Empire’s Children Blog
What happened to Shiro when she was in boarding school?
Whatever happened to Shiro and Anthony and William in those missing years. When they grew from children to young adults?
Here is one incident from Shiro’s life:
1963 June, Colombo Sri Lanka
The British missionaries had established the Methodist boarding school in Bambalawatte in nineteen ten. It was supposed to represent a little seaside oasis of old England in the busy hot and humid capital of Sri Lanka.
A sturdy brick wall six feet tall separated the school from the coastal railway line and the shimmering blue of the Indian Ocean. The wall was topped by razor wire and broken glass – presumably to keep undesirable elements out of the boarding school compound rather than prevent the girls from escaping!
The building closest to the wall was the two-story boarding-student’s dormitory. A wide veranda ran the length of the dormitory on the sea side. On the ground floor were dining room, study rooms and music rooms as well as the principal’s quarters. The classrooms, tennis and netball courts and playground stretched back from this building to Galle Road.
It was five forty five on a school day morning…. You can read the chapter in the attachment below
Introducing Sri-Lanka
Empires Children is set in Sri-Lanka. Let’s begin by getting to know the country:
SRI LANKA is an island in the Indian Ocean off the southeast tip of India, Sri Lanka is about the size of Tasmania. Most of the land is flat with mountains in the south-central region rising to over 2,438 metres. It is often described as a tropical paradise. The vegetation of the coastal belt is lush and dramatic, and the mountainous areas of the interior covered with green tea bushes are spectacular. Pleasant sea breezes temper the coast’s tropical climate through most of the year; the hills and mountains in the island’s centre are cool at night.
Arab traders of long ago knew the island as Serendib, which is the origin of the word serendipity, reflecting the unexpected pleasures of the land.
Sri Lanka, once known as the British Crown Colony of Ceylon, became independent in 1948. Its 1972 constitution proclaimed it an independent republic, and changed the country’s name. Finally, in 1978, a new constitution officially declared the island the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.
Total population: 20.9 million
Ethnicity: Sinhalese 73.8%, Sri Lankan Moors 7.2%, Indian Tamil 4.6%, Sri Lankan Tamil 3.9%, other 0.5%, unspecified 10% (2001 census provisional data)
Religion: Buddhist (official) 69.1%, Muslim 7.6%, Hindu 7.1%, Christian 6.2%, unspecified 10% (2001 census provisional data)