Sadly our time in Sri Lanka has now come to an end, and as a final farewell we decide to throw the pre-school a party, complete with cake and biscuits, traditional English party games, our usual medley of songs and even some comedy glasses! On arrival we decorate the school building with party streamers on […]

Patience and Flexibility were two qualities that we were warned we would need in abundance during our time in Sri Lanka, and we certainly had to exercise these virtues a number of times! That said, this whole experience has been such a great opportunity and every single one of us not only enjoyed the trip […]

It is only when dressed in my sari, listening to the beat of Kandyan drumming, waiting to perform a Sinhala dance that I realise how immersed I have become in Sri Lankan culture over these past 2 months and what a truly magical moment it is! The group dance was one of many performances at […]

As today was one of our last full days in the village we were very keen to add the finishing touches to the murals we have painted on the outside of Gandarawatte’s community building.Unfortunately we awoke this morning to heavy rain which continued until lunchtime. We therefore decided that, as the wet weather kept us […]

I fancy myself as an articulate chap, but putting experiences into words is rarely a simple endeavour; and the more an experience means to you, the more intangible it is. For each one of us, the Gandarawatte cultural show will always carry just such an unapproachable significance. An epic crescendo to the project, it was, […]

Another day began as the sun rose above the palm trees at Moon Bridge. In the morning the girls bought sarees for the cultural shows, aided by the advice of Kasuni, one of the young adults from Gandarawatte.In the afternoon Bobbie and I went to Weligama, to the house of Mrs Janani Abeywickrema, a teacher […]

Our final week of rehearsals for the Moraketiara cultural show started today.With major weather issues we boarded the bus fearing that not many students would show up on account of the weather. However, numerous thoroughly enthusiastic students met us at the gate of the school and we were escorted to the school’s auditorium. Sticking to […]

This morning was spent, as most mornings, in Gandarawatte pre-school. Today we organised an arts activity with some of the materials we brought from the UK. I worked with Tharindu, who was one of the shyest children when we first arrived. However, he is now a lot more confident, to the point that he felt […]

The day at Gandarawatta began with the preschool lesson as normal. As usual we started with singing songs as a group, it’s really rewarding to see all the children joining in now as many of them used to sit and watch, now they all join in and know most of the actions. We decided today […]

Having spent the last 7 weeks teaching at Moraketiara School, our time at the Rotary sponsored school is sadly nearing an end, culminating in what will no doubt be a memorable event, namely the cultural show which we are putting on there next Friday. This will be performed to an audience of Rotarians visiting from […]

As a break from a busy week spent teaching we were kindly invited to try our hands at the traditional art of batik at Jez Look Batiks, a local shop in Matara.Having admired all of the batik work we have seen over the past 7 weeks and purchasing numerous pieces between us in this time, […]

I spent today with 7 other members of the team at Gandarawatte.We sat with 10 pre-schoolers to decorate ‘Severus the Snake’ with coloured tissue paper- it now looks great on the wall! Following this, we played with bricks and drew some pictures for the children to colour. They coloured dogs, cats, buses, a roman centurion […]

Rising at the unseemly hour of half past four in the morning, Kirsti, Bobbie, Lorna and I headed for Matara railway station, off on a mini adventure to Colombo. Hugging the coast, the train took in spectacular views of the sunrise to the east, and the ocean to the west. Scenic delights aside, however, the […]

After 7 fantastic weeks of work in Gandarawatte village, some of us have become so integrated that we simply cannot keep away.So when an invitation was extended for us to observe some of today’s Poya worship ceremony in Gandarawatte temple, we jumped at the chance. Arriving early in the morning, we were first treated to […]

Luckily enough our Project dates coincided with those of the Kandy Esala Perahera, a procession held in Kandy to honour the sacred tooth of the Buddha enshrined in the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. Thus, we felt that it would be a great experience to spend a weekend in Kandy, taking in the social […]

Proving that you can take the student out of the Sociology Department, but you can’t take the Sociology out of the student, I found myself attending a Sociology seminar this morning at Sabaragamuwa University.The topic: “University and Stress” an experience that seems to be a cross cultural universal! Acting as discussion facilitators we were asked […]

