Our formal teaching programme started today, so the first Sabaragamua University group went off in the morning, and the remaining 10 of us split into a group of 3 going to Moraketiara school, and 7 for Gandarawatte. Those of us going to Gandarawatte first went to the Sarvodaya district office in Matara, taking up an invite to look around.It is a beautiful building, with parts of it having been built only this year. We were introduced to the children of a nursery for orphans – who then asked us to sing a song for them! An impromptu performance of ‘Lean On Me’ (abridged version!) followed. One child cried during our rendition, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it.We were then driven to Gandarawatte village, to start our programme in the new pre-school. There were roughly 15 4-5 year olds there, in very smart red uniforms, including bow ties! We spent most of the morning playing with the children, and introducing them to nursery rhyme songs like twinkle twinkle little star, and heads shoulders knees and toes. The hokey kokey was a particular favourite. We also made name tags of them to colour and decorate. Hopefully this will speed up the process of us learning their names!The village kindly provided lunch for us, which we ate alongside the children in the nursery. Rice, with onions and chilli – tasty but very spicy! At this point we were introduced to the chief monk of the village, who was very friendly and welcoming to us. After eating our lunch in authentic Sri Lankan style (no cutlery), we headed back to the Sarvodaya district office with Chatrika; a Sarvodaya worker who had been acting as a translator for us that morning. During our meeting with Chatrika, we discussed the finer details of our timetable, working out exactly how our time in Gandarawatte shall be spent. Roughly speaking, our mornings will be spent in the preschool, followed by 2 sets of English classes for different age groups in the afternoon. These will be followed by a sports session. It’s exciting to be able to fill in the details of our project, and we are all looking forward to getting stuck in.