Our last day at the projects

Yesterday was our last day at the school in Attydia, and so we had a party for the children. In spite of the rain, a large number of the children were at the school when we arrived, and to begin with, they could choose from playing games, taking part in music and dance, or having their nails painted. I helped with the nail painting, as I like do this a fair amount in my spare time. Steve “uncle” kindly watched the door so that only a few eager girls could come and have their nails painted at any one time. Myself, Fi, Eliza and Lesley each had our own station from which we could beautify the girls nails, and they were very pleased with the results! Dinushka, a sweet boy from grade 5 had his thumb nails painted too. Red proved to be the most popular colour, but I was never without a cue for my gold laquer!  I’ve only ever painted my own nails, and so I was pleased to be able to share this skill.
Following this, we packed up and went downstairs to join the disco which had already begun. Loud music was skilfully provided by placing a microphone by the i-Pod speakers, and everyone looked like they’d been having a good time dancing. Myself and Eliza joined in, when one boy started playing his drum, to which different people started dancing to the beats he created. At one point, Steve D-C started a round of “head, shoulders, knees & toes”, which sounded interesting with the drumming accompaniment. The children loved the dancing, and were very pleased to have so many photographs taken of them. I later heard how the boys in charge of the music accidentally broke a fan, but then fixed it after half an hour’s fiddling with sticks and other devices. Before saying goodbye to the children, we handed out cake and chocolate milk drinks, with no child going home empty handed. Mrs. Silva the head teacher said a very heartfelt goodbye to us all in her office, and presented us with gifts and refreshments.
In the afternoon we boarded tuktuks for our last visit to Attydia, to watch the children’s performance, and were at the beginning each given one beautiful pink flower. Sister guided the children during their acts, and the whole performance went seamlessly, despite some minor technical issues. The children performed to a high standard, with lots of confidence, and despite the heat they were brilliant entertainment. I was very pleased to see that the children had the opportunity to dress up in their best clothes and show off their talents. Steve “inspirational leader of Asha” gave an interesting story about an old lady with a leaky pot (but I cannot remember the message  ). We then sung our version of “Sing A Song” by the Carpenters, and helped the children to sing along with us too. The performance was closed by a recital of the Sri Lankan national anthem.
I was sad to say goodbye to the children at the school and centre, but will be looking forward to hearing about how they are getting on in the future. I will certainly never forget the wonderful experiences I have had on this trip to Sri Lanka.
Rivka

Nails, football and Michael Jackson - who needs translators

Early morning monsoon rain fell heavily on the roof of Tropic Inn. The rain is louder here; the pregnant drops bigger and fuller. When they bounce off the roof they splash and shatter into further drops. In England I dread the rain, but here it serves as a welcome change, the downpour splitting open the humid curtain that wraps around the houses.

This week has flown past. On Monday when we started working in the school the heat pulled us down, and we would arrive back at Tropic Inn at lunchtime needing a shower and a sleep before returning to the school in the afternoon. But like the rain and the humidity and the contradictions all around you get used to it.

Before we knew it we were waking up on our last day of working in the school. We had promised the children that the last day would be a party. All week we had been teaching the children colours, the names for various fruits and animals, the parts of the body, the numbers up to 10. As we arrived at the school we were greeted with “heads and shoulders knees and toes, knees and toes.” Today we would not need the words but would enjoy using our senses of “eyes and ears and mouth and nose.” Indeed all of these would become the currency for the final day’s transaction as we had planned a disco, nail bar and football – the world over, these are the things which children can share without too many verbs and nouns and adjectives.

The first thing to do was to rig up an old PA speaker that the school used for the head teacher’s announcements. We set up her microphone next to a tiny portable i-pod dock which we had brought. You really know that you are working in a poor area when kids don’t have any technology – no i-pods or mobiles; the school didn’t even have a calculator. But they knew the music! It was a bit echoey in the old school hall but wow – crank it up and the place came alive. We had some Banghra music but there’s nothing quite like Michael Jackson, Tiny Temper and Glee songs to spark the combustible cocktail of children, dancing and gymnastics to life !

It was magic. The children showed off their best impressions of the old king of pop with the boys combining handstands into their dance routines. Finlay and Ethan obliged, accompanied by squeals of delight. One of the boys brought out a dusty marching band drum which had seen better days but which was still capable of belting out a bang or two. Suddenly the beat of Michael Jackson was augmented by the beat of the drum, and both the boys and girls formed a circle of rhythm around the boy with the hand-made drumming sticks. (Drum sticks – now that would be a good thing to bring next time we come).

