Sri Lanka- The Tear Drop of India

I began this video with sweat dripping out of every pore of my body as the mid day sun beat down 120+ degree rays on the “slightly” humid savanna. I pick out a song and a few clips to get the ball rolling and then hear a familiar voice from outside the hut I’m posted in. It’s Siam, a local Muslim boy, and he’s just cruzed onto the property after school along with slew of other kids that have become regulars and shows me with a sense of pride that he too can now ride down the narrow stripe of cement and ollie, well almost. At this time my computer begins to have a mental breakdown from the heat and edit time is suddenly over.

I walk over to the table and bust out the water I grabbed from the freezer to share with the kids, and I dive into the popcorn they’re devouring; something Tom enlightened them on. Around four o’clock the heat dies down and a game of cricket breaks out on the beach. I still have no idea what I’m doing but they love it and that’s enough for me.

I notice the wind has died down and once the games over I jet down the beach with my dad to catch a sunset session at the point. As we get to the top of the point Asanka (the owner of the point and the best surfer in Sri Lanka as of the First Annual Sri Lankan National Surf Comp that STN was privileged to have their hands in) greets us and lets us know how good it is and who’s out. After a beautiful sunset we walk back and grab some dinner, kottu rotti with coconut sambal to be exact and an ice cold ginger beer, and sit and joke with Sahabdine, an old friend of STN with an awesome family and the owner of Ali’s Restaurant. A quick stop by Home/Special Needs for some ice cream and were back to the property.

No surprise when we get back, Babu, my closest friend in Sri, is watching transformers for the hundredth time and is in a trance like its his first run at it. I reach over and shove a stick of deodorant in the grounds keeper’s pits for the betterment of man kind and then get back to editing.

As I go through the footage of safaris, portrait shots, surfing, a well filter and pump we built for a gypsy village, snake charmers, and the countless tuk-tuk shots I realize how blessed I am to be back in The Tear Drop of India. I look around the room at a few Swedes, Aussies, locals and the odd American or two and reflect on how rad the teams that made it out here this year were. From the girls going leaps and bounds with the women in the community giving them a glimpse of pure freedom and a sense of self worth through love, 3 pieces, and milk tea or the guys building trust with the men through construction/ service projects; the fruit of years of labor here are beginning to ripen and its a beautiful thing.

Note: the first 4 clips of the video are from Bangladesh, interested? A team is heading out there in a few weeks!