speech with almost zero time for preparation, and then we were presented with certificates of appreciation for our volunteer efforts from the senior superintendent of the police force- a very distinguished man! Throughout the afternoon, everyone was very welcome and receptive to anything that we had to say about our connection to Sri Lanka. I still can’t get over the warmth of the people in Tangalle!

After the guys and girls in the group played guys and girls local volleyball teams in refereed matches (best two out of three), we headed back to Wavy Ocean very tired. Originally, we had planned to go turtle watching this evening, but instead, we had a soup dinner and then just lazed our way to bed for a good night’s sleep!