Although at first unprepossessing, Moreketiara is housed next to a beautiful bay dotted with fishing boats. The school itself is one of the 25 built by the Sri Lankan Rotary Club in the wake of the Tsunami. As such, it is modern and provides a functional teaching environment. Although we arrived during the middle of the holidays, the local children turned out in force to take advance of our presence.

After an involving English lesson, each day inevitably lapsed into a game of cricket in the sun, followed by a relaxing lunch with our wonderful hosts Primitha, Jayalath and 10 month old ‘baby’. We even had the odd Sinhala lesson with Jayalath; being able to ask for even the most menial thing in Sinhala makes a big impression on the locals (telling the children to come – mehe enneh – works a treat).

In the afternoon we travelled to Tangalle to teach at the Marine College (opened surprisingly enough by the ubiquitous President in his days as Fisheries Minister). The students are mature and come to the classes of their own volition, so accordingly they work pretty hard. Role-play gets through to them pretty well, especially when acting out first dates. All in all, I felt it was really successful and in everything we did, our presence was clearly appreciated.