blog 5

Hello!!! Or should I say Ayubowan...

Hope everything is great with everyone at home and you’re all having fun.

everything here is going amazing, have had some moments the past two weeks where we have been completely shattered and just wasn't as fun but we are loving it and you have those moments at home so no different really.  Not really sure where to start so much has been going on...

schools: so we have now been doing 3 days (Monday to Wednesday) at SGV and then 2 days (Thursday/Friday) at Mhiripenna, both schools lovely but actually really different.

at SGV Emer and I have been taking 1's and 2's a lot and lots of conversation groups out of classes...originally we were taking the best 4 out of classes so that they could improve and the rest of the class could continue better without them but recently we have taken out the weaker kids and I personal loved that - I think they realised there getting an opportunity to get better and have really taken the chance. especially with two 7B boys I took out this week, both fairly poor at English, so we stuck to basics (alphabet and colours) and then went on to some opposites and they both tried so so hard, they were great - was so cute they were holding on to each others knees the whole time as if to look after each other - don’t think im that scary really...

teaching 7B boys.

We have done 3 days at Mhiripenna as yesterday (Friday) was a poya day so no school. but the 3 days we have done we have really enjoyed and learnt lots from what we have done - I personal feel I need to prepare a lot more...oops, all went down well though! we are also hoping to paint the English classroom there at some point which would be fun, maybe get the kids to help... as we left grade 2 on Thursday and went to grade 1 we heard all the grade 2's singing "Tommy thumb" to them selfs/there teacher just for the fun...so if all else fails at least they now can sing "Tommy thumb".

In SGV last week the grade 4s had a veggie/fruit/plants sale in there classroom...it was amazing! It’s a bit like a British coffee morning but really not. the kids all brought in plants and things they had grown I the garden into the class and covered there tables in them, teachers came round and bought whatever they fancied...gives the kids a taste of shop keeping etc. I bought a Belly fruit (tried to cook it and failed badly so it was binned...Emer still has one we could try...) and an orange (although they are more like lemons here) and Emer got some curry leaves also.

So now on to the bikes...I am loving having bikes they are sooooo fun! Even on these wild roads! Im being careful all don’t worry! Been using them quite a bit actually - sometimes to the shop, although I get pretty unbalanced with loads of food and stuff, been to galle and been to the beach..

So will start with my beach cycle: last Sunday Emer and I went our own ways and both had such a good time, not because we weren't together but because we met so many amazing people. so anyway I cycled along to this beach...turned up and it was completely empty (forgot to mention bought a big bunch of bananas on the way to take for my breakfast...), sat down on the sand, took it all in, its gorgeous, got out some paper to write a few letters ad ate my bananas - chilled out! then this really sweet elderly man appeared next to me, at first he just stared and smiled really sweetly, so I tired with my little Sinhala to have a small conversation, got his name and where he lived etc, he had no English at all and I think was maybe actually kind of shy. He went of and collected lots of shells, not sure what for or why. then this other man appeared whose English was really good and I found out that his daughter goes to this school and they live just there next to the beach, also found he gets called "coconut man", as I found out when he asked if I wanted a king coconut which of course I did, there so yummy, so he ran off along the beach and up a coconut tree, then back along, pulled out this massive knife from his pocket and hacked the top of this coconut - made a hole so I could drink the water..mmmm!! while I was talking to him, the old man came back and I found out that he was a stilt fisherman just along from here and asked if I could come back this weekend and see him fishing (take some cool photos hopefully too), so might go first thing tomorrow to see my fisherman friend. Coconut man thought I must be burning in this sun so then ran off again but this time on his bike home...while he was away me and the fisherman talked some more (well tried), he was so lovely, I asked if I could take a photo of him and gave him a banana and a shell I had found to add to his collection. while coconut man was away, this other man appeared to ask if I would come meet his sister who I could see in there house at the side of the beach, so I said I had to wait for coconut man to get back but then I would come say hi. coconut man came back with 3 big sticks of alovera he had grown in his garden and  said I should put this on sun burn when I get home (it was really needed, nasty burn, thanks to coconut man I was fine). After saying bye to fisherman and coconut man I went to see the other man and his sister, they were building a coconut wood hut on the beach to rent out as a room to tourists - it was beautiful and all hand made. They sat me down gave me some tea, biscuits and bananas, met there 2 sons and just had a wee chat. The best thing though was when I was leaving this kind families home the mother gave me the biggest hug ever and kissed me on both cheeks and then handed me a papaya she had grown. Its crazy how kind people are in this country and how much they want to welcome you to everything...all 3 of those sets of people I met that day were amazing and made my day!

fisherman on beautiful quiet beach

Other things these last two weeks:

Alan, Emer and I went to a show in a temple next to SGV, as out dance teacher (still going good - uses the weirdest muscles though) had put on some dance performances. The temple was beautiful and great to see, it was an outdoor show - not good for the beach sun burn. Anyway we didn’t stay for long as we had only really come to see dancing and as we had expected (but hoped otherwise) there were hundreds of extremely long speeches, all of which we didn’t understand a word.

