“Come in and sit, come, come!”, she said with a friendly smile and sparkling eyes staring at us.

We were in the middle of a lonely village road, close to the Horton Plains in Sri Lanka, Yuily sitting on the asphalt, totally not ladylike, while Stephan walked around holding his phone in the air to hunt for a weak signal, looking for accommodation.

Yuily caught a glimpse of her looking around the corner as the girl peeked at us once or twice. Finally, she mustered up the courage to come and talk to us. She had a very honest smile and was followed by a small child. She was eager to invite us to her small home, but we ignored her at first. She kept looking at us with her sparkling eyes and wide smile, which melted our hearts so that we eventually gave in and followed her to her house.

It was a very simple house, behind the door there were just a few chairs where she mentioned us to sit down. There was not much room and very simple furniture. Looking from one side of the room to the other, there were many family pictures. She showed us some of these pictures, one with her older sister on it, who married not to long ago. She was very happy for her, and told us one day she wants to become a beautiful bride like her. When she said this she smiled with embarrassment and happiness, but also with the beautiful face of a future bride.

She wrote a piece of paper to Yuily: “I think you are beautiful, I really like you!” – We doubted that these English words are only few that she knows so that she wrote, but when Yuily looked back at her face and saw this never-ending smile, she knew that these words came from the girls pure heart.

We didn’t speak her language and her English was a bit limited, so the communication consisted of much laughter. But it was wonderful – our suspense from earlier was totally gone and we felt very happy in this relaxed environment. It wasn’t easy to communicate by words, but very easy to communicate by heart.

She gave us a few wild strawberries and gestured to us to eat them. They didn’t look very much like normal strawberries, much smaller and thinner. Only by the small black spots you could still see that they resemble ordinary strawberries. But once we tried them, the taste was the sweet and sour essence of a strawberry. No matter how they look on the outside, the inside will be the same.

Yuily noticed a small, black animal hush trough the door. A very cute puppy was looking into our eyes, while the girl picked it up saying “Henry, Henry.” After she put it into Yuily’s arms, it quickly became comfortable, yawned and fell asleep a few seconds after. It was so fast, it had us wondering, what makes these people feel so comfortable with strangers, how can they trust them so easily?

Yuily stared at Henry, soundly asleep, wondering if he is dreaming. She looked back at the girl and her sister, who’s dream it is to become a beautiful bride. Yuily had the same dream from when she was five, but sometime between then and now this dream got lost.

We cannot help but to think, if this girl can get more education, if she wasn’t born in Sri Lankan backcountry, would she be able to get more opportunities? Will she possibly have more diverse dreams?

Or perhaps, her dream is very realistic? No matter how old you are, where you come from or what level of education you have, the majority of women still want to be a beautiful bride and spend a lifetime together with the person they love. Maybe this is one of the most extravagant dreams to come true?

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