Today, three members of the group went to the school in Gandarawatte. On arrival, we were all kindly invited to breakfast with the resident monk. Unlike in Britain, we had some delicious lentils, string hoppers, spice, bananas, watermelon and coconut cake. Having been warmly welcomed into the village, we made our way to the pre-school where we were greeted by two teachers, but sadly only three children. Many members of the already small class were absent due to illness and preparation for the oncoming festival nearby at Dondra.To begin with, we played games such as ‘Cat and Mouse’ whereby we all sat in a circle and took it in turns to be the cat or the mouse. The children very much enjoyed it and it made them feel more relaxed in our company. We then sang English songs such as ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ and encouraged them to join in. By the end, nearly all of the children were singing. Teaching them the alphabet was the next task so we drew letters of the alphabet which they practiced drawing themselves. As the children were only three years old we had to make it very simple so we did dot to dot letters for them to join up.

After having tea and biscuits – oaty flapjacks and sweet pancake rolls, we returned to the pre-school for arts and crafts activities. We drew various pictures on such as stars and moons and a little tabby cat. Underneath, we wrote what it was in English and taught the children how to pronounce it. To make it more exciting we decorated the pictures using glitter glue and coloured pencils which the children really enjoyed and helped them remember the English words better.

Once everyone had finished their drawings and were all shimmering with glitter, we played games such as the ‘hokey kokey’ and sang songs until hometime. The children and teachers tried to teach us a Sinhalese song which was really interesting and good fun. Upon the arrival of the parents, the children quickly got up to show them their drawings and the parents seemed really interested and keen to know of their children’s development. The closeness of the families in the village became very apparent as they were so happy and proud to see their children’s work which was very encouraging for their further education.

After school we were invited to the monk’s house for a wonderful lunch before we left. The food consisted of noodles, dahl, spicy green beans and flavoured potatoes which where delicious. The differences in food has been very interesting to note as a lot of spices and sugar are used in cooking compared to Britain leading to some very tasty meals!