LAST BLOG FROM SRI LANKA

emer and i at mihiripenna

this is going to be my last blog from sri lanka....ahhh!!! I will be back on the 19th of august but leave unawatuna (our house, the schools, our friends..) this sunday the 7th. im so excited to see all my family and friends, drink real milk, feel cold and have to wrap up warm...the list continues. However leaving here is going to be very sad, Sri Lanka in a sense has become my second home - being able to spend a whole year in a country that was conpletely new to me has been one of - if not the - best experience of my life (as cheesey as it may seem). I am so glad that Sri Lanka is the country i have come to and that it was for a whole year - i can't think of any other country i would rather be in. I have learnt so much for being here and will miss it very much - i just keep telling myself, i have to think of the good times i have had and to make the most of more to come. Currently i am feeling the mixed emotions of the sadness to leave here and being excited to come home. What i will miss from Sri Lanka is mainly the people - as a general note the people in sri lanka are the most friendly, kind, welcoming, smiley, energetic people i have ever met (and of course the other 5 volunteers i am with, who have all been amazing - but we will be all on the same piece of land when we get back)- there are some sri lankans in particular but i wont go into detail - we have to do a final communtiy study, and as it is the people that have made my year here, that is what i am focusing on and have taken many photos of peoples hands...odd but kind of fun! I will however miss the rice and curry (infact all sri lankan food including the fruit which is incredible), the beauty of the natural environment, fire flies, being able to swim in the sea when you are far to hot (unlike the cold sea of scotland - which i do also love but i guess in a different refreshing way...), the adorably cute kids at school (guess that comes under people), the buses, living with emer (also under people - but she needed a special mention)...i will leave it there...there is loads i will miss from this place but i hope it has just set me up for more to come and i defintely feel i have got a lot out of it. I am looking forward to being home and can't wait to see all my family and friends!!!



So as we are leaving unawatuna on sunday this week is fairly busy - today we went to sgv and had a leaving concert for the headmaster, very long and didn't understand the sinhala but nice dancing. Tomorrow we are also going to sgv but this time we are holding an english concert as a final goodbye to sgv school - each year group is singing an english song we have taught, along with some dances and other songs (some from the 6 of us volunteers too...). Then wednesday luckily we have nothing going on (unless we go to the cinema in galle just to see what its like...), so have found sometime where we can pack and tidy our very messy house...oops. Hopefully sometime tomorrow and wednesday we will find time to get some presents for friends here. Tuesday will be our last day in sgv!!! Then on Thursday we are going to Mihiripenna school (last day of term) for our last day there also, they have very kindly organised a concert to say bye to us and some other teachers who are leaving that school. Both schools will be very much missed. Friday - Tris and Finn are holding an inter-school cricket tournament which all sounds very fun and excited and we will spend that evening with jo and alan as it is alans birthday and our second last night here. Saturday we are going to our friends (and our dance teacher), indkias house for tea/breakfast in the morning and hope to spend the afternoon with friends in unawatuna - mainly the amazing highland family! Sunday we head to colombo to drop of most of our stuff and continue on with less stuff to Kandy to watch the perraherra (big famour parade - lots of elephants) and some sri lanka vs australia cricket. From there we hope to go to Jaffna in the very north for an adventure and then head back to colombo for our flight home!!!



I also haven't written in here for a while (again...sorry all!) so lots has been going on as everything has been happening so fast and so much. Not actually sure where to start...

well i actually wrote the bit above yesterday and have now started again...

so ye i might do this roughly and spent time on photos...if they work...

well it has been emers 20th birthday!!! wooo!!! had a lovely day - sri lankans on there birthdays are the ones giving out thing instead of reseving so emer, the sri lankan she now is went (i joined also) round both the schools we teach in and everyone we know in unawtuna giving out a piece of cake to celebrate here birthday with her! everyone loved it!! we also went to highland families house for lunch - which was yummy as always - being welcomed with popped balloons full of gliter and then watching the film rio - great cartoony film about birds, loved it! that evening

emer on her birthday in our kitchen

emer, ishara, nilanthi and yokshita on emers birthday - great hat!!

