Nieuwsbrief van TPA Sri Lanka
Door: Rob
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Rob
03 Maart 2005 | Sri Lanka, Colombo
________________________________________
The official Newsletter of Teaching and Projects Abroad-Sri Lanka March 2005 Issue No. 2
________________________________________
PLACES OF INTEREST - COLOMBO
You might wonder what’s on the picture – Thousands of Flying Bats! The picture is captured from Vihara Mahadevi Park – Colombo’s biggest park (just opposite TPA – Sri Lanka Office) originally called Victoria Park but renamed in the 1950s after the mother of King Dutugemunu. From March to early May, it is notable for its superb flowering trees. On the west side is situated a carnival and a playground for children. Elephants can frequently be seen taking a bath and spending the night in the park, which is usually taken up by strolling lovers during the day.
TPA - Sri Lanka office based in the capital city – Colombo, is situated in the middle of so many interesting places you might want to see.
Town Hall (5 minute walk from the office) at F. R. Senanayake Mawatha, Colombo 7. This beautiful building houses the Colombo Municipal Council is just opposite of Vihara Mahadevi Park entrance.
Gangarama Vihara (10 minute walk from the office) is one of the famous and beautiful temples in Colombo. It is beautifully decorated with stone carving, brass work, and other forms of Buddhist art. The temple is not only a place of worship but also a centre of learning. Every Tuesday and Friday, meditation classes are held from 5.00 till 6.30 p.m. under the guidance of a well-known meditation teacher It also has a museum, complete with temple and residential hall, The temple is widely known for organizing the famous Nawam Perahera, a religious procession, held around the Full Moon Poya day in February. Hundreds of dancers, dressed in traditional costumes representing the different dance traditions of Sri Lanka, accompanied by drummers, colourfully dressed up elephants (the temple possesses six elephants and tuskers) and over 500-700 Buddhists monks from all over the island take part in the procession dressed in their saffron robes and carrying the Vatapatha (fan). It’s a marvellous performance, which attracts many devotees, spectators, and tourists. Definitely not to be missed!
The small temple in the middle of Beira Lake, which is called Simamalaka, is also part of the Gangarama temple and is nearly a century old. The original Simamalaka fell into ruin and collapsed into Beira Lake. The present Simamalaka was opened on the 10th of February 1979. A model of the foot of the Buddha sculptured in marble, has been donated to Gangaramaya temple, and is placed in the Simamalaka. On either side of the entrance to the Simamalaka on the wall, are beautiful works of sculpture,. The sculpture on the right depicts unwholesome actions and their bad consequences, the wholesome actions and their good results. The sculpture on the left wall, tells the story of Sri Lanka’s 2500-year-old history and the important events in the Buddhist religion.
The National Museum at Sir Marcus Fernando Mawatha, Colombo 7 is just 5 minutes travel by bus (Bus Route 138) from the office. It’s open 9am-5pm.Closed on Fridays. The National Museum was established in 1877. Best known for its collection of antiques and objects d’art displaying the cultural heritage of Sri Lanka. It houses the throne and other royal insignia of the last king of Kandy, Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe. A section of the first floor houses the Puppetry and Children’s Museum. Its library has a collection of 500,000 books including very valuable and rare ones and more than 4,000 ancient palm leaf manuscripts. The museum also houses statues, coins, furniture etc. Admission fees are Rs.65 for adults and Rs.35 for children.
VOLUNTEERS’ WORD-OF-MOUTH
TEACHING ENGLISH
BY PIPER GRIFFIN
I have been in Sri Lanka for only a week. I am staying with a host family just outside Kalutara. I am teaching at the local TISSA school every morning and in the afternoon I help at the relief camp with five other volunteers.
My usual morning of teaching at school begins at 9.00. I teach classes 3 and 4 for four periods, the children are ages 6 and 7. Because they are young their English is very basic and we usually do things that involve a lot of drawing and colouring.
Because I have been only there for a short time I am still a novelty for the children, they get very over excited and it usually takes a lot of shouting and patience to actually start the lesson. I have found the more dancing and fooling around I do, the more attention the children pay.
When the children are interested in what they are learning they are very attentive and try incredibly hard. I have found this is particularly the girls, the boys gets restless and you always have to keep a sharp eye for a subtle fight at the back of the class. Although teaching is very tiring I do have fun with the children and its hard not to be caught up in all the excitement and energy of the children.
The relief camp is quite similar to school but it can sometimes be a bit depressing to see how little the children have.
