Radhika:
If you've been on one of these trips, you'll remember that the last few work days are exhausting, both physically and emotionally. Yesterday we all went back to the school in the morning - finishing off some great pieces o f work - the group working on the link with Columbia Primary have done excellent writing and drawings about themselves, their school and their world. The English teachers at this school were amazed by the quality of the work - I think the children were really motivated because they understood that their work was going to be shared with children in the UK. The group doing "Scrapbooks" about themselves, with the photos from the disposable cameras we gave them, have also produced gorgeous work. They have loved having photos of themselves, their families and their friends, and have done excellent writing to go with them. All the other groups too have been learning songs, games and a fair bit of geography, thanks to the great games the Eston Park group created with maps, animals, cards etc.
In the afternoon we returned to our "production" - which has evolved from Giraffes Cant Dance to Warthogs Cant Dance - over 100 children have been involved in learning a few lines and some incredible dances! We had a run-through yesterday - it was awesome - we've promised to video today's performance and screen it at assemblies, meetings etc.... and put it on Youtube! Katherine has been instrumental in leading this - stunningly.
And then we went to see Sister for a show. I'm going to ask one of the young people to blog about the show - but needless to say we were all very moved by the energy and enthusiasm of the children and of course Sister's speech had everyone gripped. Several people needed tissues during the proceedings.
We got back after 7, tired but everyone so glad of the experience. Today is our last work day - taking cakes, drinks etc for our party and performance .
I said a couple of days ago that we were holding our first Partners Meeting - it was great, really positive - so glad we did it. We had 9 people there (a fair sprinkling of nuns), everyone participated, had some very good discussions and they have agreed to meet three times a year.
Sister said something moving about the seed that was Asha's first endeavours in Athidiya growing into a tree under which so many projects now shelter.
Got a meeting with Mrs V this morning, before going to the school, and one with Barbara and the elders this evening when we get back after our Warthogs show - as happens to me every year, I cant believe we get to do this!
R
Friday, 30 July 2010
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
Wider Asha stuff...
Radhika:
As well as the wonderful opportunity to share the work with the young people, Steve and I are also spending a bit of time working with our local colleagues, developing the plans for the work of Asha more widely.
Today we have our first ever partners meeeting - we're bringing together the leaders from all the projects we fund, as a step towards further collaboration among them where appropriate, and also to go through some of the practicial stuff about monitoring and communication. Some of our key people do have strong relationships with each other, but it would be good to explore possibilities for further collaboration. Its new territory - Steve and I run meetings regularly in the UK, but I'm not sure how useful all that is in this context.
Another great development has been that we've had two London doctors with us for 2 weeks, David and Mary. David did an amazing job of redecorating the Asha Centre (those tiny rooms) - painted, created notice boards, beautiful displays - utterly transformed the place! Additionally, we asked Mary to do some investigating about healthcare provision and how the families in Athidiya access it. She visited 5 families with Mrs Vellupulai (Sister's excellent colleague), and interviewed them. She also spoke to a local health worker. We are planning to use Mary's learning to help Asha to develop a plan for health interventions - its not something we do much on at the moment. David and Mary also went to the Centre daily with their 3 boys and ran English games, singing and activities with the after-school club. They left yesterday, after a show (of course), speeches and a few tears.
This morning, Steve, Shani and Katherine are going to visit the RCCI centre for children with disabilities. We got them the funding for their Cookery Sessions through See the Difference, and they want to show off their new purchases - no doubt there'll be much messy cooking! Another 6 young people are off to visit Athidya with Sister, and the rest of us are off to the school.
R
As well as the wonderful opportunity to share the work with the young people, Steve and I are also spending a bit of time working with our local colleagues, developing the plans for the work of Asha more widely.
Today we have our first ever partners meeeting - we're bringing together the leaders from all the projects we fund, as a step towards further collaboration among them where appropriate, and also to go through some of the practicial stuff about monitoring and communication. Some of our key people do have strong relationships with each other, but it would be good to explore possibilities for further collaboration. Its new territory - Steve and I run meetings regularly in the UK, but I'm not sure how useful all that is in this context.
