Today, Katie and Anna and I made the journey up the Sri Lankan version of cardiac hill up to the Gandarawatte pre-school. Fish and curry seemed to be off the breakfast menu for us this morning as we got to go straight into the school. Due to the rain there were only four children at school this morning which surprised us slightly. We started off the morning with a singing session. Out came the group favourites; ‘Heads, shoulders knees and toes’ and ‘Hokey kokey.’ We also sung our two new favourite Sri Lankan songs ‘Cup and saucer’ and ‘Sing sing sing.’ The love of these songs is shared by so many in the group. The children really enjoyed the songs and I think that every time we do them it is a fun way for them to get used to us and get used to hearing us speak English. After the songs we were taken by the lovely monk back to his house for tea, biscuits and nutritional food balls. Needless to say, sitting there eating nutritional food supplements designed for famine-struck children was quite a bizarre experience for us all.’ As always, the monk was extremely friendly and took us back to the school with the promise of a nice lunch in an hour or so.

After tea, the children did some painting with us and we tried to make lanterns out of empty yoghurt pots and balloons, a truly Blue Peter moment. The morning with the children ended with us taking the children outside to play with balls and swings. I always enjoy my mornings in Gandarawatte. The school is set in such a lovely, idyllic area and the teacher is always so welcoming. Not only this but the children here are fantastic, so well-behaved and polite.

Once the children had left we were then taken back to the monk’s house and fed. As always we were offered much more than we could fit into our stomachs, including an entire coconut each! The lunch was delicious and we left Gandarawatte having had a lovely morning and with the exciting prospect of some meditation lessons on Friday morning.