09/06/2025
A sunny Monday in June; we went there, not with any lame purpose of watching the ways of life of people that we assume to be slightly different to that of us, to take some pictures and show to the world we did it, BUT, with the purest intention of sharing our experience and ways of life with each other.
It was not a simple act of "going to an estate school and teaching kids some English" but it was about sharing pieces of ourselves with each other, for example, we shared our knowledge and experience of having received a good education and they enlightened us of the value of simplest joys of life through honest acts such as gifting us bunches of fresh anthuriums and lovely smiles.
Then, we sat on the benches outside under a tree, looking at the tea estate right in front of Pettigala Vidyalaya, Balangoda, while delving into delicious milk rice, some sweets, savories and tea that they had prepared for us. Biting into a thick piece of milk toffee, one of our friends commented on how milk toffee is a regionally specific sweet that they do not skip in any special occasion.
It was such a wholesome experience. It is not a "done and dusted" but a continuous effort to support those kids by showing them many paths that are available for them. How successful was this? One of the kids said that he wanted to learn, go to university like us, earn money and buy a tractor. It was not the choice of the vehicle but we succeed in educating him that there is a way to buy his dream tractor. And another kid asked "හෙටත් එනවද?" when we were about to leave, and that's the HOPE that we succeeded in planting within them. And we saw ourselves in them.
These photos were taken by the teachers of the school. Their perspective of us.