I am still getting use to Sri Lanka and all its funny ways but in time I think I will grow to love this little country and all its oddities.
________________________________________
CARE AND COMMUNITY
BY ELISABETH, EILIDH, KITTY & KATE
We have been working with these special needs girls for a full two weeks now and one of us feel it has been an easy task for us. Communication is very difficult as they are not able to understand English and we speak no Sinhala. When we are able to work with a teacher the barrier comes down as she can act as a translator and the girls and we get a lot more out of it. When we work on our own the girls tend to have short attentions span as it is difficult for us to keep them interested when they can’t communicate with us. As we get to know the children we learn their strengths, many of them are very creative with great artistic talents and it is easy to see great potential in them. The kids are always very responsive to singing and dancing and love to join in.
If you have seen a special needs school in a more developed country there is a very stark contrast mainly due to the lack of resources here. We arrive here in the morning to cries of “Good Morning Teacher” and they always seem very pleased to see us. They are very helpful and good natured. As we enter the building they always rush to get us a chair and as we leave they bow to our feet. The innocent smiles on their faces give us some hope we are doing good for these disadvantaged girls.
________________________________________
TURTLE CONSERVATION
BY LAURA PAGE
After living on this tropical island for 3 weeks, I can now understand fully why people refer to Sri Lanka as the “Pearl of the Indian Ocean”, from the what seem to be organized chaos in the sprawling city of Colombo, to the much more relaxed pace of life in the small coastal villages, one thing certainly remains the same wherever you go; the warm smiles from locals who welcome you into their homes.
So far I’ve experienced Green turtles on night watch, coming ashore to nest: their huge, heavy frames lumbering up the sand with the moonlight reflecting of their precious shells. A truly awesome sight, so natural, and such a fulfilling thought that TCP are doing all they can to protect these endangered beauties. I’ve also been apart of a group, visiting other TCP projects run on the south coast at Rekawa, I never realized how much politics and organization there was around running such a scheme. Although the work is physically tiring in the heat of the day, and time is needed for your body to adapt to the new climate, and new, spicy mouthwatering food, the rewards are felt by a simple “thankya” from a local, or the sight of a female turtle returning to the swell of the vast blue ocean, knowing that her eggs will be watched and protected by employed nest protectors until they emerge as eager hatchlings to reach the sea.
My emotions here have felt changes in a matter of hours, but it is comforting to know there is a team around you ready to support you, through this challenging and most satisfying experience. I’ve learnt more about life in the last 3 weeks than I thought I ever could; and there is still much more to come.
________________________________________
NEW VOLUNTEERS IN MARCH
In March we will have 21 new volunteers.
WELCOME TO TPA – Sri Lanka
Maria Hakuba mistyflip@t-online.de
Lauren Oldham yellowrubberduck@hotmail.com
Christof Sturm christof_sturm@web.de
Sara-Lynn Martin saralynn82@hotmail.com
Robert Martin saralynn82@hotmail.com
Thomas Newton tj2k_4@hotmail.com
Hannah Raines sraines@westernpower.co.uk
Rob Donders rdonders@chello.nl
Sarah Coppard sarah_89_@msn.com
Anthony Leather anthonyleather@hotmail.com
Tom Cheale chealey56@hotmail.com
Neil Duffell hobungy@yahoo.co.uk
Tony Grant grantt_@hotmail.com
Nicola Sharpe nic_sharpe@hotmail.com
Lana Howard lana_howard1@yahoo.co.uk
Laura Farrance laurafarrance@hotmail.com
Hannah Elson hannah_elson@hotmail.com
Isabelle Rouve isabellerouve@cegetel.net
Laura Abbott cinderellaura@hotmail.com
Claudia Sellers claudie.sellers@virgin.net
Stefanie Bassler steffibassler@gmx.de
Looking forward to see you all. Hope you will have a great time with us!
Tsunami Relief Work in Janaraja Vidyalaya, Kalutara North
Kitty and Barbara share…
We started work at the relief camp just over a month after the tsunami hit Sri Lanka. Although compared to other areas Kalutara wasn’t hit badly there is still overwhelming number of people without homes. We go to the camp to play with the children and teach them English 3 times a week. The first day we were slightly intimated, as we were put in front of a class yet we had had no experience like this before. We soon settled into things and before long were singing songs and having banter with the kids. Now there’s much more relaxed atmosphere and we can just sit and have a chat with them all. They are very keen to learn English, as it will secure their livelihood in the future.
