As we arrived at Hiththatiya on this particular Thursday morning a strange silence greeted us. Used to the normal hustle and bustle of the children this was a surprise to say the least and our entry into the school grounds was a bit more timid than usual. Inside the grounds a solitary parent stood sweeping the sand into neat furrows and all else was silent. Once we ventured carefully into the school however, the reason became clear. The pupils sat silently at the desks absorbed in the task of setting cards numbered 1 to 9 in order and matching them with the corresponding number of dots marked on a separate set of cards. As we entered there was a sudden surge of noise as the children jumped up to greet us and to find their favourite hand to pull to their table. We quickly fell in beside the children and set to work on the task at hand. Only one of the two teachers was present today and when we asked why we were told that lunch would be at the missing teacher’s house today so she was at home preparing it. This also explained the absence of our translator and friend Sampath who is the teachers Nephew and had thus been roped into food preparation as well. The cards didn’t last as long as expected and soon the brighter children were chomping at the bit and eager to escape. We moved outside where the children were instructed to collect a piece of stick and then sketch flowers in the sand. They did this and then the bean bags came out. The first game was catch, with one person in the middle passing the bag out and back in again to the other members, then we did ‘Around the world’ where the child balanced the bag on his/her head and had to walk around the circle without it falling and finally the team had to pass the bean bag as quickly as possible around the circle without dropping it. After this more balls were introduced and we separated into smaller, less organized groups to let the children have some fun. A short while later we re-congregated into one group and sang a few songs ‘If you’re happy and you know it’, ‘Row row row your boat’ and ‘The cuckoo burro’ featuring. After this the parachute was brought out and games re-enforcing the work done on directions were used.

By this time it was lunch time for the students so we relaxed and had some tea whilst the pupils ate and drank. Following lunch we decided to do arts and crafts and so the students made elephants out of card shapes, gluing them together and then colouring them with oil pastels. The day ended for the morning class at 11.30 and after they had all left we set to, preparing for the afternoon session.

Lunch was at the teacher’s house, and what a grand affair it was. Food from all walks of life decorated a table that was, quite literally, groaning under the weight; there was curry (fish and chicken and potato), rice (of two varieties), noodles with vegetables, popadoms, paripu (dahl), pineapple, spice, more vegetables and some cuttlefish stew. After this were the deserts ranging from Kiri to Jelly, from Watermelon to woodapple juice, and so many more. We thoroughly gorged ourselves, only pausing in the middle to wish a local boy happy birthday and sing him a quick song. We were totally stuffed, but before we left we had a round of photos with various members of the family and then we were ready. As is customary with the team one of us (or more then one) takes the occasion to formally thank the family for what they have done and to compliment them on their food. At the start of the project these were done strictly in English, but by now it is not unusual for the vote of thanks to be done in Sinhalese. Katie Jackson was to say thanks today and she decided on a fusion blend of languages and, in what can only be described as Singelish, said ‘that was really Rassai (tasty)’ the family found it hilarious and made sure we were reminded of it all the way back to the school.

In the afternoon session we decided to do human emotions and so the children drew faces displaying emotions and then constructed sentences around these emotions. Following this we acted out some of these emotions and then did a quick vocabulary check. Deciding that the intensive hour of English was enough formal teaching for one day, we took the pupils outside to play games. The elder boys played volleyball and the younger children dodgeball. When the game had run its course we did some team is building activities such as all sitting in a circle and passing a jug filled with water around using only your feet and not spilling any. It was hilarious.

Four o’clock came all too quickly and the children began to leave one by one. The group members stayed a little longer to continue with the painting of the school and by the time we left it was six o’clock and getting dark. It had been a very rewarding day.