It’s sad times for all- our last day at the University! We’ve said goodbye to almost everyone, and have no more equipment left in our bungalow. Everyone is pretty much packed- ensuring the priceless personal gifts we received from university staff, students and friends are well cushioned within our bags. In comparison to yesterday the […]

After a lengthy lie in, the team woke up to a fairly cloudy day. A farewell meeting had been organised in the morning with the Vice-Chancellor and the members of staff who we had sustained contact with during our stay.We were able to talk frankly about the project and suggest areas for improvements in the […]

Having coached the University Rugby team for the past 5 weeks, Sam and I were lucky to be invited to watch them play against the University of Colombo (not only the oldest but one of the biggest universities in Sri Lanka). After a 5 hour public bus journey to the venue- escorted by one of […]

Today was the day we had all being preparing for SPORTS DAY in Ihalagalgama village. Unsure of who would turn up, we all went eager and prepared for a day of fun. With games made by the school and games made by us, it was a truly dynamic and eventful day. The day started off […]

With some people starting to get restless with the lack of sports now on, a shopping trip was organized by the girls to go to Balangoda with one of the English teachers here at the university.Along with the help of Sharyam the chef, AJ, Laura S, Emma, Louisa, Franky and Sam hopped on the public […]

Today was a continuation of the adventures we have continued to have in the university. Yet this week is slightly different, there are no sports students here really as they are all on study leave , so the morning fitness program doesn’t take place anymore. As a result, we have all been taking great advantage […]

On Wednesday the group left at 6.30am to head to Kandy.Most of the journey was spent sleeping, although we had a welcome stop at a bakery for a late breakfast before then arriving at Peradeniya University where we met our friends Jardin and Hungi from Sabaragamuwa University. They had also gone back to their home […]

On Tuesday, all 8 of the group had another early start and headed up to the village for a day of painting! Unfortunately, the local bus had broken again so the University drivers kindly gave us a lift up the hill. We immediately headed to the preschool and set up to paint the front of […]

On Monday Louisa, Emma, Laura S and AJ all went to a new school about 1 hour drive away, whilst the other group went to the village.The scenery along the way was beautiful and when we arrived we were first taken to visit an Anglo Saxon church just next to the school. It was interesting […]

Relaxation days!!With the university nearly void of students we relaxed by the pool and topped up our tans! 6 busy weeks and limited sleep had caught up on us all as we slept 12 hour nights and napped in the day (some of us for 4 hours!!)

Today we finished off the painting of the school and spent some time with the pre school children, but because it was the last day of term the children in the main school left when we were having our tea break which was a bit annoying as we didn’t get to teach them anything. Instead […]

Today we had a bit of a lie in after the excitements of the Perahera, and then set off to Pinnewala elephant orphanage, a few hours drive from Kandy.When we arrived it was raining quite heavily but luckily it stopped. We firstly walked into ‘the garden’ where the elephant herd was grazing altogether. There were […]

Today, Laura S, Emma, Andy and Franky were stationed at the university. At 7:30am they started the fitness programme, this included coaching the students dodgeball and ultimate frisbee. After the fitness programme the group divided. Andy and Franky took the boys for a cricket session, whilst Laura and Emma coached the girls long jump. After […]

Today was a day to relax. With the hectic schedule of Monday morning looming, the group took the chance to lie-in again and catch up on some much needed sleep.Laura, AJ, Emma, Laura, Franky and Andy all got up and went to the swimming pool to either swim or read their books hoping against hope […]

Many of the group took advantage of the late start today and had a much needed lie-in, some getting up for breakfast at 8am only to return to bed till late morning. At 10:30 we left for a destination in the mountains where we had a picnic with university admin staff at a site near […]

Today was Laura Spaven’s 20th birthday. She came down stairs to find the room decorated in ‘Happy Birthday’ banners and the floor covered in sports cones which spelt out ‘Happy 20th’.We gave her cards from the group and some that the students of the university had handmade. The Vice Chancellor arrived at 8am to give […]

Once again we began our day at the village with the pre-school for the first couple of hours as the older children had another exam for most of the day.Following that, we went with a couple of the schools staff to a nearby house in the village where we helped to lay a new section […]