In the first week we took 10 Frisbees for the kids to play with them, which provided everyone with fun for that evening but when we returned they were reluctant to be brought out again as the children have nothing they are keen to keep hold of what they can. We soon found that the kids love to play active games with us, crickets, football and catch are regularly going on with people of all ages joining in from the tiny tots to some parents and teachers also. Something we all see each time we go is the close knit community that as formed at the camp especially with the children. They all look out for each other and it is rare to see animosity between any of them.
We all thoroughly enjoy our time at the camp and most of the times leave with lifted spirits. We wish we be able to spend more time at the camp but after working in the mornings we don’t have the energy. Yet we always leave being asked when we will return so we know we must be doing some good for these children.
UPDATE: RELIEF WORK IN SL
Reconstruction and Rebuilding Project
Sri Lanka Institute Of Packaging, Sri Lanka Association of Printers and INGRIN Institute of Printing & Graphics, launched a fund raising project to build houses for the homeless in the Southern part of the Island, in a village called Dagama, Kahawa Hikkaduwa, around 85 kilo meters off Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka.
TPA SL is interested in working with them and has planned to send volunteers to help in the construction of the houses.
Care and Teaching English
We have sent 7 volunteers to Janaraja Vidyalaya, Kalutara North who are doing care and teaching English to 80 children in the refugee camp.
________________________________________
TPA DONATED DRESSES TO VISHAKA CHILDREN’S HOME
TPA donated dresses to 42 orphans in Vishaka Children’s Home on 24th February 2005 with 2 other volunteers.
Shayamalee Wijesinghe – Director, TPA-Sri Lanka handling over the dresses to orphans
________________________________________
ENGLISH CLASSES IN MAWALA IT CENTRE
Ludwig Schicketanz our Active Learning volunteer in Mawala IT Centre together with Chintana has planned to start English classes apart Computer classes conducted in the Centre. According to him it is very much helpful for the students to learn English as well since most of the computer subject terminilogies are in English.
At the moment Ludwig is very much occupied in upgrading the computer systems and teaching students computer and various subjects as well.
LUDWIG AND JUNE DONATED USEFUL ITEMS
Ludwig and June Schicketanz handed useful relief items to the families in Kalutara relief camps including toys for the children and also bedsheets, mirrors and toys to Aruna and Sukitha orphanage.
Posted by Vannessa Butt
I’ve been in Sri Lanka for 2 weeks now teaching in Tissa School in Kalutara. I have to go to school for either 8 or 9 in the mornings and I used to finish at 12 or 1, but I had my hours cut down because I found it too exhausting. The children I am teaching are ages 9-11 and they’re very naughty! They know some basic English, but I’m just building on this. I’ doing crosswords, fill in the blanks and things like that. The girls are so hardworking but the boys can be a nightmare! I end up shouting at them a lot just to make sure they know who the boss is!
After school I come home and have lunch. I am living with a host family, 10 minutes walk away from the school with another girl Piper who also works at the school. They are very friendly and helpful and I’ve learnt a lot about the country’s cultures and traditions through them which is good. The Sri Lankan food is a cultures on it’s own – it’s “rice with curry” rather than curry with rice!
We go to the relief camp at about 4 o’clock for a couple of hours on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays and this is both uplifting and depressing. It’s not too far away from us which is good.
The atmosphere with the children is good because they all seem happy and want to play with us, as we are a bit of a novelty and they look forward to us coming. The adults at the camp don’t really talk to us, but I was welcomed into their part of the tent which is now their home which was quite shocking.
Other than that, I’d just been chilling out because work is very tiring and travelling with the other volunteers in the weekend. Most famous sights in Sri Lanka can be seen in a weekend so it’s cheap and easy.
I think when I go home I will be proud of myself and know this is an experience that I’ll never forget- but it’s much more challenging than I thought!
SINHALA /TAMIL NEW YEAR SCHOOL HOLIDAYS
The two main ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese and Tamils celebrate a common traditional New Year in the month of April originally harvesting thanks giving. Traditional customs are observed on this day with merrymaking and fun and games and lavish hospitality.
There is a school holiday which runs from April 08 until April 28 to celebrate Sinhala/Tamil New Year.
TPA staff will try their best to organize holiday teaching for Teaching Volunteers but if it is impossible volunteers have options to help in the relief work at the camps.
