Today we spent a day in our main project village of Hiththatya. The children in the preschool made animal masks, which as a result, filled the classroom with meowing, barking and monkey grunts. We were anticipating that some children would start swinging from the ceiling, thankfully this was not the case (Teacher would have been very displeased indeed).We then had some play time, which included the very successful introduction of the swing Rota: each child may swing ten times and ten times only. Then another child may have its turn. This proved necessary due to the mild violence that erupted around the swing sets when one child ripped the swing out from underneath the other child’s bottom. Five-year olds can be very cruel indeed, but so cute (when they’re not busy battering each other, that is).

Thank God, these incidences do not occur often, the children are always a joy to work with. This includes the kids in the afternoon, who are always very keen to improve their English. Today we taught them letter writing. We set them a task of writing a letter to a pen pal describing themselves on a postcard which they could then design. They seemed to enjoy themselves immensely. This was then followed by the obligatory round of games such as “Duck Duck Goose”, Volleyball and of course Cricket.

All in all an enjoyable day (despite the fact that it is raining cats and dogs right this minute as I glance out of the window onto the muddy streets of Matara…I am dreading going outside…I’m wearing white trousers…)