Part 6

SRI LANKA REVISITED

Part 6

The next day I invite Akitha for a serious conversation.

I summarize my impressions of my stay at his family home and extract from him a confession that he cannot concentrate on the construction project right now, given his other priorities. Moreover, for a year after the father's death, no decisions are made regarding his legacy.

I understand his conclusions and we close the above topic.

What remains troubling for me is the issue of incurring bank debt from which there are no future benefits. Especially in the eyes of a Westerner.

Since we were willing to provide over $3,000 in financial assistance spread over time as construction progresses, I need to decide if any assistance could be offered to help organize the ceremony on April 18th, 2024. To free the family from potential debt for years to come.

The prospect of waiting for financing for the construction of the bungalow in a few years (Akitha sees this as a possibility) is out of the question, taking all factors into account. We cannot commit to a project that may turn out to be beyond my time frame…

Akitha finds no reason to protest and refuse accepting the help we are talking about now.

We make a US dollar exchange transaction and deposit 400,000 rupees into Akitha's account.

Akitha makes a solemn commitment (without such a requirement on my part) that he will provide me with a detailed account of the ceremony and the expenses incurred.

I will have no influence on the above. The original goal, slightly changed, of providing help to a family in an impossible situation, was achieved.

As in all charitable activities, also in ours there is probably an element of increasing the feeling of one's self-esteem through the sense of doing good.

And let it stay that way.

At the end:

A tourist trip to Sri Lanka in December 2024 introduced me to the difficult life of part of the country's society and, as a result, a strong need to make a change, even on a small scale.

The future will show whether my actions had a deeper meaning.

​