Visits, visits and more visits!

We have had a busy day today and visited three people in their homes. The purpose of my visits was to learn more about the House of Joy and the development of Christian faith in the area which is predominantly Buddhist. The House of Joy was opened by an English missionary, Evelyn Karney in 1912. The first lady that we visited was an ex-girl at the orphanage and left to get married 20 years ago. The next lady was the matron at the home for 39 years and the last lady was also an ex-girl at the home, is nearly 90 years old and remembers Evelyn Karney well.

Evelyn Karney was a lady of means and sold everything she had and lived out the rest of her life in Sri Lanka, mostly in Talawa. It was a wild, jungle area at the time and bit by bit she established the village, building a boy’s home, an old people’s home, a hospital and a railway station. Evelyn Karney is a legend in the region and they even mark 20 January as ‘Evelyn Karney Day’.

We were invited out for lunch with the Priest and then had to dash back to meet two people who had agreed to visit us to chat about Evelyn Karney. The lady’s father had been Evelyn Karney’s chauffeur and our other visitor’s mother had been the first child that Evelyn Karney had adopted. We heard so many stories. We also ate and drank lots due to the very generous hospitality of our hosts.

The weather today has been very hot. The water went off this morning and we were all set to have a wash at the well (which the girls use all of the time) when the water came back on. The cold shower was refreshing but within minutes I was needing another one!