So, big day today. I was pretty nervous waking up, but Alex soon assuaged my stress…

We all hopped into Lali’s ride for the bumpy trip to the village where we were met by dancing masked men, or women. I couldn’t quite tell. Other villagers gave us flowers but Hayley was promptly stripped of her flower in favour of Alex. It was truly a wondrous occasion.

The village itself is situated on a mound in the middle of a large plain. In the surrounding fields, cows graze and I reckon some super dangerous snakes wallow on the baked earth. The plain itself is cropped by palm trees and the beginning of what seems to be jungle. It was idyllic.

After processing, we waited for the obviously auspicious time of 10:06, at which point I cut the ribbon festooned across the doorway, formally opening the fruits of our labours. The classroom was clean, so I felt especially bad for spilling my papaya juice on the floor. This batch was generously seasoned with both salt and sugar, making it even tastier than usual. Once seated inside, the ceremony began. Listening was fascinating: we sat through speech after speech in Sinhala but it was the sentiment that counted for me. I was glad to hear that they plan to extend the building. Eventually my co-educators made their clearly carefully prepared speeches. I couldn’t really hear Hayley’s though; she needs to learn to speak into the microphone. Alice’s modest request that the villagers look after the school certainly lost none of its potency considering that they had previously affirmed this repeatedly. It was undoubtedly a spectacular climax to our measured input.

We lunched at the teacher’s house – a charming abode if ever there were one. We accepted our invitation to dine by touching a small dish that was passed round, after which we tucked into some serious curry. The food was excellent though so I very much look forward to returning next week.

Despite not understanding the vast majority of the ceremony, it made a lasting impression. It’s not about being proud of having made a difference; it’s knowing that this small foundation can now be quite literally built upon to help an entire community.