As well as celebrating emers birthday we have been holding parties for all our classes in both schools - eating lots of cake and playing lots of games!! it has been great but very sad to say bye. today was our very last day in sgv and we had a concert (as said before), it was a great sucess, we had lots of fun and think the kids enjoyed it too - also however extremely sad leaving there for the very last time - i hope i can go back some day in the future. our last day in mihiripenna is on thursday.

alan and grade 7s singing run rabbit at the sgv concert yesterday

emer and grade 9a playing fruit salad

me and grade 3s at our little party

emer and i playing games with mihiripenna grade 4 girls - one of the grade 4 boys had our cameras and took some great photos!

We have also been on a book ship...went to the spice man in galles house for lunch - adorbable family - so kind and very yummy spicey food!!! as well as going to there house we have been to our friends in unawatunas house - they are an older couple who own the bread shop near the bus stand in unawatuna - such sweet people have become very close with them these last 3 months, it was great to go to there house also. We (emer and i - usually when i say we i mean us anyway) have been to a jungle swimming pool with jo, alan, josie (jo and alans friend) and the boys - its basically a swimming pool build in the middle of the jungle - stone floor and fed by a river - so refreshing, along with an amazing picnic jo had made! Emer alan and i have been to a dance competition with grades 5 and 7s at sgv - grade 5s came 2nd and grade 7s won there section - was held on an outside theatre, really pretty. Jo, Alan, Emer and i have been to a wedding along at mihiripenna - mr wirrisi from sgv, his sisters sister was getting married and some how we were also invited along - distant reletionship but very nice all the same to see how a sri lankan wedding ceremony takes place. We have also been to a beach festival and i think thats about our last few weeks rouned up fairly roughly but all there. Teaching has basically just been making the most of our last wee while, playing lots of games, having lots of fun, throwing parties and concerts...one more to come. All very fun but sad at the same time.

spice man - shanta - with his grinding machine in his house

on the book ship...

bus stand bread shop family - left to right - sunil, there niece, mallika, millika and sunils son and then mallikas sister.

tris and finn at the yummy picnic

all of us at the jungle pool

Well i will leave it there for now. Hope everyone has enjoyed reading these blogs even if they are very random and uninteresting they will be a good memory to me - sorry i havent been better at writing them more often. Thanks again to everyone who helped me to get here and who have made my time here so special!

Hope everyone is great at home and im so excited to see you all. Just going to make the most of the last 2 and a bit weeks here then i will see you in no time.

see you at home!!!

kirstin xxx


Emer- hey everyone, so here we are at the final stage of our trip in Sri Lanka. time absolutely flys by and its at the stage im packing up my rucksack. Im sooo looking forward to seeing everyone at home again but saying goodbye to this country which i have grown to love is almost heart breaking. I know I'll come back again one day so I'll remember the palm trees, spicy foods and people to keep me occupied in drizzly U.K before i return again. Sri Lanka i love you and Ireland...? Get the kettle on......xx

p.s Kirsts gran? she likes tea now....you can thank me later.

kirstin again - i don't really like tea (im in denial...), tastes like brown water... also gran i hope you had a great birthday!!! Emer has been great even with tea forced upon me... see you all you soon! xxx

blog 14 - time is flying, coming to an end!

keep in mind i wrote this over the weekend...also only managed to get 6 photos up as the internet is a tad rubbishy...will try put the other 5 i had planned to put up later.

Another busy packed last few weeks...also not very up to date here again so lots to say. Hope everyone is great at home and will be seeing you all very soon!

