Friday evening we met up with Joy and David and went for a meal at her guest house, along with Professor Rupisingi and his wife.
Saturday morning we had our first lie in since we had arrived in Sri Lanka and then later spent the afternoon by the pool. At about 3pm we went on a trip to the supermarket. Along the way we stopped at a local village to investigate the t-shirts they had on offer for Ollie, and both the boys ended up buying a white sri Lankan cap in order to blend in with the locals. After this we visited a temple on the top of a hill with amazing views of the surrounding area. We finished with our very much needed trip to a supermarket to buy some chocolate spread for breakfast!
On Sunday Rob, Peter and Sam arrived and they joined us by the pool for the day. That night Jonty, Hannah, Ollie and Sam got up at midnight to watch the World cup final.
Monday was our first real day of coaching, and so we all got up early for breakfast. Rachael and Coutts were to be in the village today so they left straight after breakfast and were taken to thye pre-school. Once they arrived they spent the morning cutting and sticking with the children; as well as teaching them some english songs. They had a special lunch to remember the death of a village elder with the monks – being treated to jelly and ice cream!
At the university, the rest of the team prepared quite a hard circuit session which the students did not find too enjoyable as we worked them pretty hard. We then split the group into first and second years, with each group doing one and a half hours of football and volleyball. We found that they really enjoy some competition and so encouraged them to race against each other. That afternoon we took our first swimming lesson. After being told about how their culture affected the number of people that swam we were very surprised that so many turned up. The range of ability was astonishing as we had some complete beginners right up to some very confident swimmers. However, they all seemed very willing to learn.

Tuesday saw Jess and Rosie go off to the local pre-school and participate in a day of sport which involved playing with the parachute game as well as a focus on balance and throwing. The others back in the university focused on netball and football for the morning after another tough fitness session. On Wednesday both the boys got a taste of village life and there first time in a tuk tuk! Wednesday was harder work in the university as only 4 of us were around because 2 people were in the village and 2 in last years village, well just-I think Jess and Hannah’s transport there was described as very Sri Lankan when the bus didn’t even turn up! The team are getting more tired due to the heat and long fitness sessions in the morning so spending the afternoons relaxing by the pool before 2 more hours of sport in the afternoon-today is aqua-aerobics!