It just took me half a day, and the help of about 10 local lads and the mason to lay my concrete kitchen floor, complete with putting the polythene on the ground and laying the cement, sand and rock mixture on top and then cementing the surface to get an even texture. I was amazed at how quickly a task like this can be done especially when one puts one's mind to it and have a willing workforce who did this more as a favor than for reward, as a pay back for my helping them. I also bought them lunch and they had plenty of king coconuts to sustain them and a lot of banter to keep everyone amused. I expect all the kitchen work to be complete by the time I next go on Wednesday, including the kitchen sink with running water and the firewood stove for our cooking. I will take a kitchen table and chairs I have in a store room to finish it off and we can finally cook a proper meal and eat in a civilized manner instead of finding a bed to sit on to have our dinner. We can all now actually sit in a dinning table in the kitchen and have the food served direct from stove to table. What luxury for us who have hitherto been cooking in the open for over a year. The rains having just arrived means this is a timely move for our general well being and peace of mind.
See below the section of putting up the cadjan roof, for info about the collective effort in finishing the roof. This now sounds very much like the village kitchen and looks like I will have to host a weekly luncheon for all comers in my spacious and for locals the most amazing style of kitchen they have seen in their lives.
What is funnier still is that there is a distinct separation of the sexes in Sri Lankan villagers and in this case the kitchen, the purview of the woman is now all male and for males only or put it another way the only kitchen in the village where males are allowed or actually only males cook and where only they gather!!! What am I saying?
In the context of the village. any woman who comes to the kitchen alone will be considered a loose woman!! such are the subtleties of life.