In the last few weeks we have been all over the place...

starting with finns birthday on the 2nd of June, we (tris, finn, emer and i) went away the following weekend to mirissa beach about 40 minutes from here towards matara. We spent two nights there - watched lots of england vs sri lanka cricket, swam, Tris and i went for a walk up to a temple and met a lovely lovely family who gave up king coconuts to drink and we played games/drew pictures with the kids - was all really lovely!

mirissa bay

The next week it was Tris' birthday on the sunday, so we went to opposite direction, north to Ambalangoda. We stayed the weekend at my family friends house (the one my family and i stayed in when the came over in april - cant believe its now July!!!!!!!), it was a very relaxed weekend, we didn't leave the house much - but to be honest didn't want to its such an amazing house - Thanks again to Aileen, Harry and family for letting us stay there! We did however have a tv and dvd played so emer and i went and rented out some dvds and we watched some films - including the new (well maybe now not so new but new since we have been here) Harry Potter - actually not all the impressing... Emer and i also bought some yummy fresh prawns from the market and made a "makey upy" fish (prawn) pie, it was so yummy though - quite proud of our cooking skills for once! The next night we also made some yummy pasta, tomato, bacon combo and then for tris' birthday breakfast we made some pancakes with ice cream and bananas!!!! We also had a very intense game of manopoly - which i like to think i should have won but didn't as i was ganged up on by the other 3...

while im on the birthday note...as a present from jo and alan to tris and finn for their birthday they took all 4 of us with them to a villa along the road from here to play tennis, swim in a snazy pool and eat some snazzy breakfast. We had a lovely day - tennis was fun even though im pretty rubbish it was fun all the same, slighty burnt soles of my feet because i played in bare foot as a result but thats my silly fault oops!

Teaching has been going great and i can't believe there is only 5 more weeks left untill the end of term and we finish teaching - time is/has flown! We have had some great grade 2 lessons involving making and wearing fruit masks and then say while wear your banana mask for example - "i like yellow banana", it was hilarious for us and the kids, great learning fun! I have also taken some smaller groups out of classes in Mihiripenna - all of which have been great and show so much improvement, which is so rewarding. I took some very weak boys from grade 5 who were adorable, tried so hard, we just focused on the basics of alphabet and phonics but it was great to see them try so hard and eventually get some of them stuck. In grade 1 to 3 right now we have been doing a lot of focus on formation of letters - which is also so rewarding as the kids realise that there is actually a correct way to do it and they can do it - really sweet! also been taking smaller groups from grades 6, 7 and 8 recently - 6 and 7s being weaking ones from the class and 8s being the stong ones - nice to have a mix.

emer, miss cante and some grade 2as sgv with their fruit masks - lots of laughing!

me and some grade 2as and fruit masks - pretty scary!!

It was poson poya day last month and to celebrate we went to a girl, Danu from UMVs house where we had some special poson snacks. Danu was wearing a sari for the first time in her life and she looked amazing! After there house we walked to a dansal (free food giving ceremony - like the same things that were going on on vesak, the other big poya day) in unawatuna where we had some lovely rice and curry! it was a really nice night and good to get to know danu and her family a bit more!

Since i last wrote in here we have also had a week off as a kind of half term break. So Emer, Tris, Finn and I all went to Trincomolee along with one of Finns friends from home, Peter. peter, tris and finn headed up before emer and i on the sleeper train and got rooms etc. The next day emer and i headed to colombo, got some food and hopped on the sleeper train ourselves - not very sleepery, we ha slightly reclining chairs - was good fun however, Emer and i pretending to be from Switzerland and speaking in funny accents for a long time kept us going and laughing. We left at 9ish and got in at around 5/6am the next morning - think i slept 2/3 hours max...fun fun fun! Anyway Trincomolee is beautiful and well worth the travel! We were staying on the beach, which had flat calm water for once which was a change from here. Trinco has only recently been fully open to tourists since the war so its fairly quiet and very different to the south coast where i am now -it seemed a lot more dry not so green and lush, women seemed to be out and about a lot more freely (lots of girls at night and cycling bikes everywhere - doesn't happen so often here) - it was great! Really nice to go to different parts of sri lanka and experience different lifestyles. We spend lots of time relaxing/swimming at the beach, we explore trinco (bought some presents for home), went into the fort and the temple which was on a cliff (think thats the first proper cliff i have seen here...). One more i rented a bike to cycle to the train station and check when we could get a train back to colomobo - loved the bike, was a fairly old ladies bike with a basket - amazing, had a lovely wee cycle looking around at everything as i went.

