This is my little mali (younger brother/cousin) Anouka, and his mom, Roni Punchi. We took a trip to my Achi’s house (grandma) in Kitulgoda.

Kitulgoda is a little village south of Colombo. Seeya (granpa) was born there, at the bottom of the hill. Seeya dropped out of school in I think 5th grade to help take care of his 7 or 8 siblings. He used to sew shirts and stuff in a little kadaye at the bottom of the hill. I need to check all of these facts with Amma. But you don’t know any better, I’ll continue.

This, that, a few hustles and he started working on timber contracts. He’d take trips upstate to harvest logs and bring them back to sell. With or without permits, depending on if the law was being dicks about it. One guy narced on him for not having a permit and when Seeya saw him on the street he beat him up. Upul Mama (uncle) still has the court documents from his assault trial. Eventually Seeya started getting construction contracts, and he brought the first CAT earth moving machine to Sri Lanka. He also built a gas station and did a lot of work in Kekirawa. Lal Mama represents that district in Parliament now.

Seeya married my Achi and built our house on top of the hill. Kids were born, including my mother. Seeya was running for the Parliament seat that Lal Mama now holds when some opposition people came by the Party Office and threw bombs inside. Amma was inside, I think she was about 13. Seeya and his men shot back and killed one of the shooters. Seeya spent the night in jail on murder charges (later dropped). It was election night. He lost by a handful of votes, which was bullshit. Soon after Seeya died, of Chicken Pox, which is quite hard on the immune system of an adult.

Anyways, I spent the day at Kitulgoda at the house that my Seeya built. His name was Gamage Don David (David Gamage, said in the Portuguese way). His picture is in the entry, and we bow to it before we leave.

These are the paddy fields at the bottom of the hill. They’re more beautiful than my shitastic camera phone can capture.



We went swimming at this little dammed up area in the village



This elephant and her mahout were travelling through and the elephant wanted to bathe.



We moved aside and let her bathe too. She’d been walking something like 40 miles from his worksite, probably hauling timber. She’d come to the village for a vacation.



Then she took a dump in the water and we left.



I put a photo gallery of the day here. It was a long day.

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Posted on Sunday, December 21st, 2003 in Sri Lanka.