very long since i have writen in here - maybe even over a month...oops, sorry! just means i ve been super busy and have lots to tell you all...
Start of April was my BIrthday - Jo and Alan took Emer, Tris, Finn, Tris' two friends Laurie and Seb (who came to visit Tris while travelling all over the place) and I out for a meal at Wijiya (resturant just along at the beach from here) the night before my birthday - had a really lovely time and a yummy meal. That evening the 6 of us (not including Jo and Alan) went to Hikkaduwa beach - planning on staying for two nights and ended up staying 4 (i think...). Watch the Cricket world cup final (Sri Lanka v India) on my birthday, sadly they lost...I was given an absolutely gorgeous sari from Emer (very special one), thank you to all who send and gave me cards/presents - had a great day...seems like ages ago now.
The next big thing that happened here was Buddhist and Tamil New Year on the 13th/14th of April. Emer and I were invited round to "Highland Families" house - they are now great friends of ours, we were invited o the 13th and stayed the night at there house. On the 13th we helped prepare meals then that evening we hopped in there 3 wheeler (all 7 of us...) and went along to Yatagala Temple - it was beautiful! Yatagala temple is a rock temple - parts carved in to the rocks - the moon was full and it was so quiet we were the only people there. We lit insense sticks, placed temple flowers (aralyia or frangapanni flowers) and then Nilanti (amma - mum) just sat down and started Buddhist chanting in the pitch dark - it was amazing so i went to sit next to her (even though i didnt know what she was saying and couldnt join in it was still so special), then Ishara (big sister - akka) joined in by the end everyone was sitting down in this same area chanting for about 15 minutes - amazing! Emer, Ishara and I all slept in one bed in there house that night - nice and cosy - and had an early start to Yokshita (brother - mali) singing songs at the top of his voice! That day as part of the religion there was meant to be no eating until a certain time - which was arranged before the event according to the moon i think - this year you were not meant to eat until 3.18pm so there was a long wait for some but we were slightly bad and ate some stuff...we spent the morning cooking and making dodal (a big sweet jelly like food cooked in a massive massive pot outside on a fire with a giant spoon - you have to constantly stir it was 2 hours!!). Then at 1.03pm we sat in the living room in front of the tv (so we got the timing right)- made a fire on the concrete floor, put a small pot of milk on the fire. Nilanti lit the fire at exactly 1.03pm and it was to over flow - while this happens you make "wishes" of sorts - i think its forgetting past things also. Then we set up the table to eat at 3.18 and waited....hungry....at 3.18 we ate lots of very very sweet things but first we had kiri bat (milk rice), the first serving fed to us by Nihal (dad -tata). All and all it was a great day and so amazing to experience sri lankan life and celebrations properly with a sri lankan family.
from the left - Yokshita (highland family son), Emer, Madusha (highland families youngest daughter), Nilanti (highland mum - owns highland ice cream shop), Nihal (highland dad - works in the army so not home very often but was for new year) and me all around the kitchen table at sinhalese and tamil new year. Ishara is taking the photo.
Emer, me and Nilanti in front of the milk pot fire in the living room...awaiting the milk to over flow!
On the morning of the 15th, i wokr up at 3am to try and find a bus to Colombo to meet MY FAMILY!!! easy enough...there was loads of buses even at that time, climbed the school gate with emer and waited for about a minute...a bus appeared so fast, quick bye to emer (didnt see her in 2 weeks...weird after spending 8 months 24/7 with her!). Met my Mum, Dad and sister at the airport in my sari! i was so excited! and i arrived so early so got very figitty (no idea how you spell that...).It was AMAZING to see them! hugged etc then chucked them straight on a local bus! they were great and brought tiny bags so travelling was super easy! we went from colombo to kandy by train that afternoon, staying in Kandy for 3 nights - we went to the famous tooth relic temple, ate in a fairly dodge rice and curry shop (as my dad may tell you it cost us 77p each for a meal and drinks...value for your money!) and we went on a day trip from kandy to the knuckles mountain range. There we spent a day climbing one of the knuckles with 2 guides and a french man called sebastian - started through the tea plantation, up on to a plato, then up a steep peak (almost vertical at some points...i fell on my bum alot coming back down, ripping MORE of my clothes - everything i own here seems to have holes in it by the way...not the saris!) - unfortunately the top wasnt very clear so we couldnt see much but it was still very enjoyable even with the leeches!!! we thought we had all stayed clear of the leeches with our detol and balm combo but then we got back and found my mum had previously had one on her stomach where the detol and balm was missed...looked like she had been stabbed they bleed so much!