emer, finn, tris and peter eating ice creams on the way up though the fort in trinco to the temple at the top - looking over trinco bay

finn and tris at the temple!

yesterday we (tris, finn, emer, jo, alan and i) went up rumassala hill to lachmees (jos friend teacher from umv) house for an armsgiving (celebration - giving food, chanting, monks came etc). It was a lovely morning and then after we went for a well wash also which was so refreshing in the jungle like area of rumassala hill.

bay on the way to mihiripenna on my bike from here. just a nice photo. in the back ground the bit of land the sticks out far away is where rumassala hill is and where we had our well wash and lachmees arms giving.

emer and i in galle fort!!

Well i think that is all for now from me but i will try get a couple more blogs in for my time in sri lanka! at least one while im here and one when i get home maybe!

Hope everyone is great and having lots of fun. love kirstin xxx

blog 13 - its a biggy as i haven't done it in so long...oops

 HELLO!

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!

My family and highland family at there house when we went for lunch!

                                   The lamottes in saris and sarongs at the beach!

 

                                          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

blog 12

Hello all!

this was written yesterday so may not make sense...had the most amazing thunder and lightning storm last night - watched from our door, one point there was this massive bolt so emer and i subconciously ran away...not sure where we were going... so exciting!

just re-read the start of my blog from last time and realise it has been AGES since i wrote in this - very sorry seem to have been pretty busy!

going to start with the most recent news and work my way backwards...

Last night we arrived back to unawatuna from a 4 day school trip with SGV (grades 9-13). The trip was great fun, got to know all the pupils a lot better (as we dont teach too many older classes), was so nice to spend the time with so many sri lankans but very tiring.

All the way through the trip on the buses there was drumming, singing and dancing from everyone - on a moving bus making the dancing pretty exciting! We also saw lots of peacocks and even an elepant by the road on the trip!

We left at 3am from here on thursday morning to SGV school to get on the bus - there were around 75 pupils and 15 teachers. From SGV we headed for Arugam Bay - stopping off first at a lovely park to eat our breakfast on the way then at a salt "farm" (not sure what you would call it...), massive salt pans - we didnt say here long as it started to rain and Sri Lankans DON'T like the rain. From the salt pans we headed towards monoragala where we went to a beautiful temple with a lovely brick dagoba and to a massive budda statue in an amazing park. Both were explained to everyone by the principle (who is a monk) but in sinhala so we didn't quite understand but it was so nice to see them all the same. At this point we were driving though the area that was badly affected by the flooding earlier this year - the roads were being re-built, trees were fallen down all over the place and quite a few mud slides. For that night we headed east for Arugam Bay - here we stayed at lovely little school for that night. It was like "extreme camping" - all the food, pots, oil, fire wood etc was on the roof of the buses to last us the 4 days. When we arrived straight away dinner was being made - everyone helped out, it was very organised for such large scale cooking! From here on out for the trip we ate rice and curry 3 times a day - a lot of rice but yummy! There were a couple of wells at this school for washing which was very handy. That night there was a lot of singing and drumming and then people headed to bed - Emer and i slept in a room on concrete floors with blankets on top, about 5x5meters with 10 other girls in it - cant say i slept much that night...then we were woken at 3am!!! This early start was to prepare breakfast and lunch for that day - giant camp fires were once again in use!

Mrs Shiani, Emer, Rashmi, Mrs Subaodasana and me

walking towards the big budda statue

Day 2 of the trip - we had a very very brief stop of at Arugam Bay beach then headed for the proper beach stop at Batticaloa (furthest north i have been in Sri Lanka yet) - having a juice break at a three wheeler shop...The beach we went to was beautiful - we all went swimming although most of the pupils can't swim (i think its something like 3 per cent of sri lankans can swim!) but it was very shallow out far so lots of splashing and playing in the water went on, great fun! After washing, lunch, frizbee etc at the beach stop we went south again for Ampara where we were to stay that night. That night was similar to the first with a lot of "extreme cooking" and all sleeping in the big assembly hall - we slept behing some cutains on the stage. That morning with another 3am start (even though it was saturday the school we were staying at had lessons due to losing lesson time during the flooding) we managed to find buckets to wash our hair, breakfast and lunch were made and headed straight off to eat breakfast at our next stop.

me and some grade 9a girls on our stage/bed for the night. grade 9a girls are amazing!