Upstairs four of the team ran a special nail bar for the girls.This was a noticeably quieter room than the disco downstairs but the same smiles and sunshine faces were there. Earlier in the week when we were teaching the younger children the names for the colours in English, I had taught the children the song ‘Red and Yellow and Pink and Green, Orange and Purple and Blue, I can see a rainbow, see a rainbow, see a rainbow too.” Now we could see the rainbow on the ends of the girls nails. A simple treat which cost so little but gave such joy to these girls, some of whom had never had their nails done. Again the words were limited, the girls quiet as they stretched their fingers out to the awaiting brushes. Words weren’t needed this was a moment of truer communication.

In the playground, the boys were having a great time with a proper football - brought by the Carrick-Davies family with a pump - and left behind as a gift for the school.

If it is true that time does indeed fly when you enjoy yourself, this week was a speeding bullet. Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye. And then we exchanged gifts – us giving the children cake and chocolate milk, the head teacher Miss Silva giving us a little wooden elephants or Sri Lanka key rings. Finally, after protracted goodbyes, tears and hugs we walked together with some of the children back up in the direction of Tropic Inn. The rain had long gone, the road dried out warm and dusty as ever.

And then the road divided, the children waved and shouted as they took one path – back to their homes, the rubbish piles, the shared toilet and shower – back to their mothers looking after their siblings, back to the simple but full lives. We took the right hand path back to our air conditioned inn – it is very basic by western standards, but a palace compared to where these children live.

Our minds were spinning with memories and sounds, songs and stories shared not through words but by the language of nails, Michael Jackson, laughter and holding hands. The language of children the world over.

Steve Carrick-Davies

Fi and Eliza

Today was our last day working in the school. Most of the children received their end of school reports, and it was lovely to see them achieve good levels, and be given back their grades. At the end of lesson three one of the boys from my year 11 class was playing the drums on the back of an old dustbin, and all the children were singing and dancing! It just shows that people and children around the world can have absolutely nothing, but can still have the most beautiful happy smiles on their faces. I was nearly in tears as I watched them, all having such a good time on their last day of school! Xx

I know it’s going to be really hard to say goodbye to all the children that we have worked with over the past week at their final party tomorrow, but I’ve really enjoyed it and I’ll never forget my experience.

By Eliza

On Wednesday, I went with some others from the group to spend some time at the Centre in Athidiya for a special needs session run by Catherine, an Occupational Therapist from the UK. Sister Concepta and Mrs. V had taken some members of our group round the community to visit the homes of children with special needs, encouraging them to bring their children along to the centre.

For reasons that are not clear, there is a higher incidence of children with disabilities born into the community at Athidiya and there are few facilities or resources to support them. Four of the families brought their children along to the session, ranging in ages from 10 to 25. None of these young people had any language at all, 3 couldn’t walk unaided and all face day after day lying in darkened rooms with no stimulation to speak of. Catherine has started a toy library based at the Centre and we spent about an hour and a half working with each young person to find out which toys they found most stimulating or exciting. They were then able to take those toys home for the week.

This was a sobering experience which brought home to me the extent to which attitudes to SEN in the UK have really changed over the past 50 years or so – my hope is that these attitudes begin to change here in Sri Lanka too. The mothers and sisters who brought their family members along to the session undoubtedly love them, but there is no education or training available to help them support and stimulate their loved ones. This toy library and the hands-on training and modelling that Catherine and others are providing could be the catalyst for the change that is so needed. I’d love to get together a supply of toys – noisy, bright, shiny, tactile – that we could send out here to add to the collection. Any contributions welcome!!

Fi

Follow the Carrick-Davies blog at www.carrickdavies.wordpress.com

Video of the new building

While we have been here, we have returned several times to the building site where work is well under way. We can see the new Community Centre going up before our eyes. So many people have helped to bring Sister's dream into reality - many, many thanks.

