Our second week in Pelena has flown by so quickly. We have continued to visit homes in the village to get to know more people, to find out their needs and concerns, and to try to involve them in the project. We began with the Muslim community, and the parents of the children recognise our presence in the village and desire to include them. Some of the children still need more encouragement to join in after school activities, but they have shown more enthusiasm this week.The after school club is currently attracting between twenty and thirty children. The lower attendance at this time of year may be due to approaching school exams taking place in mid July and the number of extra tuition classes that Sri Lankan children seem to attend is remarkable.This week saw a variety of musical and sporting activities, and even a fashion show. After last year’s enthusiasm for Oasis, we have introduced them to the likes of Bob Dylan and the Beatles, but we have had numerous requests for Bob Marley –no doubt soon we will be jammin’. Next week we are planning to do some activities on the computer that so far has sat unused in the community centre. We will also open up the community centre for the use of the library and other resources.On Sunday we went to the birthday party of one of the children in the village. As usual, we were treated to a feast of rice and curry and expected to provide entertainment in the form of party games. After finally managing to get across what a spoon and piece of string were, we completely baffled them by getting to pass the spoon through their clothes. This was followed by the traditional musical chairs and musical bumps, and a variety of confusing Sri Lankan games such as ‘Seven Stones’.