Time for GoodbyesWe said good bye to our host and hostess yesterday. Pramitha and Jayalath seemed genuinely sad to see us go. It surprised me a little. After having six house guests in my home for a month and a half, I think I would be ready for some time to myself. Even when we […]

Tea Time!I set off for Tanguella this morning by bus to go to the grocery store and the bank. Pramitha provides all our meals but I wanted to pick up some snacks for myself. I didn’t realize that this would be worrying to Pramitha. This evening I was munching on some cheese crackers that I […]

Yala National ParkWe have had a wonderful day with Ishan and his mom and dad. (Ishan is a youth from Moraketiara who has become a great friend to us.) We hopped on the bus first thing this morning and travelled for a couple of hours. Though I stood up the whole way it was not […]

An Afternoon on the Beach Cricket is more than just a sport here in Sri Lanka. Almost every boy in school is an avid cricketer and when it comes to talking about test matches or their favourite players, there are almost no language barriers anymore. Therefore, we thought it may be worthwhile to arrange a […]

Generation Tea I keep passing a sign that says Coffee Shop, Craft Shop while I am on the bus on my way from Moraketiara to Tangalla. It looked to be a nice spot, settled away from the main road. Today I ventured towards it. As it turns out it is not only coffee and crafts […]

The Awesome Day (Part 1) I looked on helplessly as the little girl cried at me. I tried pulling all my best faces to make the tears end, but that just seemed to make her wail even louder. Her mother, however, was utterly unconcerned that I’d inadvertently traumatised her child by giving her what was […]

Women and Children First We woke up early brimming with energy!  Today was the day that the ball would begin rolling and we would finally be able to help the Moraketiara School with their promised Sports Field.  Our mission for the day was to help clear the thistles and shrubbery that lead up to the […]

Small loans, big opportunities After spending an exciting weekend in Unawatuna, one of Sri Lanka´s best-known beach destinations, and in Galle where we saw the first day of Sri Lanka´s cricket test series against India, we were all a bit sleep-deprived. Fortunately, we could afford a rather late start on Monday as nothing was scheduled […]

Preschool HappinessThis morning I went to the preschool where I have been spending time a couple of mornings a week. The teachers seem happy to have me, I think because they enjoy the chance to practice speaking English too. We spend our time together singing songs, some in English and some in Sinhala. The songs […]

Work and Play in MoraketiaraDirk, Oliver, Jagruti and I woke up quite early and went to the beach for a run and a dip.       We all really enjoy the workouts during the morning; they wake you up and make you fit for the day. After breakfast I went back to the beach and had the […]

Dinner With Chattuhri and ChammaniMe and Claudia woke up early to teach at the Fishery College in Tangalle.  Last week’s class went really well and word had spread since our last visit as our class had grown from 20 to 50 students.  We moved into a bigger room and continued our work from last week […]

The perfect place to spend your holidaysIn the morning we all visited the local hotels to inform them about Ishan´s internet business and see if they would be interested in advertising his business to tourists. Most of the hotels did not have internet of their own and were very happy to help Ishan out. We […]

Business developmentAfter spending most of Friday on the buses to Colombo and to the capital´s airport, I picked up the sixth member of our group, Olivia. The way back to Moraketiara was slightly more comfortable and definitely very interesting as we took the train to Matara: more than five hours of beautiful landscape and a […]

Improving navigational skills Dirk went to Colombo to join Olivia. In the morning Oliver and me went to our first 2 lessons in the Fishery college. These lessons went very well. Our lessons have involved teaching fishermen to practice speaking and writing basic english phrases like introductions, directions and explaining the way to different facilities […]

Tuk-tuks and teaching Today we woke and had breakfast and then took the bus to Tanguella which is a neighbouring community to Moraketiara. It is also the location of the School of Fisheries. We received a tour of the school. We saw where the computer classes took place and where outboard motors were repaired as […]

The Tech Monkeys 7 am. Walk on the beach with the girls (Dirk and Oli sleeping sound as babies, so thought it best not to disturb). This really is the most perfect way to start the day. A long leisurely stroll amongst swaying palm trees with the occassional running required as a result of being […]

Out and About in Moraketiara We were hoping to get a lot of sleep after three sleepless nights.  For me this didn’t happen but something even better happened to compensate.  We awoke at 6:00am to the beautiful sound of Monks chanting from the nearby temple where we spent last night.  I could not think of […]

Getting Started: Food, Friends and Family After we spent almost a whole day on planes and in airports, we finally arrived in Colombo. To sum up our first impressions, it was hot, slightly chaotic, but crowded with incredibly friendly and helpful people. Being picked up by two members of Colombo´s Rotary Club Mid-City, we spent […]