Emer and I also had another moment of kind Sri Lankans when we went to look around a hand made clothing etc shop. The people there have always been so kind but this time they insisted we stayed for lunch with them, so in the back of the shop we had a massive curry feast with these 2 lovely ladies.

new sari and kind shop ladies!

We have also been invited to Jo and Alan’s both Fridays the last 2 weeks for dinner and cards. Amazing food, seem to eat so much I feel like I will explode though. Really kind of them both great evening to relax at the end of the week.

Emer and I have this week made 2 Sri Lankan dishes..Both involving the COCONUT (I love)!! So the first being coconut (pol) sambol, my favorite thing here so felt I needed to make it. Its easy...crack the coconut, scrap it, mix with chilies, pepper, salt, garlic, onion and lemon...mmmm!! And we made coconut rotties - like flat coconut bread basically! Emer burnt her finger....

although crazy thing that has happened this week was Emer and I were just buying some fruit from our normal shop and this parade came past, one women grabbed Emer and I thought "its ok she ll be back in a minute" but then some other women grabbed me and before we knew it Emer and I were dancing down the main street with these bunch of strangers towards a temple. We found that this was a Hindu celebration and it was called a devil dance. To be honest I had no idea what we going on most of the time it was all so different. so we danced along to the temple, took out shoes of, stood around a shrine, then ate bananas and cake, then off we went again back down the street dancing with the band at the back and all the little girls holding on to our arms. we then went into the side of the road to where there was a jack tree and they lit fire, throw around smelly stuff and danced like crazy in the smelly (good smell) stuff, then climbed the tree a bit, covered it in marking with a knife and cut down some branch...at this point I really had no clue what was going on and how/why we were involved - all the same it was amazing to see and we jumped at the chance to have another new experience. We then danced along the road some more to one of the families house, where more dancing/singing/praying and tea drinking went on. We have now been invited back to one of the families for lunch this week coming. Think I will have a lot of questions to ask, was in complete shock at the time... (Also no photos of this as it sprung on us - no camera).

The latest adventure Emer and I have had was cycling to Galle on the main road...so fun and safe enough! You see so much more on the bike rather than a bus. we stopped to take some photos of boats near Galle, we went and got not 1 but 2 amazing apple cakes (then felt sick...), sat at the water and ate them, then on the way home we found a little cafe so went in had amazing banana milk shakes - took our time here and ended up staying for lunch so ate PIZZA not curry for once! Awesome! We also met a lovely family from Holland who have started a charity over here and have build 300 houses and on to there 3rd school in the last 5 years, they are also opened some playground around here next week so said they would let us know and we hope to go along and see it being open.

All and all the last 2 weeks have been great again and are still flying past (even though we have got in to a routine now). Sorry if my spelling is really bad and none of this made sense - don’t bother reading over it -all from the heart ha-ha.

Hope everyone is great. Thanks for all the letters/parcels this week - gran we loved the Scottish shortbread and jam it had gone already!

Will be in touch! Lots of love Kirstin xxx

p.s not all photo would upload - sorry. really annoying but oh well got some up - hope you enjoy! x

blog 4 - october

the last two weeks have been fairly busy but all great, do like being busy! ok so last time i left you that we were going to a friends house for lunch...it was sooo good, sri lankans just love to keep feeding you up no stopping unless you make them, it was delicious and finshed with ice cream and jelly..mmmmm! we got shown around there house, amazing outdoors kitchen, garden, water well and the husbands wood work area..he made the most amazing elephants out of coconut wood.

that sunday emer and i went to galle...long story involing a lost purse and our first visit to a Sri Lankan police station but wont go into that (although emer might further down...), all worked out good due to some very kind strangers! we got a great bus ride out of it all at night to galle, the sky was so so gorgeous:

Galle at night is a totally different place... loved it!

galle in the day:

next to old bus stand

galle veggie market

back to school on the monday till thursday that week and definietly had 2 of my best teaching days yet on wednesday and thursday! we took class 2B who begun of not saying anything, we tried and tried to get them to learn the colours but nothing...then slowly they eased in to it and it was amazing they were all chanting the colours at us by the end of the lesson, felt like they may have learnt a little bit...we also read a book called "dont you laugh at me" that day which went down so well..actually was laughing loads without even trying!

the last 2 weeks Emer and I have been taking groups of 4 out of some classes to have smaller groups of conversational english to try get the most out of there time, it seems to be working out really well and has really given me an idea of how good some of the kids are. We have also had 2 thursday sessions of volleyball with about 35 boys...ahhhhh it is mentaaal!! one net, 2 balls (well 1 the second session) and 35 10-13 year old boys!! they love competition and if you mention FINAL it is a ig deal! i to be honest have no idea about volleyball really but it seems fairly easy to pick up the rules and the kids just want to muck around really!!