________________________________________
HOLIDAYS IN MARCH
TPA Sri Lanka office will be closed on 25th March to observe Poya Day and Good Friday, so if there is any emergency call to the following mobile numbers:
Shyamalee | 0777 714744
Charley | 0777 798456
Ligaya | 0773 178335
The official Newsletter of Teaching and Projects Abroad-Sri Lanka March 2005 Issue No. 2
________________________________________
PLACES OF INTEREST - COLOMBO
You might wonder what’s on the picture – Thousands of Flying Bats! The picture is captured from Vihara Mahadevi Park – Colombo’s biggest park (just opposite TPA – Sri Lanka Office) originally called Victoria Park but renamed in the 1950s after the mother of King Dutugemunu. From March to early May, it is notable for its superb flowering trees. On the west side is situated a carnival and a playground for children. Elephants can frequently be seen taking a bath and spending the night in the park, which is usually taken up by strolling lovers during the day.
TPA - Sri Lanka office based in the capital city – Colombo, is situated in the middle of so many interesting places you might want to see.
Town Hall (5 minute walk from the office) at F. R. Senanayake Mawatha, Colombo 7. This beautiful building houses the Colombo Municipal Council is just opposite of Vihara Mahadevi Park entrance.
Gangarama Vihara (10 minute walk from the office) is one of the famous and beautiful temples in Colombo. It is beautifully decorated with stone carving, brass work, and other forms of Buddhist art. The temple is not only a place of worship but also a centre of learning. Every Tuesday and Friday, meditation classes are held from 5.00 till 6.30 p.m. under the guidance of a well-known meditation teacher It also has a museum, complete with temple and residential hall, The temple is widely known for organizing the famous Nawam Perahera, a religious procession, held around the Full Moon Poya day in February. Hundreds of dancers, dressed in traditional costumes representing the different dance traditions of Sri Lanka, accompanied by drummers, colourfully dressed up elephants (the temple possesses six elephants and tuskers) and over 500-700 Buddhists monks from all over the island take part in the procession dressed in their saffron robes and carrying the Vatapatha (fan). It’s a marvellous performance, which attracts many devotees, spectators, and tourists. Definitely not to be missed!
The small temple in the middle of Beira Lake, which is called Simamalaka, is also part of the Gangarama temple and is nearly a century old. The original Simamalaka fell into ruin and collapsed into Beira Lake. The present Simamalaka was opened on the 10th of February 1979. A model of the foot of the Buddha sculptured in marble, has been donated to Gangaramaya temple, and is placed in the Simamalaka. On either side of the entrance to the Simamalaka on the wall, are beautiful works of sculpture,. The sculpture on the right depicts unwholesome actions and their bad consequences, the wholesome actions and their good results. The sculpture on the left wall, tells the story of Sri Lanka’s 2500-year-old history and the important events in the Buddhist religion.
The National Museum at Sir Marcus Fernando Mawatha, Colombo 7 is just 5 minutes travel by bus (Bus Route 138) from the office. It’s open 9am-5pm.Closed on Fridays. The National Museum was established in 1877. Best known for its collection of antiques and objects d’art displaying the cultural heritage of Sri Lanka. It houses the throne and other royal insignia of the last king of Kandy, Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe. A section of the first floor houses the Puppetry and Children’s Museum. Its library has a collection of 500,000 books including very valuable and rare ones and more than 4,000 ancient palm leaf manuscripts. The museum also houses statues, coins, furniture etc. Admission fees are Rs.65 for adults and Rs.35 for children.
VOLUNTEERS’ WORD-OF-MOUTH
TEACHING ENGLISH
BY PIPER GRIFFIN
I have been in Sri Lanka for only a week. I am staying with a host family just outside Kalutara. I am teaching at the local TISSA school every morning and in the afternoon I help at the relief camp with five other volunteers.
My usual morning of teaching at school begins at 9.00. I teach classes 3 and 4 for four periods, the children are ages 6 and 7. Because they are young their English is very basic and we usually do things that involve a lot of drawing and colouring.
Because I have been only there for a short time I am still a novelty for the children, they get very over excited and it usually takes a lot of shouting and patience to actually start the lesson. I have found the more dancing and fooling around I do, the more attention the children pay.
When the children are interested in what they are learning they are very attentive and try incredibly hard. I have found this is particularly the girls, the boys gets restless and you always have to keep a sharp eye for a subtle fight at the back of the class. Although teaching is very tiring I do have fun with the children and its hard not to be caught up in all the excitement and energy of the children.
The relief camp is quite similar to school but it can sometimes be a bit depressing to see how little the children have.
I am still getting use to Sri Lanka and all its funny ways but in time I think I will grow to love this little country and all its oddities.
