Rassendenyia is a small Sinhalese community which lies just off the beach on the road from Matara to Dondra on the Southern tip of Sri Lanka. Like most Sri Lankan communities it revolves around the temple and the monks that live therein: Meals are served to the monk every morning as tithe and, in return, the monks serve the spiritual needs of the community by performing religious rights and blessings. The pre-school, built with the funds raised by the Project Sri Lanka volunteer group of 2007, is a large centre for the youth of the village and attracts around 25 children every day. On this day however there were no children. As we arrived in Rassendenyia we were met by Mrs Felicitia, the pre-school teacher who welcomed us warmly inside and explained that there would be no children today as it was a school holiday. We sat down and had some tea with bread and sugar as the teacher mapped out the pre-school system: Three months on, one month off year round. As she was finishing her explanation, two of the pupils did turn up to say hello and we had a nice conversation in broken English about their plans to visit family and how they had enjoyed the term that had finished.
After the students had left we helped tidy up the classroom a little and finished fixing the broken furniture. We then helped out preparing posters for next term, drawing fruit, vegetables, fish and other animals in abundance. Following this we had a guided tour of the village meeting families and seeing the new houses that had been but in the wake of the tsunami by the charity work of : the Germans, the Italians and the Swiss. It was fascinating to see all of this, and from the perspective of someone who had lived there all her life, and it was a real eye-opener to me and the rest of the team.

After the tour we went to a member of Sarvodaya’s house and had a beautiful lunch of curry, rice and ‘salad’, it was uneventful, although watched eagerly by hoard of village women and their children. When we had finished lunch we were picked up by the three-wheeler from Moon Bridge and returned home for a brief break. Back in the three-wheeler then and off to Hiththatiya to continue painting the building, it is coming on nicely and the finished product is starting to appear beneath the layers of colours. A few more weeks left and we will have to leave, I already dread that day.