With the sun peeking over the backdrop of the mountains another day at Sabaragamuwa University began. Today the pre-school on the university campus was top of our agenda.The pre-school decorated with Disney characters immediately differs from Gandarawatte as it is separated into six rooms. There were about 40 children as oppose to our usual 8 […]

Preparations for our upcoming cultural show continued at Moraketiara school today. The morning was spent with a group of 11 year-old children, who are learning to sing ‘The Rainbow Song,’ ‘I Like the Flowers,’ and ‘Lean on Me.’ Their performances of these songs are really coming together, and they particularly enjoyed the accompanying actions.This was […]

As ever, pre-school in Gandarawatte opened with a medley of songs. ‘If you’re happy and you know it’, and the ever-popular ‘hokey-cokey’ are all-action affairs, and generate great excitement, while tuneful numbers such as ‘Twinkle twinkle’ and the ‘Alphabet song’ are more calming, and can help remedy and over-enthusiasm on the part of the children… […]

‘It is a quarter past seven.’ ‘It is a quarter to five.’ ‘It is twenty past two.’ Repetition was the order of the day as we guided the children of Gandarawatte through telling the time in English.Finding that the members of the young adult group had a basic knowledge of how to tell the time […]

I embarked on my first full day at Gandarawatte school today, kicking off with the pre-school in the morning. The children proved to be real characters, and the language barrier certainly did not hinder an enjoyable session of drawing, block building, and general mayhem. I also experienced my first tea break at the school, which […]

Sabaragamuwa Group three has discovered an effective remedy for Gandarawatte/Moraketiara withdrawal symptoms. Take fifteen enthusiastic members of the University Secretaries English Speaking Club, add some of the most spectacular scenery imaginable, and spend six hours in conversation with them to improve their language skills. And they call this work?!?Our instructions were simple; engage them in […]

The final Sabaragamuwa University group arrived in the beautiful hill country yesterday to a warm welcome from the Vice Chancellor.After breakfast this morning we were shown round the small but interesting campus museum, which houses a collection of artefacts from the region dating back to the British colonial period, as well as historical coins and […]

We arranged today to meet the Drama group to further our discussion as to how to produce a play. We met them late morning after saying goodbye to one of the third year students who had been a true friend to us while we have been here at the University. We started the session with […]

Carved out of the jungle, the beautiful Dharmarama School in Ahangama is an outstanding example of the good that emerged, through the hard work and compassion of groups and individuals, from the tragedy of the tsunami; the Rotarians can be justly proud of what they have achieved, and what it represents.It was with eager anticipation, […]

This morning we did not have any formal lessons as unfortunately we had a last minute cancellation of our class.We therefore decided to visit the Belihuloya River, about a 2km bus ride away. It was nice to have a short walk and enjoy the beautiful countryside that surrounds the campus. In the afternoon we were […]

This morning we were invited to help on an English course for students external to Sabaragamuwa University.There were about 100 students present, ranging from ages 15-50. We then split into 5 different groups, and led discussions on a range of topics, including education, religion, marriage, and social life. This was a really interesting time for […]

The sun rises on another day at Gandarawatte, and today painting is high on the agenda.The school and community building is currently a blank canvas, and drawing heavily on the artistic talents of Nicki and Maddie, we have come up with a design that threatens to put the Sistine Chapel in the shade. Taking it […]

For a culture that is often so retiring, Sri Lanka maintains a curious passion for public performance. In the village we are repeatedly called upon to sing, and Moraketiara school is no different. Harnessing the potential of song as a medium for learning, therefore, has been an essential component of our English teaching strategy. After […]

Today we met with students from the Faculty of Management Studies at Sabaragamuwa University for informal discussions on a range of topics including love and marriage, culture, economics, politics and education.For our first class we split into 5 groups with one student from Durham to approximately 20 Sri Lankan students. Although somewhat daunting at first, […]

We met a group of students in the English Language Teaching Centre this morning at 8am. The group consisted of around 30 students, from a range of academic areas, who were taught English for three hours each week.We sat in three groups to discuss British and Sri Lankan culture for 1 hour. The discussion was […]

