Puwakgahawela 2010

Wednesday 11th to Friday 13th August

So as we write the final diary we reflect on what has been an amazing six weeks, full of adventures. It has been a truly unforgettable experience for all eight of us, and a trip of a lifetime we will never forget.In the university this week it was not possible to hold a sports day […]

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Saturday 7th to Monday 9th August

On Saturday after our hard week we had a relaxing day by the pool to enjoy a bit of sun tanning and relaxation. This was followed by an early start on Sunday morning to visit the market in the local town of Balangoda. Hannah and Rosie throwing themselves right into the culture purchased a beautiful […]

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Wednesday 4th August

Wednesday was Jess birthday so as the others prepared the house for a party Jess, Coutts and Jonty went to teach English at a nearby school. On arrival at the school we were introduced to the principal and we were then assigned to a class of approximately 30 children each, which was intimidating to say […]

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Tuesday 3rd August

Today we all went to and visited a new village. We were all quite nervous and apprehensive about this because we thought that we would be teaching English all day. However when we arrived we were in for a nice surprise.It looked like the whole village had turned up at the school for the occasion. We […]

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Friday 30th July to Monday 2nd August

We set off early Friday morning to Unawatuna Beach on the South Coast of Sri Lanka…the journey took a good 6 hours so when we first spotted the sea, we all got very excited indeed! The sand was so white and all the palm trees made the whole scenery so idyllic.We still had a good […]

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Monday 26th to Wednesday 28th July

The last few days in the university have been varied. As the students are no longer on strike we are following a more regimented sports programme where the first and second years are split into separate groups.The focus on Monday was upon athletics for the second years, specifically high jump and shot put as well […]

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Saturday 24th to Monday 26th July

We enjoyed an amazing weekend in Kandy. We began the journey early on Saturday to arrive there midday. Two students accompanied us on the journey and were able to help us find a place to stay in a very nice rest house.After arriving and eating dinner we took a trip to the botanical gardens close […]

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Thursday 22nd July

Today Rosie and Rachael went to the village whilst the rest of us spent our entire day rehearsing for the culture show that we were performing in later that evening. We were all extremely nervous about the performance as none of us had ever done anything like it before.6.30pm came around quickly and we all found […]

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Monday 19th to Wednesday 21st July

On Monday Rob Cramb, our Phisiology lecturer from Durham presented lectures about sport and exercise physiology to the Sri Lankan students. In the afternoon, the Sri Lankan students, assisted by ourselves worked out Body Mass Index and body composition percentages on themselves and each other.On Tuesday the focus was upon maximal fitness testing and consisted […]

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Friday 9th to Thursday 15th July

Friday evening we met up with Joy and David and went for a meal at her guest house, along with Professor Rupisingi and his wife. Saturday morning we had our first lie in since we had arrived in Sri Lanka and then later spent the afternoon by the pool. At about 3pm we went on […]

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Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th July

On Saturday morning we all got up early and headed off to the National Heritage Park known as Worlds End. We were told to set off early in order to make it to the top of the climb before the mist covered the clouds. After a couple of hours on the bus we reached the […]

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Wednesday 7th July

The Sri Lankan experience begins… We arrived in Colombo at 2pm on Sunday 4th after a shorter flight than expected as we did not have to stop at Male on the way. We were met by a very friendly member of the Sarvodaya organisation named Bandula who took us to the headquarters just outside Colombo. […]

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Thursday 8th and Friday 9th July

Another Sri Lankan experience…Thursday, curry for breakfast again! We weren’t doing the normal university training regime because the students are protesting about students being suspended. Due to this we had a day off so we went exploring the local area. Firstly we got the university minibus up to the Belihuloya known as “Lovely Lady” waterfall […]

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