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.