Hiththatiya and a slithery intruder.On arrival at the school, 6 of us were kindly greeted by smiling children shouting ‘Ayubowen’ meaning hello and welcome. We decided to make fluffy birds using scrunched up tissue paper which we stuck onto paper to make the birds body. As a final touch, we gave them big pink spotted feathers to make the birds tail. The children had great fun doing this and ended up with sticky fingers and feathers everywhere but also many beautiful pictures. To reward them for their efforts we gave them each a gold star which made them feel proud of their work which we then stuck on the wall for everyone to see. The gold stars didn’t stay on their uniforms for long however and slowly began to appear on foreheads, wrists, bags, doors – everywhere! We still keep finding them now.

Afterwards, we taught them about the weather by helping them draw a rainy day with an umbrella and some big puddles. This was so despite the shining sunshine outside – the first sun for a long time given the recent monsoon downpours. Fiona donated some cute cuddly toys which were all happily enjoyed by the children – in fact one little girl wanted to take the fluffy rabbit home!

After lunch, we sang various English songs such as ‘Yellow Submarine’ which is now a favourite amongst the children who have all learnt the actions. We then played games outside in the beautiful sunshine. The children really enjoyed the game of ‘Wink Murder’ which involves sitting in a circle and nominating a killer to wink at people in the circle who fall back and pretend to be dead whilst the policeman tries to guess who the killer is. This proved great fun despite nearly falling in a pile of cow dung after a random cow paid and earlier visit to the playground leaving an unwanted gift behind. This was then followed by a slithery intruder, a long grey snake which was making its way across the playground towards a tangle of overgrown grass. At this point we decided to sit inside and play games. Before we knew it, a member of the village called Asanka began to play the drums and each of the children grabbed an instrument and joined in. For the rest of the afternoon we sang and danced with the children who each took it in turns to perform Sinhalese dances – even the teacher got up to dance! Much laughter and enjoyment was had for the rest of the afternoon, making it a very good day.