It’s very hard to describe my feelings about being here in Sri Lanka this summer for the third consecutive year. When I arrived everything was so familiar, so comfortable that within a day it was hard to imagine I had ever been away. I remember one particular journey at the beginning of the programme when […]

Before coming to Sri Lanka I did not know what to expect – Travelling with people I did not yet know to a country that I did not know with a culture so different to our own was somewhat a daunting thought. In the beginning I was unsure as to whether to even apply for […]

I came out here to enlighten myself and empower the Sri Lankan people in the different villages we were assigned to work in but, honestly, I got more than I bargained for. Ten weeks ago, I was lamenting about the hot weather and the lifestyle here but little did I know that ten weeks later, […]

Having missed the opening ceremony, I was extra enthusiastic about the closing ceremony. We all woke up early, did our hair and makeup (for the girls) and took the bus to Vikumgama for one last time. Upon arriving, all the women crowded around to help us into our saris. A pin here, a pin there […]

The closing ceremony, a ceremony that I was looking forward to and dreading all at the same time, purely because I’ve never been good at saying goodbye. For two days I have been planning the speech to close the ceremony, containing not only our farewells but what we will take from the project back to […]

Bharkavi and I worked together at the pre-schools in Kirelawela and Hithathiya villages. To sum up our time precisely would be extremely difficult because we have so many amazing things to write about but we have tried to paint a vivid picture in this diary. Kirelawela: So far, the pre-school in this village has proven […]

This week, we all agreed that we would decide who goes to which preschool on a day to day basis, seeing as it’s the last official week of programme! Can’t believe how fast the last 8 weeks have gone, it’s going to be sad to go home. On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I was […]

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 […]

We have now started painting the pre-school at Vikumgama and it is coming on really well. It was decided that we would have a cream base coat on both the inside and outside walls and also paint the window frames light blue. This has now been completed and the building is looking a lot better […]

As a musician is it always a pleasure and a gift to pass on what you know to younger people. No matter what a person’s age or language music can transcend these barriers, it has the remarkable ability to communicate emotions and thoughts without the clumsy use of words and it did just that in […]

One thing I have learnt about doing humanitarian aid work in a developing country is thatsometimes things do not go as planned. When a problem does arise, change and resolutionoften run on ‘Sri Lankan time’, which is to say, occurs in a rather slow and relaxed manner.Often the best way to resolve matters is to […]

Bharkavi, Jianan, Emily R and I went to Vikumgama this week. Jianan and Emily started to draw and paint the outside walls of the preschool and Barack and I taught preschool. There was no after school as it rained a lot during the week. The whole team decided what was going to be draw and […]

This week, Emily R, Radhika and I went to Sabragamuwa University which is located in the hill country. We had a very warm welcome by Siva and he took us out for dinner after a 6 and a half hours long and crowded bus journey. Between us, we ate 2 plates of rice! Puwakgahawela was […]

This week, me and Hannah were assigned to work in the villages. Monday we went to Aththudawa, which was a good experience. There were only two children in pre-school but the work we did with them was very rewarding. One of the two children was blind, and we made a picture of an apple by […]

After hearing about the ridiculously steaming weather and long dreadful bus journey to Vikumgama, the last thing I wanted to do was spend a week there. However, just seeing the children smile was enough to make mespend five more weeks with them. For a new pre-school, the children were well-behaved and very fun to deal […]

After a hard working week at Sabaragamuwa University myself, Laura and Bhargavi decided to relax, to have some fun, chill… what better way than by scaling a 2,375ft mountain in the heart of the hill country of Sri Lanka. The name of our mountain, the famous Adam’s Peak, also known as Sri Pada stands amongst […]

This week Omari and I were teaching at the Temple School. We were initially told we would be teaching grades 1-3 pupils. The first day felt slightly unorganised as there was no one there to meet us and direct us to the classrooms when we arrived. However we managed to find one class of each […]

This week I visited Sabaragamuwa University. Despite the long journey and the current national strikes of academic staff at universities, I was looking forward to this week on several accounts. Firstly it gave me the opportunity to work with Gareth and Bhargavi, neither of whom I had worked with since arriving in Sri Lanka. Secondly […]

This week, Emily B and I were allocated to Vikumgama. Every day, we followed a structure to our lesson plan. Firstly, we would introduce ourselves and sing the “Hello” song in a circle. We carried on with the alphabet theme, teaching the children 2 letters of the alphabet each day, and then carried out art […]

“Going to the Doctor’s” was the lesson that I delivered with Laura today to a group of lovely grade 4 students. The children, Laura and I thoroughly enjoyed it. After I started off by teaching them some basic phrases between a doctor and a patient, Laura acted out the worst day she could possibly have […]