Another great development has been that we've had two London doctors with us for 2 weeks, David and Mary. David did an amazing job of redecorating the Asha Centre (those tiny rooms) - painted, created notice boards, beautiful displays - utterly transformed the place! Additionally, we asked Mary to do some investigating about healthcare provision and how the families in Athidiya access it. She visited 5 families with Mrs Vellupulai (Sister's excellent colleague), and interviewed them. She also spoke to a local health worker. We are planning to use Mary's learning to help Asha to develop a plan for health interventions - its not something we do much on at the moment. David and Mary also went to the Centre daily with their 3 boys and ran English games, singing and activities with the after-school club. They left yesterday, after a show (of course), speeches and a few tears.
This morning, Steve, Shani and Katherine are going to visit the RCCI centre for children with disabilities. We got them the funding for their Cookery Sessions through See the Difference, and they want to show off their new purchases - no doubt there'll be much messy cooking! Another 6 young people are off to visit Athidya with Sister, and the rest of us are off to the school.
R
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
Shani's blog
Today we returned to our regular routine of going to the school in the morning at 9.30 followed by afternoon activities during at 3.00. A contrast to the leaisurely weekend trip of visiting the tea factory, staying overnight at a lovely hotel, having a splash in the pool, going on a elephant safari and seeing a Buddist temple.
This morning I was amongst the group who went to Athidiya. We met Sister at the Centre who gave us a summary of how the families in the area came to live there, an introduction to the homes and families we would later see. Whilst she was explaining it dawned on me that Sister is a true inspiration - a woman of God who's ultimate calling is to help those who are unable to help themselves.
When Sister began her tour of the housing, I was shocked. Big familes of around six people lived in a house a size smaller than most rooms in my house in England, without water, electricity and adequate storage and bed space but appeared content, happy and were ever so welcoming. I was nearly moved to tears in one family's home, as I remembered a time a couple years ago when I complained about having to share a room with my younger sister because I was a 'teenager' and 'needed' my own space. The experience highlighted for me the importance of not getting too caught up in material 'stuff' of the world and adopting the attitude of 'now, now, now, I want, I want' but to appreciate the precious intangible things we often take for granted: love, friendship and family. I also thought about the differences in poverty and the great inequalities between people in the world. For what is poor and considered below the poverty line in the Western world is actually being rich in less developed countries. Despite in my eyes, extreme cases of poverty in the area, I didn't feel pity; it's hard to pity someone who doesn't pity themself. It was more a case of inspiration. Being inspired not only by Sister due to the amazing work she does alongside Asha Trust to help relieve poverty locally, but inspired by the lives of the families. Having glimpse poverty today, I don't feel I can return to the UK and not do anything. I feel having seeing this, I need to be a part changing it for the better.
Shani
The Eston Park group have been blogging on their school site - do have a browse
http://www.estonpark.co.uk/blog.asp
This morning I was amongst the group who went to Athidiya. We met Sister at the Centre who gave us a summary of how the families in the area came to live there, an introduction to the homes and families we would later see. Whilst she was explaining it dawned on me that Sister is a true inspiration - a woman of God who's ultimate calling is to help those who are unable to help themselves.
When Sister began her tour of the housing, I was shocked. Big familes of around six people lived in a house a size smaller than most rooms in my house in England, without water, electricity and adequate storage and bed space but appeared content, happy and were ever so welcoming. I was nearly moved to tears in one family's home, as I remembered a time a couple years ago when I complained about having to share a room with my younger sister because I was a 'teenager' and 'needed' my own space. The experience highlighted for me the importance of not getting too caught up in material 'stuff' of the world and adopting the attitude of 'now, now, now, I want, I want' but to appreciate the precious intangible things we often take for granted: love, friendship and family. I also thought about the differences in poverty and the great inequalities between people in the world. For what is poor and considered below the poverty line in the Western world is actually being rich in less developed countries. Despite in my eyes, extreme cases of poverty in the area, I didn't feel pity; it's hard to pity someone who doesn't pity themself. It was more a case of inspiration. Being inspired not only by Sister due to the amazing work she does alongside Asha Trust to help relieve poverty locally, but inspired by the lives of the families. Having glimpse poverty today, I don't feel I can return to the UK and not do anything. I feel having seeing this, I need to be a part changing it for the better.
