GROWING UP IN CEYLON

Back to Girl’s High School in Kandy January 1956 My first day back in the school where I began my education in Kindergarten five and a half years earlier was a bit chaotic. One of the senior girls guided me to my new classroom.  She said she was my House captain. I didn’t understand what that meant. Later I learned that I was a member of the Langdon House.  She was Geraldine Ekanayake. The four houses are Langdon, Lawrance, Eaton, and Sansom.  Their respective house colours are, Green, Yellow, Dark Blue, Light Blue. She had asked me something about what  Grade or Standard I had been in the past year.  Or maybe she asked what Grade I was to be in this year.  I’m not sure which question I replied to as I had forgotten many words and was not sure how to speak English.  Finnish managed to bury my English vocabulary just in two and a half years away from the language.  The classroom was in a barrack at the top of a flight of concrete steps. I was t

I had thought that dad would have more time to be at home with us when he had so many co-workers on the ship, but I was wrong. As far back as I could remember, dad was fulfilling his vision and mission, which more often than not, kept him away from home .  When I was little,  I accepted it as a normal part of life.   The important thing was that Mom was always at home with us  wherever we happened to live. I still remember the feeling I got when he got into his van and drove away after getting us settled in our new home. I realized then that life would always be like this. There were other tasks and other people elsewhere that would still be more important for dad. I did not know anything about the significant problems he had with the boat and with some of the people in the group who had promised to be part of his team. Dad had had a lot of experience during his many years as a missionary. He had high demands on himself - and expected almost as much of oth

The lawn and the cool shade under the large leaves of the breadfruit tree invited me to take a book and lie on my stomach and read. Inside it was too hot.  I took a book, lay in the grass and started reading. When I had a good book, I forgot time and space and lost myself in the story.  Mom called me to eat. I had to leave my beautiful world and go in. Mom first saw them. Several leeches had attached themselves to me. Some had fallen off. Mom took some salt and sprinkled it on the few that still were feeding in me. They fell off.  Never again would I lie down in the grass to read.  Across from our house was a semi-detached house behind a hibiscus fence.  The two who girls lived there who became my friends.  Vinitha was a Sinhalese and Annette was a Burgher.  Vinitha lived with her mother and stepfather, her big brother and two younger siblings. Annette lived with her grandmother and grandfather.  Her parents and sisters lived in Colombo. Somet