hello all!!



second of all so sorry i have not blogged anything yet...


anyway now i have it sorted i am here in Sri Lanka and woo its amazing! so weird and different and scary to say the least but all amazing, everything is new and learning so much. We (4 volunteers including myself) arrived in to Colombo on saturday the 4th where we spent 2 nights in a guest house to relax and sleep so we were refreshed when we went to our porjects. First impressions...they drive like crazy people all over the place but know exactly where they are all going (i know i would crash if i drove here for sure...), smells like curry...so so so hot and humid (already sun burnt, going to have some funny tan lines though as shoulders must be covered and knees must be covered...kind of a farmer tan going on), people are so friendly and all want to know about you and where you are from and where you are going (lovely to meet people but something s little daunting and not sure whether to trust or not...we will learn!), curry is eaten for all 3 meals which means major rice belly....



so after dropping off our passports to get a residents visa on the monday morning we got a lift south towards Galle to Unawatuna (our new home for the next year ahhhh....). the drive took about 3 hours, so much to see! first impressions then was that there is no distinct break between any towns, villages or cities all of them blend together all the way from Colombo to Galle...we drove all the way down the coast trying to stay awake even after hours of sleeping in colombo.



When we arrived to our house in unawatuna, it is beautiful, we are set about 2km from the coast in a village surrounded by what feels like the jungle (monkeys, palm trees, coconut trees...etc). our house is very yellow, loads of space, almost always running water (not the day we arrived), fairly basic but absolutely perfect! I am sharing a house with another volenteers from project trust called Emer a lovely little ginger irish girl, we are no doubt going to become very close and know every single detail about one another. we have made our room so homely by covering the walls in photos from home...it looks great!



we have been here for a week now and have spent 2 days in SGV school and 1 day in UMV school.



SGV: 500 kids,more rural, 20 minute bus ride then 20 minute walk from here. emer and i will be mainly working here with one of our hosts.

UMV: around 1000 kids, based in the middle of unawatuna, our house is on this school grounds. the 2 other boy volunteers with be mainly working here with our other host. although emer and i will be doing after school activities here after we have been to SGV, such as arts and crafts, volleyball, netball, drama/music(emer..)



both schools have been amazing and so welcoming. they have a school assembly each morning where prayers, songs, speeches are said and they are amazing! the first one at SGV the headmaster mentioned emer and i and everyone started clapping but we had no idea what was going on it was very sweet! they also do whole school exercise routines twice a week which are fairly funny as the kids look very uninterested! another thing the childern do as a sign of respect is give you a pile of leaves then bend down touch your feet/floor and then stand up, you turn the leaves round and hand them back with a huge smile and big thank you, pretty strange but amazing! the classes are great, all the kids seem like they do want to learn but some find it so hard and are not gettting very fair which is such a shame as they need english to get to university and that is thought of how you do well in making money etc here. the youngest kids classes are amazing as you just sing songs and do lots of acting with them so they learn by watching really and it is great fun but tiring! for the next month emer and i will be helping and learning from all the other english teachers and then we will start to team teach together and see how it goes from there... well i hope!



we had a day off on friday as it was a festival day so we spent then morning preparing resources and then played some crazt card games with all the volunteers and our hosts. saturday we went to galle and looked around galle fort which was beautiful then, the beach during the day and evening which was also amazing as we had not been right on the beach until this point, no curry that night...pizza. emer and i are fairly poor cooks also so we are trying to learn local dishes and think we may have a lesson soon!!



we bought saris so have been wearing them all day today and we really do fit in so much better, everyone stops and says "you look beautful, like a sri lankan women".



I have also found out thar the school do wood work (sort of like my design and technology at school) so i may try get involved with that. also another school in galle fort play hockey so i was trying to see if i could help out./play on friday mornings (would need to leave here about 5am...ahhh), which would be amazing though as i would miss hockey otherwise.



anyway have to go for now but hope that gives you all a rough round up of what is going on over here. all is amazing, taking so getting used to, do have some freak out moments but always going to happen, will learn to love it! hope everything is great back home! love kirstin xxx