Shani
The Eston Park group have been blogging on their school site - do have a browse
http://www.estonpark.co.uk/blog.asp
Saturday, 24 July 2010
DAY THREE & FOUR
The first bit work is finished! The morning sessions ran even more successfully now everyone's got their heads around what to do and lovely things are being produced. One group gave out a load of disposal cameras to the older children in the hope that they will take photos of their families and general day to day life in order to produce scrapbooks about themselves. Not only will this be an amazing insight into their lives for us, hopefully they'll produce lovely books for them to keep.
Another group is working on on project that will hopefully form the basis for linking this school to a Tower Hamlets school. They produced sheets and sheets of lovely work about their school, complete with drawings, photos and all sorts of nice things. We've been trying to create a similar collection of things to send back to England - a "present for England" as we tell them, to a very excited response.
The afternoons are also running smoothly, possibly the smoothest I've seen! The outdoor games team tirelessly sweat through frisbee games, the arts and crafts people emerge glittering and gluey but with great work, the walls of the drama room are bouncing with excited laughter, the storytellers are reading lovely books and the computer team get to see the look on the children's faces as they use a computer for the first time.
In the next section of work we're aiming to put on a play (I kid you not...) and so for now we're done with our seperate groups and we're hoping to see many rehearsals of Eston Park's version of 'Giraffes can't dance' over the weekend!
Setting off early tomorrow morning (knew we'd have to pay for today's 'lie-in'...) for Una Watuna, where hopefully we'll see lots and lots of elephants :)
I was talking to one of the girls from Athidiya earlier and she was telling me (in almost fluent English) that she wasn't doing well enough at school, despite being really intelligent. So I asked if she was studying and she told me that she wakes up at 6.00 to go to school from 7.30 to 2.30 and then goes to classes from 3.00 to 7.00 every day (either at the centre or elsewhere) and then, on top of all that, has four pieces of homework to complete each evening. She sounded so frustrated, and I instantly was too, about how she can be working so hard yet not achieving what she should be. It's hard to know what can be done in situations like this, suggesting a bus fare fund to send her to the library is no good when she has so little free time as it is but leaving this really bright young woman to continue as things are is a horrible prospect. I guess I'm starting to understand more and more the frustrations and hard decisions that are as much as part of all of this as the great stuff...
Suggestions?
Katherine
Another group is working on on project that will hopefully form the basis for linking this school to a Tower Hamlets school. They produced sheets and sheets of lovely work about their school, complete with drawings, photos and all sorts of nice things. We've been trying to create a similar collection of things to send back to England - a "present for England" as we tell them, to a very excited response.
The afternoons are also running smoothly, possibly the smoothest I've seen! The outdoor games team tirelessly sweat through frisbee games, the arts and crafts people emerge glittering and gluey but with great work, the walls of the drama room are bouncing with excited laughter, the storytellers are reading lovely books and the computer team get to see the look on the children's faces as they use a computer for the first time.
In the next section of work we're aiming to put on a play (I kid you not...) and so for now we're done with our seperate groups and we're hoping to see many rehearsals of Eston Park's version of 'Giraffes can't dance' over the weekend!