Based at the University for the day Franky, Emma, Laura S and Andy led the morning fitness session for the sport students at 7.30am. The sessions comprised of a variety of speed and agility (S.A.Q) stations that were set up on the grass area. The circuits performed by the students, working in small groups, included […]

Based in the village on Monday, after the usual bumpy ride up to Ihalagalagama by public bus we first went to the pre-school. Always happy to see us, the smaller children there were a lot of fun as usual. After some customary colouring in we then played numerous games with them, first with tennis and […]

Only the girls turned up for the fitness session 7.30am-8.30am so Franky, Laura, AJ and Laura took them for Badminton instead. 10.30am-12pm was spent coaching the girls Netball.Emma, Andy, Lou and Sam were in the village. They spent the morning with pre-school (8.30am-12pm). They helped the children with their workbooks then played games with them […]

Everyone stayed at the University to help Rob and Darren. We started off by doing circuits for the fitness session 7.30am-8.30am. We used floor ladders, little hurdles, cones, footballs and tennis balls over 6 different stations.Darren then did a 2 hour workshop on the correct way to warm up. He looked at 4 different stages; […]

Emma, Andy, Lou and Sam were based at the University, Andy and Lou visited the local school 8am-10am to teach English. It was our last day their so they had a little ceremony and gave us all gifts to say thank you. They said the Durham students are the silver lining to their black clouds […]

My group was at the village today and we played with the children again before breaking for some yummy tea!! The school girls were so sweet, they made AJ beauty queen of the village and made her a crown made out or bamboo. With a peacock on it, it was really imaginative and wonderful… the […]

We swapped the groups round today, so Andy’s group was in the village and my group was in the Uni. We started with a fitness program here, and our main aim was to get everyone motivated as they didn’t really seem up for some of it, but that’s something we still need to work on. […]

WOW. What a spectacular adventure has begun in our first full week of Team Durham Project Sri Lanka. In order to split our time as equally as possible, we have divided ourselves into two groups. Franky, AJ, Laura S and I spent today in the village of Ihalagalagama, whilst Emma, Sam, Louisa and Andy were […]

Despite weekends supposedly fit for relaxation purposes, the team had agreed to a 3.30am start! This was to allow for a windy and bumpy trip to the south of the island for three purposes. Firstly, we were able to witness the feeding of baby elephants at an elephant orphanage in one of Sri Lanka’s national […]

Today we experienced the swapping of positions again with AJ, Laura S, Laura B and myself leaving for the picturesque Ihalagalagama village, Andy and Louisa helping in the Belihuloya school and Sam and Emma staying in the University. Unfortunately some miss-communication between parties led to the group of four being directed away from Ihalagalagama, where […]

The day started early again, with the now familiar sight of breakfast at 7.00am, after which the team split up. Emma, Louisa, Andy and Sam caught the local rackety bus to Ihalagalagama, leaving Laura B, Laura S, AJ and myself to take care of university proceedings at SabaragamuwaAs the local school project in Belihuloya was […]

Our final day on the coast was a very relaxed affair. Once everyone had surfaced, the morning was once again spent on the beach with the regular salesmen and women trying to flog you all of their products. Our necks were actually quite painful by lunch due to the length of time we’d spent shaking […]

The Saturday took on much of Friday in the way that much of it was spent on the beachEarly risers enjoyed the morning sunshine with everyone down on the beach before 10am. With no air-conditioning and a very poor fan in the hotel rooms, they mimicked something of an oven once past 9am so this […]

Early on Friday morning at 5am, 8 sleepy Durham students boarded the university air-conditioned bus destined for Hikkaduwa on the South-West coast of Sri Lanka. Tired and trying to sleep anywhere (even on the bus floor), the bus took around 5 hours to get to the resort before parking up on the busy main street […]

Thursday began in a similar fashion to the routine we have all got so used to by now. After being woken up at 6.30am by Franky’s interesting alarm, we stayed in bed until around 6.50am before struggling into some clothes and stumbling to breakfast. Breakfast was the familiar ‘carb-loading’ of pancakes, noodles, rice and bread, […]

It took the group a while to settle in due to jet lag but the first 2 days in Colombo were definitely an experience new to us all. The work the Sarvodaya organisation do is amazing and we were honoured by the friendliness and appreciation! We were shown around the orphanage for needy and unwanted […]