A Bussiness Process Occupation employee in Colombo visited our village to see the Rathugala (Danigala) veddas. He left from Colombo on 09th of April 2010 morning. He had used the Colombo-Kandy via 18 turns way via Mahiyangana to reach Pitakumbura. He spent at the Sisila Guest Inn in Bibile in Sri Lanka. The guest house is low cost and English spoken. We collected the details of the guest houses in Bibile and sent to Mr. Alfonso before his arrival.
Here are the collected details.
There are 3 guest houses in Bibile.
1. Kinkini Hotel, Badulla road, Bibile. Tel.055-2265286,055-2265447
Fax- 055-2265877. Foods available. Hotel closes on 11th April 2010 for New year.
Costs for single room Half board-3790,double-4290,triple-4840LKR. AC available. English spoken.
2. Canbo Hotel, Mahiyanganaya Road, Bibile. Tel.055-2265618,072-47341121,072-4720064.
This hotel will close on 11th April 2010. Charges are 2600 LKR for AC rooms for half board. Non AC costs 1600 LKR. Non English spoken. Foods available.
3. Sisila guest inn, Ampara(Pitakumbura road), Bibile. Tel. 055-2265691,072-4734477,072-8228670- English spoken guest.
Charges for double room 1000 LKR. Triple room- 1500 LKR. No AC rooms available and limited facilities. This hotel close on 13th April 2010. Foods available.
You can use 3 highways to reach Bibile city.
1. Colombo via Monaragala to Bibile- the road is fully carpeted up to Bibile city. It’ll get 8 hrs to reach Bibile.
2. Colombo via Kandy to Bibile(18 turns road.)- Road is still reconstructing. It’ll get 12 hrs to reach Bibile.
3. Colombo via Kandy to Bibile(Raja mawatha- this road will close 6PM due to elephant corridors.) It will get 9 hrs to reach Bibile.
We were at the Pitakumbura Navodya School on 10th of April 2010 to welcome him. He arrived at 9 AM to the school. And he visited the school computer laboratory and shared his knowledge with the village folk.
There was a small fair of the school children for Sinhala and Tamil new year. He visited the fair and had a conversation with one the teacher called Mrs. Lilani Perera and her family.
Then we had arranged a three wheeler to visit vedda people. On our way to the vedda village we were able to visit one of our senior students house and Mr.Alfonso donated a 3G dongle to access the Internet. The student name is Indrajith Bandara. He have a very small house with one room. He cooks and do computing work inside the room. But he has personnel computer which was donated by gentleman named Mr. Kushil Gunesekara of Foundation of Goodness in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Then he met Mr. Aththanayaka, the village English teacher and spoke few words. He parked his Dandumonaraya(Big bike) at Mr. Prasanga’s house. He is an employee of the Pradeshiya Sabha in Bibile. He had a conversation with newly wedded Mr. Prasanga’s wife and his mother also.
We had some soft drinks at Maldanabe and the hotel is well maintained.
At around 10 AM we reached to the Vedda village. At the moment Vedda chief was not available and his wife called him. There is a CDMA telephone(+94-635618846) which is donated by the Secretary to the president in Sri Lanka.
The village is fully electricity powered through Solar power. Street lamps also powered through Solar power.
A new house for Vedda chief is also constructing by using cement stones to remove clay houses.
Few minutes later chief came and Mr. Alfonso gifted sarongs to him.
Mr. Alfonso had collected information of the Rathugala vedda people by searching the internet. Vedda chief’s mother is Podimenike(Still alive), father is Kira(Still alive).
Mr. Alfonso’s objective is to make some income to the vedda people by selling bow and arrows. Now the hunting became as a sport event even in the Olympics. There are some hunting sports clubs in Colombo also. He hopes to export the bows and arrows to USA. Very good bow and arrow costs 50 000-100 000 LKR.
Mr. Alfonso ordered five bows ,10 arrows and 10 strings. The cost was 5000LKR. The vedda chief has a special team to make bows and arrows.
In the end Mr. Alfonso asked anything to bring him for next his visit and chief replied optional. He left the place very happily to reach to Guest house in Bibile.
The cost per three wheeler to Rathugala from Pitakumbura is 1500LKR.