Anna and i outside the temple of the tooth in Kandy
The lamotte family at the top of our knuckles...cloudy!
After Kandy we headed for Hatton on the train again were we stayed in a tea plantation house...but not for long as a sudden plan of climbing more mountains came up...we decided to climb Adams peak the next morning ( the same one i climbed on christmas day), meaning a nice early start of 1am...ahh...climbed it in the dark again, sadly didnt manage to get to the top as it was so busy (we would have had to wait 3 hours to get to the top...)! possibly due to new year just having been. however we did see the sunrise from where we were (near the top) and it was beautiful anyway! went back to our hotel after the walk and had an amazing sri lanka breakfast full of milk rice, string hoppers, rottie, dahl, sambols etc etc. Then we didnt stop again...we went to colombo that night, splashed out in a nice hotel (was a change for me but lovely!). we stayed in colombo for one night as a stop of point then headed south to Hikkaduwa - so that anna could meet emer (who was already there and anna wouldnt meet her later cause she had to go home for exams...) - had lovely time with emer and my family on the beach for one day and night. Then we headed for Ambalangoda - slightly north again - to my Mums friends house - which was gorgeous and thank you to them for letting us stay (i hope to visit again when i can!) - we adventured around Ambalangoda village which was great as it was totally untouched by tourists - went to the harbour and bought from fresh prawns which anna and i later turned in to a yummy curry! From there we took the train to galle and caught a bus from there to unawatuna!!! - where i live incase you dont know...we spent 2 nights along at mihirpenna beach - i showed them my house, we went to jo and alans also for dinner, we went to highland families house for lunch, went material shopping in galle, spent a whole day cycling around all the back roads i go on - we only have 2 bikes here but my dad made friends with a man in a shop next to mihipenna school where we work and he very kindly found us 2 other bikes for the day! we also went to yatagala temple. Then Anna had to go back to colombo to catch her flight home as she had to study for exams (which she only has one more left, good luck!), so all 4 of us caught a bus from galle, my mum and dad got off at Bentota to stay in Geffery Bawas (famous sri lankan archetect) house that has now been turned in to a hotel - after dropping anna in colomobo i headed back down to stay with them there also. It was gorgeous! the house was amazing and so was the garden. We spent one night there before the 3 of us went back to stay along mihiripenna beach but in a different hotel from the last time. We had a big meal with Emer, Tris and Finns families (who all came over at the same time) and Jo and alan - everyone got to meet and it was really lovely! Before we all went to the airport we stayed at my mums friends house near colombo on a cinnamon plantation - thank you to them for letting us stay there and the people who were looking after us and feeding us yummy food! - we had a tour of the plantation which was really interesting.
Sunrise up Adams peak.
Great vegatable stand in ambalangodo - anna took the two photos above - good photography!
Anna and i on mihiripenna beach just along the road from us - one of my favourite beaches i have visited.
When we got to the airport - my dad headed home and... i went to india with my mum... School was not really happening as off then and i only really missed 2 days teaching so it wasnt a disaster - plus you should take all the opportunities you can right?! Anyway having one family memeber head home at a time made it a lot easier i imagine than saying bye to them all at once. So i went to Bangalore in India with my mum for 3 nights - she had to visit some herb farms for work so i became her sidekick. we staying in the middle of Bangalore the first 2 nights - when we arrived we were met by the herb people (all so lovely) and taken to an amazing resturant - slight shock to my system as it was so fancy and massive...just did a lot of staring! Infact everything in india compared to here came across to me as just really really BIG! we had a day looking at slights in bangalore and rading though markets - loved that! Then we were taking o see two farms and stayed at one of them in the farm house - it was beautiful! this was further out of bangalore and fairly remote next to big mountains (that i have now forgotten the name off...the great...??? all the way south to north of india??) and a tiger reserve! cool! didnt see any tigers though sadly but it was still great! I wasnt in india long enough to make real comparisons to here (i definietely want to go back) but on first impressions its bigger (bangalore has 10 million people alone!!! sri lanka has 20.6!), not as clean, people arent as friendly, its so busy (but in a good way that theres so much to look at), food is spicer, actually very different but yummy, its also not quite as green as here but still gorgeous...then again i am of course very biased towards sri lanka cause i have been here so long and grown to love it loads!
Bangalore skyline.Ever since my family have left so much has been going - i will try explain all quickly...