________________________________________
CARE AND COMMUNITY
BY ELISABETH, EILIDH, KITTY & KATE
We have been working with these special needs girls for a full two weeks now and one of us feel it has been an easy task for us. Communication is very difficult as they are not able to understand English and we speak no Sinhala. When we are able to work with a teacher the barrier comes down as she can act as a translator and the girls and we get a lot more out of it. When we work on our own the girls tend to have short attentions span as it is difficult for us to keep them interested when they can’t communicate with us. As we get to know the children we learn their strengths, many of them are very creative with great artistic talents and it is easy to see great potential in them. The kids are always very responsive to singing and dancing and love to join in.
If you have seen a special needs school in a more developed country there is a very stark contrast mainly due to the lack of resources here. We arrive here in the morning to cries of “Good Morning Teacher” and they always seem very pleased to see us. They are very helpful and good natured. As we enter the building they always rush to get us a chair and as we leave they bow to our feet. The innocent smiles on their faces give us some hope we are doing good for these disadvantaged girls.
________________________________________
TURTLE CONSERVATION
BY LAURA PAGE
After living on this tropical island for 3 weeks, I can now understand fully why people refer to Sri Lanka as the “Pearl of the Indian Ocean”, from the what seem to be organized chaos in the sprawling city of Colombo, to the much more relaxed pace of life in the small coastal villages, one thing certainly remains the same wherever you go; the warm smiles from locals who welcome you into their homes.
So far I’ve experienced Green turtles on night watch, coming ashore to nest: their huge, heavy frames lumbering up the sand with the moonlight reflecting of their precious shells. A truly awesome sight, so natural, and such a fulfilling thought that TCP are doing all they can to protect these endangered beauties. I’ve also been apart of a group, visiting other TCP projects run on the south coast at Rekawa, I never realized how much politics and organization there was around running such a scheme. Although the work is physically tiring in the heat of the day, and time is needed for your body to adapt to the new climate, and new, spicy mouthwatering food, the rewards are felt by a simple “thankya” from a local, or the sight of a female turtle returning to the swell of the vast blue ocean, knowing that her eggs will be watched and protected by employed nest protectors until they emerge as eager hatchlings to reach the sea.
My emotions here have felt changes in a matter of hours, but it is comforting to know there is a team around you ready to support you, through this challenging and most satisfying experience. I’ve learnt more about life in the last 3 weeks than I thought I ever could; and there is still much more to come.
________________________________________
NEW VOLUNTEERS IN MARCH
In March we will have 21 new volunteers.
WELCOME TO TPA – Sri Lanka
Maria Hakuba mistyflip@t-online.de
Lauren Oldham yellowrubberduck@hotmail.com
Christof Sturm christof_sturm@web.de
Sara-Lynn Martin saralynn82@hotmail.com
Robert Martin saralynn82@hotmail.com
Thomas Newton tj2k_4@hotmail.com
Hannah Raines sraines@westernpower.co.uk
Rob Donders rdonders@chello.nl
Sarah Coppard sarah_89_@msn.com
Anthony Leather anthonyleather@hotmail.com
Tom Cheale chealey56@hotmail.com
Neil Duffell hobungy@yahoo.co.uk
Tony Grant grantt_@hotmail.com
Nicola Sharpe nic_sharpe@hotmail.com
Lana Howard lana_howard1@yahoo.co.uk
Laura Farrance laurafarrance@hotmail.com
Hannah Elson hannah_elson@hotmail.com
Isabelle Rouve isabellerouve@cegetel.net
Laura Abbott cinderellaura@hotmail.com
Claudia Sellers claudie.sellers@virgin.net
Stefanie Bassler steffibassler@gmx.de
Looking forward to see you all. Hope you will have a great time with us!
Tsunami Relief Work in Janaraja Vidyalaya, Kalutara North
Kitty and Barbara share…
We started work at the relief camp just over a month after the tsunami hit Sri Lanka. Although compared to other areas Kalutara wasn’t hit badly there is still overwhelming number of people without homes. We go to the camp to play with the children and teach them English 3 times a week. The first day we were slightly intimated, as we were put in front of a class yet we had had no experience like this before. We soon settled into things and before long were singing songs and having banter with the kids. Now there’s much more relaxed atmosphere and we can just sit and have a chat with them all. They are very keen to learn English, as it will secure their livelihood in the future.
