Today the team were making their final trip from Kandy back to Columbo but made one fianl stop in Kegalle. The Sabaragamuwa students brought the Durhma team here to visit the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage, this was an amazing centre which was an orphanage and breeding ground for disabled and wild elephants. During this trip the […]

Today started as normal, with fitness with the university students at 8am. We then coached swimming, badminton and volleyball. Before lunch we also had a small amount of time to practise for the big performance tonight. In the afternoon we held an exam for the children of Pambahinne, of whom we have been teaching English […]

The morning of Tuesday 9th August was our final visit to Puakahaela preschool and the morning of Wednesday 10th August was the concluding visit to Ighalahgama preschool. The team as usual took the students for games including bean bag races and allowed the children to play on the space hoppers. Following this the teachers at […]

Today we got home at 7:30pm after a 5 hour drive back from Arugam Bay. We travelled to Arugam on Friday afternoon and arrived around 8:00pm. Dan came with us after some deliberation as to whether he was well enough to endure the trip. We got into our rooms for the night and tuk-tuked it […]

Today during the daily fitness session the team led a circuit session based mainly on core strength and upper body strength, the second part of the session included a pyramid of sprints with burpee’s and then star jumps. After this the students split off into different sports which today included rounders, badminton and swimming. For […]

At 8.00am we took fitness with a slightly smaller group than usual which meant we did not have to coach them in two teams. Therefore, all the participating students were able to benefit from extra coaches. The fitness session was based at the outdoor auditorium to enable sprinting up steps and plyometric exercises. The sports […]

On Wednesday morning Pascale and Kirsty enjoyed their first visit to Ihalegalegama. It was a great experience and the children were very enthusiastic and made us feel very welcome. Whilst at the University the other students were working on the ongoing task of improving the fitness of the University students and carried out a series […]

Today Jess and Kirsty went to Puakahaela to play games and teach English with the little ones. They saw a monkey in a tree. Jonny was ill so stayed in bed for the morning to rest and felt better in the afternoon/evening. Dan took students for a run for fitness and Beth, Pascale, Katie and […]

On Sunday 31st July the group looked around Colombo using the interesting tuk tuk travelling system before embarking on the 5hour coach journey back to the University to continue teaching English and Sport on the Monday morning. Monday morning again involved a fitness session for the University students followed by football, badminton and swimming lessons.

On Saturday 30th July the team left the University at 7.30 am to travel 5 hours to Colombo to take part in a 2012 Olympic promotion event held by the British High Commission. The team arrived to be greeted by a barbecue and very welcoming people. The day involved a variety of races with people […]

As usual, fitness started at 8am. Today Jonny, Jess and Pascale took a circuit incorporating some steps they have in campus. Myself, Dan and Kirsty set up an obstacle course for the students; including ladders, hurdles, sit ups and press ups. Jess then took a very full aerobic class which everyone enjoyed! While Jonny and […]

The fitness session was split into 2 stations, the first being a sprinting session and the second involved fun drills and games like cups and saucers to improve overall fitness and endurance. After fitness the students were split into 3 sports including; swimming, football and volleyball, the Team Durham students split up and coached each […]

A normal Wednesday morning in Sri Lanka, early morning fitness circuits lead by six members of the group, whilst two set off on the journey to the village of Ighalahgama… The pair at the pre-school played many outside games with the children, which were thoroughly enjoyed. This was followed by teaching English songs, colouring, and […]

Today Jess and Matt visited Puakahaela for the morning and played games with the children there and taught English. It was one child’s birthday so lots of song were sung and cake eaten. The rest of the gang ran a fitness session in the morning and then coached volleyball, swimming, badminton and tennis for the […]

On Saturday the 23rd, we had the chance to engage in an exciting tourist adventure… On Saturday the 23rd, we had the chance to engage in an exciting tourist adventure. We visited Yala National Park to go on a safari trip. The highlight was when a lone elephant walked slowly past us to drink from […]

On Thursday 21st, the group introduced the steps at the auditorium to our morning fitness session to try to improve explosive power in the students. This was a great success. Some of the other students partook in a core and pyramid session. Then, after this, the third year students participated in a dance aerobics session […]

Another busy day in Sri Lanka beginning with morning fitness consisting of circuits and an endurance relay which really tested the students fitness levels… Following this the students split into groups allowing them to choose between the sports swimming, tennis and rounders. Rounders is not a normal Sri Lankan sport so this was an exciting […]

As usual a tough fitness session commenced at 8am for the University students followed by coaching in netball, football and swimming… Jess and Jonny travelled to the Puakgalawele Community Learning Centre for the morning, where they were met by many excited young faces. They lead the children straight outside to begin playing games in the […]

Thursday the 14th was a religious holiday in Sri Lanka as it was the day of a full moon, this meant both the university and primary schools were shut for the day. This gave them the perfect opportunity to explore a bit of the country, they therefore chose to visit Bambarakanda which with a heaight of 863ft is the […]

Today fitness started at 08:00. Cameron Henderson worked for an hour on aerobic fitness and Beth lead the team for circuit training, working on core and aerobic fitness. From 09:30 to 12:00 the second and third year Sabaragamuwa students were then taught by Cam and six Durham students on how to use equipment and the environment […]

At 8.00 am six of the group lead the fitness session at Sabragamwa University helped by Durham University staff, Cameron Henderson and Robert Cramb. Cameron focused on aerobic and anaerobic running. Rob conducted pyramid exercisers, involving press ups, burpies and sit ups. Following the session the group coached swimming, volleyball and baseball in pairs. Meanwhile […]

After a long weekend off with lots of sight-seeing it was straight back into fitness at 8am! We worked the students very hard making them do circuits, hill sprints and interval training. After fitness we split into groups to coach rugby, netball, swimming, volleyball and badminton. Each of the sessions went very well with the […]

We arrived at Colombo on Sunday 3rd July airport and received a very warm welcome from Bandula and had a very exciting journey to the Sarvodya Headquarters. After two nights we made our way to Sabaragamuwa University where we are staying for the next six weeks, with lovely mountainous surroundings and welcoming people. On Thursday […]