Tsunami survivor Toby meets Kadirgamar

Toby Caroll, the nine-year-old British boy who miraculously survived the December 26 tsunami while vacationing at a beach resort in Matara with his family, visited Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar last week.

Accompanied by his mother, Toby who had made his intentions of revisiting Sri Lanka known soon after his return to London last December itself, was all smiles.

"I like Sri Lanka; I like Sri Lankan cashew-nuts and tea," he told Kadirgamar, reaffirming that the catastrophe which had kept him away from his parents for some hours on that fatal day has not left any fears in him.

"It has been great for Toby to revisit the place," said his mother Jacky Caroll, adding that unlike his younger brother, who is still scared of water. Toby has got over the incident. The Carolls had been lucky enough to be counted among the parents to see their children alive following the cataclysmic moment.

With him, Toby had a few treasures to show Kadirgamar - note pad of a Colombo hotel the first page of which had his name "Toby Caroll" and the date "26 December 2004" stamped, his school timetable and a piece of his father's business card. Immersed in deep contemplation for a while with his belongings back in his hands after six months, he quickly got back to his beaming self.

"I dug them all out of sand. My name and the date are still there. I had just done that using my new stamping machine, gifted to me by my grandmother," Toby said recalling what he had been doing before he got engulfed by the giant waves.

Earlier, on March 18 this year, Toby had met Kadirgamar in London, when the latter was on a visit to Britain to say "thank you" to the British public for their magnificent response during Sri Lanka's hour of peril. In a moving scene , Toby presented the Minister a cheque for 4,500 Sterling Pounds collected by him and a group of his friends to help tsunami-orphaned children in Sri Lanka. It was reported that about 400 children of the Devonshire House School in North London where Toby is a student, their ages ranging from three to 13 washed cars, cleaned houses, did gardening and various other small jobs to earn that money.

"I know what they (Sri Lankan children) went through as I was there," Toby said explaining to the small gathering as to what urged him to launch such a fund raising campaign. Toby's story had been given wide publicity and had helped the children better understand the plight of tsunami victims in the UK. Similar experiences by other individuals had also led to several fund-raising campaigns for tsunami victims.

Both Toby's mother Jacky Caroll and the headmistress of his school Serena Alexander are Sri Lankan born. Caroll nee Roche is a descendent of the well known Maurice Roche business family. Alexander is a relative of Sir Thomas Maitland - A 19th century Governor of Ceylon.