After a particularly early rise of 6.45 and a typically Sri Lankan bone-rattling bus journey round to Matara (which was somewhat of a shock to the system at such an hour) we stood blinking and half awake in the 7.55am sunshine outside of Our Lady of Matara Catholic Church, wondering if we were just a little bit crazy.But, just as we were in danger of dropping off by the side of the road (in the style of one of the multiple wandering cows in the country) up pulled the TucTuc we were waiting for, inside of which was Miss Felicita, our beloved preschool teacher, and no less than seven of our little Rassandeniya imps. They all came piling out in one big jumble of burgundy waistcoats, t-shirts and jeans – apparently some children hadn’t come entirely prepared for the morning ahead, as today was no ordinary day; today was the day Project Sri Lanka and Rassandeniya went to the beach!As the rest of the troops arrived in another equally packed TucTuc, we turned our attention to this morning’s first task: conquering the children’s playground on the beach front. Mrs Felicita explained to us that not many of the children are often taken to playgrounds, let alone ones on the beachfront, and judging from the way they charged at the slides, monkey bars and seesaws she wasn’t exaggerating. I don’t know whether it is something in the rice and dahl curry here but the majority of Sri Lankan children seem to know no fear and they threw themselves down the fireman’s pole and launched themselves into midair with a zeal that would give even James Bond a run for his money. When things went slightly pear shaped (when a distance wasn’t quite worked out right, or a foot missed a ladder rung) instead of lying prostrate on the ground, wailing until a waiting arm swooped in to scoop them up, they simply rolled over, stood up and started running at the next playground obstacle – most often with the sand still caked on their legs and arms as they did so. Faced with such enthusiasm from our little preschool sprites we felt it was only right and proper that we attempted to match it – which is how we found ourselves squeezing our twenty and twenty-one year old bodies down spiral slides and onto seesaws designed for people much smaller than us and coming home sporting a few sporadic friction burns and bruises. At least no-one can accuse us of not taking our job seriously – if it can be called that: I would be seriously hard pushed to decide who enjoyed the playground more, us or the kids!The playground well and truly conquered, it was time to follow the troop of little running legs and waving arms to the next item on the day’s agenda – the sea! We weren’t entirely sure how the children were going to take to it, especially after Mrs Felicita telling us that some never come with their families. Given the way in which the first kids to hit the water threw themselves belly flop style into the shallow surf (bowties, waistcoats and all in some cases) we needn’t have worried! After coaxing a few of the more cautious children into the shallows we spent the best part of an hour splashing around, swinging the children about and getting ourselves and them thoroughly wet and sand-covered. Even Mrs Felicita was up to her waist wading about and having a fantastic time! Possibly the best part of the morning for me was running into the waves with Ramesha – the youngest child at the preschool who also has learning difficulties and rarely speaks or! makes forms facial expressions – and splashing about while she laughed and squealed her little head off. The girls who were not timetabled in Rassandeniya unfortunately had to, very reluctantly, take our sand covered selves back on the bus (to a whole host of even more surprised than normal Sri Lankan stares) in time to teach at Moraketiara and the University. One thing’s for sure, judging by how much the kids, parents and we enjoyed it, it won’t be long before we do it all again!