Our Guide Nawfer
We once again struck it lucky with our tour guide. In fact Nawfer is a chauffeur guide, so he drives the vehicle as well acts as tour guide during our Sri Lankan tour.
He is a keen naturalist and shares with us his love for and knowledge of the flora and fauna of Sri Lanka. We spot many endemic birds during our safari’s and he spots many camouflaged animals we might otherwise have missed. He is also very knowledgeable about historic sites and other bits and pieces of my birth country I never really knew about before.
Nawfer is married with 2 boys and is a practising Muslim who studied in Sinhala. However, he is proficient in Sinhalese, Tamil and English and also speaks fluent German! His language skills came in really handy when we visited the Eastern Province as not many people spoke anything but Tamil there.
He has grown up in Negombo, the same area my dad’s family is from and still lives there. He has been a volleyball champion in the days of his youth having represented Sri Lanka and played for the National Team in many tournaments overseas.
He has spent about 6 months playing volleyball in various parts of Germany, having won a grant to play overseas. This has helped polish his German skills and he is now a proficient guide in German as well! He has visited many countries besides Germany during the days when he played volleyball for his country. They include Indonesia, the Maldive Islands, Bulgaria, Abu Dhabi, and Singapore!
He fell into the Tourism industry having first been recruited to play volleyball by the travel company he now works for full time. He is really happy in his job and obviously his people skills have enabled him to cultivate a good rapport with his clients. He dreams of owning his own van one day, running his own business and freelancing in the travel trade. Right now his family and extended family depend on him so he is grateful for a secure job and steady income and taking risks is not something he can afford to do.
I wish him well for his future. He had made our tour extra special and we are appreciative to him for his thoughtfulness and attention to detail! I would certainly recommend his services and that of the company Jetwing Travels if you are visiting Sri Lanka!
