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| Colombo, Sri Lanka |
Went for the Spice Festival at Green Path on Sunday. We saw the long queue for the coupon table and decided we'd rather have kottu from Hotel de Pilawoos. My best friend Heba and I are down in SL for the holidays and hadn't had kottu in months anyway. We met this little boy outside the place as we waited for the guys to make our food.
Ishan sells little keytag torches outside Pilawoos over the weekend. He then takes a late night bus on Sunday night to reach Hambantota by morning. He tells me that he attends school on weekdays and comes to Colombo over the weekend to make some money. It's his sisters birthday the next day so he's gotten her a cake and is taking it to Hambantota with him. He is fluent in both Tamil and Sinhala and is learning English as well. Apparently his house did get damaged during the Tsunami. In Colombo he lives at a house in Maradana. He was waiting outside Pilawoos for some 'Hajiar' to come. This Hajiar gives him money apparently.
I have no idea how far any of this is true but I'd certainly like to find out if there are more children like him in the city and how they manage to get by.
