Chance Encounter Equals Hope
Jesu's father had been murdered by the Sri Lankan military, right before his eyes a few years earlier and his mother had secured him a place with Father Paul, a Jesuit priest, for his safety. Unfortunately, Jesu had finished school and was now being pressured to become a priest or leave the compound. Leaving Father Paul’s was extremely perilous because the Tamil Tigers were still capturing young people to serve in their rebel ranks. And there was always his father’s fate as well, just waiting for him.
Jesu is a gifted linguist and spoke excellent English, Tamil and Sinhalese; and excelled in his other subjects. Katherine and I held back the tears as he related the stories of these girls and the Tamil people over our two-day visit.
When we returned to Colombo, Katherine contacted her parents, who were quite well off, and they agreed to send Jesu to university in India!! I don’t know who was more amazed and elated…me or Jesu! But there were more obstacles to overcome. Jesu needed a passport and visa, which meant he had to make the arduous journey to Colombo by bus with countless government checkpoints and endless challenges as to why he was traveling.
He made it to my house, but even that was not safe because my neighbors had called the police to my home at least five times for “harboring” Tamils. He couldn’t even go to the Sri Lankan embassy alone, so I accompanied him, along with his massive binder of all of his documents. It was one of the many lessons I learned about the value of a white woman in the face of oppression. The picture above comes from that visit. In the end, we were successful! Katherine’s parents paid his tuition and my sisters provided him with plane fare to visit his mother yearly and extra money for incidentals.
Jesu graduated and returned to the North of Sri Lanka to teach English! A few years ago, he returned to India and earned his Master’s in Education, again returning to teach in Sri Lanka.
He stayed in touch with me, my sisters and Katherine over the years. Tragically, in 2017, Katherine died suddenly and Jesu was inconsolable. It was hard to imagine someone so young; she was in her late 40’s, could suffer an anesthesia error for routine day surgery on her shoulder, leaving her in a vegetative state. Her family finally made the gut-wrenching decision to take her off of life support.
Jesu is still messaging me and he is now married with a baby. He is hoping to move to Canada and is starting that mound of paperwork.
We never knew what our risky trip would result in, but with the help of our families, he received an education and hope for a better life. I like to think that our work with the rescued child soldiers gave them a bright spot in their sad lives and something to hold on to.
This is a link to the blog piece about our weekend with the child soldiers. https://worldbeginnings.blogspot.com/2020/03/dancing-with-rescued-child-soldiers.html.
In memory of Katherine Spry and hope for Jesu
Ajijic, Mexico
December 31, 2020
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