Day 3 - we went to a BEAUTIFUL tank/lake to have a little look and eat our breakfast (which i forgot to mention - Emer, Alan and i forgot to bring plates so used our upside down fizbees as plates!) - this looked strangely like Loch Ranoch to me! After breakfast we went to my favourite temple i have seen in sri lanka yet - it was gorgeous on top of a rock and you could see for miles! I think this place was very special to the principle so im glad he took us there - buddhist chanting took places here by everyone. There wer soooo many monkeys here and not scared of us at all! Heading from here to Baddula in the hill country we went to two Dagobas - the first of which would have been massive but it was not fully finished a it was built sometime around 7th century (i think...) by a king who was building it as a present to the monks died during the building , it was one of the 16 places the budda visited in sri lanka (thats why a dagoba was built here). The second dagoba was finshed , it was lovely, right next to the longest river in sri lanka - Kumbukkan Oya. For the last night we stayed in Baddula in another school hall.

cooking - big pots of rice and curry on camp fires. school desks used for table to chop veg fish etc with everyone helping in the background

Day 4 - we woke slightly later this day as there was no school taking place here! After more yummy rice and curry breakfast we headed to another beautiful temple for some morning chanting, then we went to Dunhinda falls (been before but was nice to go again with the school), then to the largest budda statue in Sri Lanka carved into this massive rock face (sadly my camera had run out a battery by this point..). We also went to a train station...we went here as it was in the grade 12 textbook as it is very clever engineering as the railway goes round on itself (hard to explain in writing) - basically theres a big hill in the way so it has to go down, round it, through the hill and under its original path...the railways in sri lanka have been built by the British originally but this bit was designed by a sri lankan engineer also! After this we thought we must be heading back as we thought it would take around 8hours to get back and it was now about 3pm...but no we went to another water fall near ella which was actually amazing - it was massive! From here we did head back with a couple stops for food/water/toilet etc. By this point i was extremely tired some how the pupils have this endless energy - i have now realise sri lankans are so lively and don't even need a huge amount of sleep, very musical/great dancing, they also never complain about being tired or anything - generally amazing! So made it back by around 11pm last night very tired but had a great time!!!!

beautiful dagoba at the rock temple - my favourite temple as of yet

other than that there has actually been loads else going on aswell but i will try keep it brief!



We walked with SGV school for there peraherra - big parade, 2mile walk in the crazy heat with loads of dancing, singing, music, everyone in costumes! We also saw the older kids at Mihirpenna get ready for there peraherra a different day but didn't go with it as we taught the younger kids instead.

Emer and I with grade 3s at Mihiripenna

Kandyan dancers from SGV at the peraherra

the front of the SGV peraherra

We had a visit from our desk officer from Project trust - Nick, who arrived when we hada poya day so took Emer, Finn, Tris and I whale watching 40minutes away from here. He also came into Mihipenna one day to watch us teach and we went to the rock temple close by with him.

We have also been back up to Colombo to watch more cricket - this time Australia vs Pakistan. We saw history as Australia lost there first match in the last 4 world cups (they had won 34 matchs in world cups and we saw them lose there 35th...). We were mixed in with a big group from Pakistan so got green and white painted all over our faces!

Teaching has also been going really well - definietly seeing a massive improvement in our grade 2s which is so nice. Term is coming to an end again!! Can't believe i have almost finished to terms here and only got one more left!! So this week there is a lot of term end tests and then school will finish next friday the 8th. The week before last there were 3 days off school due to southern province elections and schools were used for polling centres - so those 3 days we made loads of resouces (books, fans, pictures, cards, clocks etc...) for each of the 4 schools senahasa works with, it was great to get them done and know they can be used lots with future volunteers.

