THE weekend’s Twenty20 cricket matches will provided more than on-the-couch entertainment for Swan Hill’s tight-knit Sri Lankan community.
For Sriyan and Crystal Cabral, and Manjula Jayaweera, the sporting event is an excuse to get together with friends and take part in a large element of Sri Lankan culture.
“Everyone brings a meal from home and we watch the cricket at one person’s house,” Ms Cabral said.
“We can all catch up and cheer along together. But we don’t want to watch the final, because we always lose,” he joked.
Mr Cabral said many members of the Sri Lankan community he came to Swan Hill around the same time, three to four years ago.
Some, including Mr Cabral, work at Safeway, while others have found work as doctors, engineers, mechanics or have started their own businesses.
In coming weeks Sriyan Cabral is planning to launch is own business — a local driving school.
“We’re not all in our real professions but we’ve go to do what we can,” Mr Cabral said.
“Sometimes it’s hard to find work in our former areas.”
Mr Jayaweera was a tea planter in Sri Lanka, a profession that is all but non-existent in Victoria.
Mr Cabral was a manager of human relations, and his wife Crystal worked in administration, which she has continued in Swan Hill.
Their Australian journey started in Melbourne more than three years ago, and landed them in Swan Hill not long after.
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s edition of The
Guardian (30/01/13).