Setting off early tomorrow morning (knew we'd have to pay for today's 'lie-in'...) for Una Watuna, where hopefully we'll see lots and lots of elephants :)
I was talking to one of the girls from Athidiya earlier and she was telling me (in almost fluent English) that she wasn't doing well enough at school, despite being really intelligent. So I asked if she was studying and she told me that she wakes up at 6.00 to go to school from 7.30 to 2.30 and then goes to classes from 3.00 to 7.00 every day (either at the centre or elsewhere) and then, on top of all that, has four pieces of homework to complete each evening. She sounded so frustrated, and I instantly was too, about how she can be working so hard yet not achieving what she should be. It's hard to know what can be done in situations like this, suggesting a bus fare fund to send her to the library is no good when she has so little free time as it is but leaving this really bright young woman to continue as things are is a horrible prospect. I guess I'm starting to understand more and more the frustrations and hard decisions that are as much as part of all of this as the great stuff...
Suggestions?
Katherine
Thursday, 22 July 2010
The group arrived and with in moments seemed to have got struck into planning and preparing lessons and activities for their time at the school. We Have now spent two days at the school at the the group are just being brilliant.
We’re now on day two of working at the school. The Eston Park group arrived, bravely struggled through their jet lag and got going at the school within twenty four hours! They’d all brought great resources with them and so we had an incredibly smooth first day. Of course there was the expected acclimatisation – more to the differences between English and Sri Lankan schools and the wild excitement of the children than the weather – but each set back was just dealt with and most groups reported back that they’d had really good days. The afternoons are taken up by an afterschool club that makes the morning’s classes seem tame, in which we run art, craft, drama games, storytelling, outdoor games (hot work) and computer skills. Lovely things have emerged from the art/craft rooms and very sweaty people from the outdoor games area but everyone seems to be having a great time- kids and group alike.
Today followed the same pattern, classes in the morning and club in the afternoon. We had a slightly larger group in the afternoon (which is optional, so we must have done something right the day before!) and we had split into more groups in the morning to enable us to teach nearly all the children at once – very skilful timetabling work on Radhika’s part. This meant new groups, new activities but still the same reaction: nice work and lots and lots of giggling.
Katherine
Monday, 19 July 2010
July 19th 2010 update
Hi
Its so good to be here, to spend time with the team, visit the projects and meet the young people we see every year.
We have visited the school and spent time with Ms Silva, planning for the group from Eston Park who arrive tomorrow (Tuesday) and start running activities there on Weds. 19 pupils and 3 staff who have not been before. The pupils here are very excited – I’ve had little groups running up to me in the street, asking when the visitors are coming.
We’ve spent several afternoons at the Asha Centre, running the after-school club. These sessions have been particularly energetic because our friends David and Mary Davies from London have been leading them, with their 3 young sons – Nathan 10, Jonah 8 and Daniel 4. David is the brother of Steve Carrick-Davies, a trustee, who was out here with us last year with his family. David has got hold of a guitar and the children from Athidiya have loved all the singing and the games – and the novelty of the small boys. David has also painted the rooms – all looking fresh and clean now – and we’ve been doing bits of artwork during the sessions for display.
The land for our new community centre has been cleared, and we’ve just received the first set of drawings for the building from the architect. Its great to see all our discussions visualized – no doubt there will be many further refinements.
Our family group this year includes our friend Shani, 16, Pauline’s daughter (Steve’s oldest friend) – as well as Katherine of course. Shyla and Katherine have taken Shani to Colombo today, for the essential visit to Odel, Paradise Road and Barefoot – once the Eston Park group arrive tomorrow, the days will be full and there’ll be no time for shopping.
Steve, Omar and I are going to visit RCCI, the special needs school we support - to celebrate with them the fantastic news that their kitchen project is the FIRST project to secure its funding through See The Difference - a new video-based fundraising site, launched a few weeks ago. Here's the link to the site and the video:
http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=4e8059de68fe10375c37bf6ed&id=e18d1a63c4&e=9d1ab32b64
More soon
Radhika & Steve
Its so good to be here, to spend time with the team, visit the projects and meet the young people we see every year.
