BLOG 7:

for some reason i am having major memory failure today...cant really remember what has gone on the last 2 weeks... so here goes:

emmmm this week in Galle there has been cricket on (for what may be the last time for professional cricket there), Sri Lanka vs West Indies, in a five day test match. So we went along Monday - to see my first ever professional cricket match, learnt lots from Alan sitting next to me and watch Gayle (west indies) get his first 200 runs which then turned into 300+ which made him have one of the best test cricket scores ever apparently...well anyway it was good to see and then rained at times throughout the week so was rained off and was a draw...i think!

aswell as cricket we have been to our next door neighbour, Govindas wedding party last Saturday night. He has just built a new house in for his wife and so we had a look around his amazing massive house and then sat in the garden to have a meal. The garden looked so pretty it was all lit up and there was a band. The food was amazing! we didnt stay quite long enough to get involed in some sri lankan dancing...We had however bought new saris so dressed up for the occation which was good fun!

govindas his wife at the right end (ment to put the one with govinda too but got wrong one oops...)

at the meal in the garden

emer and i have made 2 visits to one of our favourite cafes in the last 2 weeks, called sahana - we thought it was called richlands tea but thats just a promotion sign that seems bigger than there name sign...its on the water front heading towards Galle. Both times we walked which was very nice. The first time was at the weekend and we ended up "helping" push a fishing boat into the water and went in to a scappy (my dad would be proud..) where the man ended up showing us his goats and chickens (unfortunately we had no camera with us as it was a spur of the moment kind of thing so no photos). The second time we went was last wedesday as it was a poya day, we went to just chill out and drinking banana milk shakes..mmm! the weather went crazy when we got there though saw the rain coming for us and then boom thunder/lighning/rain and we had to sit inside..place was shaking. we also felt cold...

its actualy been crazy weather a lot here recently...yesterday it rained soooo much when we were trying to get home from Jo and Alans friends house. The playground is now covered in giant puddles. yesterday Emer and i went along to Mhiripenna with Jo and Alan to visit there friends for tea and biscuits, they live in this amazing 100 year old house built in the colonial times.

teaching the last 2 weeks has flown by. 2 of my favourite things i remember these last 2 weeks were taking both grade 1 classes out to the playground with there chairs to sing songs etc - they were slightly wild but think they enojyed it which is what counts i guess. the other thing was when we were teaching grade 2, we were reading them a story and pretended to lick some cake on the page, one boy laughed so much he fell of his chair which then ment the whole class laughed even more - it was just really sweet!
we have tried to enforce the naughty chair with grade 3s in Mhiripenna as they are easily the most wildclass we teach - emer resorted to taking the naughty kids books which they love as they started to find the naughty chair entertaining...ahhh!

well im sure theres loads more to the last 2 weeks but i really cant think...should write it down...
but anyway we have practically finished teaching for this term as term end tests start which we are not involved in and classes get all messed up...so we are off TRAVELLING!!! Emer and i are finished a bit earlier than the boys so we are just going to head of and meet the boys later. The plan is to go East along the south coast some more then up the East coast a bit ended up in a surfing place called Arugam bay. Emer and i are going to make our way up there slowly and have lots of stops - hopefully go to Yala national park and see some elepants! From Arugam we are going to head inland towards the hill country and travel around there for a bit - see some nice places, waterfalls, walks, bridges, white water rafting etc... before we head off to Adams peak (sri pada - famous relgious moutain, 5200 steps, 7km walk, temple on top) for christmas day. we are hoping to walk up Adams peak super early so we can watch the sun rise at the top - fingers crossed its a clear day...so lots of travel plans and so excited! will be away for a month so no internet and no blogs for travelling time but will do a round up of it all (if i remember) when im back!

hope everyone is doing great at home and your all looking forward to christmas! xxx

blog 6:

so this morning we woke up to a giant roller behind our house flattening the railway - ment to be up and running again by Janurary which means no need for alarms then as trains go by at 5 anyway... (may feel like home next to the railway...). then this morning i had a very sri lankan breakfast of my favourite sambol (slightly too spicy) and bread, mmmmm. heres an old picture of me attempting to make it on a proper grinder:

the last 2 weeks have flown again...freaking us out a little how fast it is!

