This week Barks, Jianan and I went to Sabaragamuwa University. When we went to Puwakgahawela we got there to find out that they were taking their annual school photo. It was nice to see them all smartly dressed in their uniforms. This photo taking ran on for quite some time and we ended up playing with the kids in the little time we had left. The second time we went there the teacher was doing an arts and crafts session. They were making prints using food colouring and okra/lady fingers. She let us make some too! Using a comb, toothbrush and food colouring she made a flower with the help of a stencil. She then let me try and it was very easy to do. We all thought it was very creative. Later on we went outside and played with the parachute. The kids absolutely loved it! After this we came back inside and we played ball with some of the kids, while the others were drawing. One new child, Lakman, who for the past 3 weeks had not taken part in any of the activities or even smiled, did so with the help of Bharkavi! Even the teacher was impressed.

We went to Pambahinna to teach the after-school kids. We focussed on countries from A-Z. We were impressed with the names of countries the kids were coming up with as even we had not thought of some of these. After the lesson we took them to the university grounds and played volleyball with them. There were mixed teams to make it more equal. Bharkavi went back there on Thursday and they played hangman, revisiting the countries that we had gone through in the previous lesson. Anyone who guessed the country correctly received a chocolate. The whole time during after school the children requested Bharkavi to play English songs from her Ipod. After she finished teaching she took them to the university park where the children for a change did relay racing in mixed teams.

On Tuesday we went by tuk-tuk to Ihalagalagama and we taught them the numbers 1- 5. We found that the kids have trouble differentiating between the numbers, i.e the way they are written and so teaching them took some time and was rather challenging. We tried to teach them the number song to reinforce what we had taught them earlier on. On Wednesday we did the same thing with the kids and to see what they had remembered.

On Tuesday afternoon we talked to the non-academic staff about ourselves and university life. We showed them pictures which they seemed interested in. We encouraged them to ask questions about the topics we had spoken about in order to improve their English. Many were very shy but some participated and showed an interest and asked us questions. On Thursday we talked about John Snow college, China, DUCK, we asked them if they kniew any Chinese history and also the way of life in Sri Lanka.

Overall, we had a good teaching week and the 3 of us worked very well together. We were sad to leave.