Im sure there are lots more little bits and bobs i could say but i have written enough to lose peoples focus already. Not entirely sure when i will manage to write in this again as we finish school on the 8th and then Emer and i hope to travel a wee bit, then my family come out on the 15th till the 30th so busy busy untill May. So excited to see my Mum, Dad and Sister and show them all whats been going on the last 7 months!!

I hope everyone is doing great and having lots of fun!! Buddhist new year is coming up on the 13/14th April so Happy New Year for then!
Kirstin xxx
p.s are loads more photos just being very slow and annoying tonight!!

hello!!

sorry for not writing in this in a while...seem to have been busy recently and haven't found the time to fill you all in on sri lankan news...although this may be brief too as i dont have too much time to write this...

ok so think this may be mainly photos...but then again i always say this and get carried away!

last night we went to watch sri lanka v pakistan in the world cup in colombo. spent 2 nights in colombo with emer, tris and finn and had an amazing day at the cricket! although sri lanka lost by 12 runs it was so good - they are mad about cricket here and everyone was constantly singing and dancing! loved it!!!! pretty sky above too...

emer, finn and tris looking "cool" at the cricket...

emer and i with our sri lankan flags at the cricket

we have also been back to our highland families house for lunch and have been tutoring her daughter Ishara - trying to help her sort a cv and plan for ineterviews for jobs in agriculture.

We got stopped by a man on his motor bike in the street who then wapped out a big chunk of cow (or beef as you would usually say but this was practically a cow...) and emer screamed in her acting ways, went on to tell him she was a vegitarian and to put that horrible thing away, then he went on to swing the bag of cow in my face with my "veggie friend" close by...shes not an actual veggie just to keep it clear but funny all the same!

SGV sports day! loads of fun, had to stand at the end of each race and just "catch" 3rd place coming in to the end. Also emer and i ran in the teachers 200metre race!!....in our saris and bare feet! was halirous for us but even more funny for the kids watching.

Emer and the SGV boys after there football match against UMV.

from our room at umv - kids practicing dances for the parade they are doing this friday to the temple!

We have been practicing cycling on one bike...basically one person sits on the cross bar and one sits on the seat and peddles...all the sri lankans are awesome at it...emer and i fell of the bike 3 times in the space of 5 minutes....

we arranged a cricket match for Mhiripenna to play UMV - unfortunately we (Mhiripenna) lost but it was a great game all the same on there pitch - more like a field...did have a cow in it previously, also had a road through the middle and a hill...fun fun fun!

Emer and i went for a cycle to a temple we had not been to near by and met some kids for UMV (the cooks children who are always here after school so see them lots) - they showed us around and had a lovely time with them. then their dad climbed the coconut tree and brought us one each to drink...yummy!

Emer has taken on extra cowricular activities...she is mooooving slowly with her new... pupil

(emer wrote that cheesy pun NOT me.)

we attended a sri lankan grade 3 teachers training day - which we have found actually very useful!

we have been to lunch at 2 other families homes the last 3 weeks and to the post office as weird as it seems for a lunch/arms giving - community spirt!

we have found a new area of galle that is amazing - so different from main street!

we have also taught 2 great lessons outside! one with grade 5s doing directions using blind folds etc and the other with grade 3s doing colours...we had coloured bits of paper made some kids hold them in all areas of the play ground then made the rest stand in the middle while emer and i shouted what colour and they ran to it...this went slightly wrong when the kids with the paper decided it was even more fun to run away with the paper so turned in to a big chasing game...sorted it out well and think colours is going down a treat!

grade 1 still seem to cry a lot but are getting sooooo much better!!

all for now!!

hope everyone is great and having lots of fun! all great and fun here so hope it is with you too!

emers famiily - she is doing amazing, we are having loads of fun together, very lucky to have her! looking forward to meeting you in april!

love kirstin xxxx


emer here...feeling extra settled at the mo couldn't ask for a better partner, been very busy the past weeks (even teaching cows) as you have read. cant wait to see mummy, daddy and orla and to meet kirsts parents and anna banana. love to all e-mcdizzle!!! xxx