This week, there has been a lot sickness in the team. On Monday morning, it was decided that I was going to Vikumgama with Bharkavi and Rahdika because I didn’t feel particular comfortable with teaching by myself. We taught the letter A and B and the words: ant, apple, bat, book and ball. I thought […]

Me, Hannah and Omari left Moonbridge for the university on Sunday. The journey was a long one – 8 hours on the public bus which wasn’t the most fun on a hot public bus. Safe to say we were very happy when we got there. The plan for the week was to teach in 3 […]

Today was my first visit to Vikumgama since the opening ceremony. As Radhika was feeling under-the-weather, I went on my own and I confess that I felt rather grumpy and ‘unenthusiastic’ about being on my own during the bus ride there. When I arrived, I was greeted by the chorus of ‘Aybowan’ (welcome) from 16 […]

Gareth and I were paired to go to the Temple School this week to teach A-level English language, which was very exciting. When we arrived on Monday, everyone greeted us warmly. I immediately noticed the friendly atmosphere. At first teaching was hard as even though we took A-level classes, the standard of spoken English was […]

It was decided that four members of the team were going to do the temple school for the first week of the programme. Emily and I were in charge of teaching year 4 and 5 whilst Radhika and Jianan were given years 6 and 7 to teach. The first day of school was pretty hectic, […]

This was my last day at the village pre-schools and Radhika and I visited the Gandarawatta Village Pre-school. We could not spend the whole day with them because they had a ceremony in the afternoon. The children were so adorable and active. We sang the “Hello” and “The Wheels on the Bus” songs together. There […]

Thursday 12th july, 2012 My session at the Rasendeniya Village Pre-school was very good. Although the language barrier was a huge problem in this village, the kids and teachers were very kind and eager to participate in the numerous activities. The village monk was also very kind and generous. He expressed his desire to learn […]

Today I visited Hiththathiya Village pre-school alone because Laura had to go monitor Aththudawa village pre-school by paying them a surprise/unexpected visit. The teachers and pupils of Hiththathiya village pre-school welcomed me warmly. The large number of children that attended this session marvelled me. They were twenty-one in number on this day. We (the kids, […]

The next village we visited was Kirelawela, which was surprisingly not as great as Aththudawa. Laura and I got prepared and made our way to the village pre-school expecting a good day as the previous one. Unfortunately, the day turned out shocking. Though it was a successful day, the kids kept on crying and nagging. […]

For our first week of formal teaching Gareth, Emily Ruff and I were sent to Vikumgama to teach the pre-school children and run the after-school club. We were very excited to be going to the school which we had built but were not sure what to expect. After a slightly testing hour long bus ride, […]

The first village pre-school we went to was Aththudawa Learning Centre and it was simply amazing. The Sarvodaya Organisation and members of the village held a formal opening ceremony for us, which was kind of them. The monks, who attended this ceremony, prayed for us and gave us their blessings before they departed. The pre-school […]

Today, we went to our Community Learning Centre Opening Ceremony at Vikumgama village. This is Project Sri Lanka 10th and the last community centre because in Sri Lanka 9 is considered a very unlucky number. We were greeted with beautiful tropical flowers. Sri Lankans are extremely fond of astrology and the ribbon cutting ceremony was […]

We left for Vikumgama at 9am to arrive there at around 10am. Vikumgama is the most inland preschool, so instead of riding in a tuk tuk, we got the public bus. The bus journey went so quickly for me because I was busy practicing my speech in my head for the ceremony. At this point, […]

When I arrived off the plane, I was unsure of the country that lay beyond the doors of the airport. I have never really travelled and the excitement was building as I approached the exit door. The glass doors parted and I was hit by a wall of heat, a humidity that enveloped me like […]

After a very long day, we finally arrived in Colombo. It was dark so it was hard to get an accurate first impression as all you could see were rabid dogs everywhere. However, when we arrivedat Moon-Bridge the next day, and saw all the beautiful flowers, sampled the amazing food, andwalked along the idyllic coastline, […]

To start off the weekend on Friday, we all met at Laura’s house before setting off on the 2 hour road trip to Chatton in two cars. The car journey was good – we talked pretty much the whole way and it was a good start in getting to know people. Drove past the Angel […]

We started our away weekend journey with a road trip to Northumberland. It was a long car ride but worth it as the route was very scenic. As soon as we reached Chatton Park Farm, I was intrigued how it reminded me of my younger days reading Enid Blyton. Once settling down, the team had […]

The away days in Northumberland are a chance for the Team to spend some time together and bond before leaving for our summer in Sri Lanka. Having not seen the Team for quite a while due to everyone’s exams, I was looking forward to the weekend immensely. Moreover, they make our imminent departure all the […]