This week Lauren, Vivian and Dhanya have been teaching at the Sri Sumangala school in Weligama. It is a very different experience from teaching at the pre-schools in the villages. Sri Sumangala is an all-girls school with approximately 3000 students aged 6-18, and we try to teach as many of the girls as possible every day.Each morning we get our timetable and teach about five classes, each with a very different level of English. It was challenging at first, but today was successful as we finally got a handle on how to adapt our teaching to each class and their level of English. We’ve discovered that the girls are much more enthusiastic about our activities when we turn them into a competition. They also love to sing, so we make sure that some of our lessons revolve around music and singing.
Sri Sumangala was more affected by the tsunami than the area where most Project Sri Lanka schools are based. Most of its buildings had to be reconstructed, and many of the students were personally affected by its destruction. But five years later none of this is apparent: the students at Sri Sumangala are all cheerful and generous, and every day we are given small gifts and personal letters.