In the first week we took 10 Frisbees for the kids to play with them, which provided everyone with fun for that evening but when we returned they were reluctant to be brought out again as the children have nothing they are keen to keep hold of what they can. We soon found that the kids love to play active games with us, crickets, football and catch are regularly going on with people of all ages joining in from the tiny tots to some parents and teachers also. Something we all see each time we go is the close knit community that as formed at the camp especially with the children. They all look out for each other and it is rare to see animosity between any of them.
We all thoroughly enjoy our time at the camp and most of the times leave with lifted spirits. We wish we be able to spend more time at the camp but after working in the mornings we don’t have the energy. Yet we always leave being asked when we will return so we know we must be doing some good for these children.
UPDATE: RELIEF WORK IN SL
Reconstruction and Rebuilding Project
Sri Lanka Institute Of Packaging, Sri Lanka Association of Printers and INGRIN Institute of Printing & Graphics, launched a fund raising project to build houses for the homeless in the Southern part of the Island, in a village called Dagama, Kahawa Hikkaduwa, around 85 kilo meters off Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka.
TPA SL is interested in working with them and has planned to send volunteers to help in the construction of the houses.
Care and Teaching English
We have sent 7 volunteers to Janaraja Vidyalaya, Kalutara North who are doing care and teaching English to 80 children in the refugee camp.
________________________________________
TPA DONATED DRESSES TO VISHAKA CHILDREN’S HOME
TPA donated dresses to 42 orphans in Vishaka Children’s Home on 24th February 2005 with 2 other volunteers.
Shayamalee Wijesinghe – Director, TPA-Sri Lanka handling over the dresses to orphans
________________________________________
ENGLISH CLASSES IN MAWALA IT CENTRE
Ludwig Schicketanz our Active Learning volunteer in Mawala IT Centre together with Chintana has planned to start English classes apart Computer classes conducted in the Centre. According to him it is very much helpful for the students to learn English as well since most of the computer subject terminilogies are in English.
At the moment Ludwig is very much occupied in upgrading the computer systems and teaching students computer and various subjects as well.
LUDWIG AND JUNE DONATED USEFUL ITEMS
Ludwig and June Schicketanz handed useful relief items to the families in Kalutara relief camps including toys for the children and also bedsheets, mirrors and toys to Aruna and Sukitha orphanage.
Posted by Vannessa Butt
I’ve been in Sri Lanka for 2 weeks now teaching in Tissa School in Kalutara. I have to go to school for either 8 or 9 in the mornings and I used to finish at 12 or 1, but I had my hours cut down because I found it too exhausting. The children I am teaching are ages 9-11 and they’re very naughty! They know some basic English, but I’m just building on this. I’ doing crosswords, fill in the blanks and things like that. The girls are so hardworking but the boys can be a nightmare! I end up shouting at them a lot just to make sure they know who the boss is!
After school I come home and have lunch. I am living with a host family, 10 minutes walk away from the school with another girl Piper who also works at the school. They are very friendly and helpful and I’ve learnt a lot about the country’s cultures and traditions through them which is good. The Sri Lankan food is a cultures on it’s own – it’s “rice with curry” rather than curry with rice!
We go to the relief camp at about 4 o’clock for a couple of hours on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays and this is both uplifting and depressing. It’s not too far away from us which is good.
The atmosphere with the children is good because they all seem happy and want to play with us, as we are a bit of a novelty and they look forward to us coming. The adults at the camp don’t really talk to us, but I was welcomed into their part of the tent which is now their home which was quite shocking.
Other than that, I’d just been chilling out because work is very tiring and travelling with the other volunteers in the weekend. Most famous sights in Sri Lanka can be seen in a weekend so it’s cheap and easy.
I think when I go home I will be proud of myself and know this is an experience that I’ll never forget- but it’s much more challenging than I thought!
SINHALA /TAMIL NEW YEAR SCHOOL HOLIDAYS
The two main ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese and Tamils celebrate a common traditional New Year in the month of April originally harvesting thanks giving. Traditional customs are observed on this day with merrymaking and fun and games and lavish hospitality.
There is a school holiday which runs from April 08 until April 28 to celebrate Sinhala/Tamil New Year.
TPA staff will try their best to organize holiday teaching for Teaching Volunteers but if it is impossible volunteers have options to help in the relief work at the camps.
________________________________________
HOLIDAYS IN MARCH
TPA Sri Lanka office will be closed on 25th March to observe Poya Day and Good Friday, so if there is any emergency call to the following mobile numbers:
Shyamalee | 0777 714744
Charley | 0777 798456
Ligaya | 0773 178335
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