We have visited the school and spent time with Ms Silva, planning for the group from Eston Park who arrive tomorrow (Tuesday) and start running activities there on Weds. 19 pupils and 3 staff who have not been before. The pupils here are very excited – I’ve had little groups running up to me in the street, asking when the visitors are coming.
We’ve spent several afternoons at the Asha Centre, running the after-school club. These sessions have been particularly energetic because our friends David and Mary Davies from London have been leading them, with their 3 young sons – Nathan 10, Jonah 8 and Daniel 4. David is the brother of Steve Carrick-Davies, a trustee, who was out here with us last year with his family. David has got hold of a guitar and the children from Athidiya have loved all the singing and the games – and the novelty of the small boys. David has also painted the rooms – all looking fresh and clean now – and we’ve been doing bits of artwork during the sessions for display.
The land for our new community centre has been cleared, and we’ve just received the first set of drawings for the building from the architect. Its great to see all our discussions visualized – no doubt there will be many further refinements.
Our family group this year includes our friend Shani, 16, Pauline’s daughter (Steve’s oldest friend) – as well as Katherine of course. Shyla and Katherine have taken Shani to Colombo today, for the essential visit to Odel, Paradise Road and Barefoot – once the Eston Park group arrive tomorrow, the days will be full and there’ll be no time for shopping.
Steve, Omar and I are going to visit RCCI, the special needs school we support - to celebrate with them the fantastic news that their kitchen project is the FIRST project to secure its funding through See The Difference - a new video-based fundraising site, launched a few weeks ago. Here's the link to the site and the video:
http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=4e8059de68fe10375c37bf6ed&id=e18d1a63c4&e=9d1ab32b64
More soon
Radhika & Steve
Sunday, 11 July 2010
Update
Sorry for the lack of recent blogging, been having serious internet problems so here's what we did in the last week.
Before starting at the school on Tuesday morning we were given a brief tour around some of the other projects the nuns from the Koralawella convent were working on. We saw the school for the disabled that we'd been told about the night before and it was truly amazing. A dance lesson was taking place as we arrived and we were treated to a impromptu performance and then shown around the reasonably sized centre. Unlike so many of the places we have seen working in difficult circumstances, the 'Happy Days' centre was brightly painted, with artwork on the walls and even a huge rainbow on a wall. The children were all happily working away, and were eager to show us what they were producing; in each of the three rooms there was a different activity, as we walked through each of the three rooms we saw teachers helping produce paper tissues flowers, aprons and bracelets. We were lastly shown the multi-sensory room, an incredible room filled with all sorts of resources and a wall of photographs showing all the different children the room was benefitting. We were both suprised to see someone older than us on the wall but discovered that the centre aims to support these children until the age of thirty five, trying to help them become self-sufficient. Not only did what we learnt about Happy Days sound amazing, but the place itself was so cheerful and positive that we both left pretty cheered ourselves.
Our time at the school itself was lovely. Having volunteers working there was new for them so we had the benefit of being a novelty as well as being loaded with colouring pencils. The next few days ran smoother than we could have hoped for (with the exception of the day of the power cut: midday sun + no fan = not fun.) as the children were incredibly eager and seemed to really enjoy everything we threw at them. They seemed genuinely sad when we left and their heightened confidence in spoken English actually took us by suprise. And as always, it was a fantastic experience for us, not only do we both now know the Hungry Caterpillar's diet off by heart but also got to have a go at starting something new. It was amazing to be able to bring something completely new to a project (AshaTrust already supports this school with a breakfast club and rice packets but we haven't worked here before), to get a chance to establish our own links and to maybe have laid some foundations from which anything could happen!
Working at the centre was much more managable after we decided to hold our own and take a group at a time. Under Sister's watchful eye the children were wonderfully well behaved and so we powered through story books and activities and managed to produce some lovely work.