School was very slow to start with when we got back as vesak (the birth and death of the buddha) was coming up and its a major celebration here - so a lot of class time was taken up by making vesak laterns - emer and i even made our own ones with our grade 4s in Mihiripenna - i think mine was pretty awful compared to what the kids do but they said it was good...maybe just to be nice but it worked haha. For the build up to Vesak there is a day (i think - not entirely sure) where everyone observes seel (not sure how you spell this..). This basically means a day of chanting and meditaion. Mihiripenna had one at there school the friday before vesak (vesak was the 17th of may) - a buddhist monk from the temple next door came over to lead the ceremony - it was held in the school hall, everyone dressed in white and sitting around the edges of the room, there were candles all over the stage - the chanting etc lasted the whole school day from 8ish to 1.30pm a long time for young kids to sit still but they were great and had breaks - one for breakfast of dahl, pol sambol (coconut) and bread (the best meal ever!!!), then a yogurt stop, then a lunch one of full rice and curry and they even took time out every so often to get up and walk round the playground chanting together - it was so new to emer and i but a great experience! For the day of vesak we spent it with highland family - Emer, Tris, Finn and i went round to there house for lunch and some lighthearted cricket/badminton after. Then the boys went home to spent the day with there sri lankan family, emer and i also went home briefly to get into our white saris - then we went back to meet highland family (ishara and nilanti also in there white saris and looked absolutly stunning!) and went to unawatuna temple for a vesak ceremony with chanting, lighting of lamps, passing flowers - ther temple was looking incredible! This was something i will never forget it was so beautiful, there was probably around 300 (at least) people at this small temple all locals from unawatuna, Emer, Tris, Finn and i being the only forgieners but i was feeling so lucky to be involved in something so sri lankan! after the ceremony was finshed we went with highland family and walked around the village looking at all the massive and amazing vesak lanterns then we went to nilantis mums house (ishara, yokshita, madushas grandmother) were we drank tea and ate food - on the 17th and 18th of may the veask days there is a thing called dansal (dansil?!) where food is given out free to everyone one a certain locations - amazing to think people can cook on such a large scale there must have been hundreds maybe even up to thousands going to the one in unawatuna and i can only imagine galle or something bigger would be even more tricky to cater for but such a nice area that all should be fed freely on these days! yummy food too haha!
Grade 4 boys in there whites in the school hall before the seel started.
the hall at mihiripenna awaiting the monk to enter.
Me and "my vesak lantern" in grade 4 classroom - photo taken by a pupil hence the finger in the way!
some grade 4s and there vesak lantern (seems to be the same boys as above - they clearly like there photo being taken) - makes my lantern look silly. they are made from slices of bamboo tied together and then using flour paste and crepe paper they are covered. this is not even a big one - they can be massive and some even spin! most have lights in them by the time they are finished. next blog i will try find a photo of a big one for you all to see...
School is going great right now and we are all trying to make the most of our last few months here! the kids are aborable (and naughty) as always and so keen! one of my highlights this week was with one boy in grade 5 at mihirpenna - we were doing transport and everyone was great at it - but he seems to just stare in to the sky and look around a lot, seeming as if he isnt paying any attention. However at the end of the lesson he was extemely sweet and stayed behind on his own to say a big thank you (which in itself i was slightly shocked by as he usually doesnt say much), so i had the transport cards in my hand and quickly ran over them with him and he knew every single one (minus "cart" which to be honest is hard) - i dont think i taught him that as he probably learnt it last year but even still it shows he is listening and taking it in even if i think hes not - it was very sweet and i hope i can do more work with him soon. Emer is currently in the process of making a drama with the grade 9s at SGV to by entered in to a competition in galle and she is loving it - it is also looking great, very happy for her! We had english days coming up so some songs, poems and dramas need to start being thought about for them also. I hope to start doing some more individual work this week which should be fun and very rewarding as you really see a difference.
We have been keeping busy out of school aswell - we have been to hikkaduwa one weekend and then to sinharaja rainforest last weekend - it was great fun! walked through the rainforest for one day saw 3 snakes, 2 lizards, lots of leeches (ewww) and swam in a beautiful pool next to a waterfall. I have also cycled up to the japanese peace pagoda on rumassala hill here - although i couldnt cycle the first bit it was so so so steep - anyway it has now turned in to one of my favourtie places in sri lanka and i cant believe its taken me so long to go up and see it - it has amazing views over to galle and out into the india ocean - may go back tomorrow!
Emer at the swimming pool/waterfall in sinharaja rainforest!
Our guide and a mildy venimous snake he grabbed from the bushes....
Well that is all for now (although sure there is more i dont want to drag on and this is very late...sorry again!). I hope everyone at home or wherever you are, are doing great and having lots of fun!
Buddhist flag drawings done before vesak to decorate the classrooms! I love the colours!
Lots of love, kirstin xxx