This morning at Sabaragamuwa we joined in with the weekend English classes, which the University makes available for external students. The first class was made up of fifty certificate-level students. We divided the class into five groups so that we could each lead discussions. The task involved students reading a number of dating profiles written […]

Today was a holy day known as ‘Poya’; a monthly celebration of the full moon. Consequently both Gandrawatte and Moraketiara schools were closed, so we used our free time to do some much needed planning. We spent a productive morning sharing ideas for the two ‘cultural shows’, we intend to present at the end of […]

The opportunity arose today to participate in a ‘Puja’ ceremony; a traditional Buddhist form of worship.The Gandarawatte temple, with its towering statue of the Buddha, was opened and we made an offering of food, flowers, (to remind one of universal impermanence), water, incense, and a coconut oil lamp (the light of which is symbolic of […]

Seven of the group took a tuk-tuk journey to Gandarawatte pre-school at 8:45. We began the day with songs such as ‘twinkle-twinkle little star’ and the ever-popular ‘hokey cokey’.After this, the pre-school children sat at their colourful desks and were handed an origami swallow that we had carefully crafted on Monday night, to decorate. They […]

Today we went to the Moraketiara school, which was built by the Rotary Club for children aged 6-16.Firstly we taught Grade 1, who have only just started learning English. We began the lesson by revising numbers and were pleased to see that our lesson last week had really paid off! We then moved onto body […]

Perched high on a hillside the Centre for Human Development commands panoramic views over the jungle. An NGO working to educate the rural population in methods of organic agriculture, it presented a perfect complement to the recent symposium on Sustainable Development at Sabaragamuwa.In the morning we were treated to a step-by-step tour of rice production […]

Today was our first day off since we began teaching on Tuesday, and one week into the programme we are in need of some rest! We use the morning as a welcome chance to relax by the sea, heading into Matara late afternoon for a bit of exploring. We first visit Parey Dewa (Rock in […]

Today Emma, Lorna and I travelled by tuk tuk to the Rotary Combined School in Moraketiara. Passing lush landscapes, paddy fields, fighting dogs and several (three) iguanas on the way we arrived in time to start our after school English lessons. We began by teaching the Grade 2 children. After going over some basic introductions […]

Surrounded on all sides by towering, verdant hills, the campus of the University of Sabaragamuwa boasts an idyllic location in the heart of Sri Lanka’s hill country.For the last few days, however, this sleepy pocket of academia has been lit up by an International Symposium, ‘Modelling the Issues and Challenges towards Sustainable Development.’ Two talks, […]

Our formal teaching programme started today, so the first Sabaragamua University group went off in the morning, and the remaining 10 of us split into a group of 3 going to Moraketiara school, and 7 for Gandarawatte. Those of us going to Gandarawatte first went to the Sarvodaya district office in Matara, taking up an […]

Today was the official opening of the new school building in our village Gandarawatte. We were all very excited to see both the village and the school, where we will be working for the next 2 months.We were thankful for a more overcast, cooler day and luckily the rain held off for the course of […]

We got up nice and early this morning to go on a day trip to Dondra.Some of the group decided to stay around the guest house in Matara and recouperate after a hextic few days so myself, Tom, Charlotte, Becky and Nicki got on the bus to Dondra. As the guidebook had described, we found […]

Started today with a typical Sri Lankan breakfast at Sarvodaya head quarters, our first Sri Lankan breakfast. It was quite similar to an evening meal in terms of quantity.Mr Mandula then gave us a quick breifing and we net some more of the Sarvodaya team. Afterwards we had time to visit the deaf school which […]

We woke up from our first night in Sri Lanka to a good breakfast at the YWCA hostel. This was followed by a visit to the British Council offices in Columbo, where we met Gill Westaway, the director in Sri Lanka, and were shown the facilities they have for English language learning.In the afternoon we […]

Today held a lot of firsts. Our first day in Sri Lanka, our first meeting with Lucky Pieris from Rotary Sri Lanka, our very first meal of rice and curry (too hot for some!) and for most of us, our first experience of real tropical heat, which takes some getting used to.While some of us […]