Unawatuna & Galle

Day 8.

• headed off to meet the tour group on their last day to join them in una and galle
• bus to galle and then una
• met a nice man who invited us to a bbq at his house
• sri lankans like to practice their english with tourists
• first trekked through the heat to a buddist temple
• no shoes, shoulders or knees
• beautiful views
• very clean and serene
• then trekked to the nearby beach jungle beach
• dip in the sea
• such strong waves
• serenaded by a band playing on the beach
• old man dancing
• getting to know our new housemates
• bus to galle
• lunch and shopping
• grateful for western style food
• got bunting, elephant and magnet
• came back, everyone went to refresh but annabella, emma and I stayed to chill and watch Friends
• chatted outside with everyone tonight, got to know all the new people, lots of manchester representation!

Peace

Day 7.

• lie in
• went to asian jewel for english breakfast
• so good
• love the tea here
• facetimed my boyfriend back home for a while
• dip in the pool
• quiet night in
• last quiet night at the villa
• watched edge of tomorrow
• food delivery
• can't handle spice

Beach Bums

Day 6.

• beach clean up
• Bussa beach
• small area
• 91.5kg
• 14 bags
• 3 people
• audience
• so much plastic
• lunch and watched friends with becca for 2 hours
• turtle hatchery
• tourists from china and holland
• moved big turtles from tank to tank
• some too heavy to even lift up
• ginger tea
• fed baby turtles
• night out with new volunteers
• drinks at their hotel
• happy banana
• dancing with anushka and nilan tuk tuk drivers

Tuk Tuk Life

Day 5.

• English class - favourites, games, alone but managed
• Butterfly garden - manual labour, helping the school
• trip to the tailors
• movie night - inbetweeners 2
• rain storm
• spider

Duck Duck Goose

Day 4.

Today in English lessons at Totogama elementary school we decided to have a more games-based session - which was a lot of fun for us as well as the kids. We started off with singing the Hokey Kokey, during which the kids all got very into dragging everyone into the middle. Then we did an activity inspired by the song, in which we got the kids to draw a basic person and then label the parts of the body in English. Some of the kids already seemed to know a lot of the vocab for this, which was very impressive! Also, teaching English as a foreign language really shows you how illogical some of the spellings we use in English are. Like, try explaining to an 8-year-old child in Sri Lanka why there's a 'k' in 'knee'. After that, we played a bit of Duck, Duck, Goose and also managed to teach the kids the game What's the Time Mister Wolf? and they loved it! It was difficult to explain the rules at first, as I don't speak Singali, but I was so proud that they got it in the end!

This afternoon, we went lake cleaning. We tuk tuk'd to a nearby lake and started litter-picking. The lake was no-where near as littered as all the beaches seem to be, thankfully, but there was still a fair amount to pick up. We managed to get it all on our side of the lake, and then we had some time to go swimming. There's a bridge for trains going over part of the water and people wee jumping off it into the lake. Trish and I went for it and climbed up to the top, sat on the edge and jumped off into the lake. It was terrifying. And then so fun. Great afternoon!

Tonight we went out to a bar and played pool and I managed to get to know Trish and Becca some more. The people here are all really great and easy to get along with, and all in the same position of figuring out what to do for the rest of our lives. So it's really cool to talk to people my age from all over the UK and give and receive advice from these new friends.

First Day of School

Day 3.

This morning was our first day helping on the English Language development programme! Annabelle and I went to a local primary school in Totogama with English co-ordinator Leo to help the kids learn English during their summer school sessions. I was feeling pretty nervous beforehand, but it was a relief to see that our first sessions was with a smaller group of children to get us started. We came prepared with a few worksheets with which the kids could practice some basic conversations. I think we said the phrases "Hello, how are you?" and "I'm good thank you, you?" about a hundred times this morning. It was a lot of fun though, and the kids were so funny. I was so impressed by some of their English, too! Amazing to think they're this capable at speaking a second language at such young ages. We rounded off our session with a sing-song of Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes. A classic. The kids especially seemed to love that, and so I hope we can incorporate more songs into the next session tomorrow. 

We came back to the house for lunch and a rest for a while before the afternoon project. Yesterday, I started making a friendship bracelet during some free time and taught Annabelle how to make one as well. Since then I also ended up teaching Amy, who left Sri Lanka today soon after lunch but wanted to learn how to do it for the plane journey home. I also finished a bracelet I was making for Leo which I was pretty proud of if I do say so myself.

This afternoon, Annabelle and myself went with Trish to help out a biodiversity society with some tree planting. The man who was running it was the nicest person ever. We had to use a heavy metal tool to dig down into the ground and then used half a coconut shell to scoop out the dirt from the hole. We had to continue this for a while until the hole was deep enough. By the time we'd managed that, we were covered in sweat and dirt and our hands felt rough from the metal of the tool. When we planted it, the man gave us a label with our names on to attach to the tree. I enjoyed this afternoon, and it's cool to thing I've planted a tree on the other side of the world from where I live - left my mark in Sri Lanka!

This evening the friendship bracelet party continued and I taught Becca, Leo and Trish to make them. It's been a lot of fun haha, now I feel like a teacher.

Tiny Turtles

Day 2

We woke up at 9am this morning - a lie in due to mine and Annabelle's late arrival the night before - and headed to a pre-prepared breakfast of eggs and toast. The chefs at the house make us 3 meals a day from Monday to Friday, so we're well catered for here! The chefs are also lovely people. Our first task of the day was a beach clean-up, in which Annabelle and myself were led by Trish. Trish usually specialises in Sports Development but was taking part in this activity for this morning. We trekked down the beach picking up every little piece of plastic we could see. It was a job that clearly needed doing, especially in order to prevent the plastic from being eaten by the fish - which is both bad for the fish and for the people who eventually eat those fish. The volunteers here do a beach clean-up once a week in order to keep as much washed up rubbish from entering the ecosystem here.

We headed back to the house afterwards, sweaty and covered in sand, and had a lunch of rice, curry and poppadoms. From now on, you can assume that every meal will be of the same key parts so I've been told! Sri Lankan food is mostly served here, but with a much lower level of spice to my relief. Needless to say I enjoyed my first Sri Lankan curry!

Our task this afternoon was to help Fraser out at the turtle hatchery. Fraser specialises in Marine Conservation and has worked at this hatchery for the past 4 months. We were given a quick tour of the turtles in residence, including the days-old baby turtles. We even got the chance to hold a couple of the baby turtles - sooo cute. Soon it was time to get to some work, and we began by feeding some of the turtles with raw fish that we had to snap in half and throw into the tanks. After that, one tank was in need of a good clean and so we drained the water from it and scrubbed the walls and floors around the turtle who lived there. He didn't seem to mind too much, bless. It was strenuous work in the heat, and the woman who owned the hatchery didn't hold back on telling us which spots we'd missed! It was so lovely working here this afternoon. The turtles were all so beautiful and some were bigger than I even knew turtles could get. Such wonderful creatures yet sadly so endangered. Fraser explained to us why conservation work such as this is so necessary in Sri Lanka. Green turtles are killed and eaten by some locals who believe that turtle fat will make them live longer. They are also captured and sold on illegally for the same reason. The practice of killing and eating turtles is illegal in Sri Lanka, yet it still happens. And so this sanctuary helps to keep the population of turtles of many types in Sri Lanka on the rise instead of falling.

We came back to a dinner of, yep, rice and curry this evening before spending the night hangout out together and getting to know even more about each other. I feel truly at home here already, and can't believe this was only my first day! Despite still getting used to the hot temperatures and the inevitable bugs, I'm very very happy to be here. Onwards and upwards!