On the Thursday, the end of our sessions coincided with the arrival of 'The Doctors', more friends of Asha who have been travelling the country for the last month and now have arrived in Columbo to see if there is anything they can do. It's exciting to see people getting involved who might be able to help Asha expand into new areas and clearly Sister agreed as the following days session was replaced by a 'instant show'. She got the children on board by explaining "instant coffee, instant tea, instant show... Mavan, do a dance!"
It's been a great chance to get right into the heart of things- having to organise, plan and adapt independently has shown us just how much hard work it can be, but also just how exciting and rewarding.
We're currently hiding from an incredible rainstorm in Kandy and are in danger of a power cut at any moment so we're off to brave the rain and looking forward to the next lot of work in about a week which will hopefully be up on the blog as we go!
Katherine and Shyla
Before starting at the school on Tuesday morning we were given a brief tour around some of the other projects the nuns from the Koralawella convent were working on. We saw the school for the disabled that we'd been told about the night before and it was truly amazing. A dance lesson was taking place as we arrived and we were treated to a impromptu performance and then shown around the reasonably sized centre. Unlike so many of the places we have seen working in difficult circumstances, the 'Happy Days' centre was brightly painted, with artwork on the walls and even a huge rainbow on a wall. The children were all happily working away, and were eager to show us what they were producing; in each of the three rooms there was a different activity, as we walked through each of the three rooms we saw teachers helping produce paper tissues flowers, aprons and bracelets. We were lastly shown the multi-sensory room, an incredible room filled with all sorts of resources and a wall of photographs showing all the different children the room was benefitting. We were both suprised to see someone older than us on the wall but discovered that the centre aims to support these children until the age of thirty five, trying to help them become self-sufficient. Not only did what we learnt about Happy Days sound amazing, but the place itself was so cheerful and positive that we both left pretty cheered ourselves.
Our time at the school itself was lovely. Having volunteers working there was new for them so we had the benefit of being a novelty as well as being loaded with colouring pencils. The next few days ran smoother than we could have hoped for (with the exception of the day of the power cut: midday sun + no fan = not fun.) as the children were incredibly eager and seemed to really enjoy everything we threw at them. They seemed genuinely sad when we left and their heightened confidence in spoken English actually took us by suprise. And as always, it was a fantastic experience for us, not only do we both now know the Hungry Caterpillar's diet off by heart but also got to have a go at starting something new. It was amazing to be able to bring something completely new to a project (AshaTrust already supports this school with a breakfast club and rice packets but we haven't worked here before), to get a chance to establish our own links and to maybe have laid some foundations from which anything could happen!
Working at the centre was much more managable after we decided to hold our own and take a group at a time. Under Sister's watchful eye the children were wonderfully well behaved and so we powered through story books and activities and managed to produce some lovely work.
On the Thursday, the end of our sessions coincided with the arrival of 'The Doctors', more friends of Asha who have been travelling the country for the last month and now have arrived in Columbo to see if there is anything they can do. It's exciting to see people getting involved who might be able to help Asha expand into new areas and clearly Sister agreed as the following days session was replaced by a 'instant show'. She got the children on board by explaining "instant coffee, instant tea, instant show... Mavan, do a dance!"
It's been a great chance to get right into the heart of things- having to organise, plan and adapt independently has shown us just how much hard work it can be, but also just how exciting and rewarding.
We're currently hiding from an incredible rainstorm in Kandy and are in danger of a power cut at any moment so we're off to brave the rain and looking forward to the next lot of work in about a week which will hopefully be up on the blog as we go!
Katherine and Shyla
Monday, 5 July 2010
Day One
Things didn't go quite as smoothly as planned today. Though the cloudy sky helped make acclimatising to the weather much easier than expected, it might have been the only thing! Hardly Sri Lanka novices but still we managed to get lost... three times! Thinking we knew Colombo like the back of our hand might have been a little premature.
