It was the final day of our project and we awoke to torrential downpour. The monsoon season had set in (much to our dismay as we’d planned to spend our final days in Sri Lanka on the beach). Dressed in plastic bags and bin liners as make-shift raincoats we set out for the last time […]

Our 6.30am start was followed by a 50min bus ride past paddy fields, water buffalo and the occasional water monitor (enormous dinosaur-like lizard things!). We arrived at the Faculty of Agriculture and were given a dhal and rice breakfast before being taken by jeep down a rocky track to the Nanasaala IT Centre. Here we […]

Last weekend a small group of us visited one of Sarvodaya’s children’s homes in Galle. Within five minutes of walking through the doors we had tens of small girls hanging off our arms as we played games, sang songs and ran squealing around the grassy yard. Even after a tiring week planning lessons, painting murals […]

We left bright and early to get to Rassandeniya at 8.15 to take the class today as Miss Felicita is away on a course in Colombo at the moment. As we walked down the road to the school we could see all the familiar faces jumping around and shouting “Suduaka! Suduaka!” (white sister) from the […]

This week marked the launch of our English evening classes at the university under the inspired title ‘Culture Club’! We felt that what the students needed was a chance to improve their English conversation skills in a more relaxed setting than their formal lessons. We also wanted to be able to build friendships with the […]

Initially the prospect of teaching students in the Fisheries Department was a somewhat daunting prospect; as an English student I had a naïve notion of some kind of fly fishery scholars bedecked in galoshes and Barbour jackets. How wrong I was…As we entered the faculty HQ (a sunny courtyard bordered with rectangular tanks of aquatic […]

We arrived at Rassandeniya bright and early, greeted along the way by the children from the village who rush out every morning to wave and greet us. The teacher of the pre-school, Miss Felicita, who has made us so welcome and supported all our lessons with the children, was absent for the day. We were […]

After a particularly early rise of 6.45 and a typically Sri Lankan bone-rattling bus journey round to Matara (which was somewhat of a shock to the system at such an hour) we stood blinking and half awake in the 7.55am sunshine outside of Our Lady of Matara Catholic Church, wondering if we were just a […]

We made our way along the now familiar road to Rassandeniya this morning, looking forward to the eager faces that would greet us with a chorus of ‘Ayubowan’ as we entered our pre-school.The children were engaged in a cutting and sticking activity as we arrived, which we were more than happy to join in with. […]

Today I spent the day working in the English Language Teaching Unit in the University of Ruhuna.This morning was particularly interesting in terms of our cultural education as we were greeted by the English teachers watching a large celebratory ceremony with the President on TV. The day, described as ‘the second independence day’, was being […]

My second visit to the school of Moraketiara started with a 40 minute ‘experience’ on a local bus.After flagging down about 5 buses previously we were hopeful that we would end up at Moraketiara town, after our questionable pronunciation of the Sri Lankan name yielded some raised eyebrows and a vaguely confident nod from the […]

Today was my 21st birthday. It’s quite hard to believe; it’s so unusual an experience! This morning I awoke to birthday greetings from my four roommates.I was scheduled to teach in the science department in the University this morning and taught my first two University lessons with three of the other volunteers. The quality of […]

We awoke in our log cabin to the sound of wild animals outside. As it was my 20th birthday we had a birthday cake at breakfast and enjoyed a bit of a feast.After breakfast we proceeded to the Dambulla Cave Temples, which were a short drive away. We arrived to see the huge, gold Buddha […]

During our stay in Colombo we were invited to visit the headquarters of Sarvodaya, the largest grassroots non-governmental organisation in Sri Lanka. We were welcomed into the buildings which were set in simple, well-kept but beautiful grounds, where we had the opportunity to find out about the various aspects of work done by this large […]

Having left Heathrow at 9.30 on Wednesday 4th July we arrived in Colombo, weary after hours of travelling, on Thursday afternoon. We were warmly greeted in the airport by members of Colombo Mid-City Rotary Club who escorted us to the YWCA hostel that was to be our first base in the country. We went to […]

Today was the long awaited opening of the new Rassandeniya pre-school. Rassandeniya is a tsunami-hit fishing village on the southernmost coast of the island, just a short walk from our university accommodation, and part of our volunteer team will spend time in the school and village from Monday to Friday for the whole of our […]