Friday the 1st was NATIONAL CHILDRENS DAY: we had no idea what to expect from this and as we dont go to SGV on fridays we stayed here and watched the UMV school concert, which was full of songs (english and sinhala), dancing, speeches and some starnge ball game on stage which if you lost you had to do a forfeit on stage infont of the whole crowd...e.g act like a baby or dance. that afternoon we learnt from the boys host mum how to make coconut rotties!! they are like think coconut pancakes...all you need is about 50/50 coconut and wheat flour and some water to make a dough then roll flat into a circle and cook till fairly solid..so yummy! i cracked a coconut like a sri lankan!!! with a big knife and coconut in my hand...pretty proud...Emer has also managed now too!!

coconuts and papayas are now in my favourite foods list...definietly bringing a coconut scrapper home!
that weekend we were so busy and felt like locals! we watched some of the southern provience dance competition that was held here, went to galle - ate in a local curry place, had the amazing fruit salad we always get in galle, then that evening we went to the temple across from our house (as one of the teachers here lives there and invited us all) - we laernt so much about buddhism, it is facinating, an amazing religion (from what i know), after the temple we came back to our house and couldnt sleep so went for a wonder into the village and found that the local bread shop has a wee cafe and makes this amazing dough/chicken/veggie curry/stir fry ...seriously good!! met the local family who work and live there and talk to them loads ever since. that sunday we went back to jungle beach and chilled out although there were some problems with emer and a very slippery rock...been playing some beach cricket - they just love that sport here.

oh and forgot to mention we (emer, jo, alan and myself -although finn and tris are joining this week) have had 2 dance lessons, getting them every monday, its kandian dancing (tradtional) - i am fairly pants and Emer is awesome! its a lot of squating and funny positions, looks a lot easier than it is...might get there at some point...

we also got bikes this week!! 2 between the 6 of us to share!! Emer and I already went on an awesome bike ride round the back roads then back along the coast to here..i absolutly loved it you see so much more on a bike than the crazy buses...

We also met the funders of SENAHASA TRUST (who have put so much great work into the schools we work at and more in sri lanka for the last 5 years) , Mrs Ratnatunga and her daughter Kumu, it was wonderful to meet them. We had a great meal at Jo and Alans house with them, finshed with possibly thee best brownies i have eaten (or maybe its just because i haven't eaten much chocolate here so far..also had some more chicken..woohoo meat!).

this past wednesday was INTERNATIONAL TEACHERS DAY: once again we didnt know what to expect... we turned up at SGV as usual, had assembly which this time all the teachers sat up on the stage like area then the prefects came up and gave us all a poster each with a drawing and poem/speech on it about thanking teachers for what they do ( was very sweet). That day we only had 1 lesson as it was basically a day full of eating cakes/bananas/biscuits that the kids had put out in there classrooms for us...over load of sugar! we were also given some amazing flowers which have now made our kitchen look so much more lived in!

Today we went to visit Mihiripenna M.V school - this is the school Emer and I will be teaching at every thursday and friday from now on! it was great we met the principle and 4 english staff, went to watch a class and get the feel for the school, we also organsied what out teaching timetable would be..almost seemed a little too simple to organise mmm...cant wait to start there though, felt like it was a really lovely school, it is smaller than SGV and the classes have only about 18 maximum. they are also champions at volleyball...so maybe emer and i can get some of those 35 boys we coach and get a proper game on...

the language is being picked up slowly in parts..everyone wants to help. the saris are still amazing and getting better at putting them on...think i may slash out this weekend and buy this amazing blue one i found in Galle...the food is amazing, love it more and more s we go (get alot of left overs from the school kitchen which are always great!).

thanks to everyone who i got letters/parcels from, will reply to you soon! busy weekend ahead...
hope your all great! having a great time here, learning/settling/finding out more and more as we go!
love to everyone. kirstin xxx

EMER HERE!! :) okay so this place just keeps getting better. Im fully settled now ( i hope) and I'm having a great time with Kirst. Although i must admit the past week has been one involving many accidents- a missing purse with everything of value inside it (yes yes i know...i shouldnt be so stupid) it all worked out though!! I whacked my tailbone off some rocks on the beach (ouch...) and my sun burn is something of a disaster but you know what? Just being here makes up for ALL of that and more, plus i have Kirst to make me laugh at how much of an idiot i am. I'm getting ridiculously into photography now too and whilst talking to my mum on the phone was able to capture some really cool bats at dusk (check it out below and yes mum....i was listening to you too dont worry!)

We loved teachers day and were absolutely astonished by the generousity of the students and the genuine gratitude they showed towards their teachers with Alan receiving a particularly nice card! One thing we still can't get used to is the sound of a violent monkey! its like a broken car horn!! soo strange. Although what i think we find most strange is the fact we DONT find a lot of things strange....a giant mokey crossing our path on the walk to school is now something that is about a common as a cup of tea (and yes i WILL make Kirst like tea...sooner or later she will be an addict like myself) *evil laugh*
Love to all! Suba davasak!! xx