Nonetheless, it was a good day. When we (eventually) arrived at the Asha Centre in Athidiya we were met by a group of about 35 children with Sister Concepta, Mrs V and Rosemary (a new teacher/assistant who we hadn't met before but was lovely). We were presented with a beautiful few flowers and the children seemed as pleased to see us as we were them, although we couldn't help wondering why there were 25 more than we'd been told to expect!
A quick revaluation of plans and we split into two groups: years 1-5 in the room with Shyla and 6-11 in corridor with me. Poor Shyla had only a few minutes to plan the next hour and a half before everyone was settled and looking very expectant. Introductions done with we both launched into games, writing, drawing and a few bemused rounds of consequences.
After we had finished at the centre we set off in a tuk tuk who ‘knew the way’ to the Korulawella convent, where we were meeting Sister Priyani to make arrangements for tomorrow. Sister Shaira, who works at the school we'll be at was actually away at a computer class when we called, apparently all the teachers are getting a paid for course to learn IT proficiency which sounds great, so although we didn’t find out much new (what does it matter, we’ll only get lost anyway!) we heard an amazing story of another of the nuns.
She works at a school for disabled children that she set up after visiting the homes of local people in the area and seeing how little quality of life these children had. The parents were largely unable to cope and even, in some extreme cases, had tied their children down while they went out to work. Despite the complete lack of space to help these families, she was determined to do something, even if it meant teaching them on the beach, which is exactly what she did. From there she has progressed, now running a school with five teachers and over one hundred and fifty children, albeit in a small space. Transport is arranged to get these children from their homes as in the majority of cases their parents are unable to bring them, therefore giving them access to learning and stimulation that was previously inaccessible. She told us proudly that she’d recently had a room built for the severely disabled, allowing them to leave their homes and provide for them and give respite to their parents.
We had been invited to visit this project, along with the Montessori nursery of another of the nuns tomorrow before we start work at the Korulawella school.
A tiring day ahead then, but it all sounds very exciting and we can’t wait to start… as long as we don’t get lost that is!
Katherine and Shyla
Nonetheless, it was a good day. When we (eventually) arrived at the Asha Centre in Athidiya we were met by a group of about 35 children with Sister Concepta, Mrs V and Rosemary (a new teacher/assistant who we hadn't met before but was lovely). We were presented with a beautiful few flowers and the children seemed as pleased to see us as we were them, although we couldn't help wondering why there were 25 more than we'd been told to expect!
A quick revaluation of plans and we split into two groups: years 1-5 in the room with Shyla and 6-11 in corridor with me. Poor Shyla had only a few minutes to plan the next hour and a half before everyone was settled and looking very expectant. Introductions done with we both launched into games, writing, drawing and a few bemused rounds of consequences.
After we had finished at the centre we set off in a tuk tuk who ‘knew the way’ to the Korulawella convent, where we were meeting Sister Priyani to make arrangements for tomorrow. Sister Shaira, who works at the school we'll be at was actually away at a computer class when we called, apparently all the teachers are getting a paid for course to learn IT proficiency which sounds great, so although we didn’t find out much new (what does it matter, we’ll only get lost anyway!) we heard an amazing story of another of the nuns.
She works at a school for disabled children that she set up after visiting the homes of local people in the area and seeing how little quality of life these children had. The parents were largely unable to cope and even, in some extreme cases, had tied their children down while they went out to work. Despite the complete lack of space to help these families, she was determined to do something, even if it meant teaching them on the beach, which is exactly what she did. From there she has progressed, now running a school with five teachers and over one hundred and fifty children, albeit in a small space. Transport is arranged to get these children from their homes as in the majority of cases their parents are unable to bring them, therefore giving them access to learning and stimulation that was previously inaccessible. She told us proudly that she’d recently had a room built for the severely disabled, allowing them to leave their homes and provide for them and give respite to their parents.
We had been invited to visit this project, along with the Montessori nursery of another of the nuns tomorrow before we start work at the Korulawella school.
A tiring day ahead then, but it all sounds very exciting and we can’t wait to start… as long as we don’t get lost that is!
Katherine and Shyla