Visit to Athidiya

Wednesday 3rd August
We had a very interesting morning as Sister showed us around some of the houses in Athidyia. It gave us an insight into everyday life there and it was an opportunity we would never have had normally. Everyone was very pleased to see us and Sister in particular. The first family we visited were very welcoming. We met a mother who had lost her leg due to diabetes and she told us that the nutritionists (Kiran and Bavana, who visited the Asha projects with Steve in March) had come to speak to her about diet and how to control her diabetes. Although it was quite shocking to think that poor diet had partly caused her to lose her leg, it was also good to know that the nutritionists had been helpful to her.
Sister explained to us how the houses now were now all permanent structures and all had bathrooms. We saw some houses with two storeys which people had built. We met a family where the mother had been working as a maid in Saudi for two years and the money from this had paid for an extension to their house. Although the housing is better than the make shift shanties they are still very basic by our standards, with a lot of people all living in one room and very cramped. The canal which runs alongside the housing is filthy and floods regularly.
Finally we went back to the community centre where a special needs play club was taking place. Four children with special needs came to visit and play with the toys. This club is in its early stages and is hopefully something that will continue and grow. There is obviously a need for developing provision for children with special needs and their families.
We had such an interesting day and are very grateful to Sister for showing us around.

Jane

PS. A special thanks to Katharine Egerton for all her help with visiting families and arranging the session at the centre for a few of the disabled young people in the patch. Katharine has become a great friend to Asha, she presently works in Brent (NHS) and has been very open and willing to share her knowledge and skills with us. Thanks Katharine your a star!!

The fabulous Asha Well

Yesterday Lesley, Angeline and I spent the day with another amazing nun – Sister Placida. Among the many projects she runs is something she named New Beginnings. She had been working in the Colombo slums which sound worse even than Atthidiya in the old days – people living in tiny shacks with just a shelf where the women and children slept and all their goods underneath. The men slept in the road. They had no cooking facilities so they bought food in plastic bags – no real family life at all. When asked why they lived like this, she says they always said they had no choice. She insisted that there is always a choice and started to take small groups out into the villages, to show them that there is plenty of space in other parts of the country and that a different life would be possible. She established a group of families who were willing to explore this idea further, and worked with them for many months, helping them to create a sense of community and a different set of values. She raised the money to buy some land in a village and in 2007 9 families made the move away from their life in Colombo. For the first 6 months they all lived in the only property on that piece of land, while they helped local builders to build each family a house. One of the reasons the village is underpopulated is lack of water – and the families found that they had 3 natural springs on the land. They approached Asha Trust for funding to build a well – which we did a couple of years ago. All the villagers benefit from the water – the families had said from the outset that the whole village would drink from this even to the last drop.
Talking to the families was truly extraordinary. It was clear that their lives had been truly transformed. One mother told me that when she brought her first baby home, in Colombo, she arrived from the hospital to find their mud up to her hips, following one of the regular floods. Her second baby was born in the village, and she said words could not express how happy she is in their new home. Another woman said that before she entered her new home, she ran around the outside several times, unable to believe that all this was for her family. They have found work, and they are all growing vegetables, fruit t rees and even coconut on their plots. They had no idea about food growing – and Sister has stories about how amazed they were when finding that a seed could grow into a plant which would then produce so much.
Sister has done this with two groups in two different villages now – 19 families in total, and has another 8 families ready to move as soon as she has raised the money to build their houses.
I feel so privileged to know these amazing women . Sister Placida’s entrepreneurship and courage is truly inspirational.
Radhika

Eliza on her first day at the school

Today was my first day working with the project in the school. I was a little nervous, as Shyla and I had Yrs 9, 10, and 11! (and I’m only just about to start year 9 in September!) But I have to say that they are a really bright bunch of kids, who could confidently speak some English. They were very small classes, minimum 4 and maximum 8.
We were concentrating on fruit and numbers in the classes today, and playing games like “I went to the market and I bought...” We also did role play, Shyla and I being the fruit-sellers and the children the customers. They each had a pile of fake money, and had to order fruit asking for the price. They understood most of it really well, and seemed to find it great fun.
After the three lessons of the morning we went home, and freshened up before we went to the community centre, to visit Sister Concepta, and children that were performing in the show that they have been practicing for to show us. There was a misunderstanding with the date of the show, and now it’s on Friday instead, and so we went to visit the builders that were developing the new community centre, using the money that we had raised in England.
We also went to visit Athidiya, when my family and I came two years ago we were seeing the new houses on the other side of the river being built for the families that lived in the slums, and it was really heart lifting to see all of them so settled in their new homes, and recognising some if the children who went to the school.
I really enjoyed today working in the school and visiting Athidiya, and I’m really looking forward and excited to start the day tomorrow! 

Eliza, 13