teaching:
Mhiripenna is going great, really getting in to the swing of things there, even if it ment having to create a naughty chair. kids in grade 3 learning vocab and alphabet:

emer and i took 2 private lessons with "the rottie families" (rottie is a food that they sell not some kind of nasty name we have created) kids, both of different ages and abilities so was kind of tricky but we will see how that goes...working progress...

i really enjoyed helping out in one of the sri lankan english teachers classes this week at SGV, sat at the front with grade 4 boys who seemed to be picked up everything with a little encouragment. I also really enjoyed being in one of Alans 9B lessons where there is a girl who doesn't say a world, i sat next to her to try and help her along, still didnt say much but you could tell she understood and was laughing about things which was really nice!

at SGV assembly this week it was so sweet 4 grade 2 boys went up to "stage" and were all passing the microphone back and forth between them and gigglying majorly, until one just decided to keep it and they sang the sweetest song - so cute! wish i had had my camera...

Emer, alan and i also helped out at Sunils (a english teacher at SGV) english tution school this friday. We went on a really gorgeous (although wild) bus journey to get to his house/tuition school where we spend 3 hours teaching 53 grade 5 kids who were so willing and keening to learn - really enjoyed it! after the teaching sunils wife had made a feast for us with a european twist, so yummy!

meal in sunils house after teaching - sunil and his family in the back ground

alan reading piggy wiggy

　other things that have been going on these last 2 weeks:

we were invited by a family (whose son goes to school at UMV and we met when we danced in the parade...) to there house for lunch last weekend. so we turned up where we said we would meet them, then hopped in the dads "sri lankan tractor" (also want to point out we were wearing our sairs in the tractor haha) which took us to there house in the middle of no where but was so beautiful to get there and when we were there! the drive there was halarious it was like some sort of wacky race! i actually got a stitch in my side (or what i thought was a stitch - shows how unfit i am..) because the tractor was so shakey...haha!
the dad and his tractor (we sat in the traylor like bit at the back):

when we got to the house we ment the family, had a drink then they took us for a walk around there area - so so beautiful, walked through a rubber tea plantation and watching as shane (the son who is at school here) smacked jack fruit off the top of trees.
rubber trees:

me and the family off on our walk:

lunch being cooked on the brick fire

oh i forgot to mention last weekend i got up ealry (for the weekend) and cycled along to see the stilt fisherman - unfortunately i didnt see the guy i had met before (or he was on his stilt and i couldnt tell) but was really nice to watch it, although wasnt the best day and started raining. had a nice cycle afterwards too:

i also had another cycle this week where i thought i woudl be brave and try out my lack of exercise here and cycle up this massive hill (well felt like it was massive), made it to the top but did feel the most out of breathe i have been yet, then started to head back down...then realised i had no breaks....dun dun dun! not good, emergancy feet down stop, luckily realised before i got too fast...haha.

some other amazing moments i can think of the top of my head (should actually start writing things down or i forget everything...): emer and i had a movie night as she got sent a usb of films over (watched fantastic mr fox), so we moved our bed side table and squashed our beds together to watch this film...it created so much space in our room and for anyone who has seen the film "step brothers" it was seriously like the activity space they make when we make there bunk beds... so funny (or at least was for us...). another funny thing happened yesterday on our way back from the beach (which was so nice to chill out although it rained a bit...), we bumped in to our local entertainer...chooti/sampat, almost every time we walk around the village we bump in to him and he either hides under his umbrella, puts his thumps up and always has the same conversation - about where he lives on rumassala hill with the bats (emer loves te bring up the bats...). anyway yesterday we saw him first for once, so emer screams "hello" and he jumps a mile then bursts out laughing (forgot to say he has a voice like he has been sucking helium), then he just randomly bursts into song and makes us film him singing, was pretty funny and sure he just loves to entertain!

so dancing, volleyball, arts and crafts, singing, badminton etc all still going on aswell.
All going great! hope everyone is great at home and all having fun! love kirstin xxx